Collect Auctions offers rare unopened case of ‘86-87 Fleer Basketball

An unopened case of 1986-87 Fleer Basketball, described as the holy grail of modern items and possibly the only one left in the hobby, is the highlight the Summer Auction by Collect Auctions with bidding continuing through Aug. 6.

“I can’t find anyone ever having a case or even a box marked from a sealed case.” Steven Bloedow, director of auctions at Collect Auctions, told SCD.

The 1986-87 Fleer set features the Michael Jordan rookie card, and “this case will yield around 40 of them,” Collect Auctions stated.

Other star rookies include Danny Ainge, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Joe Dumars, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Hakeem Olajuwon, Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and James Worthy. Modern stars include Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“The prospects of this one can’t be overstated,” the auction house stated. “Single boxes sell for $100,000 and those aren’t from a sealed case.”

The case has 12 wax boxes with 36 packs each. The minimum bid is $250,000. As of Monday, July 27, the bidding was up to $1,288,353 after 11 bids. 

Also being auctioned are Fleer Basketball cases from 1987, 1988, and 1989.

Among the many other items up for auction are a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 PSA 1, a 1921 E121 American Caramel Babe Ruth “Series of 80” card PSA 2, a 1933 Sports Kings Ty Cobb #1 SGC 8.5, and a 1909-11 T206 Ty Cobb green background (Piedmont 350) PSA 3.

Other items include a 1936 World Series multi-signed baseball, Babe Ruth signed checks, a Mickey Mantle signed Yankees home jersey, a signed 1966 Topps Baseball near set (554 of 598), a 2003 Topps LeBron James RC #221 PSA 10, unopened Topps Baseball Cello boxes from 1973, 1975 and 1976, and a 1969-70 Topps Basketball complete PSA 8 graded set (No. 20 on PSA registry).