30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Friday, February 25, 2011

Nifty 90's Nostalgia #6: Michael Jordan Broders



According to www.baseballcardpedia.com, a Broder is an unlicensed card with no investment value. According to what I've read on some blog posts, these are named after a photographer, Rob Broder, who produced some of these unlicensed cards.

So I realize that Broders have been around since the 80's... but I picked these up in the early 90's, when I worked at my local card shop. However after doing some research... the uniform Jordan is wearing in the fake Donruss and Fleer cards was worn by White Sox players during the late 80's... so my guess is as good as yours.

I remember that my boss had stacks of these sitting in the display cases and people would buy these all of the time. Unfortunately, I'm sure that a few of these people thought they were Michael Jordan's rookie baseball cards.

Every once in awhile, I'll still see one of these pop up at the flea market. I've never bothered to ask how much they want, but I'm sure you can grab these for less than a quarter.

What about you...

Do any of you own any Broders? If so... which ones?

Happy Friday everyone... I can't believe it. There's a chance we'll get snow in the valley... I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sayonara!

20 comments:

night owl said...

I have a few of these -- not Jordan -- but a number of Ramon Martinez Broders, and I think I still have a Jim Abbott or two.

Paul Hadsall said...

I've got a few cards, though no Jordans copying mainstream card designs. :)

The part that amuses me when I look at them? They're no less valuable than anything else from the over-production era.

Fuji said...

night owl - i'll have to check my stack of broders... because i think i have a jim abbott too.

paul - you are totally right... but as the years pass, i'm learning to appreciate cards from the over-production era more and more... 10 years ago, i never would have considered building a 1986 topps baseball set by busting packs... but i'm headed over to ebay right now to see if i can pick up a box of that junk for a reasonable price.

Offy said...

I definitely have some Broders and enjoy them just as much as any other trading cards. I've got a bunch of Dee Browns and I bought some of various Red Sox players during the 80s when these seemed to be most popular.

Tony Mc said...

I've always wondered where the term 'Broder' came from, interesting stuff.
I probably have a few Broders somewhere, I think I'll have a dig through my boxes this weekend to see I can find any.

Fuji said...

offy - love me some dee brown... you need to show those bad boys off!

tony mc - yeah i have a few more that i need to dig up myself

btw... here's a link to some collectors who are posting up some random ones on a forum:

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=770803

Wes Moore the former JBF said...

I know I have some Nolan Ryans that I picked up in the early 90's.

Fuji said...

jaybarkerfan - at the card shop i worked at there were a bunch of different players to choose from... and ryan was definitely one of them. collectors went crazy over him when he threw his 6th and 7th no-hitters in the early 90's.

Jason Presley said...

I've got a bunch of broders in my player collections: 7 of Hensley Meulens, 7 of Roberto Kelly and 11 of Dave Winfield. Some of the designs are nice, the photos are almost always superior to what the main companies were using at the time, and they can be very difficult to track down.

Wes Moore the former JBF said...

I also remember having a broder set of Pete Incaviglia!

Charles @ Hoopography said...

These are cool. I always wondered what the story was with these. Thanks mark.

Basically, they are glorified customs. The Jordan/Bo card is actually kinda sweet. There are tons of these on the Bay.

Great post!!!

Fuji said...

jason - hensley meulens? that's a name i've not heard in a long time...a long time (imagine my best obiwan impersonation) are any of your winfields in his padres uniform?

jaybarkerfan - do not bring up that name... i wasted a ton of money on pete... luckily i was still in high school and didn't have a real job yet. it could have been worse... way worse.

charles - i thought you might be able to appreciate the jordan/bo card as much as me. i like the glorified customs analogy... i might use it in a future post.

Laurens said...

Broder was apparently the last name of the photographer who took many of the images that he turned into unlicensed cards.

One of the first Broders I bought was in 1989 and it was a Jose Canseco one.

I remember buying the Michael Jordan card with the 1986 Donruss design in 1991 - I assume these were made after the 1991 Upper Deck SP1 was making the rounds as a 'hot card.'

Fuji said...

Laurens - I was going to post a picture of the 1991 UD Michael Jordan card... but I couldn't find it. Yeah... I've heard the same thing... it's named after the photographer.

Unknown said...

I have the one featured with Jordan and Bo Jackson. whats neat is it shows him as a baseball player on the front but has his basketball stats on the back.

Unknown said...

does anyone know its actual value. though not for sale

Unknown said...

does anyone know its actual value. though not for sale

Unknown said...

I have the one featured with Jordan and Bo Jackson. whats neat is it shows him as a baseball player on the front but has his basketball stats on the back.

Unknown said...

I have some micheal jordan/ bo jacson one,nolan ryans , frank thomas, ect. Any ide value

Fuji said...

Jimmy & Unknown - It's hard to give you an exact value on any card, because it comes down to what someone is willing to pay you. However... I personally wouldn't pay more than a quarter for them. I didn't see any this past weekend at the show, but I have seen my fair share of these Broders in dime boxes in the past. Hope this helps.