To clarify some information surrounding Star Company:
Star Company started out doing single-player baseball sets in 1982. (The owner had actually made quite a bit of money from "investing" in the 1981 Fleer Star Stickers - if anyone was around in 1981, they were really the first product to go through the roof very soon after release - and that's why he named the company Star - at least this is what he told me in 1986.) In 1983-84, Topps did not renew their NBA license, so Star Co. took it on and did the team sets and some specialty sets for 3 seasons (the term of the contract). When Michael Jordan came along mod-contract, the NBA found that it was something they could charge a lot of money for (rather than the pittance Star got it for), and it went to Fleer, and then it expanded to other companies after that. Star continued to make single-player baseball card sets throughout. By 1988, Star then dove into minor league baseball team sets (with contracts for 2 leagues - SAL & FSL, IIRC), and that carried on for 3 years as well as starting the "series" sets - Nova, Platinum, Gold, & Silver (later adding Stellar & Millennium). I think it was around 90-91 that Star began doing single-player and series-based basketball sets. Baseball and basketball were the only 2 sports Star Co (or Star Int'l.) ever had contracts for and produced.
I'm not sure who produced this "STATZ" or "STAR" cards. I know we had changed whatever sets were here from STAR to STATZ and someone changed them back. Maybe we can rename them "ST☆R" if someone doesn't like the TZ at the end. Otr call it ST☆TZ. Not sure, but we could do this.
-- Dan --
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