USA TODAY-USA TODAY NETWORK
A one-of-a-kind Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Upper Deck card just set a new record for the most expensive sports card ever. The autographed patch card sold for $12.932 million, beating out a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $12.6 million in August 2022.
Prior to the auction, Heritage Auctions predicted the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant card would surpass the $6 million paid for a one-of-one Stephen Curry 2009 Panini National Treasures Logoman autographed patch rookie card. That card, however, was sold privately. The record auction price for a basketball card was the $3.12 million paid in 2022 for a one-of-a-kind Luka Doncic 2018 Panini National Treasures Logoman autographed patch rookie card.
The $12.932 million paid for the Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Upper Deck card also blew away the highest prices ever paid for a Michael Jordan card ($2.93 million for a one-of-a-kind 2003-04 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Ultimate Logos Logoman autographed patch card) and a Kobe Bryant card ($2.3 million for a one-of-a-kind 2015-16 Panini Flawless Logoman autographed patch card).
MJ and Mamba beat Mickey, Babe and Honus
Prior to the sale of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, the record price for a sports card at auction had belonged to a 1909 Sweet Caporal T-206 Honus Wagner card that was purchased for $7.25 million in a private sale in 2022. A 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth Rookie card ($7.2 million) and another 1909 Sweet Caporal T-206 Honus Wagner card ($6.6 million) round out the top five most expensive sports cards ever sold.
According to Heritage Auctions, “The ‘Dual NBA Logo Autographs’ series from which this specimen derives ran from 2004 through 2009 and was produced in limited editions of one, although players often appeared in multiple different pairings. Jordan had eight such appearances — four with LeBron James, two with Julius Erving, one with Scottie Pippen, and this Kobe card. Kobe appeared on eleven, and we’ll repeat that this is the only Jordan example.”
Fanatics Collect reports that the one-of-a-kind Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Upper Deck card was purchased by collector Gerald Fortier for $25,000 in 2013. He then sold it two years later for $170,000 (or about $231,705.57 today). That collector then kept the card for a decade before putting it up for auction and selling it for about 76 times what they paid for it.