How To Spot A Fake 1987 Fleer Michael Jordan Card

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With Michael Jordan Fleer rookie card sales continuing to break records on a weekly basis, collectors priced out of Jordan rookie card ownership have turned to his more affordable 1987 Fleer second year card. 

And while the 1986 Fleer Jordan is heavily counterfeited, the 1987 Fleer card fakes are not as common.  However they exist, and would expect more sophisticated scammers to start firing up the printing presses again to try and take advantage of novice collectors.

Thus, this guide is here to help you know the ins and outs of detecting a fake 1987 Fleer Jordan second year card.

Please, do let us know if you come across any fake ’87 Fleer Jordan’s, as your assistance can certainly help us in aiding fellow collectors.

Feel free to reach out to me at ch***@*************ds.com

Examining An Authentic 1987 Fleer Michael Jordan #59 Second Year Card

As we always like to do in the guides, let’s first take a look at an authentic 1987 Fleer Michael Jordan #59 card.  It is this step that it one of the most important in helping identify any fakes—understanding everything about the authentic card is key to not getting scammed.

The print used to create these more modern era cards consists of a combination of halftone and solid ink printing.  

Here we can see, at the top of the 1987 Fleer Jordan, the halftone (dot-like printing) in the gray background, in a typical checkerboard fashion.  In other areas–namely the ‘Fleer’ and ‘Bulls’ text–we can see that the print is a standard solid ink with no screening pattern.  

Side note – this is a great article about the printing of the 1985 Fleer baseball set. 

Here are two more close-ups of the bottom border and Jordan text:

Ok here’s a view the back of a 1987 Fleer Michael Jordan card.

Note that this image is shown in a very bright scan, helping to highlight some areas of the card.

I think the most noticeable thing here is how the ink looks a bit faded, especially in the top blue background and on the bottom, where there is red ink.  

I wasn’t sure of this reason initially and found this nugget from Nick Vossbrink over at the Sabr Cards blog:

Up until Score in 1988, card sets were printed on what’s called C1S (for coated one side) card stock. The coated side is white and doesn’t absorb ink as much.

Thus, on 1987 Fleer basketball cards, the front is the coated (glossy) side, and the back is the uncoated (no gloss) side.

Anything printed on uncoated paper will be absorbed, and the ink will bleed/saturate more into the paper.  This is why the backs of the 1987 Fleer cards have a blotchy look.

Ink does not get absorbed into the fronts (or the coated part of the paper) since it “sits” on top of the sheet’s coating and therefore has a much cleaner, more refined glossy look.

This is important in trying to recognize a fake card.  I’m showing the top and bottom photos of the backs of this card as well.

Here’s a view of another authentic 1987 Fleer Jordan, and we can see that the print is a little darker on this one, mostly because the scan used normal light and didn’t brighten the colors.  

Beware of this when looking at eBay listings — scan quality and lighting can sometimes make a real card look fake, or, more importantly, make a fake card look real.   Still, we can see how the ink, although it looks darker, is still a bit faded.   Also to note, Fleer had a lot of issues with clarity and registration in the 1987 set.

Key Areas To Examine – 1987 Fleer Jordan Back

Oh, how history repeats itself!  You might be familiar with some of the key areas to examine on the 1986 Fleer Jordan rookie card.  Well, get ready, because the 1987 Fleer card has many of the same distinguishing features that we can examine to help identify a fake.

The basketball on the bottom right-hand corner should have clearly defined borders with white lines inside the ball, just like on the 1986 Fleer.  Fake cards will not have this sort of clarity and often are missing the lines inside the ball.  

You might also recognize the bull logo from the 86 Fleer card—once again, the same logo is used for Jordan’s 1987 Fleer card.  We should see consistent, bold lettering, and clearly defined lines in the bullseyes.  If that white space in the pupils is missing, it is clearly a fake. 

And again, the NBA logo in the bottom left order.  See the clean, bold blue used for the player background and text.  Any fakes will have a clear fuzziness in the lettering, lacking the same sort of clear definition.

Examining Known Fake 1987 Fleer Jordan Cards

Based on the fakes I’ve seen, the easiest tell will be on the back of the card.  Here’s a common one I’ve seen on eBay.  Just take a look at that dark print on the back of the card.  That suggests this was probably printed on a different paper, which was more absorbent of ink. 

Sad to say, as I was writing this piece, I came across an eBay auction for what appears to be the same counterfeit Jordan.  The card sold for $1899!!! This makes me sick to my stomach…..and this, my friends, is why I write these resource guides.  

You can just see it a mile away on this one—the front picture quality is quite poor compared to an original, and if we zoom in on the front text in Jordan’s name, we can see how dull and fuzzy it is.   If you looked at this under a loupe, you wouldn’t see the consistent bold print in text that we do on the original.  

We can also see a similar lack of quality in print on the back of the card:

Let’s compare this to the original card again.  Unfortunately, the picture quality on the fake card is poor, but one of the biggest tells is the lack of high-quality printing in the text area.  Under a loupe, the fake card text will look extremely fuzzy- whereas on a real card, you will see sharp, bold print with well-defined borders. 

Here’s the back of a sloppy fake, look at the top in the blue where it seems like they tried to recreate the faded ink, but the red at the bottom of the card is way too dark.  It’s hard to see too, but the print is really sloppy.

This is where a loupe becomes your best friend. 

I have some reprints I ordered and will be posting some more close-ups for comparison soon.  At the very least, I wanted to start a discussion on this card, since I feel like there isn’t much known about 87 Fleer Jordan reprints. 

I am asking any fellow collectors who have a known Jordan 87 Fleer reprint to please send it to me at ***@*************ds.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>ch***@*************ds.com.  Or feel free to leave a comment about any experience you’ve had with 87 Fleer Jordan fakes.

My fear is that, with price increases and a lack of awareness about 87 Fleer counterfeits, many collectors will be duped into buying fake cards.