[hercules21]

I have been thinking about going after the 1986-87 Fleer set. It seems like the inaugural task for anyone who decides to get serious about trading/collecting basketball.

Coincidentally, I have the chance to purchase a large lot of these cards from a stranger; but I am unsure how much $ to offer.

He has a few hundred cards, so many duplicates and commons, but no Jordan. I only got a quick peak at them, b/c I was in a rush. They are in good condition, and I have no reason to doubt his claim that most of them he collected himself in the late 80s and has held onto ever since. A few of the rookie cards are easily BGS 9+.

I did some eBay research. I've seen lots of 100+ cards go for around $100. I've seen the full set, minus the jordan, go for upwards of $250. With graded lots up around $350. I'm assuming that those eBay sales probably did not include the quality of rookie cards as this person's collection.

He will only sell them to me as a whole lot, and he seems to be wanting a big offer, perhaps to help pay for a divorce or something. This seems like a rare opportunity to get some awesome cards. To anyone who has chased this set, do you have any suggestions on what to look for in formulating my offer?

[user_3n5kp]

Really tough to say without seeing the cards that are included and the condition of the major RCs. I think it really depends on how you are approaching the set. Are you looking for a nice set to binder and look through or are you looking to eventually have a graded set and if so what grades do you want?

I put this set together earlier this year and my goal was to find the big cards all BGS 8.5 or higher with strong eye appeal and the rest raw for the 80s binder I was piecing together. It is surprisingly easy to get the commons and semi-stars in nice shape and raw for very little. I think i put in maybe $75-100 bucks for the majority of the set in about 3 lots. The real money was in the graded stars. There are so many BGS and PSA 8 and higher graded starts that even raw singles shouldn't set you back too much.

86-87 Fleer are pretty easy to find these days. NO need to break the bank on huge lots.

[mickey7mantle7]

pretty easy to find these days. NO need to break the bank on huge lots.
[/quote]

+ 1

couldn't have said it better...

[hercules21]

Thanks for the comments. What if a majority of the common cards are truly mint, a potential start to a full set of graded 9's? Does that change anything? Plus with so many duplicates, i could make some money back selling them.

[slum22]

In my opinion it seems very difficult to give you an idea on what to spend on this lot as we don't have a lot to go on. Which key rookies are included in the deal (and how many of them) are crucial. Are you getting one each (minus the Jordan of course), are there any multiples of the star rookies? Give us a count and general idea on condition of the stars and it will make it easer to give you an estimate.

Keep in mind there is a pretty big difference value wise between a 9.5 and a 9.0 for all of these cards. A run of the mill common that grades at 9.0 is going to auction on Ebay for $10 give or take some dollars while a 9.5 could get $30-$45 (or more depending on which one). The stars have even a bigger discrepancy with a 9.0 Barkley expecting to go $80-100 and a 9.5 going for $300+ most likely. These are just examples.

As other posts have pointed out. It kind of depends on what you're after, an all graded set or an ungraded set. If you are wanting a graded set just make sure you are getting enough cards that will meet your minimum grade requirement for your set or else you will be doing a lot of work selling off a lot of cards to recoup the costs of buying these cards and submitting them for grading. Remember that if your goal is to get a graded set of 9.0's you may be better off buying graded commons off of ebay. If you figure on buying this lot at an average of $1 per common and a submission to Beckett is gonna run you about $8/card depending on the promotion and if you are willing to wait for delivery you could just as easily cherry pick commons off of ebay with less risk and at potentially less cost.

Anyway, I could probably go on forever, so I will stop there. Reply on post or PM me if you want to talk it over some. I may be willing to go in with you on some of your extra cards depending on their condition as I am always looking to upgrade my set.

[user_3n5kp]

In my opinion it seems very difficult to give you an idea on what to spend on this lot as we don't have a lot to go on. Which key rookies are included in the deal (and how many of them) are crucial. Are you getting one each (minus the Jordan of course), are there any multiples of the star rookies? Give us a count and general idea on condition of the stars and it will make it easer to give you an estimate.

Keep in mind there is a pretty big difference value wise between a 9.5 and a 9.0 for all of these cards. A run of the mill common that grades at 9.0 is going to auction on Ebay for $10 give or take some dollars while a 9.5 could get $30-$45 (or more depending on which one). The stars have even a bigger discrepancy with a 9.0 Barkley expecting to go $80-100 and a 9.5 going for $300+ most likely. These are just examples.

As other posts have pointed out. It kind of depends on what you're after, an all graded set or an ungraded set. If you are wanting a graded set just make sure you are getting enough cards that will meet your minimum grade requirement for your set or else you will be doing a lot of work selling off a lot of cards to recoup the costs of buying these cards and submitting them for grading. Remember that if your goal is to get a graded set of 9.0's you may be better off buying graded commons off of ebay. If you figure on buying this lot at an average of $1 per common and a submission to Beckett is gonna run you about $8/card depending on the promotion and if you are willing to wait for delivery you could just as easily cherry pick commons off of ebay with less risk and at potentially less cost.

