1986 Star Lifebuoy Nets

October 20, 2026

#13 Buck Williams (raw)

For sale from this set

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #4 Darwin Cook NM to NM-MT — #4 Darwin Cook NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #5 Darryl Dawkins NM to NM-MT — #5 Darryl Dawkins NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #14 Checklist NM to NM-MT — #14 Checklist NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #13 Buck Williams NM to NM-MT — #13 Buck Williams NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #11 Micheal Ray Richardson NM to NM-MT — #11 Micheal Ray Richardson NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #10 Kelvin Ransey NM to NM-MT — #10 Kelvin Ransey NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #6 Mike Gminski NM to NM-MT — #6 Mike Gminski NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

1985-86 Star Lifebuoy Nets #12 Jeff Turner NM to NM-MT — #12 Jeff Turner NM to NM-MT
$6.95 · Buy now

6 more cards from this set in the shopShow all 14

#1 Dave Wohl NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now
#2 Otis Birdsong NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now
#3 Bobby Cattage NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now
#7 Mickey Johnson NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now
#8 Albert King NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now
#9 Mike O'Koren NM to NM-MT$6.95Buy now

The 1986 Star Lifebuoy Nets set has 14 cards: head coach Dave Wohl, the twelve regulars of the 1985-86 New Jersey Nets and a title card that reads "Lifebuoy presents the 1985-86 New Jersey Nets." Lifebuoy, the Lever Brothers soap, sponsored two Star team sets that year, this one and a 13-card Bucks set. Buck Williams, Darryl Dawkins and Micheal Ray Richardson are the names in it.

The set at a glance

Cards	14
Numbering	1-14
Released	1986 ("STAR '86" on the fronts)
Sets printed (est.)	4,000 (Basketball Gold); 5,000 (starbasketballcards.com)
Rookie cards	None
Design	Blue borders, Nets logo, Lifebuoy title card

How the set was made

Star, Robert Levin's small Pennsylvania company, held the NBA license from 1983 to 1986 and made sponsored team sets alongside its base sets. The Lifebuoy Nets follows the look of the 1985-86 base set: blue borders, "STAR '86" in yellow at top right and the Nets logo in a white circle at lower left, with the sponsor named only on the #14 title card. The companion Lifebuoy Bucks set is different: green borders, a Lifebuoy logo on every card in place of the team logo, 13 cards and no title card.

How the set was distributed is not recorded by any source we have found: Basketball Gold's set page carries no text, and starbasketballcards.com says only that Lifebuoy sponsored it (and calls Lifebuoy a local New Jersey soap maker, which it was not; Lifebuoy was a Lever Brothers brand). Star's subsets normally came in sealed polybags, and sealed Lifebuoy bags turn up. Basketball Gold's print-run list gives 4,000 sets; starbasketballcards.com estimates 5,000.

The roster dates the set. Micheal Ray Richardson, #11, was banned by the NBA on February 25, 1986 and never played in the league again, so the checklist was set before then. The card prints his name "Michael Ray Richardson"; BGS and TCDB use "Micheal," the spelling he adopted in 1983.

What collectors should know

Condition: Basketball Gold has no condition notes for this set; BGS 9.5 copies exist of the Wohl and Richardson. The title card's large white panel shows print marks easily.
Sealed bags: an original sealed bag proves the cards are original, not that they are mint; you can't see the centering or surfaces of the cards underneath. Resealed Star bags exist, and a GAI bag grade rates the plastic and seals, not the cards.
Fakes: 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 it was not among the sets remade for Shop at Home in 1997.
Grading: BGS has graded Star since December 2008 and labels the set "1986 Star/Lifebuoy New Jersey Nets." PSA added it in March 2023 as "1986 Star Nets Lifebuoy." CGC began grading 1980s Star in May 2025; its announcement publishes no set list.

The key cards

No card here is a rookie by Basketball Gold's definition, though #3 Bobby Cattage, a journeyman who played 29 games that season, has no earlier licensed card, and it is coach Dave Wohl's first card too.

#13 Buck Williams: the Nets' All-Star forward and the set's best-known name. Basketball Gold counts his 1983 Star All-Star Game card as his first card.
#11 Micheal Ray Richardson: his last card as an active NBA player, issued the season the league banned him. He died in November 2025.
#5 Darryl Dawkins: Chocolate Thunder, in a season he missed 31 games of.
#14 Title card: the only card with the Lifebuoy name on the front; checklists treat it as the checklist card.