A historic trading card featuring basketball legends Michael Jordan and LeBron James has changed hands for $10 million, collectibles and memorabilia media company CLLCT reported, marking one of the highest-value sports card transactions.
Joining an Elite Portfolio
The card “has been one of the most talked-about missing pieces in the hobby, a true ghost,” Fanatics Collect said on Instagram on Oct. 10 when announcing the sale. It will join the WonderShyne Index, a portfolio of ultra high-end cards curated by “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, collector Matt Allen, and entrepreneur Paul Warshaw.
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The card was originally purchased in raw condition and has since received a Professional Sports Authenticator grade of 5 with an autograph grade of 9, Allen said on Instagram. “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,” Heritage Auctions‘ Director of Sports Auctions Chris Ivy told Yardbarker. He emphasized that the card is one of “the finest modern basketball card in the world.”
The WonderShyne Index comprises eight cards with a combined Index Value of $26.6 million, CLLCT reported. The portfolio’s most notable holding remains the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Kobe Bryant–Michael Jordan Dual Logoman 1/1, which sold for a record $12.93 million in August. That Bryant-Jordan card was sold through Heritage Auctions and set the record for a modern sports card, ESPN reported in August.
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Ranking Among History’s Biggest Sales
The $10 million Jordan-James card sale ranks as the third-highest sports card sale in history, according to Yardbarker. The top position belongs to the Bryant-Jordan Dual Logoman, while second place goes to a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $12.6 million in August 2022 through Heritage Auctions, according to media reports.
The Mantle card’s journey began in the 1980s when a man named Alan Rosen paid over $125,000 for 5,500 1952 Topps cards, ESPN reported. Rosen sold one of the dozens of ungraded Mantle cards for $50,000 to a buyer who remained anonymous for 31 years, with that card never being graded during over three decades of ownership.
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How Exquisite Collection Changed the Game
The Exquisite Collection revolutionized the sports card industry when Upper Deck first released it for the 2003-04 season, charging $500 for one five-card pack, Ivy told ESPN. That product was “kind of mocked” initially but “tapped into a demographic that wasn’t interested in gimmicks,” Ivy added. “They were adding patches and signatures, Logomen — this was [one of] the first times logos from the jersey were used in this manner,” Ivy told ESPN.
Since then, Panini’s National Treasures and Flawless lines have commanded $3,000-plus per box upon release, ESPN said. “Exquisite paved the way,” Ivy told the outlet, adding that the collection remains “the pinnacle as far as modern card collectors are concerned.”
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