1984-85 Star Company Basketball Cards

By Patrick Mondout

The Star Company produced another very complete (at least 11 cards per team - 288 total) set of basketball cards in 1984, which was once again packaged in transparent bags, sold through hobby dealers only, and largely ignored by collectors at the time. There were 3,000 of each team set produced. That is a miniscule numbered compared to the hundreds of thousands of individual cards that would printed up for some sets in the 1990s. This is an extremely valuable set now and features one of the all-time most-expensive basketball rookie cards.

With apologies to George Mikan and his 1948 Bowman card, this set includes the... well, Michael Jordan of basketball cards - the Michael Jordan rookie card (see right). The rookie class of 1984 was unsurpassed (though Carmelo, Lebron, Wade and Bosh will have something to say about that) and also included John Stockton, Charles Barkley, and Akeem Olajuwon. The book value of this set at the time of this writing is over $5K.

Once again the Star Co. produced other bagged sets in addition to the main set of team bags. There is an All-Star Game set of 25 cards featuring the stars of the '84 ASG in Denver. A version of this set with nine cards featuring the Slam Dunk Contest participants was made for the Denver Police to give out to kids and the odd future death-row inmates they might encounter - a common practice at the time (the former, not the latter!).

They also produced additional team sets with different photography to be sold at the respective stadiums of the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers. Shortly before the season, Bob Lanier announced his retirement. His Bucks card from this team set was withdrawn and is very, very hard to find now.

Other oddball sets include the "Celtics Champs" team set of 25, the Larry Bird set of 18 cards, a Dr. J  of 18, the Slam Dunk contest of 11 cards, and the post-season "Awards Banquet" set of 24 cards featuring players who were to honored that night. They produced their first 5x7 cards called "Court Kings" in two series of 25 cards each. The first series featured yellow borders while the second featured blue. Both are great for autographs.

1984-85 Star Company at a Glance Celtics Nets Sonics

Here's a checklist of the main set:

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