1986-1987 Fleer Basketball BBCE Authenticated Sealed Wax Box | 36 Packs

Sotheby’s is proud to offer a 1986-1987 Fleer Basketball Sealed Wax Box for auction. The box has been authenticated by Baseball Card Exchange and contains 36 unopened packs. Each pack contains 12 cards and one sticker. One of the sealed packs shows card #57, a Michael Jordan rookie card. On average, each box contains 3-4 Jordan rookie cards, which in PSA 10 condition regularly fetch around $200,000 each. This is your rare chance to own a sealed box of one of the most collectible trading card sets to ever be released. 

The box is accompanied by a letter from Baseball Card Exchange regarding the authenticity of the packs. The letter also confirms a Michael Jordan rookie being present in the bottom right section of the box, specifically in the 7th pack as the first card in the pack.

Going Deeper - 1986 Fleer

The 1986-87 Fleer set represented something of a return to normality for the basketball card hobby. Although the 1970s had seen a consistent run of releases from Topps, after the 1981-82 season basketball cards experienced a period of relative uncertainty. While Star gained the rights to produce cards in the 1983-84 season, these were released in poly bags as team sets. This trend continued until the 1986-87 Fleer set, which returned to the traditional, sealed-wax box and pack-with-gum format that had characterized the hobby for so long.

The design is iconic. The red-white-and-blue color scheme has become a pop culture symbol, and runs through each card on the checklist. In addition to the 132 cards, 11 stickers round out the set. Collectors have long focused on condition rarity when it comes to value as the release did not contain different rarity levels, however that singular design for the cards and stickers has been etched fondly into the minds of collectors spanning generations, with future card releases and artists alike consistently harkening back to it.

Many years did not see a traditional release, and so a multitude of stars have their first standard release cards in the 1986-87 set, including Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Clyde Drexler, among others. Debate rages in the hobby about whether these are the “true” rookie cards or if their respective Star sets are, with much of the hobby arguing in this set’s favor because they were the first to come out of sealed wax packs for the respective players. The classic design and significance in returning the hobby again to a place of regular releases has helped solidify this set as an all-time favorite.