58. PSA NOW GRADING ALL NIKE POSTER CARDS

 

Well the day some of us have been waiting for is finally here. Due to the articles I wrote this past year defining the complete set of  5 x 7 Nike Poster cards that were released from 1982/83 through 1992, PSA is now accepting all NIKE poster cards for grading. That's right all 4 types. 

Bob Lemke, old friend, if your up there looking down on all us collectors I know your proud of me !

That's the good news...The bad news is that since PSA still appears to be overwhelmed with business, they have raised the price for grading these oversized 5 x 7's to $50 each earlier this fall. For me that means no more grading until the prices come back to earth. While some collectors out there are OK spending $20 to grade a 1987 Topps card worth a penny I cannot do that. I have been waiting to grade these Nike cards for a long time and I guess I will have to wait a little longer. 

I did manage to get a few of them in before the price increases hit early this fall and just got a few back.  So here is the first example of the newly graded Nike Poster cards. Fittingly I thought it should be 290201  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all !

57 Jordan Pop Art 290965

 

Nike poster expert Bruce  ImaPaqRat Fisher reports in with some fresh data on identifying 290965. We had heard rumors that  965 was a "Jordan Pop Art " poster . Bruce , through contact with a long time Nike employee can now verify for us that 965 is indeed the pop art poster shown below.  The poster was  custom framed for Nike.  The frame has the poster number on it, but the poster itself doesn't.  Neither of us have ever seen a Poster Card for "Jordan Pop Art" and really doubt it exists. This does however assign this here-to-fore missing number to this poster even if there is no matching poster card. 

56 Nike Assigned 2 poster cards to the number 290890 Both Mark Allen Cyclist posters

 

In blog 23 we discussed the Triathlete Mark Allen's type 2 Nike poster card 290890 which became know as "go like hell" 

A few years ago Nike poster collector Bruce "Imapaqrat" Fisher informed me that there was another Allen poster card which had the same Nike number. 

I can now confirm, because I have them both in my collection, that this is the case. 

The two poster cards are shown below.

here are the backs confirming Nike assigned both the same number.

This is the first and only instance where we have found Nike doing this kind of miss numbering.

55 New Type 4 Nike Poster Card Identified "Big Guys"

 

You can tell from the complete checklists that there are still a few numbers for which we have not identified the corresponding NIKE poster card. If we look at the type 4 cards (no information on front or back)  we have noted that they appear in 2 numerical groupings 290811 - 290819 where 818 and 819 are unknown and 290870 through 290887 where 872 and 880 are unknown. 

In  a recent EBay auction I have picked up the poster card shown below which is titled "the big guys" on the front lower left. 

The poster depicts some of he track and field members of the Athletics West team. This was a group of athletes that assembled  in 1977 by Bill Bowerman, Phil Knight and Geoff Hollister of Nike. The team also included women athletes during this decade, such as Joan Benoit and Mary Decker —the women's  team won in competition six times: once in 1981 and then five consecutive times, from 1985 to 1989.

In the 1992 book, Swoosh, The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There, there are alligations that  that Nike  arranged for under-the-table payments to athletes on the Athletics West team, which were forbidden at the time. The book also stated that many athletes on the team used steroids with Nike's knowledge, between 1977 and 1985.

Since we have not found this poster on a Nike catalog YET, we cannot currently assign it a number . Since the missing 4 numbers are all from 1987/88 it is likely that that is the year of issue of this poster card.

 

blank backed

02/2021 Further verification comes from the fact that we have found this poster in the 1988 Nike poster catalog. 

Since it is in the 1988 catalog (which did not show NPC #s) it could possibly be  290XXX - 818, 819 or 880

10/2021 just got an update from Nike poster guru Bruce Fischer who identifies the athletes depicted on the "big guys" poster by finding the following ID on the back of the poster itself 

54 290202 (type 1) ICEMAN Gervin variation found

 The missing ICEMAN variation 290202 Iceman / George Gervin has shown up and been graded by PSA as shown below. Blog 5 has been corrected and the variation so noted. 

