The Topps Stadium Club Beam Team inserts are excellent Jordan cards to add to your collection - particularly the 1992-93 which is my personal favourite. They were released to celebrate the Topps sponsored “Beams Above the Rim” laser show run at games around the NBA in the early 90’s.
However beware when choosing one to buy - there are two separate 92-93 Michael Jordan Beam Teams which can be difficult to differentiate between.
You may have seen some of these cards advertised as ‘Members Only’ and some missing this advertisement. If you’re like me when I was first interested in this card, you thought some sellers just left this out of their listing.
When Topps released this set they released the Beam Teams as an insert in standard packs of cards. The ‘Members Only’ Beam Team set was released as a complete set available for purchase to members of Topps Stadium Club. Thus it was a lot easier for some to get their hands on copies of the Members Only Beam Teams than the standard pack-pulled Beam Teams. Having said this, however, the ‘Members only’ version was a limited release - 10,000 copies were available and we do not know the print run of the standard pack pulled Beam Team inserts.
To make matters more complicated, Topps applied only a very faint watermark stamp to the early Beam Teams to differentiate them (it was much clearer in later years however). So, unless you know to look, you can be very easily unknowingly sold the Members Only version when trying to buy the pack-pulled version and vice versa. Have a look at the two photos below. The card on the left is the 1992-93 Michael Jordan Beam Team. The card on the right is the 1992-93 Michael Jordan Members Only Beam Team with the stamp circled.
Shop Michael Jordan Beam Teams
As a result of the difficulty in pulling, the value of a standard Beam Team is usually higher and harder to come by (as at 2009) than a Members Only version. But if you don’t know what you’re bidding on in an online auction you may well pay the full value for a lesser value card.
With the explosion of interest in trading cards, and specifically Michael Jordan Cards, the the Members Only Beam Teams are selling at prices higher than the standard pack pulled Beam Teams. This is likely due to supply and demand given the Members Only was a limited release. At the time of this update there were 28 Jordan Members Only cards for sale on eBay and 98 standard pack pulled Beam Teams.
So watch out for Beam Team auctions. Its a common mistake unknowingly made by both buyers and sellers - make sure you check out a decent quality photo of the exact card before buying.
In addition watch out for poor centering on the 1992-93 Stadium Club Beam Team. This is particularly visible on the top corners where the beams meet the top of the card. Age can also lead to some of the ‘Stadium Club’ dark foil flaking away.
Both cards are certainly nice additions to any Michael Jordan cards collection.
