Question: Comparison between 84-85 Star and 86-87 Fleer

[Deadshot]

I have been looking back for rookie cards of several players, and I have noticed something that I had a question on. Some players have rookie cards in the 1984 & 1985 Star sets, but I have also seen their 1986-87 Fleer cards marked as their rookies. What exactly is the deal here? I understand that they are both technically considered rookies, but what happened? Did the Fleer cards become rookies because they were superior to any other brand before them at the time? If I could get some help on this, that would be great - thanks!

BTW - I probably didn't word this all correctly, so if someone could just explain the majority of their knowledge about the situation that would be great as well.

[LakersMC]

83-86 Star was not available in packs & not to the general public. Only in bagged team sets thru hobby dealers. Printing numbers were low.
86 Fleer was available in packs, all over the place.

Since 86 Fleer was "open to the public", it is more like a "normal release". So some people consider this the true rookie card. (To an extreme, is the 1985 Nike MJ card, his true rookie card? Probably not b/c it's not a "normal" card release.)

Personally, I'd much rather have Star Cards.

[Deadshot]

Thank you for that information. I am very uneducated on cards from before the early-mid 90's. Also, since you seem to know a lot about this area in general - why was Reggie Miller's RC a year after his rookie season? Did the companies (Fleer in particular) wait until they played a season to issue a rookie card?

Also, anyone else that wants to contribute to this question or the question previously stated is free to do so. Thanks!

[LakersMC]

Star sets have almost the whole team. They include rookies (with college stats on back).
Fleer sets have only ~4 players per team. It's only 132 cards in the whole set. So they didn't include true rookies & scrubs. They wait a year, like you said, for rooks.

Hope this helps. I must be pretty old to know this stuf...

[Deadshot]

Thanks - that does help. I will probably have more questions in the future for you as well :)

[john1170]

Star cards used to be valued very very high. Some Jordan's in the thousands. However, the problem arose when the Star Company actually pulled out the original printing plates and started the presses up again years later. Thus, it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between an original and the reprinted ones. Most major grading companies will not grade them as they can't tell the difference. This is why the values of these cards sunk dramatically.

Also, this was Fleer's first basketball set in over 2 decades. All these cards are RC's according to beckett as they were the first cards of these guys available in packs to the general public. The Star Cards, I believe used to be designated by XRC as they were not available in packs.

John

[Deadshot]

How long after the original printing did Star start printing these cards again - and why? Sounds like a cheap shot to make a lot $$$ to me...

[john1170]

How long after the original printing did Star start printing these cards again - and why? Sounds like a cheap shot to make a lot $$$ to me...

Not sure why or when they did it. I will see what I can find about it and get back to you.

[Deadshot]

Alright - thanks! That would be great :)

[john1170]

After reading some old threads on the collectors universe message board it seems that there is a debate as to whether the cards were reprinted or the former owner had uncut sheets he sold off. Either way, it seems it was a monetary decision. Looks like he did this in the 1990's. Also, some believe that the fakes were easy to spot and some differ. Either way, it looks like there was a lot of contraversy regarding the star cards.

Sorry for the incorrect information earlier.