Exemplary high-grade near-set of the most important modern sportscard set, the 1986 Fleer basketball.  Chock full of important rookies and Hall of Famers, 1986 Fleer basketball has established itself as the benchmark for all modern sportscard sets and continues to set the bar for prices realized.  Missing just the rookie card of Michael Jordan (featured elsewhere in this auction), the set is an original owner collection built from packs in the year of issue, carefully stored in nine-pocket pages until consigned to Love of the Game for this auction.  These cards have hardly been touched, the primary condition flaw related to centering, registrations, occasional print defects and similar factory imperfections.  In a few rare cases, edge or corner chipping is visible, likely related to inserting the cards into the pages.

Aside from the Jordan (graded NM-MT 8 elsewhere in this auction), we have selected nine cards to be graded by PSA.  The grades are as follows:  PSA MINT 9 (5 cards): #26 Drexler, #31 Erving, #36 Gervin, #37 Gilmore, and #82 Olajuwon. PSA NM-MT 8 (3 cards): #9 Bird, #12 Bol, #32 Ewing. PSA NM 7 (1 card): #7 Barkley.  The remaining keys grade as follows: #1 Abdul-Jabbar (VG/EX), #4 Ainge (NM), #27 Dumars (EX-MT), #53 Johnson (EX-MT), #60 King (NM), #68 Malone (EX-MT), #69 Malone (NM), #73 McHale (NM-MT), #77 Mullin (NM), #84 Parrish (EX-MT), #97 Sampson (EX-MT), #109 Thomas (EX-MT), #119 Walton (NM), #121 Wilkins (EX-MT) and #132 Checklist (EX-MT).  By our assessment, a total condition breakdown of the set would be 8% MINT, 13% NM-MT, 44% NM, 33% EX-MT, and a few lesser.  

An outstanding way for collectors to obtain a higher-grade near-set without paying six figures for grading company plastic, particularly appealing to collectors who may have a Jordan but would like to complete a minty set without breaking the bank.  132 cards total.