I cant understand jordan rookie cards?

how can a 1986 fleer be a true jordan rookie card when star released its product before fleer in 1984 when jordan was drafted..now jordan was playing 2 years before 1986.
if we are going by sets then how come a 1989 hoops jordan and a 1991 skybox(date of first company release) are not considered rookies yet a topps archives (1992) is...........its really strange to me...and everyone goes nuts over the 86 fleer card but i think the star or even the nike card are more a true rookie card.is it because fleer have managed to release products every year that people consider that the 1986 set is the rookie years where stars last major release was 91/92...........im confuse.if someone would like to enlighten me this how debcle it would be cool.

i can tell you the topps archives set is a rookie highlights set anyone who actually considers it a rookie is an idiot as for the fleer or star iv always wondered the same

well i got the NIKE card thats pretty sweeeeeet even though its jumbo size!!

I think the difference between star and fleer is that fleer was a licensed NBA product for the hobby with packs and boxes. Star came in team sets, usually bought at the teams home games, i have been told, not sure if they were actually nba sanctioned or not. With that too, there are a lot less Star xrc than jordan fleer rookies, hence they are more expensive.

90'inserts said:

i can tell you the topps archives set is a rookie highlights set anyone who actually considers it a rookie is an idiot as for the fleer or star iv always wondered the same

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Excatly! The topps "rookie" card is marketing bull**** for ebay sellers! i think you'll find Fleer is so highly regarded as the best RC card because its the bigger company and so on!

According to the Beckett price guide the main reason is that the 86/87 Fleer set was the first nationally distributed NBA product since the 81/82 Topps set.

Reportedly only 3000 Team bags were produced of each team in the 84/85 Star set.

Marcus is spot on. Star did have a license so they are legit rookies but they weren't mass distributed. Meaning if you weren't at the arena where they were sold and missed out on a team bag with the card you couldn't buy one.

To be a rookie it would have had to be available nationally.

Allstar cards inc said:

According to the Beckett price guide the main reason is that the 86/87 Fleer set was the first nationally distributed NBA product since the 81/82 Topps set.

Reportedly only 3000 Team bags were produced of each team in the 84/85 Star set.

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You got my ticket

Allstar cards inc said:

According to the Beckett price guide the main reason is that the 86/87 Fleer set was the first nationally distributed NBA product since the 81/82 Topps set.

Reportedly only 3000 Team bags were produced of each team in the 84/85 Star set.

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I concur.

Ersk

what a load of rubbish.

the star is the real rookie as they were the only card manufacturer licenced to produce NBA cards during the 83-86 seasons. fleer didnt produce any cards because the NBA had little following, its simple economics.

the only reason fleer is also seen as a rookie for the 86 Jordan is because by the time Jordan and the NBA became popular they started churing out the cards and because the Star cards were scarce everybody latched on to the fleer.

so you have every man and his dog buying to fleer and building up a false market and all these hobby dealers cashing in what do you expect?

the fact that BGS is now grading Star cards should send a shiver down every fleer owners spine because look at the trend of the Jordan fleer RC and its has been fallng for a while, why? because people knew that once BGS started grading the Star cards that it would become the most desirable Jordan RC.

BGS grades cards to make money, just watch how many BGS graded Star #101 XRC's get graded. i am serously considering getting my CSA version regraded by BGS and even my GAI version.

just watch the ebay auctions from the US and look how many fleer BGS 9.5 Jordans are for sale and then compare it to the Star #101. you will be lucky to find a GAI version graded higher than an 8.5, i have never seen one!!!

when BGS grades a 9 or 9.5 it will be worth over $10k easy.

Actually the above is rubbish. Sorry but thats the truth. The guys that have been around here years will vouch I've been one of stars main supporters but you can't have a card as a rookie that was basically only made up in the equivalent of glad bags.

The sports card hobby has been reliant on a bigger distribution and cards from sets and randomly inserted not just bought as team sets. Otherwise other seats such as the Sears sets, Tony's Pizza
(at least they were random) and other oddball regional team sets would be worth more. Some are extremely limited and still licensed by the NBA also.

Star has had its time and now with the original plates out there they will never hold the value they once did. The trust has gone in the market place even with Steve Taft at BGS which once again the hobby doens't trust especially the more vintage crowd.

The bulls team bag wasn't even the equivalent of a lucky dip. It was more just a regional merchandise purchase that just happened to be a set of cards.

Collectors wont give a hoot and its they that set the prices.

False market for Fleer?? So I take it that the hobby since then is also false? So I take it the Bird/Magic card should be worth about $10? After all Magic led his team to the title in his second year and Bird the greatest team turn around at the time. Both were superstars but the card only gained value when the hobby took off. I guess that was on the back of the Jordan card then so its false also.

We abide by rules in the hobby otherwise its complete chaos. We still have XRCs in the hobby from time to time and these cards actually still come from nationally distributed licenced product. Why should we make an exception for a card that doesn't fit the bill on many levels. Other examples are cards like Berk Ross, Bill Sharman's first card is his berk ross card but his RC is years later in 57 topps. And Havlicek is in the 68 topps test issue set but his RC is the 69 topps card a year later.

I hope you didn't pay a lot for your card in the hope it will worth a mint and the above is written tongue in cheek. Otherwise you can argue till your blue in the face and it isn't going to change anything.