1983 Star All-Star Game

October 20, 2026

#18 Magic Johnson (raw)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (raw)

#21 Jack Sikma, signed (Beckett authentic autograph)

#2 Larry Bird

#29 Boston Bombers

The 1983 Star All-Star Game set was Star's first: 32 cards from the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, issued in a cellophane wrapper at a time when no other company held an NBA card license.

The set at a glance

Cards	32
Numbering	1-30, plus 2 unnumbered cards
Released	1983
All-Stars pictured	24
Sets printed (est.)	12,000–15,000
Packaging	Cellophane wrapper
Uncut sheet offer	Two sets (64 cards), offered on the Kareem card

Section by section

After the #1 checklist, cards are numbered by conference, then the game cards.

Section	Numbers	Cards
Checklist (Julius Erving)	1	1
East All-Stars	2-13	12
West All-Stars	14-25	12
Game cards	26-30	5
Unnumbered	—	2

The key cards

Hall of Famers: 15 of the 24 players are in the Naismith Hall of Fame (as of the 2026 class). East: #2 Larry Bird, #3 Maurice Cheeks, #4 Julius Erving, #7 Moses Malone, #8 Sidney Moncrief, #9 Robert Parish, #11 Isiah Thomas. West: #14 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, #15 Alex English, #16 George Gervin, #17 Artis Gilmore, #18 Magic Johnson, #21 Jack Sikma, #22 David Thompson, #24 Jamaal Wilkes.
First licensed NBA cards: #11 Isiah Thomas, #12 Andrew Toney, #13 Buck Williams, #23 Kiki Vandeweghe (no licensed cards were made in 1982-83)
Julius Erving: he appears three times: #1 checklist, #4 and #26, the All-Star MVP card (he was MVP of the 1983 game, scoring 25 as the East won 132-123).
Unnumbered: Artis Gilmore & Alex English (an ad for future Star items on the back) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (the uncut-sheet offer on the back). BGS labels both "#XX".

How the set was made

Topps stopped making basketball cards after its 1981-82 set, so there are no NBA-licensed cards for the 1982-83 season. Robert Levin's Star Company, a small Philadelphia-area company, picked up the license, and this set, built around the February 13, 1983 All-Star Game at the Forum in Inglewood, California, was its first release.

Star never used wax packs. This set was sold complete, all 32 cards in a cellophane-type wrapper with the #1 Julius Erving checklist facing out, to hobby dealers who ordered from Star's order forms. Steve Taft, an original Star dealer who later trained BGS, GAI and SCD to authenticate Star cards, ordered 50 sets of this first issue and resold them for $2 to $5 a set for the first couple of years.

Basketball Gold estimates 12,000 to 15,000 sets were made (Star's order forms listed 15,000), a larger run than almost any other Star set. The unnumbered Kareem Abdul-Jabbar card offered collectors an uncut sheet holding two complete sets, 64 cards.

What collectors should know

Condition: Basketball Gold calls the set typically tough condition-wise, pointing to the cellophane wrapper and the dark blue backs, which show flaws. The #1 checklist was the outside card of the wrapped set, so it took the most handling.
Fakes: we know of no counterfeits of this set. It is not one of the "Type II" sets (those are limited to 1985-86 #95-172, the 1986 Jordan set and 1986 Best of the New), and Basketball Gold says there is no evidence any original Star card was reprinted from its plates.
Errors: Basketball Gold notes no errors or variations in this set.
Grading: BGS has graded Star since December 2008. PSA added this set in March 2023 and lists it as "1983 Star All Stars." CGC began grading 1980s Star in May 2025. Older SCD and GAI slabs also turn up.