It should be noted that similar variations should exist for the other early type 1 poster cards such as 

Chocolate Thunder

Sugar

Truck

Mychal

K-Lord

Zungul..........but we will not be listing them until they are verified 

53 PSA Graded Nike Poster Cards as of 09/2020

Over  the past decade or more PSA has had a on again/off again relationship with grading Nike Poster Cards. Their main problem has been the lack of a checklist that could both number and date the cards. This, we must lay at the feet of Nike, who as I said in the early blogs insists that it has no listing of the posters or the advertising poster cards that were issued. Hard to believe but apparently true.

Now that I have spent several YEARS pulling all the data together, as has been explained in previous blogs, I thought it would be a good time to set a baseline for the poster cards that have been graded so far.

For the most part PSA, in the past, has only been comfortable grading type 1 cards, but a few type 2 and type 3's have slipped through and are all noted here. Some of these early labeled dates are incorrect. The hope is that moving forward they will be relabeled correctly.

As would be expected, as of Sept 1st 2020, the most highly graded cards have been the (5) type 1 Jordan cards with Air Jordan [850] having (24) graded examples and , Freezeframe [851] with (32) graded examples. Blue and black [858] has (91) graded examples which must be the  result of both its popularity and its availability. Imagination [867] has (18) graded examples and Shirts & Skins [868]  have (9) graded examples respectfully. Though it must be mentioned that the latter two ( 867 and 868) exist as both type 1 and type 3 (1991/92) issues and we do not know which have been graded so far.

In terms of pricing, the Jordan examples have been escalating with other Jordan cards. There does not appear to be full awareness that at least 4 of these were issued BEFORE the 1986 Fleer Jordan "rookie". A few years ago Air Jordan was available in PSA 8 on Ebay for < $200 and he other 4 for < $100. This spring  Air Jordan had jumped to ~ $500. More recent sales are shown below:

The complete list (as I said, for posterity) is shown below. Yes, this same data is available on the PSA website, but it will disappear as more and more cards are graded and added to this total.

