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Star produced sports cards from 1982 (Mike Schmidt, and specializing in single-player sets) until about 1995. They held the exclusive NBA license during the mid-1980s, when Topps didn't want it. They also dabbled in non-sports. They produced minor league team sets from 1988 to 1990, and even released sets of select minor leaguers in wax product. If they weren't the first, they were one of the first to use foil stamping on cards, to put a UV glossy coating on both sides of the card, and to serial number the sets issued.

 I think it is a great idea. I collect only Reds cards and Star issued several Eric Davis and Barry Larkin sets, including some promos. Sometimes it gets confusing what sets I have/need. Heck, I may even find some more cards that I need after you are finished. Go for it!

  Star also made some 14 card basketball team sets sponsored by Lifebuoy in the 80s.   I dont believe they are in the DB, at least I couldnt find them

NJDevils, yep - they were part of them having the exclusive NBA license there in the mid-1980s. They did a bunch of specialty sets above the regular "team" sets that make up the NBA sets from those 3 years. I may not have those, I wasn't into basketball at all, I focused on baseball.

The other oddity about Star issues is the fact (with the exception of the mid-80s NBA sets) that almost every set had an associated "Promo" card - issued at the rate of 1 promo card for every 5 sets purchased directly from Star. Some sets had an "Ad Card" - basically a promo with an advertisement for Star on the reverse.

Where do items like these get listed?

Thanks, Dan

Agree.  I noticed the inconsistence as well.  Which is why I avoided listing anything regarding Star.  Your ideas sound good to me

 

vrooomed wrote: Star produced sports cards from 1982 (Mike Schmidt, and specializing in single-player sets) until about 1995. They held the exclusive NBA license during the mid-1980s, when Topps didn't want it. They also dabbled in non-sports. They produced minor league team sets from 1988 to 1990, and even released sets of select minor leaguers in wax product. If they weren't the first, they were one of the first to use foil stamping on cards, to put a UV glossy coating on both sides of the card, and to serial number the sets issued.   Star may have been a small company, but they made a pretty sizable footprint in the hobby.   As a person with a great deal of knowledge about the company and their cards, I've been looking at what is already on TCDB - and I can tell you one thing about it - it's not consistent. I would like to change that.   First of all, let's agree on what the company name should be. I would propose listing anything they have done under the company of simply "Star", since they were known as Star Company (or Star Co) from 1982 until about 1989. Around 1989 is when they starting rebranding themselves as Star International (or Star Int'l). Some issues during that time period were issued as Star Co and some were Star Int'l, but regardless, it was all the same company.   Second, the individual player sets (and a couple were 2-player sets): These should probably stay as "1989 Star Wade Boggs", "1986 Star Nolan Ryan", "1988 Star Mike Schmidt/Don Mattingly", etc. Sometimes, there were 2 sets like this of a player issued. Usually, they had different colored borders (e.g., "1988 Star Mark McGwire Green" & "1988 Star Mark McGwire Yellow"). We could use color to differentiate, or numerics (e.g., "1988 Star Mark McGwire I" & "1988 Star Mark McGwire II"). I can see benefits either way.   The next area that is inconsistent is Player names and teams. Each card in the single-player sets has a "unique name". Generally, card #1 was a checklist, #2 was minor league stats, #3 was major league stats, then the rest of the cards were various career highlights. Currently on TCDB, I have seen where the card name was included with the player name. I'm not sure that's the best method. I know only certain information can be put in Note 1, maybe the title of the card belongs in Note 2. The team problem is for players who were on multiple teams prior to the set being released. For example, a Nolan Ryan set from 1988 could have photos of him with the Mets, Angels, and Astros. Normally, any 1988 Nolan Ryan would be "Astros". Should these be listed as both teams? Just the team pictured? What if the card is about an event during his time with the Angels and he's pictured with the Angels, but the logos all show Astros?   Lastly, Star put out several different baseball "series" sets: Nova, Platinum, Stellar, Gold, Millennium, and Silver. Somewhere on TCDB, I saw "Silver by Star". I think that should be changed to "Star - Silver" or "Star - Silver Series" or even just "Star Silver", with all the cards listed as a full set (the cards were numbered by player 1-9, 10-18, 19-27, etc.).   Sorry for the long read, but I'm just about to start going through my extensive Star collection (and checklists). I wanted to get this set up correctly from the beginning, and get the ones already in place corrected. Please weigh in and give your opinions. I am curious to hear everyone's!   Thanks,   Dan