If you thought the sports card market had reached its peak, think again. Saturday night’s Goldin Auctions sale generated eye-popping numbers.
The most astounding sale was of two gem mint Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer rookie cards in PSA 10 grade that sold for $738,000 each.
For years, the Jordan rookie in a Gem Mint 10 hovered between $18,000 and $30,000. But “The Last Dance” documentary gave the card a huge boost.
In April, a new record was set at $51,600. It didn’t last long. Three weeks later, it nearly doubled to $96,000.
In August, it was speculated that the final unopened case of the 1986-87 Fleer set, with 12 boxes in it, sold for for $1.78 million.
Given that each box should have 36 Jordan rookies and 36 Jordan rookie stickers, that now looks like a deal.
PSA 10s are not likely all that likely to score. There are 316 of them out of the 20,281 Jordans that have been graded (1.5 percent). But with the bump up to the new high, a PSA 9 — of which there more than 3,000 — sold on eBay for $66,123 on Saturday night. In April, the record for this card was $12,500.
The Jordan rookies weren’t the only astounding card sales of the auction. Two rookie patch autographs, numbered to 5, sold for more than $850,000 each. A Patrick Mahomes card sold for $861,000, while a Steph Curry sold for an astounding $984,000. A 1925 Lou Gehrig rookie card sold for more than $800,000, a record for any Gehrig card.