Nike Number	POSTER TITLE	TYPE	Year of     Issue		PSA
					5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
201	Supreme Court	1	1982/83		1	2	0	2	2	0	7
202	Iceman / George Gervin	1	1982/83		2	1	1	3	1	2	11
204	No Finish Line (lake)	1	1982/83		2	1	0	0	1	0	4
206a	Dr Dunkenstein	1	1982/83		0	1	0	1	1	0	3
206b	Dr dunkenstein / darrell griffith	1
208	goin' home	1	1982/83		0	1	0	0	1	0	2
211	chocolate thunder	1	1982/83		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
212	urban runner	1	1982/83		0	0	0	1	1	0	2
213	runner in the clouds	1	1982/83		0	1	0	1	2	0	6
214	Sugar	1	1982/83		1	0	0	0	2	0	3
217	Truck	1			0	0	0	1	1	0	2
218a	MVP & Cy	1	1982/83		3	4	2	2	4	0	18
218b	MVP & Cy Mike Schmidt &Steve Carlton	1
219a	Moses	1	1982/83		0	5	3	3	1	0	12
219b	moses / Moses Malone	1
220	jam session	1	1982/83		0	1	0	2	1	1	5
221a	the  williams	1	1982/83		0	0	1	3	2	0	7
221b	the  williams / Ray, Roseanne & Gus	1
222a	McEnroe	1	1982/83		1	1	1	4	1	0	8
222b	McEnroe / John McEnroe	1
223a	Fingers & Sutter	1	1982/83		0	0	2	3	1	0	7
223b	Fingers & Sutter / Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter	1
224a	Penguin power	1	1982/83		0	2	2	1	2	0	10
224b	Penguin Power / Ron Cey	1
225a	SILK	1	1982/83		0	1	2	1	2	0	6
225b	SILK / Janaal Wilkes	1
226	Field Generals	1	1982/83		0	0	1	4	0	0	7
227	speedsters	1	1982/83		0	0	0	2	0	1	3
228	runner on the beach	1	1982/83		0	0	0	0	2	0	2
229	Mychal	1	1982/83		0	1	0	0	0	1	2
230	Board room	1	1982/83		0	0	0	1	0	1	2
231	K-Lord	1	1982/83		1	2	0	0	1	0	4
231	K-Lord / Gaylord Perry	1
232	Zungul	1	1982/83		0	0	0	1	0	1	2
233	stormin Norman / norm nixon	1	1982/83		0	1	1	2	1	0	5
234	Sect of Defense / Bobby Jones	1	1982/83		0	1	2	1	1	0	5
235	Air force 1	1	1982/83		0	1	2	2	1	0	6
237	Power Alley / Dale Murphy	1	1982/83		2	2	2	2	4	0	12
238	Tiger Catcher Lance Parrish	1	1982/83		0	0	2	3	2	0	7
239	The Dodger Kid / Steve Sax	1	1982/83		0	2	0	3	2	0	7
240	Steeler pounder / franco harris	1	1982/83		0	0	1	8	1	0	10
241	Atlanta arsenal / jackson, bart, jenkins	1	1982/83		0	1	0	3	2	0	6
242	TX Thunder / jones and Martin	1	1982/83		0	1	0	7	0	0	8
243	Sir Sid - Sdney montcrief	1	1982/83		0	2	1	3	1	0	7
244	Ruland - Jeff Ruland	1	1982/83		0	2	0	1	2	0	5
245	Blue Thunder - pedro guerrero	1	1982/83		0	1	1	3	2	0	8
246	no pasing -	1	1984/85		0	1	0	2	1	1	5
247	Lofton - james loftin	1	1985		0	0	5	11	3	1	20
248 (1)	Battle of Atlanta	1	1985		0	2	1	3	1	1	8
248 (3)	Battle of Atlanta	3	1991/92
249	Cornerstone - Ryne Sandberg	1	1985		0	5	4	8	2	1	20
811	home town (Mark Jackson)	4	1988
812	no finish line - basketball	4	1988
813	no finish line  -running  (Benoit - Samuelson)	4	1988
814	no finish line -  fitness, weight room	4	1988
815	no finish line - tennis	4	1988
816	no finish line - hiking	4	1988
817	Sweet Music (Frank Viola)	4	1988
820	Andre Agassi  II	2	1989		0	2	1	1	0	0	4
821	National Defense (david robinson)	2
822	Flight Brothers (Nance & Harper)	2	1989
823	You Don’t Know Diddley (Bo Diddley)	2	1989
824	Iron Will (Charles Barkley)	2	1989
825	Action Jackson (Mark Jackson)	2	1989
826	Use your head  (soccer)	2	1989
827	Aqua Gear  (surfing)	2	1989
828	world series 1989		1989
829	cycling storm	3	1989
830	Do You Know (Lee)	3	1989
831	Rocket Man (Cunningham)	3	1989
832	Passing Lane (Everett)	3	1989
833	Back to back (Strange)	3	1989
834	second to none  (softball)	3	1989/90
835	Mr Hockey and the great one	3	1990		0	0	0	2	0	1	3
837	Is it the shoes (Jordan, Lee) white	3	1990
