When Did RC Become Most Important?

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by HistoricNewspapers

The ironic thing is that the 1986 fleer Jordan is his third year card. All one had to do back then is look at the back of his card and see he has two years worth of stats on the card. Then look at the Star Company cards and one had his college stats and the next year had his NBA rookie stats...then the third year Fleer arrived.

The Star Company cards were also much better sets representing more players from each team.

The Star Company cards were distributed very poorly. They were considered a novelty back then because there were not sold in Wax Packs. They were essentially sold like Minor League team sets at the time. There were like 10 hobby dealers in the entire country that controlled the entire press run.

The Fleer cards were considered the first nationally and traditionally distributed basketball set since the early 80's Topps sets.

That's not even going into the serious questions about Star Co. repros and possible multiple uses of the printing plates, or if anybody really has a great handle on telling the 1st printing stuff from the later printing stuff.

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The Star Company cards were distributed very poorly. They were considered a novelty back then because there were not sold in Wax Packs. They were essentially sold like Minor League team sets at the time. There were like 10 hobby dealers in the entire country that controlled the entire press run.

The Fleer cards were considered the first nationally and traditionally distributed basketball set since the early 80's Topps sets.

That's not even going into the serious questions about Star Co. repros and possible multiple uses of the printing plates, or if anybody really has a great handle on telling the 1st printing stuff from the later printing stuff.

Still were a licensed card made two years prior to Fleer. If it isn't a card, then what is it? Doesn't matter if sold in sets already or packs. They are still licensed cards.

I was buying them within the year they came out so they were definitely printed in that year listed.

As for printing more of them at a later year, that is a different story of which I don't know fact from fiction on that.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by HistoricNewspapers

Still were a licensed card made two years prior to Fleer. If it isn't a card, then what is it? Doesn't matter if sold in sets already or packs. They are still licensed cards.

I was buying them within the year they came out so they were definitely printed in that year listed.

As for printing more of them at a later year, that is a different story of which I don't know fact from fiction on that.

I'm not arguing your logic, just arguing why the Fleer cards of all those players were accepted as Rookie Cards all those years ago...and why they still have cache today.

For the record, though I handled plenty back then when they were barely worth anything, I don't have any Fleer or Star basketball today, so I don't exactly have a stake in the game.

I was always in the earlier the better crowd. I liked minor league sets and minor league cards to. Pre-Rookie vintage photos are one of my favorite things in the world. The general card buying public though....not so much.

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I'm not arguing your logic, just arguing why the Fleer cards of all those players were accepted as Rookie Cards all those years ago...and why they still have cache today.

For the record, though I handled plenty back then when they were barely worth anything, I don't have any Fleer or Star basketball today, so I don't exactly have a stake in the game.

I was always in the earlier the better crowd. I liked minor league sets and minor league cards to. Pre-Rookie vintage photos are one of my favorite things in the world. The general card buying public though....not so much.

I don't have any more of them either.

Some of the minor league cards have really increased in value though. Greg Maddux has an expensive one worth more than any of his MLB cards(condition sensitivity aside). Ripken has a rare minor league card worth a bunch too.

I always thought that if someone got excited over a rookie card, then they should be really excited of that same player's minor league card from a few years prior.

[Dead-Ball-Hitter]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The Star Company cards were distributed very poorly. They were considered a novelty back then because there were not sold in Wax Packs. They were essentially sold like Minor League team sets at the time. There were like 10 hobby dealers in the entire country that controlled the entire press run.

The Fleer cards were considered the first nationally and traditionally distributed basketball set since the early 80's Topps sets.

That's not even going into the serious questions about Star Co. repros and possible multiple uses of the printing plates, or if anybody really has a great handle on telling the 1st printing stuff from the later printing stuff.

Nice thought, but perhaps not entirely accurate. There may have been a handful, even "10", so-called master distributors, basically meaning they ordered large numbers of sets and sold directly to other dealers, but the fact remains, if you went to a card shop that carried basketball cards (some had mainly baseball), or you went to decent card shows, and you wanted new cards of NBA players in the mid-80s, you bought the Star cards.

Granted, there weren't a ton of people interested in basketball cards back then, but those of us that were sought out the run of Star cards. These were the nationally available, licensed cards. Many agree that the distribution method, i.e. mystery pack vs. team bag, is irrelevant. Its that simple for me.

Buy the latest October, 2022 Beckett basketball and you will have all the info you need on Star production. Here's a picture, I recommend it.