Filed under: Beckett Media | Tags: Beckett Grading Services, BGS, Michael Jordan, NBA, rookie cards, Star Co. basketball cards
Beckett Grading Services will be expanding its portfolio of services to include ’83-86 Star Company basketball cards beginning Dec. 1, 2008.
The move was initiated through a request from The Schonco Sports Collection to have BGS grade their inventory of Star Co. basketball cards prior to its release onto the market.
BGS will be working hand-in-hand with Star Co. basketball card expert Steve Taft to authenticate, grade, and slab the collection before its release. Graded cards will carry a label designating it as part of The Schonco Sports Collection inventory.
BGS had not previously offered grading services for this product as many in the industry believed that many existing cards on the market were counterfeit, or possibly reprinted, long after their original runs.
Star Co. was the exclusive licensed distributor of NBA cards in the early 1980s, and their limited edition sets feature some of the earliest and most valuable Michael Jordan rookie cards available.
The Schonco Sports Collection cards will include some of these rare Jordan cards as well as many key rarer team sets like 1984 Boston, Dallas, Detroit and Philadelphia. With a high demand from long-time Star collectors, these cards are expected to disappear quickly once they become available for sale.
The new BGS services available to the public on Dec. 1 will include grading for all un-bagged basketball card singles including the three mainstream sets, insert sets, subsets, promotional sets such as “Gatorade” and “Crunch ‘N Munch,” and 5×7 oversized cards.
“Best of the Best” and “Magic Johnson” sets will only be graded out of the pedigreed Schonco Sports Collection, and public grading of bagged sets may be offered in the future.
For more on this story, see the next issue of Beckett Graded Card Investor, which ships next week.
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The Beckett Blog 
Great news! This is very good for the registry people I imagine. I think I saw a Beckett graded Star card on ebay already–was this one from many many years ago or are they ahead of pace and grading them already? Either way, this is very good news for anyone who wanted to buy one and knew that raw ones were possibly fake.
Comment by Paul November 26, 2008 @ 10:20 amDoes this statement mean you guys can’t tell the difference between a real and a reprint for these 2?
Comment by confused November 26, 2008 @ 3:43 pm““Best of the Best” and “Magic Johnson” sets will only be graded out of the pedigreed Schonco Sports Collection”
From my understanding, Schonco Sports had the entire Magic Johnson and Best of the Best press runs in its inventory when they purchased all of the remaining Star cards from the company. (See a story in the upcoming GCI.)
Star never released the cards to the public — only those Schonco may have sold during in the past as uncut sheets are out there.
Comment by chrisolds November 26, 2008 @ 3:55 pm[…] BGS to begin grading Star Basketball cards Hello Old School Basketball lovers, Not sure if there a discussion on this forum as yet for Australian collectors, I think its great news. Since collecting basketball cards in the early 1990s, they always listed these cards and I thought when I was young dreaming of having a 1984/85 Star Co Michael Jordan XRC #101 would be awesome but for $3000 bucks back then and hardly ever seeing Star Co I thought they were so rare, Then I learnt no one wanted Star Co cards and 1986/87 Fleer was the real deal with old school basketball collectors and every grading companies had a piece of the pie and Star Co was just floating only to be graded by GAI. Now that BGS have come on board, it will be good to get them to come alive again, there are alot of fakes out there but if it wasn’t for Star Co, there would of been a huge gap with topps stopping after the 1981/82 season, Star Co had alot of sets and subset and there so many Jordans in the 1984/85 set, I really think people should get into these cards. So what they ain’t real RC cards, thats another story, I think they are real RCs in bag set, Star Co came around trying their ideas with the bag sets and basketball was a joke to most everyday Americans in the early 1980s. I think the 1983 to 1986 Star Co set are great, too bad they ain’t around today If Star Co hanged around for another 3 or 4 years, they might of made some profit but I reckon we should be proud of them, in believing in basketball where Topps and Fleer just gave up. I hope these cards get notice in the next few months, they are already getting listed in BGS graded covers on ebay, good on them Beckett Here is the story Beckett Grading Services to begin grading Star Basketball cards The Beckett Blog […]
