Featured 1961 Fleer Basketball Cards

1. Diamond Cut

There is a diamond cut when the picture is not perfectly plum to the actual white borders of the card. In other words, always look to see if the white border tapers thinner or thicker as you look from one edge to another. Some diamond cuts are more subtle than others. higher/lower than the other, or when it is cut on an angle. A good way to see if it is a diamond cut is by looking at the back. Using the white line above the blue stripe to see if it is level or angled.

2. Back Cut

Ideally, what should the back look like? The back a 1961 Fleer basketball card consists of two portions: a blue stripe with card number and then a larger, white/cream-backgrounded portion with text.  In my experience, the ideal back cut is when the blue stripe is accompanied by a thin white/cream line about it (when holding the card vertically). It is slightly off-center in the back when there is no such white/cream line or too thin of a line.

3. Registration

Registration issues are most commonly found in the portrait shot cards (#1 - #44).  With the In Action cards, the only area where imagery and coloring may not align is the upper rectangle with the team name and logo.  You can see a registration issue when the portrait photograph and background do not match up perfectly.  Often, in such cases, a white gap on one side of the player (and a darker outline on the opposite side) will be visible. You should also check the team logo to make sure it is properly aligned. See Celtics photo below. Unlike the 1957 Topps, the registration issues here are more focused on alignment (rather than clear coloring). Significantly, PSA may overlook this defect when grading, as the below, recently-graded PSA 9 Walter Dukes card indicates.

4. Acceptable Print Marks

Many cards from this set have print issues. It is critical to know which print marks are present on all cards of this player, or just some.  For those universally-found issues, there should absolutely be no devaluation of the card (despite the flaw). On the other hand, a few cards have commonly-seen issues but those issues are not found on all cards. These should impact on your evaluation of such cards.  The two cards which have acceptable print marks are:

• #3 - Elgin Baylor - every Baylor portrait shot has this flaw
• #47 - Wilt Chamberlain IA - every Wilt IA has a white line on the upper top portion, just above his name

5. Unique Print Marks

Print marks can be found on any of the cards in this set. These marks devalue the cards. Some print marks are black smudges on the borders, and others are lines and other flaws in the picture. The Jerry West #43 portrait shot sometimes has a unique print mark that is not found in the other cards. Below are examples of each.

6. Missing Blue Ink

Once in a while, you’ll see missing blue ink on the back of a 1961 Fleer card.  Sometimes it’s more obvious  than others. This devalues the card, as you likely figured.

7. Recency of Grade

PSA's grading standards have tightened up through the years. Therefore, a recent slab with the same grade as an older one often (but not always) is a better condition card. In fact, we've seen recently-graded slabs with lower grades that appear nicer than some older slabs with higher grades. If you really are forward thinking, when AI becomes mainstream in card grading, these lower graded cards could earn a higher grade than their older predecessors. To identify a newer slab, look for the red, white, and blue PSA logo in the middle, bottom portion of the label.  Also, usually the higher slab numbers are more recent than lower numbers.

8. POP Realignment

A PSA 9 Fleer basketball card (total of 1,418) is almost like a PSA 10.  This is because, as of 7/1/22, PSA has only handed out 103 PSA 10 grades for any 1961 Fleer basketball.  Tom Meschery #31 has the most with 6 PSA 10s and Tom Heinsohn #19 and Sam Jones #23 each have 4 PSA 10s. With the rest of the set having between 0 and 3 PSA 10 examples. Therefore, a PSA 9 1961 Fleer basketball card (total of 1,418) is like a PSA 10.