By Chris Olds | Beckett Basketball Editor

September may mark the start of the football season, but for Grey Flannel Auctions it means some legendary sales when it comes to basketball memorabilia.

And the premiere item that sold via the Westhampton, N.Y.-based company this past weekend was the 1976 Olympic gold medal of six-time NBA All-Star Walter Davis — an exquisite piece of historic bling that collected 20 bids totaling $108,000 when the action closed at the seventh-annual Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Auction.

It wasn’t the only piece of big-dollar memorabilia to sell in the 198-lot event as six game-used jerseys from the 1960s into the early 1990s each commanded more than $50,000 apiece.

An East jersey Michael Jordan wore for the 1991 NBA All-Star Game netted just 12 bids but ended at $66,000, while Magic Johnson‘s West jersey from the event sold for $63,000 after 14 bids. Seven other jerseys from that year’s game sold during the event with Alvin Robertson‘s jersey setting the low bar at $1,800. One other All-Star jersey was among the notable sales as Nate “Tiny” Archibald‘s 1973 jersey (and uniform with shoes) was sold and went for $78,000.

The priciest jersey sold was an early 1960s Jerry West Los Angeles Lakers home jersey, which collected 19 bids to end at $96,000, while a 1974-75 Bill Walton rookie home jersey went for $60,000 and a 1967-68 Connie Hawkins Pittsburgh Pipers home jersey went for $51,000.

Among the more unusual items sold during the event was a photo-matched pair of goggles worn by Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the 1974 season. They drew the attention of 23 bidders and the auction ended at $6,000.

Card-wise, a 1961-62 Fleer basketball set with six cards graded went for $2,700, while a PSA 10 1986-87 Fleer Jordan Rookie Card sold for $8,536.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

Join Beckett Basketball‘s Chris Olds as watches a collector, Louie, rip a pack of 1986-87 Fleer basketball bought from the Baseball Card Exchange at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention.

What will he find inside? Watch and find out …

By Chris Olds | Beckett Basketball Editor

Quality control ain’t what it used to be, and for one long-time dealer a surprise in that area in a recent retro purchase might pay off well.

Cicero Gamez, a dealer and collector for 20 years who is based in Delaware, found a few examples of that on some key cards from the 1980s — the 1986-87 Fleer basketball stickers — and on a few key cards.

Notably? Michael Jordan (rookie sitcker), Magic Johnson and Dominique Wilkins (also a rookie) — and each of the cards has an overprinted card back for a baseball sticker from that same year.

Each of the cards has been examined for tampering and deemed to be authentic by Beckett Grading Services and has been encapsulated for protection.

So, what was his reaction to seeing the cards?

“Surprised,” said Gamez of the cards, which were included in a collection he bought. Of course, his next step is to test the open market and see if some of those rabid Jordan collectors will pay top dollar for a potential one-of-a-kind misprint card like they have for some other graded and rare cards for MJ as of late.

Mark Anderson, the director of BGS, said misprints are actually not an uncommonly graded/authenticated area.

“We see misprinted cards come through Beckett Grading Services on a daily basis, but usually these are far more common mistakes: blank backs, blank fronts, missing foil, missing serial number, other examples missing part of the printing process,” he said. “But to see a card that mixes two different sports products onto one card is truly rare.

“In all likelihood, it is a unique piece,” Anderson said. “After all, in over 25 years it is the first example to surface.”

How much does Gamez think the Jordan might it go for?

“Not sure,” he said.

Doesn’t matter — that will be left to the interested bidders once the cards hit the open market.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

A PSA 2 specimen of the hobby’s most-famous baseball card is set to hit the auction block.

It’s a Honus Wagner T206 tobacco card, and it headlines Memory Lane Inc.‘s Holy Grail Auction, which launches on April 21 and ends on May 5. The opening bid is $550,000.

According to Beckett sales data, the Tustin, Calif.-based company last sold a PSA 2 for $294,337 in December 2006. Meanwhile, a PSA 8 was sold for a record $2.8 million in 2007. A PSA 2 typically sells for $500,000 or less, but with an estimated total of just 50 known to exist — many of those in worse condition — there aren’t too many alternatives for a prospective buyer when one comes to market.

