1984-85 Star Company Basketball Cards

Product Details

Long overlooked by collectors, 1984-85 Star Company Basketball has seen a surge of interest from collectors searching for the top NBA cards of the '80s.

Although Star Company released its first set in 1983-84, the 1984-85 Star Company release is particularly noteworthy because several Hall of Fame players made their NBA cardboard debut in the set. This includes the first NBA-licensed cards for Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, among others. Depending on who you talk to, these are either true rookies, XRCs or pre-rookies. No matter what, they're first and that ultimately matters the most for many collectors.

The second major release from Star, 1984-85 Star Company Basketball came at an advantageous time for both basketball collectors and Star Co. themselves. Since Topps left the basketball market after 1981-82 Topps, and another major card producer would not emerge until 1986-87 Fleer, Star had the only NBA cards available between 1982 and 1986.

1984-85 Star Company Basketball Set Details

The 1984-85 Star Co. checklist was comprised of 288 base cards, broken down into team groupings and a few insert subsets. Instead of being sold as a full set or as a more-traditional product where packs and boxes contained random cards, Star issued their cards as team sets, in sealed plastic polybags. Each team set varied in the total number depending on the team, but most team bags featured 10 to 14 cards.

The 1984-85 Star Company design is very simple with an action image, single-color border, circle team logo in the corner, and white text. The cards suffer from cutting and centering issues, and cards that were in the front of the team bags are subject to additional wear. The single-color borders also had problems with chipping. This has resulted in a considerable premium for the rare Mint and Gem Mint card versions.

Although the exact print runs for each release were never disclosed, Star Company was limited throughout its official production period and it is believed that less than 8,000 total sets were produced in '84-85 Star, with some estimates putting the total as low as 3,000 of each team set. On top of that, the primary distribution was limited to just a handful of outlets and some regions were largely omitted.

1984-85 Star Company Basketball Grading

Adding to the problems, it came to light that Star Company had printed unauthorized cards using the original plates. Although it was allegedly only the second half of the 1985-86 set, the seeds of doubt began to grow. This, along with counterfeits, puts collectors in an unfortunate situation when making purchases.

Starting near the end of 2008, BGS began to grade most Star Company cards. PSA previously graded Star Company cards, but stopped for many years. That changed in 2022 as PSA started grading the Star Co. cards once more.

1984-85 Star Company Basketball Tips for Fakes

While it is recommended to only buy authenticated Star Company cards, especially when dealing with the Michael Jordan cards, there are a few things that can help distinguish authentic cards from reprints and counterfeits. The first thing to inspect is the border. Reprints and counterfeits will feature the wrong color border or they will be noticeably thicker than they should be. Another thing to check is the finish on the card as the original cards do not have a glossy finish. Also, some fakes will display a blurry image, which is relatively easy to spot. Lastly, it is incredibly obvious, but some cards are noted as reprints on the back.

Key 1984-85 Star Company Basketball Cards:

• #101 Michael Jordan XRC
• #288 Michael Jordan (ROY)
• #195 Michael Jordan (Olympic Team)
• #237 Hakeem Olajuwon "Akeem" XRC
• #235 John Stockton XRC
• #202 Charles Barkley XRC