Star Basketball cards were issued from 1983 to 1986 and were the only licensed NBA basketball cards on the market until Fleer came to town in 1986-1987.
The cards were a bit of an anomaly in that they were released in polybags, either by team issue or in various subsets and not in wax packs.
The Star company also has a bit of a checkered past; the ‘Shop At Home’ scandal involved the former owner of Star- Robert Levin selling counterfeit cards on a home shopping channel.
Star cards were produced in fairly limited quantities – it is believed that most sets had production runs under 5000 cards – yet most collectors I know sort of dismiss the cards as second fiddle to any of the later Fleer issues.
Thus, I really made it my mission to figure out if Star cards are either:
A) an underappreciated and undervalued long term investment
or
B) not worthy of the time, just too confusing, too checkered a past, and too littered with counterfeits.
So, I got a hold of the hobby’s most renowned expert on Star Basketball Cards – Steve Taft. Steve has been dealing with Star Cards since the beginning in 1983 and had once consulted with the major grading companies on how to identify counterfeits. Steve knows Star Basketball cards inside and out.
The ultimate goal of this interview is to help collectors with some of the confusion on the various issues and to help provide some more legitimacy to the cards.
My ultimate conclusion: Star basketball cards deserve more attention.
I hope you enjoy this interview with Steve Taft.
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