2+2=7?? 86-87 Fleer basketball unopened box
 

I have been told that Baseball Card Exchange sold seven boxes of 86–87 Fleer basketball for around $75,000 each yesterday at the National. I'll be honest, I purchased these cards 30 years ago and opened the packs, and I am not an
unopened box collector. But I don't understand how the boxes are worth that much money?! If I remember correctly, a box can yield on average 2-3 Michael Jordan rookie's and more stickers. Even if those are high grade examples, how can you come close to making even half your money back? I am not in the hobby for investment purposes, but I would like to know if I needed to sell something that I would at least break even. Am I missing something?

It isn't just high grade Jordans that command money from the set. Even the a PSA 10 Checklist, according to SMR notes, sold in 2016 for 8k.

The full set of 132 graded 10 sold for 82,800.00 in memory lane last year. I think it is still a gamble since the odds of the cards being 10s is low, but I am guessing these are the prices that have determined the box prices.

my dad was in the candy business these sat in our warehouse at 11 dollars a box no one wanted them ,I mean no one ,,we returned them ..oh my lol

I remember the price per pack jumping up pretty quickly in 88–89. I was 14 years old and I clearly remember a friend paying $40 a pack, and I thought he was insane. There is definitely not a shortage of cards. Maybe unopened, but not the product in general.

That's insane. Heritage just sold one in November, 8 months ago, for 50K with juice.

These boxes were 2 for $10 at Ben Franklin when I was young. I didn't collect basketball and ridiculed my cousin for buying two boxes. He had the last laugh.

Also the unopened box of cards is worth more than the same number of cards, packs already opened, even if they could be guaranteed to be "unsearched." Part of the value of unopened packs/boxes/cases of cards is that they're harder to find in that state and become rarer as time goes on and more gamblers open the wax on the long shot of turning a profit.

I bought a bunch of 1970s Topps baseball wax packs back in about 2005, intending just to hold them as an investment, but eventually gave in to the temptation to tear them all open. It was fun, but only in the sense that a losing scratch-off lottery ticket is fun.

My Dad bought me an almost entirely unopened box from TG&Y, when they were on clearance. Still have every card from that box. It only yielded one Jordan RC..but its still my most prized sports card...because I pulled it myself.

I bought two boxes from the only card store in town which was a guy's basement. He didn't even know he ordered a case of them. He tried to get me to buy the whole case, but I told him I'd just take two boxes. I opened them and put three sets together. I had an extra Jordan so I had a guy I know make a plaque and I gave it to my brother in law. He still has it hanging in his office to this day.

I never saw these cards at retail anywhere in my area and it wasn't until a couple months back that a guy came into my store and had a stack of them. I asked him where he got them and he told me he bought them by the pack when they came out at a drug store in a small town about 30 minutes away from Lincoln.

I was at a San Antonio Missions class AA baseball game either in the summer of 1987 or 88. The team sponsored a baseball card show where the dealers were set up in the stadium concourse (not a bad idea, btw). I found a dealer who had a 100-count plastic case of 1986 Fleer basketball cards ranging in price from 15 cents to a dollar. No Jordans but a few Ewing, Barkleys, etc. I offered him $20 for all of them and he was thrilled. So even in the first couple years after they were issued, these cards didn't carry a premium with some collectors.

I remember buying 2 packs at 75 cents each getting 2 Jordans and a Ewing. Sold the Jordans for $100 a piece and the Ewing for $50 years later and thought I did well!! I so wish I could trade all the 86 baseball boxes I bought for basketball!!

Bought packs for $5 each in downtown Naples in 1989. Pulled a Jordan and still have it. He was also selling Jordans at $25 each.

So how are these worth money when baseball cards from 1986 are worthless?

Apparently they aren't rare, if you guys all have some.

Some is not millions. The baseball set was huge, the basketball set was ignored. Most of the posters in this thread are regretting not buying them.

They are not rare, but they are scarce. I traveled all over my town searching for 86 Fleer and Donruss baseball finding it all over the place, but never once did I see Fleer basketball on the shelf anywhere. I would venture to say that Lincoln, Nebraska saw one single case of Fleer basketball and that's it. I could have had the entire case, but Canseco fever did not allow me the extra funds to spend on basketball. :D

I bought mine in McCrorys in the mall in Waterbury Ct. They had an entire island of them, I forget if they were 50 cents or a dollar. Bought a few packs, thought the set was nice, and stopped by the next weekend - All gone!

I didn't get Jordan, but did get a few good players. I could read the back player through the wrapper and a couple were cards I'd already gotten so I kept a couple packs unopened.

Steve B