One of the 23 autographed 1997-98 Upper Deck Game Jersey Michael Jordan patch cards is now one of the highest selling Jordan cards of all-time.
The BGS 8 copy sold for $840,000 late last week in PWCC’s January Premier sale. The price places it sixth on the list of most expensive Jordan cards sold.
The Upper Deck Game Jersey cards featured a swatch from Jordan’s 1992 All-Star game jersey and were among the first memorabilia cards ever produced.
Only one of the 23 autographed copies that were produced by Upper Deck carries a higher grade from BGS. The card’s major selling point was the 10 autograph grade on what is a notoriously tough surface to sign.
The price represents a 788% increase from the last sale of the same card which took place in 2018 ($94,630).
Other items with ties to Jordan also produced strong prices.
A complete 1986-87 Fleer Basketball set, with each card graded PSA 10 including Jordan’s rookie card, sold for $408,000 while a 1998 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Jordan numbered to 50 and graded PSA 8 netted $198,000. Photographer Carl Sissac’s original oversized print of Jordan’s famous “Phantom Move” against the Lakers in the 1991 Finals sold for $20,400– the most ever paid for a 1990s Jordan photo and the third highest sale of any Jordan photo to date.
The top three auction sales for Jordan photos have all been photos from his rookie season.
A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded 6.5 by PSA set an all-time high for the grade when it sold for $240,000. The price blew away the previous record set in July 2021 by more than 81%.
A PSA 10 copy of the 1978 rookie card featuring Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Alan Trammell sold for $66,000, setting a new record. Only 29 of the 8,108 copies submitted to PSA have been awarded a 10. The card is notorious for a black print smudge that appears on many of the cards and centering is also a challenge.
A 2009 National Treasures Gold Steph Curry RPA numbered to 25 and graded BGS 9.5 ended at $204,000.
Total auction sales were over $11.8 million. The auction featured 261 assets across baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and gaming cards.
Not everything is setting new records, though. Some sports cards that had been selling for unprecedented numbers a year or two ago have taken noticeable drops over the last 15 months.
A BGS 9 copy of the 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite LeBron James Rookie Patch Autograph sold for $564,000. The same card has sold been reported as sold last July for $1.2 million. A BGS 8.5/10 2000 Contenders Championship Ticket Tom Brady autograph numbered 97/100 that had brought $1.4 million in October 2021 sold for $600,000 and a 2009-10 Topps Curry gold numbered to 50 went for $138,000, well off the last auction price of $336,000.
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