The word SUPERSTAR is the whole story here — rendered in a raised, flocked velvet texture that you have to see in hand to appreciate. A scan flattens it; under light the lettering catches a soft, suede-like nap against the glossy gold starburst behind it, and the card shines in a way no photograph quite captures. This is the top tier of the 1997–98 Fleer Ultra Ultrabilities insert, a three-level set in which each of the twenty featured players appears as a Starter, an All-Star and — rarest of the three — a Superstar.

Jordan is #1 in the set, and on the Superstar version the design is fully die-cut, the card’s edges cut away around the starburst so the silhouette itself is part of the piece. The front shows Jordan rising for a two-handed finish in the white Bulls home jersey; the back, dated ‘97-98 and numbered 1 of 20 SS, notes that thirteen years after he was drafted he was ‘better than ever,’ coming off a fifth NBA Championship, ninth scoring title and ninth All-NBA First Team selection. Two things make a gem-mint copy genuinely hard: the die-cut points are fragile and chip, and the velvet lettering shows handling. Of 122 copies graded by PSA across all grades, only 22 have reached PSA 10 — an 18.03 percent gem rate. It is a card that trades rarely; the population-level sales record shows just a handful of public results, the most recent in January 2025.