Basketball Trading Card Sells for Over $12 Million
- by Michael Stillman
$12,932,000.
“Do you hear that rumbling? It's the sound of the standing world record price for a basketball card getting ready to fall. For five years, the 2009-10 National Treasures Steph Curry Logoman Autograph card has enjoyed the view from the top of the heap, the $5.9 million private sale to an investment fund in July 2021 demonstrating the virtually unlimited elasticity of the market's upper edge.
“We're proud and privileged here at Heritage for the opportunity to take the title back for the auction world...”
They knew. That was Heritage Auctions pre-sale description of the coming auction of the Upper Deck Dual Logoman autographed 2007-08 basketball card of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In 2007, Jordan was already retired after a career that many consider qualifies him as the greatest basketball player ever. Bryant was halfway through a career that qualifies him as one of the greatest to play the game.
This card was special. It was designed to be that way from the beginning, unlike earlier price record baseball cards from Honus Wagner and Mickey Mantle. Nevertheless, it's hard to imagine that the people at Upper Deck could have expected this. When the hammer went down, the price stood at an incredible $12,932,000. For a basketball card. A small piece of cardboard with a couple of patches and autographs. 12.932 million big ones. That is a record price for any sports card.
The previous record for a basketball card was $5.9 million paid in a private sale in 2021 for a 2009-2010 Stephen Curry card. Curry is not some historic figure. He is still active. The previous record for any sports card was $12.6 million in 2022 for a 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. Mantle cards bring astronomical prices so perhaps he will one day reclaim the throne, but for now it's Jordan and Bryant at the top.
Heritage knew the price would reach the sky, but even they did not put it up in the stars. They estimated the price at $6 million, which might seem extreme for a small basketball card, but proved to be less than half the actual selling price. When you combine a passion for sports and an unusual amount of personal wealth, strange things can happen. Such was case on Saturday, August 23. I don't know who was happier, the buyer or the seller. The rest of us can just look in wonder.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