However, the Wagner is not the only notable T206 card in the auction, nor is it the only rarity. Also up for grabs is a PSA 4 Eddie Plank, opening bid $50,000. Another is a PSA 3 W600 Sporting Life Christy Mathewson in uniform.

But it’s not all pre-war baseball, either, as a 1966-67 Topps USA Test Bobby Orr will be sold as will a group of high-grade 1951 Parkhurst hockey cards and a selection of Gem Mint 1986-87 Fleer basketball cards, including Rookie Cards of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon.

For fans of more modern baseball cards, the auction will include a PSA 5 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle and a run of Gem Mint PSA 10 cards from the 1970s for many Hall of Famers in both baseball and football.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Basketball Editor

One of the impressive basketball card collections ever amassed — a 1986-87 Fleer Basketball set all in 9.5 Gem Mint grade by Beckett Grading Services — has hit the auction block.

The set of all 132 cards was built by a 31-year-old private collector (who did not wish to be identified) based in Orange County, Calif., over a span of several years. He has opted to sell the set through Beckett Select Auctions, the sales division of Beckett Media. The bidding opens at $29,999.99 and the auction closes on Sunday.

How tough is this set to amass? There are 67 cards in the set that have population reports of 20 or fewer copies alone — and a BGS 9.5 Michael Jordan Rookie Card is a costly find, too.

What prompted the decision to sell such a lofty collecting goal? Unfortunate circumstances of real life.

Beckett Basketball caught up with the collector to talk about the set and the odyssey that was building it. Read a Q&A with him — and see many of the best cards in the set — after the jump.

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How long did it take to amass this set?
Putting this base set together took me about four and a half years, and I just gave up on the sticker set. (His BGS 8.5 set also is being sold.)

How did it start — what was the reason you decided on this set?
Well I was hunting down Gem Mint graded examples of cards I had as a kid. Like many people, Mom threw out my cards. At the time I was buying both BGS and PSA Gem Mint cards. While I was bidding on a Joe Dumars rookie I noticed the same seller was selling a checklist from the set that was also graded Gem Mint. I kind of laughed and thought “Why in the world would anyone grade a checklist, and better yet who’d buy it?”  Well when the cards ended I got my Dumars for $150 and was floored after seeing the checklist sold for $850.  I later did my research and found out that this was considered the Holy Grail basketball set and decided I had to have a completely Gem Mint Graded set for myself. After buying a few PSA 10s and not being happy with how those looked, I decided to make my set completely BGS 9.5s. I like the cases better and the cards just looked much nicer in my opinion.

When did you finally complete it… and what was your reaction to finally getting it done or hearing that the last few were 9.5s?
I actually had it completed for about a year and a half minus the Jordan rookie. I knew there were plenty of those, and it was just out of my price range at the time. As for finally completing the set, I just had an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Given how low the population report was for some of the commons, I just couldn’t believe that I tracked them down and actually owned a complete Gem Mint Set.

Was your plan to always turn around and sell the set once completed?
My plan was never to turn around and sell it. I knew I’d sell it one day but did not plan on selling it as soon as I did. I wanted to keep this set for at least another 10 years in my private collection. But because of certain circumstances I pretty much had no other choice but to sell my set.

Have you ever completed any semi-outrageous collecting goals before?
When I was a teenager in the Nineties my goal was to have the greatest Penny Hardaway collection in the world. I’m pretty sure I came up short on that goal but I did put together a very impressive collection at the time. I had a few hundred cards of his. I had every Rookie Card — even the 1993-94 Finest Rookie Refractor. All the Beckett, NBA Inside Stuff, Sports Illustrated and Slam magazines that I could find that he was either on the cover or that had an article covering him. Penny Hardaway posters and Orlando Magic banners covered every square inch of my bedroom at that time. You would also always see me wearing a Penny Hardaway Jersey. I had all five of them black, blue, white, dream team and authentic, his latest shoes and all other 1-cent-branded gear he had out by Nike at the time. I even had the Lil Penny Doll. I guess you can say I’ve always been an extreme type of collector.

