1986 Fleer

Talk about the right product at the right time!

By the mid-1980s, excitement on the hardcourt generated by the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, helped to make professional basketball into an important force in popular culture. The sport's fan base had grown exponentially since the days of Cousy, Wilt and the Big O, and the NBA was selling franchises, player jerseys and tickets at a faster clip than ever before.

Even so, the game's trading card situation was in shambles. The preceding decade was characterized by uncertainty among collectors about which company would possess a given year's NBA licensing rights for cards, or what sort of collectibles would actually emerge. There had been huge cards and tiny cards (including, in diminutive scale, the important first cards of Bird and Johnson), gaudy cards and lackluster cards. In 1985, the only licensed cards were distributed in, of all things, little clear-plastic bags, not packs. Furthermore, who had even heard of a "card store" ten years prior? Yet, a determined enthusiast was forced to seek out and visit a sodesignated establishment, simply to indulge the urge to buy a few cards. The system, at that stage, just wasn't working.

Fleer took the basketball-card collecting specialty back to the basics, and that approach, touted on the wrappers, boxes and cards as the "Premier Issue," was an instant success. The company took eye-catching, red-white-and-blue-bordered photo cards, gave them a straightforward design, and packaged them in good old-fashioned wax packs - with gum! Packs were available at most of the nation's big variety stores and drug store chains. In this fashion, the cards came "back to the masses," and it once again became routine to toss a couple of packs into a cart when shopping for other goods. The new Fleer cards were also available in card stores. But a special trip to one of those establishments was not a prerequisite for sampling or constructing this marvelous new set.

Composition - The manner of distribution for the 1986 Fleer release was a definite asset, but so was its content. A standard 11-card by 12- card press sheet was laid out to yield 132 collectibles, 131 of the NBA's best players, plus a Checklist card. Not only that, every pack held a "Photo Sticker" insert - yet another opportunity for buyers to acquire a superstar!

Unlike many card issues of the past, Fleer offered no teaser advertisements promising future marvels in subsequent series; all of the big guns were fired in this one staggering salvo. Bird and Magic - at last, it seemed - had worthy cardboard portrayals of their own. Most of their greatest contemporaries were also listed on the neatly alphabetized Checklist including, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Isiah Thomas and others. Best of all, there were the rookies.

Until the 1986 Fleer set came along, there had been a void in the realm of standard-issue NBA trading cards, many of the "Premier Issue's" subjects found acceptance as the first-year collectibles of their type. Highlighted by #57 depicting Michael Jordan - a card that soon became an important phenomenon in its own right - the gallery of rookies was filled with future Hall of Famers like Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dominique Wilkins.

Key Features and Rarities - One source of the 1986 Fleer set's incredible appeal is that it contains no rarities. The playing field was made level for all, in the sense that everyone faced an equal and auspicious opportunity to find the series' stars. (Remember, all cards and stickers were produced in exactly the same quantities.) Collectors quickly discovered that the purchase of a full, 36-pack box of Fleer Basketball yielded two complete sets of cards, plus duplicates. The cards' distribution and user-friendly collation, however, gave rise to an entirely different motivation. This additional incentive was the notion of the condition rarity. Enthusiasts sought to obtain the most well-centered copies of their favorite players, as well as examples whose delicate borders showed no trace of handling. The competition for "high-end" 1986 Fleer cards, particularly those of Jordan, escalated through the end of the decade and beyond, and drove the price of unopened packs and boxes into the stratosphere. Star cards, such as the Dominique Wilkens rookie, and commons, like #76 Johnny Moore, became hot commodities as a result of the focus on condition. As more and more 1986 Fleer cards were graded, it became clear that certain cards were clearly tougher than others.

Bottom Line - Naturally, collectors have always preferred to own the nicest example that could be found of a given card. But 1986 Fleer cards - as again, precisely the right product, at the right time - lent themselves nicely to a period just around the corner as the cards were released when condition would be formally quantified. Never before had hobbyists put together hoards of specific rookie players, consisting of cards that display perfect border alignment, razor-sharp edges, and pinpoint corners. It wouldn't be long before third-party services would assess and encapsulate the cards, price guides would be revolutionized, and the once-fanciful prospect of "investment" in top-quality gum cards would be taken far more seriously. Fleer did "just right" in the execution of its 1986 Basketball cards - a factor that, by itself, would mandate its inclusion in an "all-time" listing. The series' role in shaping a growing collectibles industry's future makes it incalculably special and significant.