Anyway, I could probably go on forever, so I will stop there. Reply on post or PM me if you want to talk it over some. I may be willing to go in with you on some of your extra cards depending on their condition as I am always looking to upgrade my set.

Excellent advice. One more thing to keep in mind, it is very difficult to grade out 9.5s on the 86-87 Fleer from self submissions. I always say, if you think its a 9.5 then assume you get an 8.5 and hope for a 9! Grading is very tricky and sometimes there is something ever so slight that pulls the card down. Unless you can see the cards in hand its a gamble. I bought a raw Mullin that looked like a sure fire 9 from the scans then it arrived and had a surface imperfection, would likely be an 8.

Feel free to PM and ask any other questions. I would be happy to help and there are a few cards I am looking to upgrade as well so maybe you end up with a few people chipping in and lowering your cost!
As the above post said, grading fees can get up there and nice 8.5's and 9s are on the bay and affordable.

[hercules21]

I'm taking a closer look at the cards this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!

[hercules21]

The Malone looks amazing up close, except the rear centering is slightly to the right. I'm guessing this could be worth a couple hundred itself? However, i did notice something strange about the NBA logo on the back. The words "national basketball player association" seem to be a bit bolder than most other cards. I know this was one of the items to look at to identify a counterfeit Jordan. On the fake jordans, the letters were indistinguishable, whereas this isn't nearly that bad. Are there fake Karl Malone cards out there too? I noticed the same boldness on the Ewing and the Barkley.
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[slum22]

"The Malone looks amazing up close, except the rear centering is slightly to the right. I'm guessing this could be worth a couple hundred itself?"

It's possible, but I wouldn't count on it. The only way it would be worth $200 is if it graded a 9.5 (if it does then it's going to be worth $300+). This means it has to get 9.5 or better on three or four categories. It appears pretty good in the picture, but as another poster had mentioned 9.5's are not given out easily. If it comes back a 9.0, which I would say is more likely than you've got yourself a card that's worth somewhere between $60-90 depending on the buyer and the subgrades.

I have sent in about 20 cards to beckett from the 1986 fleer set. Some of them were stars like Jordan 9.0, Ewing 9.0 and 8.0, K. Malone 9.0 and Olajuwon 9.0 while others were just commons.

Out of the cards I sent in here is the breakdown,

8.0-2
8.5-6
9.0-12
9.5-1

I wasn't expecting all the cards to be 9.5's and honestly I feel the cards were fairly graded (of course I do think a couple more of my commons could have been 9.5's, but I consider myself lucky to have most of my stars come back 9.0's). There were probably 5 or 6 cards that I felt were flawless and only one came back 9.5 and most of the others weren't that close (I consider 2-9.5 subgrades and 2-9.0 subgrades on an overall 9.0 close). So clearly under the Beckett microscope 9.5's are tough to come by through self submissions.

I do think 9.0s are fairly consistent and not as difficult to come by. If you think the stars would get 9.0's then you can pay book price. If you are going to submit cards I would not count on any one card being a 9.5 as if you are counting on a star (like the Malone) to be a 9.5 you may be disappointed with a 9.0. However, if you play the percentages and you do have some 9.5's in there they can easily pay for your submission even if they're commons. And there are some commons that even if you get a 9.0 you can get anywhere from $30-50 for them. So be sure to check out the uncommon commons in the set and see if you think they can grade at 9.0. If so the lot may be worth taking a gamble on.

I have not heard of counterfeits on the lesser stars. I have only heard of counterfeit Jordans. But I am not an expert in that area so check opinions from others.

[user_3n5kp]

Very good advise up above.

One of the ewings and one of 'niques look good on centering but can't judge the rest of the card. I would say even on the malone, a BGS 9 would be the best outcome. The L/R centering would knock it down IMO.

I would look at the book for raw values for those cards and offer just a shade under since you are buying the lot of them. Submission fees are pretty high so only sub those you really feel have a shot at 9-9.5. Factor that into what you are offering because at the end of the day that will be part of the cost incurred for this lot.

Some nice looking cards in there but if the price is too high I would say you could find great BGS 8.5's and 9's on ebay and just hit common lots on the cheap until the set is complete. Take your time and get the cards you like most in the best condition you can afford. Its an iconic set and you will want those stars graded and looking sharp. Trust me, I want to upgrade some of 8.5 sometimes and wish i just slowed down and took my time. I did all stars in 8.5 or 9 and centering had to be sharp (usually 9 or better) but I still sometimes wish i went better.