The Card: What a great photo of Jordan on this card! Another exciting dunk like many of the Jordan cards from around this time period. In this particular set, this card compliments the All-Star #5 Jordan Having both of these cards, collectors received a nice dunk photo, as well as Jordan’s iconic fadeaway jump shot. Jordan would go on to earn the MVP award during this 1990-91 season, but the reverse of this card captures another outstanding season, “Won league MVP, defensive player of the year and All-Star Game MVP honors in 1988.”
The Set: After the debut of NBA Hoops in 1989-90, they returned in 1990-91 and began increasing the size of the set. Design-wise, Hoops kept the main elements the same. The basketball-key border remained from 1989-90, but the white background was changed to gray. Series I, where this card is found, is 336 cards, 36 cards larger than the prior year. And everything was much more organized! The All-Star subset remained (these had a gold background), but these were now grouped together at the very start of the set. And teams and players were alphabetized by city and last name. This was much needed after the scattered organization from 1989-90. This #65 Michael Jordan card now fell predictably into place after the grouped All-Star cards, and Atlanta/Boston/Charlotte.
Cards during this time period are often called “junk wax” and there were lots of 1990-91 Hoops cards printed. This certainly limits the value of this card, but recently, PSA 10’s of any Jordan card are really holding their value.
In Short: ’90-91!!! Overprinted, cheap junk wax? Don’t care, love these sets anyway! To prove my point, let’s look at the Jordan photos from ’90-91. Which gets your vote for best? First, ’90-91 Hoops, rising for the slam, lots of determination, tongue not fully extended though… I vote for ’90-91 Fleer. Same determination, tongue is now almost fully extended, and that position resembles the Air Jordan logo to me, just from a different angle. Or ’90-91 Skybox? Soaring to the hoop, arms in Air Jordan position, but the graphics remove a lot of action. And how about a bonus, the 1990 Action Packed Promo. Great angle…reminds me of that famous layup against Magic Johnson switching hands in mid-air. Early ’90’s cards are overprinted, but I love seeing companies compete over what should be the core of a sports card, a great photo! And is there a better collection of Jordan photos than ’90-91? Please subscribe to our channel. No card is too common to spend time with here!
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