Hobbies And Interests
Average value
The 1986-87 card shows Jordan in his No. 23 red road Bulls uniform in route to one of his many dunks. Like all Fleer base set cards that year, the Fleer logo appears in the right hand corner and the photo is centered over a red, white and blue grid background. As of May 2010, a professionally graded Jordan rookie was worth an average of $1,000.
History
There actually is an earlier card of Jordan in a Bulls uniform. But those cards, from a small company called Star, were never widely available and the Fleer card was dubbed the "official" Jordan rookie. Nevertheless, the Jordan Star card, No. 195 of the 1984-85 set, was booked at $2,500 in May 2010 according to tuffstuff.com.
Fleer 's 1986-87 edition was the first set of basketball cards by any big-name company since Topps gave up on the sport after its 1982-83 set. That meant the Fleer set had the first cards of Jordan and other stars like Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Joe Dumars, Chris Mullin, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dominique Wilkins. Since it was a debut effort, Fleer didn't overproduce the cards, a fate that befell many sets in the '90s. The price of the legitimately rare Jordan card kept going up as Jordan became the biggest star on the court with scoring titles and championships and one of the country's most recognizable celebrities thanks to several commercial campaigns. The value peaked around 1999 when PSA Grading had a pristine Fleer Jordan rookie priced at $17,000.
Condition
The value of any trading card is partly determined by its condition. Professional card graders devalue cards with visible creases, discoloration, worn edges and markings. The most common problems with the Fleer Jordan rookie card are an off-center photo and the red on the border is sometimes faded. A Jordan rookie with some flaws but no hugely significant problems like tears or creases can still sell for around $300.
Buy Backs
The Jordan rookies got another boost after Upper Deck bought the Fleer brand. Upper Deck bought 23 of the cards and had Jordan sign them. Those cards were inserted in packs of new basketball cards starting in the 2006-07 season (to mark the 20th anniversary of the original Fleer set). These autographed "Buy Back" cards were booked at $6,500 in 2010, but some have been offered on auction sites for more than $10,000.
Reprint Alert
Due to the card's high demand and low supply, plenty of people made lookalike Jordan reprints. A grading company found 11 counterfeit Jordan rookie cards at a sports collector's convention in 1999. Some auction sites and sellers openly acknowledge a card is a reprint. It turned out there was a market for them since some fans just want something that looks like "the" Jordan rookie and can't or won't pay the huge price for an authentic one. As of May, 2010, reprints were being offered online for as much as $10.