Historic Sets: 1986-87 Fleer Basketball

Imagine a basketball card set that was printed today that had rookie cards of every top player in the NBA. Let's say, for example, that the set in question had the first widely available cards of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Gilbert Arenas, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady. It's no stretch to say that such a set would be one of the most popular products ever created from cardboard.

Of course, a dream set with rookies of all of today's top players is just that. The athletes listed above entered the league in various different seasons, and all of them were featured on multiple rookie cards as soon as they hit an NBA court for the first time. There's just no way any one set in the current basketball card market would be lucky enough to have such an exclusive gathering of star power.

Twenty years ago, that wasn't the case. After 13 consecutive years producing a basketball set, Topps bowed out of the game following the 1981-82 season. Five years later, Fleer stepped in to fill the hardwood void. In the meantime, a number of prominent NBA players made their debuts, including a guy named Michael Jordan.

The Most Famous Basketball Rookie Card of All Time

Basketball fans probably remember that Jordan dazzled fans for the first time in 1984, right in the middle of the gap between the end of Topps' run and Fleer's initial effort. The Star company did include Jordan in its 1984-85 set, and many collectors recognize the card as an official RC. Others do not, since the Star set was packaged in team bags instead of packs, and not as widely distributed as the products of other basketball card manufacturers.

There's no question about Jordan's 1986-87 Fleer card, one of the most well-known and popular rookie cards in any sport. From the iconic shot of Jordan soaring to the rim for a one-handed dunk to the patriotic feel of the set's red, white and blue borders, it's a classic in every sense of the word. As PSA President Joe Orlando says in his article on the historic Fleer set, the Jordan rookie is basketball's equivalent of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle.

That kind of notoriety has also earned it a more dubious distinction: it's one of the most frequently counterfeited cards in hobby history. Fakes have been floating around in fairly large numbers at various times, forcing buyers to do their homework to ensure they purchase the genuine article.

Much More Than Just MJ

The Jordan card alone would assure the 1986-87 Fleer set of a place in the basketball card hall of fame, but it also includes the rookie cards of plenty of other NBA superstars. Some appear in earlier Star releases, like Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas and Dominique Wilkins. Others, like Joe Dumars, Karl Malone and Chris Mullin, make their official trading card debuts.

And there's more than just rookies on the checklist, with cards of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Magic Johnson also included. Add it all up and there's something for just about every basketball fan, making it a hit with collectors to this day.

It's not that difficult to find singles from this historic set on the internet or at large card shows, and graded versions of the top rookies often change hands for big money. Two things to look for when examining the condition of singles from this set are centering (the border should be evenly distributed on both sides of the card) and chipping of the edges, a problem that plagues many sports card sets with colored borders.

The table below features the most notable rookie cards from the 1986-87 Fleer basketball set, with book values for cards in Near Mint condition from the February 2007 issue of Tuff Stuff magazine.

1986-87 Fleer Basketball Rookie Card Checklist