Pingback by BGS to begin grading Star Basketball cards - OzCardTrader.com.au November 29, 2008 @ 4:32 pmlooks like lots of them are already up. saw a Jordan #101 bag on ebay. its ebay store “higbee enterprises” user id higbees.com
Comment by Sean December 13, 2008 @ 12:16 amI can personally say that I have been waiting 15 years for one of the big three grading companies to start grading these valuable collectibles. The fact that psa did grade them and then stopped is an example of their incompetence. Star company gives a card collector everything – rare series’ due to poor quality control, making the mint and gem mint cards all the more valuable; cards of players that were largely left out of sets and destroyed after being issued in only a few hundred bags for one reason or another (Honus Wagner style), tough centering, tough edges – the list goes on and on. The most important point is that STAR COMPANY CARDS WERE THE ONLY CARDS LICENSED BY THE NBA AND NBA PLAYERS ASSOCIATION FROM THE YEARS OF 1983-1986; There are many FLEER 86-87 JORDAN RC’S IN BGS/PSA 9 AND 9.5; Try finding a 1984-85 star jordan #101 xrc that grades into a bgs 9 holder. Star company is here to stay. those who stuck with star all of these years will be awarded for their patience and loyalty. New collectors will see what we have been raving about for over two decades. thank you BGS
Comment by Dino February 7, 2009 @ 1:07 pmI have a complete bagged star set 84/85 I bought it privately back in 1992. I know that person bought it from a local respected card dealer but I don’t know when he purchased. I would like to know if anyone can suggest the best way to verify without opening the bags. Also were fakes made before 1992? Thanks.
Comment by gregg August 29, 2009 @ 9:41 pmWhat a joke. At least PSA was honorable enough to stop when it was discovered that the original plates were used to produce some counterfeits. If the original process plates, blanks, etc were used how is BGS really going to be able to tell? Sure the lower quality counterfeits won’t get through, but I have heard that a counterfeit done on the original plates did get through. There are bound to be more. Unfortunately the 1984 Star card is scarred for life.
Comment by Fred October 18, 2009 @ 2:36 pmFred, PSA did not stop grading Star to be “honorable”. They simply did not have the expertise to grade them, and chose to no longer deal with them after they graded some of the counterfeits.
Allow me to clarify the real story on Star, as many people have fallen prey to the myth that “everything Star was reprinted and it all looks the same.”
The only standard Star cards reprinted from the original plates were the 1985-86 second series (#’s 95-172). All other counterfeits have simple ways to clearly distinguish them. There were also several sets created by Star in the 1990’s that they backdated to appear old, but they are really fantasy issues, not counterfeits, since there was no original set in the first place (and BGS does not grade those). As far as the 1985-86 #’s 95-172, there are differences in the printing quality, card stock, and cutting techniques used on these, making it apparent whether a card was from the original printing or a later printing. Frankly, the only thing you need is knowledge, and we contracted with the foremost authority on Star basketball for training and ongoing verification.
Mark Anderson, Director
Comment by The Hammer October 19, 2009 @ 9:45 amBeckett Grading Services
And all this brought upon us by the wonderful people at Upper Deck. The only lifeline they have left to the hobby is, yup, Mikey!! Yeah!
He’s had his prime, he’s had his time, now let’s move on huh?
Comment by Richard B October 19, 2009 @ 10:19 ammichael jordan 1984-85 star cards
for sale
K_boltz2@comcast.net
Comment by Anonymous November 11, 2009 @ 9:13 pmI have the complete Star 84-85 set of basketball cards and was wondering if anyone knows what this might be worth??
Comment by Mike January 27, 2010 @ 7:51 pmI got some michaeal jordan 1984-85 star
reprint cards for sale
20.00 each free shiping
why pay 2700 for the real card
Comment by tim August 15, 2010 @ 5:01 pmim looking to buy a complete set of the 1984-85
Comment by tim September 1, 2010 @ 10:07 pmstar basket ball cards
if any one has any for sale
please email me
K_boltz2@comcast.net
I have a 1986 STAR CO.
Comment by Roger Smith September 9, 2010 @ 5:05 pmBest of The New Set
In Plastic and Unopened
Including the Michael Jordan card shown above
I would like to know a fair value