1986 Fleer Michael Jordan #57 RC

Four years with no basketball cards

Topps stopped printing basketball cards after its 1981-82 set, and no major company picked up the NBA license for the next four years. The only licensed cards came from the small Star Company, which sold team sets in sealed plastic bags through hobby dealers rather than packs in stores. So when the 1984 draft class arrived, one of the best in sports history, with Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, there were no mainstream cards to buy.

Fleer filled the gap in 1986 with a 132-card base set and an 11-card sticker set, the first major-company basketball issue in four years. Because of the drought, the set carried first mainstream cards for a whole generation: one account counts rookie cards of 18 players, including Jordan, Barkley, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins, Chris Mullin and Isiah Thomas.

The set was not a hit at first. Dealers could not sell all their product and shipped cases back to Fleer. One hobby-shop owner recalls buying wholesale boxes for $10 to $12; another dealer remembers single packs selling for a quarter. A complete set bought in 1987 came with its original receipt for $17.95 plus tax.

His Airness, year three

Michael Jordan was born February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn and went to high school in Wilmington, North Carolina. At North Carolina he won the national title as a freshman in 1982 and was national player of the year as a junior in 1984. The Chicago Bulls took him third in the 1984 draft, after Olajuwon and Sam Bowie, and he debuted at Chicago Stadium on October 26, 1984.

His rookie year was a sensation: 28.2 points a game, an All-Star start and Rookie of the Year. His second season nearly vanished when he broke his foot in the third game and missed 64 games, but he came back for the playoffs and on April 20, 1986, scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics at Boston Garden, setting the single-game playoff record. Larry Bird called him 'God disguised as Michael Jordan.'

The season the Fleer card came out was his breakout. In 1986-87 he averaged a league-leading 37.1 points and scored 3,041, becoming the only player besides Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season. He also became the first player with 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season, and won the first of his two straight Slam Dunk Contests in 1987. He went on to six championships, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs and ten scoring titles.

America in 1986

The year opened with a Chicago triumph and a national tragedy. The Bears won Super Bowl XX on January 26, and two days later the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven aboard, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

In May about 6.5 million people joined hands from New York to Long Beach for Hands Across America. The Statue of Liberty reopened on July 5 after its restoration, Reagan and Gorbachev met at Reykjavik in October, and the Mets won the World Series after a ground ball rolled through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6. In November the Iran-Contra affair broke.

Jordan was already a marketing phenomenon. Nike introduced the Air Jordan shoe in 1984, and in August 1985 he shattered a backboard with a dunk at an exhibition in Trieste, Italy.

From a quarter a pack to $840,000

As Jordan's fame grew, so did the card. In November 1989 a complete set was valued at around $140, with the Jordan alone around $85; by the following June sets were valued around $700 and the Jordan at $280. A gem mint copy that brought around $8,000 at auction about a decade before 2021 was trading near $40,000 by the end of 2019.

Then came 2020: the documentary series The Last Dance and a pandemic boom in collecting. In January 2021 two PSA 10 copies sold at auction for $738,000 apiece. The swings were violent: in late May 2021 two PSA 10s sold for $344,400 and $288,000, less than half the January price, before another reached $840,000 that July.

Prices recovered in 2025. On April 25, 2025, a PSA 10 closed at $348,000 after 34 bids, including the buyer's premium, the highest price for the grade since 2021. In May 2024 Jordan's scarcer 1984-85 Star card sold privately for $925,000, passing the Fleer's 2021 record for the most valuable Jordan rookie card.

Why a 10 is so hard

The card is not rare: by 2025 more than 25,500 copies had been graded by the leading grading company, and one 2026 count put the figure at 29,963. A perfect 10 is rare. In 2021, 317 of 19,567 graded copies had earned a 10, about 1.6%, the lowest rate in the whole set; by 2025 the count was 326.

Two flaws do the damage. The colored borders chip at the slightest touch, exposing white cardboard, and the same chipping and edge wear drop many cards from a 9 to an 8. Centering is the other trap: cards printed at the ends of the sheet are almost always off-center, and centered copies bring large premiums.

