1986 Fleer Jordan vs T206 Plank

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by rats60

No, the Jordan RC is iconic because it created the basketball card collecting hobby in 1988-1989. It was a $50 card when the Magic/Bird RC was a $1 and key vintage RCs were all much less.

The Star will never pass the Fleer RC. The quality of the printing was poor. They are all off centered and being loose on the top of a bag, the corners were damaged. Unless PSA gives out "gift" grades, you won't see any higher than a 7. Few cared about the Star in the 80s or 90s and I don't see it changing. It is like people trying to hype the Bond Bread Jackie Robinson. That didn't stop his Leaf RC from skyrocketing.

The card did not make the hobby; PSA made the card. That was the power of the PSA registry and hype machine at work. Some people did not care about the Star cards because PSA refused to grade them. Also, you might want to check your history a bit. The Jordan card did not overtake the 1957 Russell. In 2004 a PSA 8 Russell was a $3500 card. In 2004 a PSA 8 Jordan was a $400 card. The Jordan 8 has never overtaken the Russell 8. We can't compare 10s because there are no Russell 10s. The 8.5 Russell went for $630,000 and the 8 Russells are $200,000 cards.

The Jackie Robinson is an interesting question. I see the parallel at first blush, but it does not hold up under scrutiny. Clearly, it was not issued in his rookie or even his second year. It is a 1949 card. However, it is akin to the 1952 Topps Mantle in that collectors do not seem to care that is not a RC when both are presented in the same grades by the same TPG: the 1952 T card sells way better than the 1951 B card. By contrast, until now, we have not had PSA graded Fleer and Star cards. We had Beckett, which is meaningless for comparables. We can now start to compare apples to apples. The PSA Star cards that have sold so far have beaten the PSA Fleer cards decisively in the same grades. Look it up on PSA's auction results function. The most recent Star 7 to sell went for $19,200 in the October 22 Heritage auction. The most recent Fleer 7 to sell went for $4,600 on eBay on 11/2.

Now, as I said before, this is a small sample based on the # of cards graded and sold thus far, but as the pop grows, as the cards make their way into the Jordan registry, and as we see some 8-9-10 Star Jordan cards, I think they will continue to beat the Fleer card in comparable grade. Time will produce the evidence to answer the question.

As for aesthetics. everyone likes what they like. I happen to think some of the Star cards are beautifully done.