A basketball collectors card featuring current superstar LeBron James' rookie season has been sold for $1.845 million. This marks the highest fee a card has been sold for across all sports in the modern era.
The basketball card was originally made in James' rookie season in 2003-04. The card featured a 9.5/10 rating for the then rookie of the year, his signature, and a fragment of his Cleveland Cavaliers jersey. This version has a further uniqueness however by being a special edition of release correlating with the player's number. Being #23 at the time of course, this means the cards were limited from the typical 99 the Patch Autograph usually released, down to 23. To make things even more enticing for bidders too, this is one of only 2 of the 23 cards that have been graded with a 9.5 mint gem condition by the Beckett grading service. The other is privately owned.
The company that held the auction, Goldin Auctions, have made a habit of breaking records recently. Just this year alone it smashed records, first by selling a dual Exquisite LeBron James and Michael Jordan Logoman for $900,000 in February, and again in May by selling Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout rookie card for $922,500. The joint James/Jordan card was the record at the time for a basketball card, but the Trout card comes in a long line of exorbitant baseball records.
The most surprising factor with this card's value is that it is from a sport that previously has not been quite as involved with collectors cards. When compared to the business that baseball cards have developed, having notched multiple well into the millions, the American valuation of basketball cards and even gaming cards, seems quite diminished. In recent years however, efforts have been made to integrate video games with card games to accommodate modern audiences.
Goldin commented on the basketball cards however, stating, "I have a tremendous amount of overseas bidders from China; we've had bidders from the Middle East, bidders from Australia and from Europe." While basketball is notably popular in Europe and China in particular, with growing interest in Australia, it comparably has a far greater range of interest than opposed to the "completely North American..." and perhaps Japanese demographic of baseball.
Trends in limited edition gear are nothing new, with even many modern consoles quickly becoming vintage consoles. With this growing interest in world basketball and basketball cards however, current cards may experience a particular surge in popularity. Originally valued at $125, this LeBron James card boasts an almost 1.5 million percent value increase. Based off this alone, it's not hard to see why collecting cards is so popular.
Source: ESPN