It is also the most heavily counterfeited card in the hobby, according to its grader's own reference, and its fakes are better made than most. When a card is worth six figures, the grading slab and its certificate number are part of the card's identity.

The numbers

1986-87 season (card year)

82 G, 40.0 MPG, 37.1 PPG (league leader), 3,041 points, .482 FG%, 5.2 RPG, 4.6 APG, 236 steals, 125 blocks. All-NBA First Team, MVP runner-up.

1986-87 playoffs

3 G, 35.7 PPG vs. Boston (swept)

1985-86 season

18 G (broken foot), 22.7 PPG; playoffs 3 G, 43.7 PPG including a record 63 points on April 20, 1986

1984-85 rookie season

82 G, 28.2 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 5.9 APG, 2.4 SPG. Rookie of the Year, All-Star, All-NBA Second Team.

1987-88 season

35.0 PPG. MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

Career

15 seasons, 1,072 games, 32,292 points, 30.1 PPG

Honors

6 NBA titles, 6 Finals MVPs, 5 MVPs, 10 scoring titles, 14 All-Star Games, Hall of Fame 2009

Timeline

1. Feb 17, 1963

   Michael Jordan is born in Brooklyn, New York.

2. 1982

   Topps' 1981-82 set is its last basketball issue; the four-year drought begins.

3. Jun 19, 1984

   The Bulls draft Jordan third overall.

4. Oct 26, 1984

   Jordan debuts at Chicago Stadium and scores 16 points.

5. 1985

   Jordan is named Rookie of the Year.

6. Apr 20, 1986

   Jordan scores a playoff-record 63 points against the Celtics.

7. 1986

   Fleer issues its 132-card basketball set and 11-card sticker set, with Jordan as #57.

8. 1987

   A complete Fleer set is sold at retail for $17.95, receipt kept.

9. 1987

   Jordan wins his first Slam Dunk Contest and finishes the 1986-87 season with 3,041 points.

10. Nov 1989

    A complete set is valued at around $140, the Jordan at around $85.

11. 2009

    Jordan is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

12. Jan 2021

    Two PSA 10 copies sell at auction for $738,000 each.

13. May 2021

    Two PSA 10s sell for $344,400 and $288,000 as the market cools.

14. Jul 17, 2021

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $840,000, the card's peak.

15. May 2024

    A Star #101 Jordan sells privately for $925,000, overtaking the Fleer as the most valuable Jordan rookie.

16. Apr 25, 2025

    A PSA 10 sells for $348,000, the highest for the grade since 2021.

17. 2025

    Two complete 1986-87 Fleer sets sell for $26,301 and $25,000 within six weeks.

The world in 1986

• Jan 26, 1986

  The Chicago Bears win Super Bowl XX, 46-10.

• Jan 28, 1986

  The space shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after launch.

• Apr 19, 1986

  Keith Haring opens the Pop Shop in SoHo.

• May 25, 1986

  About 6.5 million people join Hands Across America.

• Jul 5, 1986

  The Statue of Liberty reopens after its restoration.

• Oct 11, 1986

  Reagan and Gorbachev meet at Reykjavik.

• Oct 27, 1986

  The New York Mets win the World Series.

• Nov 3, 1986

  A Lebanese magazine reveals secret U.S. arms sales to Iran, starting the Iran-Contra affair.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 10 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan #57 RC is number 15 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (32 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 1986 Fleer set was a flop on release: dealers shipped unsold cases back to the company.
• One collector bought a complete 1986-87 Fleer set in 1987 for $17.95 plus tax and kept the receipt.
• In 2021 only 1.6% of graded 1986 Fleer Jordans had earned a perfect 10, the lowest rate of any card in the set.
• The card is the most heavily counterfeited card in the hobby, according to its grader.
• It was not Jordan's first card: the small Star Company issued Jordan cards in 1984-85, two years earlier.
• In the season this card came out, Jordan became only the second player ever, after Wilt Chamberlain, to score 3,000 points.
• In 2025 a complete 1986-87 Fleer set, stickers included, with a PSA 9 Jordan sold for $25,000, barely more than the $22,900 a single PSA 9 Jordan brought around the same time.