838	Is it the shoes (Jordan, Lee) black	3	1990
839	Robinson	3	1990
840	Barkley	3	1990
841	Mullin	3	1990
842	Wilkens	3	1990
843	Jackson	3	1990
844	Harper	3	1990
845	Bo Knows Diddley ( Diddley, Jackson)	3	1990
846	Go Bo	3	1990
848	Orbit (Jordan)	3	1990
849	take no prisoners	3	1990
850	Air Jordan - Michael Jordan	1	1985		1	3	4	9	7	0	24
851	Jordan freezeframe - Michael Jordan	1	1985		3	5	9	6	7	1	32
852	Dr K - Dwight Gooden	1	1985		0	0	3	4	5	1	13
853	Mac II - John McEnroe	1	1985		1	2	1	7	1	2	14
854	Boss Boggs - wade boggs	1	1985		0	1	3	6	4	0	14
855	Ricks world - rick Sutcliffe	1	1985		0	0	1	4	2	0	7
856	Stickball - gooden / murphy	1	1985		0	2	3	1	3	2	11
857	Airforce - moses malone	1	1985		0	2	3	5	2	0	12
858	Jordan blue &  black - Michael Jordan	1	1985		13	32	19	17	5	1	91
859	football - Lipps and Hayes	1	1985/86		0	0	3	3	2	0	8
860	Lotts lot - ronnie lott	1	1985/86		3	0	0	0	3	0	6
861	The Judge - lester hayes	1	1985/86		0	0	2	3	1	0	6
862	Manute Bol growth chart - minute boll	1	1985/86
863	Hitting machine - tony gwynn	1	1986		1	1	0	5	3	0	10
864	Gary Carter	1	1986		0	2	3	2	1	0	8
865	Wally world - Wally Joyner	1	1986		0	0	6	0	1	0	7
866	Men at Work	1	1986		0	2	1	4	0	0	8
867 (1)	Imagination Michael Jordan	1	1986		2	2	5	5	3	0	18
867 (3)	Imagination (Jordan)	3	1991/92
868 (1)	shirts & skins	1	1986/87		0	1	3	3	1	0	9
868 (3)	shirts & skins (Jordan)	3	1991/92
869	Ohio Flyer Ron Harper	1	1987		0	0	0	3	1	0	4
870	Superman (Mike Schmidt)	4	1987
871	Lethal Weapon (Howie long)	4	1987
873	Mr Barkley	4	1988		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
874 (4)	Earth / Mars (Jordan / Lee)	4	1988
874 (3)	Earth / Mars (Jordan / Lee)	3	1991/92		0	1	0	0	0	2	3
875	Clark (Will Clark)	2	1989		1	1	0	0	1	0	3
876	McGwire (Mark McGwire)	2	1989		0	1	0	3	0	0	4
877	Strange Days (curtis strange)	4	1988
878	Ian Rush   Soccer	4	1988
879	Ace of Hearts -  Agassi	4	1988		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
881 (2)	wimps need not apply	2	1988
881 (3)	wimps need not apply	3	1991/92
882	the ball player - bo jax	4	1988
883	Jordan MVP	4	1988
884	double trouble	4	1987/88
885	I Love LA  Gretzky	4	1989
886	Hockey Night in California Wayne Gretzky	2	1989		2	1	0	1	0	0	3
887	serious hang time (Anthony Carter)	4	1989
888 (2)	High fly 'n 360	2	1989		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
888 (3)	High fly 'n 360	3	1991/92		0	2	1	1	0	0	4
889	Just Do It	2	1989
889(3)	Just Do it	3	1991/92
890 (2)	Mark Allen "cycling"	2	1989
890 (3)	Mark Allen "Cycling"	3	1991/92
891	Playground  (Jordan)	2	1989		0	0	0	0	0	1	1
892	Run like the wind (Butch Reynolds)	2	1989
893 (2)	Texas Ranger (Nolan Ryan)	2	1989		3	4	1	0	1	1	13
893(3)	Texas Ranger (Nolan Ryan)	3	1991/92		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
894	Cream of the Crop (Darryl Strawberry)	2	1989		0	2	0	1	0	0	3
895	Sax's (Steve Sax)	2	1989		1	1	0	0	0	1	3
896	Rebel with a Cause (John Mcenroe)	2	1989		0	2	0	0	1	0	3
897	Womens Volleyball	2	1989
898	Just Do It (craig blanchette)	2	1989
899	all conditions gear - rock climb Castleton Rock UT	2	1989
901	Little Dreams (Stacy Allison)	3	1989
902	new ballgame (women)	3	1989
903	Cross Training (Bo Jackson)	3	1989		0	2	1	0	0	1	4
904	open road	3	1989/90
905	Fi Fi Home Run (Kevin Mitchell)	3	1990		0	1	0	1	0	2	4
906	bloomsday run		1990
908	Don’t I know You (Jackson)	3	1990		0	1	0	0	0	1	2
909	Reverse Dunk (Michael Jordan)	3	1990		0	0	0	0	0	1	1
910	Rookie of the Year (David Robnson)	3	1990
