Breaking Down 1992 Stadium Club Basketball
The complete set that has $15,000 upside
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this tweet that I put out over the weekend:
It’s true, I have developed an addiction to 90’s basketball cards. More specifically, inserts from the 90’s. A few of the designs stood out to me initially, but the Beam Team inserts from 1992 Stadium Club Basketball stole my heart. Not only do they feature side borders with a sweet refractor design, but they also have Michael Jordan and a rookie Shaquille O’Neal on the checklist. But are they worthy of a purchase?
Beam Team Breakdown
The following is taken from a post by Cardboard Connection:
Likely helped by the one-note feel of the product, Beam Team inserts still stand out in a great way in comparison to the base cards. The only insert in 1992-93 Stadium Club Basketball, the Beam Team design was intended to pay homage to a laser-filled halftime show at select games during the latter half of the 1992-93 season. Averaging 1:36 packs, the 21-card set was originally a hot commodity for collectors that commanded huge sums. Prices softened but the Michael Jordan Beam Team is still in strong demand and the insert set also offers one of the most popular first-year cards for Shaquille O'Neal.
The most important piece of information in there is that the Beam Team cards average 1 in every 36 packs. This is going to be a key figure later in this post when determining what to buy.
Cardboard Connection continues with the following:
Collectors should be aware that all the rookie cards and the lone insert are found in Series 2. This includes all three Shaquille O'Neal cards. There is also a Members Only factory set that parallels all 400 cards and the Beam Team insert. The Members Only base cards feature an additional gold foil logo in the top corner and the Beam Team cards include a more-subtle watermark. The full Members Only set also came with an official 1992-93 Stadium Club Basketball binder and a certificate of authenticity numbered to 12,000. Other reports peg the Members Only print run slightly lower at 10,000 copies.
Got it. So other than buying the cards raw (which is always my first choice), the only way to acquire Beam Team cards is to buy sealed boxes of Series 2 or the Member’s Only factory set. Now we can do a little math and see what we should be buying.
Again, I will always recommend buying cards raw over buying boxes, but if you’re looking to have fun with a rip while also having a shot at a valuable card, this breakdown is for you.
Let’s say we’re trying to complete the Beam Team insert set. If you wanted to try to pull them all out of hobby boxes, you will have to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $275 to acquire each box off eBay. Not a terrible price for sealed wax, but remember, Beam Team cards average 1 in every 36 packs. Stadium Club Series 2 hobby boxes contain 36 packs each, so you’ll get one Beam Team card in every box, on average.
Since there are 21 Beam Team cards on the checklist, you would theoretically have to buy 21 hobby boxes to complete the set, and that is assuming you don’t get any duplicates. That means you have to spend a minimum of $5,775 to complete your set. That is a hefty price to pay, especially when you consider the fact that you would need your Shaq to PSA 10 just to pay off a good chunk of the investment.
It was mentioned earlier in this post that you can also buy a Member’s Only complete set containing all 400 base cards and the full 21-card Beam Team set. These cards have a gold “Member’s Only” stamp on the base cards and a “Member’s Only” embossing on the Beam Team cards. I recently bought this set for $1,000 on eBay, but you can probably find them for cheaper if you do a little digging.
You would think cards from a complete set would be less valuable than cards pulled from hobby boxes, right? In most cases, that is true, but the 1992 Stadium Club Member’s Only set is an outlier. Every single one of the Member’s Only Beam Team cards are more valuable than the base version, and some are even as much as 5 times more valuable!
For example, a Scottie Pippen PSA 10 Beam Team pulled from Series 2 will get you around $200-300 on eBay, while the Member’s Only version will fetch over $1,000! Why would you pay $275 for a 1 in 36 chance at this card when you can guarantee the whole Member’s Only set of these inserts (which are worth more) for around $1,000? It makes no sense to me.
Are These a Good Investment?
Before I buy any card (or box, in this case), I like to determine the expected value of the purchase. If the expected value is more than the cost plus grading plus fees, it is usually a strong buy for me. If the expected value is less than the cost plus grading plus fees, I won’t make the purchase.
The first calculation I made for the Member’s Only set was for the Shaquille O’Neal card. A PSA 10 can return up to $10,000 and a PSA 9 will fetch around $800-900. My calculated expected value for this card alone was $1,512.88. Yes, the expected value for just this card is more than the cost of the entire box. That screams BUY to me.
It’s always fun to see the best-case scenario with these things, so I also decided to see what would happen if all of the Beam Team cards and the notable base cards earned a PSA 10 grade. The result? Over $15,000! This is obviously very unlikely, but it’s pretty cool to know that a $1,000 investment has immediate $15,000 upside.
I’ll be posting the video of my Member’s Only unboxing at the end of the email, but if you enjoyed this free content, please consider upgrading!
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See you all very soon,
Ryan
I've just opened a Shaq BEAM TEAM MINTout of a pack. Where would the Members Only marked?
Hello gentlemen, what PSA grades did the Shaq and Jordan beam team cards end up with?!