A LeBron James rookie card sold for $1.845 million at auction this week, a staggering price for such a new card and an active player.
The card was sold to Lob.com CEO Leore Avidar, who I suppose has money to burn and is super into basketball cards.
To understand how an active player could have a card that was valued so highly, it helps to understand exactly what type of card it was. For James’ rookie year, Upper Deck produced a Patch Autograph set, which includes a patch of the player’s jersey from his rookie season, as well as an autograph on the card.
They usually make 99 of each card, but for this James card, it was different.
This particular James card, however, was part of the Patch Autograph Parallel set that only produced the same number of cards corresponding to the number on the player’s jersey.
With James wearing No. 23, there were only 23 of this card produced, and since it was graded as a 9.5 mint gem by Beckett grading service, it was one of only two of these particular cards graded that high.
Basically, there are only two cards like this, of this quality, in the world. And rare things have more value, because, you know, capitalism.
And this is how a basketball card for a player who is still very much active went for so much money. It also helps that James is one of the two best players to ever live.
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