911	Out of the blue (Kirby Puckett)	3	1990		0	1	0	0	1	2	4
912	grace under pressure (mark grace)	3	1990		0	1	0	0	0	0	1
913	Can You say rebound? (David robinson)	3	1990
914	mark allen  triarthlete	3	1990
916	relief hitters (Crystal / Jackson)	3	1990		0	0	0	1	0	0	1
917	Andy Moeller - soccer		1990
918	King of Zing (Ryan)	3	1990		2	2	1	1	2	3	12
919	Say your Prayers (Abbott / Langston)	3	1990		0	0	0	0	1	0	1
920	rice be nimble ( rice)	3	1990
921	endless sumer (Pugh /Leach)	3	1990
922	Jam 'N Slam (Jordan)	3	1990
923	Hit and Run II (Jackson)	3	1990		0	1	1	0	2	0	4
924	Stay in School - Bo	3	1990
925	Serve and Volley (McEnroe)	3	1990		0	0	0	1	1	0	2
926	Sunday School (Reggie White)	3	1990
927	Kenetics (K. Griffey Jr.)	3	1990		0	1	2	0	0	1	4
928	Sheer Will (W. Clarkk)	3	1990		0	0	1	1	0	0	2
929	DAVID ROBINSON (oversized)	3	1990
932	Nike town compass		1990
933	SUPER DAVE (R.Miller, G. Wilkens, K. Smith)	3	1990
935	Bo Super Hero (Bo Jackson)	3	1990
936	Rice & Ronnie (J. Rice/R. Lott)	3	1990/91
937	Agassi square	3	1990/91
938	uh oh (J.Kersey, T. Porter, B. Williams)	3	1990/91
939	Down Under (S monghetti)	3	1990/91
940	Metamorphosis (B. Jackson)	3	1991
941	Big Swing ( P. Jacobson, C. Strange)	3	1991
942	Super Robinson (D. Robinson)	3	1991
943	Greetings From the Pipeline (B. Jackson)	3	1991		0	0	0	0	0	1	1
945	own the road (Mark Allen)	3	1991
946	super Jordan	3	1991
947	driven to perfection (Bo Jackson)	3	1991		0	0	0	0	0	1	1
948	Jordan / Genie (Jordan, Lee, Richard)	3	1991
949	Speak Softly (R. Sandberg)	3	1991		0	0	0	1	0	0	1
950	You're Up (softball)	3	1991
951	Gamez rookie	3	1991
952	super Barkley	3	1991
957	womenshoop '91	3	1991
958	piano man (Robinson)	3	1991
959	Genie (Little Richard)	3	1991
961	Super Andre (A. Agasi)	3	1991
962	neighborhood birthday (Robinson)	3	1991		0	0	0	1	0	0	1
963	rock & Roll tennis A. Agasi)	3	1991
964	kids soccer	3	1991
966	the serve (A. Agasi)	3	1991
967	neighborhood rookie (D.robinson & G. peyton)	3	1991
968	Aqua Fly (L. Hamilton)	3	1991
970	hot salsa (R. Martinez)	3	1991		1	1	1	0	0	0	3
976	sergey bubka  pole vault	3	1991
978	the long and short of it (B. Larkin)	3	1991		0	2	0	0	1	0	3
979	built to last (C. Fisk)	3	1991		0	0	1	0	0	0	1
980	Fined (C.Barkley)	3	1991
982	double vision (leach and Pugh)	3	1991
983	Barry Sanders	3	1991		0	0	0	0	1	0	1
984	Super Nolan (N. Ryan)	3	1991		0	3	0	1	1	1	8
985	coast to coast (D. Strawberry)	3	1991		0	0	2	0	0	0	2
986	Jake and he flagman (Peter Jacobson ) golf	3	1991
987	It's not over (Bo Jackson)	3	1991		0	0	1	1	0	0	2
988	I'm back (Bo Jackson)	3	1991		0	0	1	1	0	0	2
989	Doesn't give up (N. Ryan)	3	1991		1	2	0	3	1	1	8
990	Bo video	3	1991
991	Bo knows Bo	3	1991
993	The Bo Show (Bo Jackson)	3	1991
994	evolution (M.Jordan)	3	1991
995	beam me up (Scottie Pippen)	3	1991
996	Super Jerry	3	1991
997	flight dimension (S. Pippen, T. Davidson)	3	1991
998	Ronnie Lott - lots of pain	3	1991		0	1	1	1	1	1	1
291000	Century of hoops	3	1991
1001	Hare Jordan (M. Jordan/Bugs Bunny)	3	1992
1002	sky Jordan (M.Jordan)	3	1992
1003	Jordan cloud (M. Jordan)	3	1992
1004	Agassi TV	3	1992
1005	Art of the Dunk (M. Jordan)	3	1992
1010	That’s All Folks (M. Jordaan /Bugs Bunny)	3	1992
1015	First Serve (A Johnson)	3	1992
291543	strange thoughts (catalog)		1988
291544	eric davis		1988
291621	hit and run (Bo Jax)  (catalog)		1988
291884	for women only	2	1988
292335	Wings (Jordan)	3	1989
290872	Supreme Court  (jordan) ** ** see blog # 63	3	1988