Monday, August 25, 2025 - A rare, signed sports collectible card featuring NBA legends Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant sold for $12.932 million on Saturday night, August 23, setting a new record for the most expensive sports card ever sold.
The 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman
Autographs Jordan & Bryant card, numbered 1-of-1, surpassed the previous
record held by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, which sold for $12.6 million in
August 2022. The auction was conducted by Heritage Auctions, though the buyer’s
identity remains undisclosed.
The Jordan-Bryant card now ranks as the second-most
expensive sports collectible of all time, behind Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series
“called shot” jersey, which sold for $24.12 million nearly a year ago.
Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, recalled
when Upper Deck first released the Exquisite Collection, charging $500 for a
five-card pack in the 2003-04 release. The set was responsible for producing a
$5.2 million LeBron James rookie card, which previously held the record for the
most expensive basketball card until this sale.
“[They were] kind of mocked, but it tapped into a
demographic that wasn’t interested in gimmicks: They just wanted the best of
the best,” Ivy said. “They were adding patches and signatures, Logomen – this
was [one of] the first times logos from the jersey were used in this manner.”
Ivy noted that the rarity of the card drove its price,
despite it receiving a grade of only 6 from Professional Sports Authenticator
(PSA).
“A 1986 Fleer Jordan in a grade 6 sells for a couple
thousand while a [grade] 10 sells for almost $200,000 currently,” Ivy said.
“Grades matter as far as pricing goes for standard-issue cards, but this is a
1-of-1, so the grade is less important overall to how the card performed.”
The card’s consignment process began in February. The
previous owner had held the card for over a decade, turning down “high
seven-figure” private offers before opting for a public auction.
“The pre-auction estimate was $6 million-plus, so sometimes
if a piece is unique like this, it’s really beneficial to let it have its day,”
Ivy said. “[Where] you can have new collectors come out of the woodwork or
people willing to participate and pay more.”
In light of the ongoing Brett Lemieux fraudulent memorabilia
scandal, Ivy assured collectors of the card’s authenticity.
“[The scandal] makes items like this a little more
desirable: Upper Deck has Jordan under contract; he’s been with them for
decades. Kobe was with Upper Deck until 2009,” Ivy said. “They worked with
these athletes directly to have this item signed. It’s guaranteed by them as
well as PSA. That’s why you see a premium for items that have verified
provenance and authentication.”
This sale comes amid a surge of high-value Kobe Bryant
memorabilia transactions. High-end collector Matt Allen, known as Shyne on
social media, recently spent $4 million on two 1-of-1 Bryant Panini Flawless
Logoman cards: one from 2017-18 for $1.7 million and another from 2015-16 for
$2.3 million, which had set the previous record for a Bryant card until
Saturday
Bryant would have turned 47 on the day of the historic sale.
0 Comments