UPDATE: The card featuring Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan sold on Saturday night for $12.932 million, the highest price ever paid for a sports card. The day the bidding closed, August 23, was Bryant’s birthday.
A unique Kobe Bryant-Michael Jordan basketball card up for auction has already become one of the most valuable sports collectibles ever, as bidding vaulted over $6.2 million during the weekend.
Only three sports cards have ever been sold at a higher value.
“This 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Logoman, which is a one-of-one, is just an incredible modern card that combines Michael Jordan and Bryant together. We think it is going to set a record as the most expensive modern card ever sold,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said on a phone call.
Bidding already values the card at $6.22 million, including a $1.12 million buyer’s premium to be paid to the auction house. If sold at that price when the auction closes in five days, the card will be the 10th most valuable piece of sports memorabilia ever sold, passing the Muhammad Ali “Rumble in the Jungle” belt, which sold for $6.18 million to the late Jim Irsay. The most valuable sports card ever gaveled was a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, which went for $12.6 million three years ago, while a rare Honus Wagner T-206 and a Babe Ruth rookie card each sold for more than $7 million in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The Kobe-Jordan card “has been in a private collection for over a decade, with someone who has fielded very significant private offers, and they just felt it the time was now to put it out there,” Ivy said. The name of the seller isn’t being disclosed. The card is signed by both superstars and features two NBA logos sourced from a jersey worn in the 1996-97 championship season by Jordan, and a jersey worn by Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020.
The sky-high bids for the card continue a trend of record sales for sports memorabilia that started during the pandemic. “2020 just seemed to throw gasoline on the fire, especially for higher-end items,” Ivy said. All of the 10 most valuable sports collectibles have been sold since.
“I think people are looking at it from a financial perspective,” Ivy said. “Inflation is a concern, the value of the dollar. And one way to hedge against inflation is to buy hard assets and diversify portfolios. Not just real estate or the stock market, but also collectibles.”
As of Monday morning, Heritage reported 38 registered bidders for the card, with the auction scheduled to end Saturday night.
