One of the highest graded Bill Russell rookie cards now ranks as one of the top three highest selling vintage basketball cards. A PSA 8.5 copy set the pace in PWCC’s May Vintage Premier Auction when it closed at $660,000.
The price set a record for any Russell card ever sold and now stands third behind a PSA 9 1948 Bowman George Mikan rookie that sold for $800,000 in March of last year and a PSA 9 1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain rookie that PWCC says was purchased for $670,000 via private sale last June. The same card sold for $630,000 via Heritage Auctions in August of 2021.
The card came with the company’s “PWCC-A” designation for overall eye appeal.
“It’s worth looking beyond the sales price and taking a moment to appreciate the quality of this card from a historical perspective,” said Jesse Craig, Vice President of Sales at PWCC Marketplace. “There are no PSA 10 copies of this card and just three PSA 9 copies in existence. None of those 9s have ever surfaced at public auction. There are two copies of the card graded to a PSA 8.5 and this copy holds above average eye appeal according to our experts. When you take all of that into consideration it is possible that this is the best-looking copy of the card to exist in the world.”
The Russell rookie was one of eleven vintage basketball cards to set new player records over the last week through PWCC as collectors of ultra-high-grade vintage sets chased some of the best copies to come on the market:
- Calvin Murphy ($90,000) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Elvin Hayes ($78,000 – ’72 Topps PSA 10)
- Earl Monroe ($40,800) – ’70 Topps PSA 10)
- David Thompson ($37,200) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Jack Marin ($36,000) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Artis Gilmore ($28,200) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Bob Weiss (24,600) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Guy Rodgers (24,600) – ’69 Topps PSA 10)
- Mel Counts (24,600) – Topps rookie PSA 10)
- Greg Smith ($25,800) – ’69 Topps PSA 10)
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Notes: Record for Signed 1952 Mantle Card; High-End Hoops Cards; Fanatics Auctions Return; Gordie Howe Items Sell for Charity
