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A question for those collecting Star basketball cards (GAI graded)

TheCARDKidTheCARDKid Posts: 1,496 ✭
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
One of my collecting goals this year is to get back into the 1984-86 Star basketball market and relive some of my early collecting days. With GAI grading and authenticating them, it couldn't be better.

Ideally, I'd like to get the key bags in Mint 9 or Gem Mint 9.5 form.

There are two different avenues to go down:

-Buy raw bags (on Ebay or from Steve Taft, etc) and submit them myself. Has anyone done this successfully? What's the difference between a GAI 8 and GAI 9 (especially with dark bordered cards)?

-Wait until they hit the market. Any guesses as to where prices will settle? My hunch is, prices will gradually go down as more bags get authenticated. "Easy" ones, like '85/86 Portland should go down the most.

Comments

  • magellanmagellan Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭
    Not exactly the same thing but 4 sharp has a bunch of PSA graded '84 Star Yaz cards up right now, think they're all 9's. PSA does not grade the basketball? Is that because of Star reprinting?
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  • Brian48Brian48 Posts: 2,624 ✭✭✭
    Yes, it's because of the counterfeiting. The Star basketball sets were never officially reprinted. Quite a shame as it really killed the collector market for legitimate Star basketball cards. They were some of the best ever produced.
  • shagrotn77shagrotn77 Posts: 5,587 ✭✭✭✭
    Personally I'm pretty bummed that SCD no longer grades Star cards. When you bought a "UT" card, you knew exactly what you were getting. Buying graded bags doesn't do it for me. What's to say that a "9" bag doesn't have a star card, probably the star card, that's way OC inside.
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  • kobykoby Posts: 1,699 ✭✭
    I also collected Star cards fifteen years ago. The prices aren't likely to fluctuate much anymore. Nobody cared when SCD graded them and nobody seems to care that GAI is grading them. The problem with the reprints in the early 1990s really kills those cards.
  • TheCARDKidTheCARDKid Posts: 1,496 ✭
    I'm glad SCD starting grading them, but unfortunately, they were always one of those "other" card grading companies. They never got into the top tier like PSA, SGC, Beckett or GAI.

    Maybe the visability of GAI can give the series a boost.

    Of course, if they discontinue it, it's all but over for the series.
  • bjork73bjork73 Posts: 2,246
    Will GAI grade individual Star cards or only the bags? I have a 84-85 John Stockton that I got in '87, so I would doubt it's a reprint...
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  • EngineerEngineer Posts: 78
    GAI will grade STAR company singles - you should be able to find a few on an ebay search. I think about the only cards I am guessing they wil notl grade are from "Best of the Best" and a few other sets that didn't appear until around 1990 (there was an article written about STAR basketball cards around the time SCD announced they were grading them). They apparently do grade "Best of the New" and the 1986 "Court Kings" so one of these days I'm going to send my Jordan's in for grading - hopefully they will have a special soon because their prices seem to have gone up recently and I don't have a big enough submission to justify the shipping to myself.

    Incidentally, I don't believe SCD is grading anything anymore.

    Adam
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