1983-84 Star Company Basketball Cards

Product Details

1983-84 Star Company Basketball was the first major release from the card brand that was the sole option for NBA collectors from 1983-84 to 1985-86.

When Topps decided to abandon their basketball card line following 1981-82, collectors were left in a bind. After 1982-83 marked the first dead year for basketball collectors in over a decade, Star Co. stepped up to fill the void the following season.

Although 1984-85 Star Co. would ultimately become the company's best-known product, 1983-84 Star Company Basketball has quite a few notable first-year NBA cards, as well.

1983-84 Star Company Basketball Set Details

While 1983-84 Star Company Basketball is technically the earliest full basketball release from Star, the very first Star NBA product covered the 1982-83 NBA All-Star Game with a 32-card set. This was Star's initial foray into the sport and the first NBA option available following 1981-82 Topps Basketball.

Centered around a deep base set, the 1983-84 Star Co. Basketball checklist features 275 cards, with 12-13 cards per team. The design showcased in the early product would remain virtually the same over the entire period that Star produced official NBA basketball cards from 1983-84 to 1985-86. Contrary to the normal random-pack and box format, 1983-84 Star was available by mail order in bagged team sets.

While production numbers are varied, it is believed that only 5,000 sets were produced for each team and the number is much less for some of the first teams in the checklist due to quality issues. That is why many of the cards from #1-60 are tougher to track down. This includes several of the top stars, most notably Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.

For a variety of reasons, including the non-traditional pack-out and distribution, Star Company cards are not recognized as official rookie cards. Most times, these are given the XRC designation. However, for many collectors, Star Co. is home to the true rookie cards for some of the biggest basketball stars of the 1980s. 1983-84 Star Company Basketball is no different, featuring the first NBA cards for several key players. This includes Hall of Fame players James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler and Dominique Wilkins.

Since the cards were distributed as team sets, there are technically no inserts for the main release of 1983-84 Star Company Basketball. However, a variety of smaller themed sets were also released during the 1983-84 season, including All-Star Game and All-Rookies sets.

Because of the general uncertainty surrounding the brand and rampant counterfeit rumors, none of the major card graders would accept Star Co. Basketball card submissions for many years. In 2008, BGS began grading most of the Star releases from 1983 to 1986 and remains the only option. Although there have not really been issues with 1983-84 Star Company Basketball cards, the graded route is still the safest option for collectors.

Like all Star Company Basketball releases, centering issues are very common. Outside of singles, sealed team bags are not in great supply, but can normally be found for most of the teams and offer another way for collectors to start building the set.

Key 1983-84 Star Company Basketball Cards

• Isiah Thomas XRC #94
• Clyde Drexler XRC #100
• Dominique Wilkins XRC #236
• Larry Bird #26
• Magic Johnson #13
• James Worthy XRC #25
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #14
• Julius Erving #1