After bringing basketball cards back to mainstream distribution the year before and creating what would eventually become the most iconic basketball card set of the last 30 years, Fleer returned the following season. The 1987-88 Fleer basketball set again consisted of 132 cards and 11 stickers that were issued one per pack.
It wasn’t a slam dunk year for rookies. Ron Harper, Brad Daugherty, A.C. Green, Chuck Person, Detlef Schrempf and Terry Porter made their cardboard debuts, but for collectors today, it’s the second year cards of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, etc., that everyone is looking for when packs are opened.
Jordan is in the sticker set, along with Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Dominique Wilkins, Barkley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among others.
The good news is that with 12 cards per pack and such a small number of cards in a set, the odds of pulling something good from a pack are pretty good. Back then, packs went for 50 cents each. Today, graded packs sell for around $50-100 each. Distribution is generally very good.
Most dealers with knowledge of the market believe the print run of 1987-88 Fleer basketball was far smaller than the 1986-87 debut issue. PSA’s Population Report would lend some credence to that. There have been over 150,000 1986-87 Fleer cards submitted for grading but only 30,899 ’86-87. Part of that disparity could be for perceived value after grading but the fact that there have been nearly five times as many ’86-87 cards graded is hard to ignore.
This week’s Vintage Pack Break of the Week from Just Collect is the 1987-88 Fleer. Would Scott have the magic touch? Find out below.
A PSA 9 Jordan sells for around $125. A 10? Much higher.
Just Collect is buying vintage unopened packs and vintage cards. See them online at JustCollect.com. They offer hundreds of fresh items via their weekly eBay auctions.
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