A 2003-2004 rookie LeBron James Upper Deck patch parallel card sold at a $ 1.85 million auction Sunday at Goldin Auctions to Lob.com CEO Leore Avidar.
The price on the rare card sets a record for cards today (recognized as cards produced in 1980 or later) and is the highest amount a basketball card has ever been sold.
“If we were talking about a T206 [Honus] Wagner, or a 1952 [Mickey] Mantle, it probably wouldn’t be that much news, “said Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions.” But when you talk about a card that was produced literally 17 years ago and is for a boy who still plays in the NBA, it is shocking news for many people. It really is where my particular industry has been going for several years. “
The record sale beat a previous record set in May, when the same auction house sold a GEM mint Bowman Draft Chrome Red Refractor Mike Trout signed rookie card for $ 922,500. The Trout card was one of five produced, and the highest rating.
The auction house has now helped break three modern card records just this year alone when it sold a Logoman card from the exquisite 2003-2004 Upper Deck collection with LeBron James and Michael Jordan for $ 900,000, the Trout card in May for $ 922,500, and now eclipsing the million dollars mark with James’ letter.
The Upper Deck rookie patch autograph set generally produced just 99 of each card, which included a player rookie season jersey patch and an autograph on the card. However, this particular James card was part of the parallel patch autograph set that only produced the same number of cards that corresponded to the number on the player’s jersey.
For James, who was wearing number 23, only 23 of this card were produced, and given that Beckett’s rating service rated it as a 9.5 mint gem, it was one of only two cards in particular rated as high.
“There are only two of them, one is in private hands and the other was up for auction,” Goldin said. “So this was truly the best LeBron card anyone could have hoped for. It was a very active offer, many bidders, and we are happy with the results.”
The basketball card market has steadily increased over the years with more and more sales of modern cards coming from the basketball side.
“Today, I would say basketball in some cases is stronger than baseball and in other cases it is side by side with baseball,” Goldin said. “I have a huge number of foreign bidders from China, we’ve had bidders from the Middle East, bidders from Australia and Europe. With baseball, it’s completely North American; it’s 99 percent North American. With basketball, it could be as much as 50 60 percent of the offers abroad because it is more of a world sport.
“It is growing and I think it could potentially have more growth than collecting in baseball.”
The same lot also sold a pair from Michael Jordan’s rookie season, used shoes from the 1984-1985 game for $ 369,000, as well as an autographed 2004-2005 Patch Parallel LeBron James card for $ 246,000.
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