Bidding on an unopened case of 1986-87 Fleer Basketball cards closed this week and the the final price set another record. The case sold at auction for $1,789,717. The sale took place on Collect Auctions and featured 13 bids. The bidding for this incredible find started at $250,000.
The main draw in this product is the holy grail of basketball cards, the Michael Jordan rookie. However, he is not the only draw as the set features rookies of Hall of Famers Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, Joe Dumars, Chris Mullin, Hakeem Olajuwon, Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and James Worthy.
The case was inspect and authenticated and shrink wrapped by the Baseball Card Exchange on July 18, 2020. Steve Hart, one of the leading experts on unopened sports cards led the inspection. According to the auction site this case can be expected to product around 40 Michael Jordan rookie cards.
Unopened boxes of this product have started to approach the $100,000 range and finding a complete case (12 wax boxes with 36 packs each) that was never opened is one of the rarest finds in the history of the hobby. There are no other sealed cases of this product currently known in the hobby.
According to Darren Rovell, a noted Sports Business reporter, the case was purchased by Blowout Cards for an anonymous buyer. The good news is the buyer plans to keep this case intact for the time being.
This sale is great news for at least the short-term health of the hobby. We continue to see these record breaking sales almost week after week. Hopefully, the notoriety of these sales will attract new collectors and help grow the hobby even further.