How much would you estimate you put into the set money-wise? How much into the Jordan?
Money-wise I didn’t do very well. I was buying tons of raw cards and submitting them for grading in hopes of getting them to grade out myself. I also overpaid for a few of the lower-population cards because when they were on eBay I wanted to make sure I’d win them in fear of not ever seeing that card again. Also I had to offer some pretty high prices to pry a few cards from some private collectors who had a card I needed but didn’t really want to sell the cards they needed for their sets. All said and done I’m probably in it at least $30-35k. I never managed to get the Michael Jordan Rookie to grade a 9.5, so I finally gave up and believe I paid around $4,500 on eBay for it.

Which cards were the easiest/toughest to land?
The easiest card to land for me was the Charles Barkley. I was lucky enough to find several clean examples of this card over the years and had two grade out Gem Mint for me. The toughest card was probably card No. 76 Johnny Moore. Almost all of them have two really nasty print defects on them. For the longest time, this was the toughest card in the set and for a while I was seeing Gem Mint examples selling for more than the Michael Jordan Rookie.

Any particular favorite cards in the set?
The Hakeem Olajuwon is one of my favorites. It has three subgrades of 9.5 and a 10. An exquisite-looking card of one of my all time favorite centers. Another definitely has to be the Johnny Moore card. To me it has amazing eye appeal since it does not have either of the print defects I mentioned earlier. And, of course, the Michael Jordan. In my opinion that is just a must-have for any sport card collector.

What else do you collect/how long have you collected?
Now that I’m older, I collect things that remind me of my childhood. I still obviously collect sports cards but I also collect things like arcade machines. I’m just shocked that my wife was OK with me turning our living room into an arcade. I also collect rare restoration parts for my project car that I hope to finish one day. I officially started collecting at seven when a neighbor gave me some of his doubles including a Jose Canseco rookie. From that point on, I was hooked and would spend every cent I had on packs of cards. So that means I’ve been collecting about 24 years.

Any plans for buying anything big with the return on the auction?
Sadly the answer to that is no. Earlier I mentioned this was more of a forced sale. Reason for that is my mother lost her battle with leukemia, and I’ve just been overwhelmed since her passing with unexpected costs. I need to sell the set to take care of some of those costs as well as to honor her last wishes that she entrusted me with.

Any other thoughts or future projects in the works?
Right now, I have no card projects. I’m simply collecting my favorite cards from my childhood as well as autographs and jersey cards that catch my eye. I do plan on rebuiling the 1986-87 Fleer set for myself again in the future, and, this my sound dumb, but once that one is completed I will use BGS’s personalized label service. That way I won’t be tempted to sell it … and even if I do, who’d want to by a set that has my name and whatever I name the set on every BGS label?

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Basketball Editor

A Pristine copy of Michael Jordan‘s 1986-87 Fleer Rookie Card sold for six-figures in a Memory Lane Inc. sale Sunday evening.

The card, graded a 10 by Beckett Grading Services, fetched $100,000 in the Tustin, Calif.-based auction house’s Own it Now sale, which launched not long before the sale.

There are just three copies of the famed card graded as a BGS 10 out of more than 5,500 cards submitted. This particular copy was the first to receive the grade and once appeared on the cover of Beckett Basketball Card Plus, now Beckett Basketball, magazine. The card sold to a collector on the West Coast.

“It was the first time we had the opportunity to sell the card, and we are really happy with the sale,” said Stephanie Evans of Memory Lane. “It’s a landmark modern sale for us, and it just goes to show that when you have something as rare as a Beckett 10 come available, the demand still warrants six figures.”

The last known BGS 10 Jordan sale came in August 2009 when a collector paid $82,000 for this same card. It was reportedly sold for $150,000 in 2006. However, that sale never was confirmed. The card’s subgrades included 10s for its centering, edges and corners and a 9.5 for its surface condition.

The first BGS 9.5 copy of the Jordan RC went for $77,600 in a June 2003 deal. The Jordan RC is not the only high-profile BGS 10 of a 1980s icon to sell for big bucks in the last few years as a Joe Montana 1981 Topps RC sold for $65,880 in April 2009. That card carried the third-highest pricetag of any football card sale ever documented by Beckett Media.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Basketball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.