1986 Star Best of the New and Best of the Old

October 20, 2026

Best of the New #1 Patrick Ewing (raw)

Best of the New #2 Michael Jordan (raw)

Best of the New #3 Akeem Olajuwon (raw)

Best of the New #4 Ralph Sampson (raw)

Best of the Old: Bill Walton

Best of the Old: George Gervin

Best of the Old: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

For sale from this set

1986 Star Best of the New/Old #2 Michael Jordan BGS 9 — #2 Michael Jordan BGS 9
$6,995.00 · Buy now

1986 Star Best of the New/Old George Gervin PSA 8 — George Gervin PSA 8
$1,995.00 · Buy now

1986 Star Best of the New/Old #6 Julius Erving NM-MT or Better — #6 Julius Erving NM-MT or Better
$1,295.00 · Buy now

1986 Star Best of the New/Old #3 Akeem Olajuwon NM-MT or Better — #3 Akeem Olajuwon NM-MT or Better
$179.95 · Buy now

1986 Star Best of the New/Old #1 Patrick Ewing NM-MT or Better — #1 Patrick Ewing NM-MT or Better
$149.95 · Buy now

1986 Star Best of the New/Old #4 Ralph Sampson NM-MT or Better — #4 Ralph Sampson NM-MT or Better
$49.95 · Buy now

Best of the New and Best of the Old are two separate four-card Star subsets from 1986, usually collected together as one 8-card set. Best of the New has Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson on light blue borders. Best of the Old has Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, George Gervin and Bill Walton on yellow borders. Basketball Gold calls Best of the Old Star's rarest basketball set.

The set at a glance

Cards	8 (4 Best of the New, 4 Best of the Old)
Numbering	Unnumbered; checklists use 1-4 (New) and 5-8 (Old)
Michael Jordan cards	1
Released	1986 (cards read "STAR '86")
Packaging	Best of the New: sealed four-card bag, Ewing on top
Cards printed (est.)	New: 3,000-5,000 each; Old: 440-800 each (Basketball Gold)
Design	New: light blue borders; Old: yellow borders
Type IIs	Best of the New only

The key cards

Michael Jordan: Best of the New #2. Basketball Gold counts it among his second-year Star subset cards. It exists as a Type II, and starbasketballcards.com warns that fakes are common.
Patrick Ewing and Akeem Olajuwon: Basketball Gold lists Best of the New #1 among Ewing's first-year subset cards and #3 among Olajuwon's second-year subset cards.
Best of the Old: with an estimated 440-800 of each card, these are the scarcest cards here. Basketball Gold calls the Erving and the Kareem the rarest Star card of each player.

Type IIs

The four Best of the New cards exist as Type IIs; Best of the Old does not. Best of the New was printed on the same 100-card sheet as 1985-86 #95-172 and the 1986 Jordan set. Off-register printings from that sheet left the print shop and began surfacing in the late 1980s. Star never sold them, and Basketball Gold calls them counterfeits.

Steve Taft stresses that these tells are tendencies, not guarantees:

Back-edge bleed: originals show some of the light blue front border on one or more back edges, sometimes only under magnification. Type IIs show none, unless someone has added it.
"STAR '86" logo: under magnification it looks solid yellow on originals. On Type IIs it shows a dot pattern.
Finish and backs: Type IIs tend to be glossier and to have brighter ink on the back.

See Type IIs for more on telling them from originals.

How the sets were made

Star, Robert Levin's small Pennsylvania company, was the NBA's only licensed card maker from 1983 to 1986. Both subsets carry "STAR '86" at top right and an NBA logo at bottom left. The cards have no numbers, and the backs give career highlights instead of stats.

Best of the New was a dealer bonus. Basketball Gold says dealers received one sealed Best of the New bag for every five complete 1985-86 sets they ordered. Original bags always have Ewing on top.

The old belief that only 440 of each Best of the New card exist is a misconception, according to Basketball Gold. About 440 of each went out in those bags, but more were released unbagged later, including through Levin's 1990 auction. Because it shared a sheet with 1985-86 #95-172, Basketball Gold estimates 3,000 to 5,000 of each card.

Best of the Old is much scarcer. Basketball Gold estimates only 440 to 800 of each card were made, and starbasketballcards.com puts it near 440. Sources do not clearly say how Best of the Old was distributed.

What collectors should know

Sealed bags: a Best of the New bag with Jordan on top is not an original Star bag, though the cards inside may still be genuine. Basketball Gold says Best of the New bags were one of the two most common resealed bags that GAI graded. A GAI bag grade rates the plastic and seals, not the cards.
Type IIs and fakes: only the four Best of the New cards have Type IIs. Separate counterfeit Best of the New Jordans also circulate, per starbasketballcards.com.
Grading: BGS has graded Star since December 2008, and it grades both subsets. PSA added Best of the Old in March 2023, but its list did not include Best of the New. An August 2024 All Vintage Cards forum thread said PSA still did not take Best of the New. CGC began grading 1980s Star in May 2025. Its announcement mentions Best of the New only as a Type II set. We have not confirmed whether CGC grades either subset.