2. Nike Poster Cards - Type 1 - Type 4

Through the years 1982 - 1992 there have been 4 distinct types of Nike poster cards that will be discussed below: During this period, these were all printed on a 5 x 7 inch format. 

Starting ~ mid 1992  Nike turned over production of the posters to OSP publishing (see blog 59) who completely changed the numbering system and started to produce 4 x 6 inch poster cards with "OSP numbers" like 5XXX. Those will not be discussed here.



Type 1 - black background, hole punched for attachment, information printed on back

Type 2 - black background, no hole, information printed on back

Type 3 - white background, no hole , information  printed on front

Type 4 (blank) - no background, no hole, no information printed on front or back.  

Type 1 was printed on cardboard stock similar to BB cards. Types 2-4 were printed on thinner paper stock. 

We'll first take a look at what these different formats look like and in later blogs we will zero in on each specific card. 

Type 1

Here is 290218 "MVP and Cy" showing Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. Data on the back gives poster # and poster title

Type 1 poster cards are restricted within  numbers 290201 - 290249 and 290850 - 290869. So far we have identified 61 type 1 poster cards. That number has remained constant for several years. 

They appear to have been issued  issued between 1982/83 and 1987.

Type 2

Type 2 is represented by poster card 290820 "Agassi", the tennis player

Type 2 poster cards are restricted to numbers between 290820 - 290827 and 290875 - 290900. So far we have identified and confirmed  23 type 2 examples.

Type 3

Type 3 is represented by  poster card 290927 "Kinetics" showing Ken Griffey Jr. Data is on the front, the back is blank.

Type 3 poster cards are by far the most prevalent. They exist between 290828 - 290849 and 290901 - 291015. In addition a few of the more popular posters that were continually produced over this period of time (mainly Michael Jordan). In total we have identified 99 different type 3 poster cards and 9 that are reprinted as type 3 but were previously printed as type 1, 2 or 4. 

Type 4

Type 4 poster cards have no identification either the front or the back of the poster card. An example of such a card is Anthony Carter's  famous poster "Serious Hang Time " We know it's title and Nike number  # 290887 because of its presence on Nike catalogs and sales order forms of the time.  

Type 4 poster cards are restricted between 290811 and 290819 and 290870 and 290887. So far we have identified 40 different type 4 poster cards with a few others confirmed but not assigned a Nike number yet. 

Thats a total of 211 confirmed Nike poster cards with Nike numbers assigned and cnfirmed

Dating the release of the poster cards.

We will consider issue dates as we look at each individual poster card. Issue dates for most of the posters have recently been sorted out as we have come across  poster catalogs and poster order forms from 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992.  Those dates combined with the  dates that have been obtained on the posters themselves, or the poster packaging cover nearly all the poster cards listed. The few posters with years still in question occur when the poster is "bookended" by two different years. 

For example lets look at 290883 290884 and 290885 . 290883 is Jordan MVP and 290885 is Wayne Gretzky's I love LA. The former is 1988 and the latter is 1989. In between them is the poster double trouble for which we do not have a firm date. We therefore date is as 1988/89. 

In addition Nike has released several trading card sets through the years. 

In 1985 Nike released a 3 x 5"  (5) card "promo set" of cards that included :

238, 247, 850, 852 and 853 so we are absolutely sure that these were 1985 releases. 

In 1994 Nike and Upper Deck released a 9 card set shown below that date 9 of the posters between 202 and 871. At first glance some of these seem out of chronological sequence, but remember there are variations on the printing of several of these . So for instance the date on the Finger and Sutter (290223) states 1986 but we are sure the Board Room (290230) was issued in 1982. The explanation is that the 1986 date is for the later printing of the poster card that had additional info on the back. It is highly likely that all the poster cards before 290230 were released in the 1982/83 timeframe. 

                                          04/2022 SEE CORRECTION IN BLOG 77

If we have strong proof for the publication date of the poster it will be shown in RED.  If we are pretty sure of the date through bookending or other means, they will be listed in BLACK. 

Keep in mind that the posters were printed and reprinted based on demand. One of the Nike printers who we are in contact with indicated that they were printed in batches of 5000. Some of the posters were so popular that poster cards can be found  in multiple types. For instance, we know that 290248 Battle of Atlanta was taken from an original 1978 advertising poster of the Peachtree marathon. It was released as a type 1 poster card in the 1982/83 grouping and reprinted again in 1991/92 as a type 3 poster card. 

There are many unanswered questions about the Nike numbers (product code numbers) and how they wee chronologically issued such as:

1. Why start at 290201 ?
2. Why do the type 1 poster cards pick up again at 290850 and not 290250 ?
3. Why were the posted cards 290811 - 290849 not type 1 but rather a mix of 
     type 2, 3 and 4?
4. Why were many of the posters issued out of chronological order ? 

There are probably logical answers for these and other numbering questions. We don't need those answers to have a numerical checklist, but it would be nice to have logical explanations from Nike for these and other questions.

2/10/2021 Nike Mike is helping us get answers to those questions