1986-87 Fleer Akeem Olajuwon #82

the card

notes

Houston took Akeem Olajuwon first overall in the 1984 draft. Portland took Sam Bowie second. Chicago took Michael Jordan third. All three are in this set - Olajuwon at 82, Bowie at 13, Jordan at 57 - and for a long time nobody thought Houston had got it wrong.

He had arrived in Texas from Lagos six years earlier, a teenager who had played more football than basketball, and left the University of Houston as the centre of Phi Slama Jama. In the season before this card was printed he took the Rockets to the NBA Finals alongside Ralph Sampson, where Boston beat them in six.

What came after is the argument for him as one of the greatest centres who ever played. Two championships in 1994 and 1995. In 1994 he won Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP in the same season, which nobody else has ever done. He retired as the all-time leader in blocked shots and went into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

The card says Akeem. He changed the spelling of his first name to Hakeem in 1991, five years after this was printed, saying it was closer to the correct Arabic. Every card of him from this era carries the old spelling, and PSA lists it that way too.

The population holds a surprise if you have only ever compared prices. There are 349 PSA 10 copies of this card and 335 of the Jordan - so there are more perfect Olajuwons in the world than perfect Jordans, from a card that has been submitted less than half as often. It gems at 2.77 per cent against the Jordan's 1.19.

Two things explain it and neither is about the players. The Jordan is submitted by everybody, including people sending in beaten copies because even a low-grade Jordan is worth the fee - which drags the rate down. The other explanation usually offered is that card 82 sat in a kinder position on the printing sheet than card 57, though nothing published establishes where either card sat, so it stays an observation rather than a cause. Position on the printing sheet was fixed for every copy ever made, and the two cards did not sit in the same place.

population

PSA

graded elsewhere

recorded 29 aug 2026. figures are a snapshot on that date, not a live count.

recorded sales

dated past results, not an estimate of what a copy is worth today. figures published by an auction house normally include the buyer's premium, so they are more than the seller received.

where to buy one

This is the most affordable way into the top tier of this set.

At PSA 10 there are 349 copies, more than the Jordan, and the price is a small fraction of it. Heritage sold one for $15,000 in February 2021, at the height of the market. For a first-ballot Hall of Famer with two rings and the only MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP season in history, that is the value proposition of the whole checklist.

Worth sitting with the comparison this set offers. That $15,000 Olajuwon is a Hall of Fame centre with 349 gem copies. The Johnny Moore common at number 76, with 69, sold for $21,600 in January 2024. Registry demand does not care who the player was.

PSA 9, with 2,847 copies, is genuinely common and cheap. PSA 8 at 5,366 is the bulk of the graded population and costs very little.

If you are buying raw to submit, the odds here are better than almost anything else worth having in this set - about one in thirty-six comes back a 10.

Fakes exist for this set but concentrate on Jordan and Barkley. Verify the certificate number at PSA 10, where the money is.

what to check before you buy

Check centring on all four sides. Red runs to the edge on every 1986 Fleer card and this one is no exception.

Look at the corners under light. Red borders show white the moment a corner is touched.

Check for print snow, which is common across the set.

Read the label for a qualifier. 130 graded copies carry one.

Do not be alarmed that the card says Akeem rather than Hakeem. That is the correct spelling for 1986 and it is not an error or a counterfeit tell.

sources