Did WhatNot and your favorite influencers like, CardCollector2, Sports Card Investor, Packman and Blez Sports Cards open a fake BBCE wrapped box of 1986-87 Fleer Basketball at The National?
STATEMENT BY BBCE POSTED ON PSA FORUM
Let me explain how 1986/87 Fleer Basketball collation runs within the packs. The cards come in the packs in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A) in 2 separate groups separated by 66. For example,
125
59
124
58
123
57
122
56
121
55
As you can see, the 2 groups of numbers are in reverse alphabetical order, intertwined within each other, separated by 66. This is how people can search out the packs with Jordan in them (or any other card). You just need to see what the top card is and the run is easily figured out.
This pattern is very consistent throughout the print run for 1986/87 Fleer basketball. However, there has been some anomalies that have popped up. Several years ago we were looking through the backs of the packs on a back to view the sticker showing. This helps us determine if the box has had packs switched in and out of it, or if it is a box that is still in its original form from Fleer. I was looking at the back and something crazy was staring at me. It was a Pittsburgh Pirates logo cards. Then another pack had a Kansas City Royals card on back. In 1986, it wasn’t all that important to get it completely correct on the printing. Remember, this stuff was worthless garbage. It probably was at some point they were printing Fleer Basketball Stickers and the Fleer Baseball Stickers (probably came in the 1986 Fleer baseball update set). The point was to print this stuff and get it shipped out. Also, if you look at VCP for the Jordan Sticker, you will see a listing for one with a Cincinnati Reds overlay graded by BGS to confirm this. Then a few years ago, Vegas Dave did a live break on a 1986/87 Fleer basketball box where he had celebrities call in and virtually open a pack. While we were watching this live break, something very rare and odd happened. A pack was opened and it had 2 of the same card back to back. I cant remember exactly who the card was, but for example it was Sedale Threatt fallowed by another Sedale Threatt. And/or there was a pack that had Louis Orr, followed by another card, then followed by another Louis Orr (not exactly sure on the player as this is just an example). Again, this is something we had really never seen before. The whole box was opened and everything about it was 100% good. So this is just another example that while rare, strange things happen.
So that brings us to this box in question. I was informed by email from someone that the cards were coming out in the completely wrong order with multiple cards in the packs (someone told me there was something like 4 Magic Johnsons in a pack). My first reaction was wondering what was going on here. So my team and I sat down and wrote down each and every card in the packs that we can find that were opened and now on the internet. We then studied it very carefully. The cards were not exactly in an order that was “completely off” (and there weren’t 4 Magic Johnsons in one pack, there were 4 Johnsons in one pack, all being a different Johnson). The cards still went in reverse alphabetical order in the packs. They just didn’t have the second run of alphabetical cards intertwined in them. There is also a point where there are doubles back to back. But more importantly, there is a pack where the cards run in this reverse order, then flip the other direction. Then this happens again in another pack in the EXACT same spot. Here were the runs:
Pack A Pack B
Tisdale Thompson
Threatt FLIP TO BLACKMON
Thompson Birdsong
FLIP TO BLACKMON Bird
Birdsong Benjamin
Bird Barkley
Benjamin Bailey
Barkley Bagley
Bailey Ainge
Bagley AGuirre
Ainge Adams
AGuirre Abdul-Jabbar
So as you can see, these packs are not “completely off” in the collation. In fact, the collation is actually spot-on, less the second alphabetical run. I have been doing this basically everyday of my life for the past 33 years. I have seen it all. I have studied not only the packs themselves, but opened the resealed ones to get a feel for the cards also. It would pretty much take the mind of a serial killer to take the cards like this and then have them flip over in the exact same spot then pick up the same alphabetical order again, in 2 different packs.
An addition, we closely watched the packs being ripped open. Not only are the flaps opening the way they should on good packs, the “inner guts”, as I like to call them, are opening correctly also (These are the inner folds of the packs where they got heat/waxed together).
Finally, I have heard some chatter that the Jordan cards graded low. From watching the video of a Jordan card being hit, you can clearly see that the Jordan is centered off to the top (hence the 7 grade) and is centered basically just like the surrounding cards in the pack. Without having the cards in hand to see the condition details, they could very well be mint cards, but get the lower grade of 7 because that’s the best the centering will allow.
Every advanced collector will tell you that when companies made certain collation patterns (for example 1975 through 1981 Topps baseball rack and cello) that there are anomalies that occur. Even if the collation is correct 99.5% of the time, there is and can be an anomaly. Remember, the idea was to print/package/and ship this stuff out ASAP.
In my opinion, this box has not been tampered with nor been resealed. I always knew this would happen someday. I figured that someday someone would open a box that was just crazy off. People would view it as counterfeit/resealed/tampered with. However, as we have just now seen, these things can and will happen. And it will happen again.
Thanks! BBCE
Steve Hart-Owner
Baseball Card Exchange, Inc.
2412 US Highway 41
Schererville, Indiana 46375
(800)598-8656
www.bbce.com
bbcexchange@sprintmail.com
dude is a scammer, str8t up