Michael Jordan Sports Illustrated 101: Collecting & Grading

Have a stack of Michael Jordan Sports Illustrated magazines from your childhood, or thinking about buying your first raw copy? Before you buy or grade, here’s what you need to know. In this Dad to Dad interview, I sit down with magazine collector and grading-prep specialist James Kehoe to explore Michael Jordan Sports Illustrated collecting and grading—from iconic covers and childhood memories to inspecting raw magazines and choosing between CGC and PSA. I also share my recent purchase of Jordan’s 1984 “A Star Is Born” issue and ask James the questions I had as a longtime Jordan fan getting deeper into magazine collecting. 🔗 More from Interview: https://healthydadhacks.com/michael-jordan-sports-illustrated-101/ 🍿See ALL my Jordan content 👉 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5q7ojaVM456rJWbV59Saat0MLwCad9bY&si=-JoXpfib-4hwUSFj 🍿See ALL my "Dad to Dad" Interviews 👉 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAsaG3IxoPyk&si=6uRMiUP6kpU1vpEF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 FIND James here: https://linktr.ee/CGCSportsIllustrated ▶️ YOUTUBE — https://www.youtube.com/@cgcsportsillustrated 📸 INSTAGRAM — https://www.instagram.com/CGCSportsIllustrated James' 50 SI Jordan covers mentioned in interview 👉 https://youtu.be/DKTo3o9luIQ?si=tT-vhdUGssd_8nub ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 IN THIS CONVERSATION: 0:00 - Interview Overview 1:58 - Meet James Kehoe 3:24 - Fatherhood & Becoming an Empty Nester 6:18 - Why Hobbies Matter for Dads 7:25 - James' FIRST Reactions to 7 Iconic Jordan SI Covers 12:08 - The Most Meaningful SI Mag in James’s Collection 13:44 - James' Story: From Childhood Collection to Full-Time Business 17:49 - Newsstand vs. Subscription: The Basics 20:02 - Nostalgia & the Magazine Collecting Community 22:06 - Why Collect Magazines? 27:35 - Beyond SI: Time, Newsweek & SLAM 32:04 - Are Beckett Magazines Worth Collecting? 🎥 More on Beckett: https://youtu.be/2RnIcIAzCP8?si=h2hx73V3PNHs7eEB 35:09 - My “A Star Is Born” Purchase & Why This Issue Matters 39:35 - Starting Your Jordan Magazine Collection 42:02 - Inspecting Raw Magazines: What Graders Look For 45:08 - Magazine Grading vs. Card Grading 47:20 - Newsstand Premiums & Mailing Label Removal 51:01 - Buying Raw: Reprints, Restoration & Trimming 53:40 - CGC vs. PSA: Grades, Slabs & Pricing 57:57 - Cleaning & Pressing Before Grading 1:00:13 - Heat Pressing & the Risks of DIY 1:02:06 - Beginner Advice 1:06:05 - Building a Run of Your Favorite Covers 1:07:06 - Final Thoughts 🧠 WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: • Why collect magazines alongside Michael Jordan cards? • Jordan’s early SI covers and the appeal of “A Star Is Born” • Newsstand vs. subscription copies—and why the distinction matters • What to inspect: covers, staples, interior pages, spine splits, tears, and surface wear • Risks when buying raw, including trimming and undisclosed color touch • CGC vs. PSA: James’s perspective on grading and slab differences • What cleaning and pressing involve—and why experience matters • Collecting beyond SI: Beckett, SLAM, Time, and Newsweek • Starting small, learning the process, and avoiding expensive beginner mistakes We also talk fatherhood, becoming an empty nester, and why making time for hobbies matters. James shares the story behind a Jordan magazine his mom bought him—and why it means more to him than any other slab in his collection. ➡️ Which Michael Jordan SI magazine would you most want in your collection? And if you already own some, are you keeping them raw or considering grading? Let us know in the comments! #michaeljordan #sportsillustrated #magazine #cgcgrading #psagrading ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧔‍♂️ Healthy Dad Hacks I help busy dads find what's actually worth buying and doing. 🔗 Amazon Influencer Storefront: https://geni.us/uXVc 🔗 Website: https://healthydadhacks.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Music licensed from PremiumBeat.com Track: “American Muscle” – Good News Tunes YouTube Monetization ID: CGN8V46HR6EATYU2