A LeBron James autographed rookie basketball card sold for $5.2 million this month, making it the most expensive basketball card ever sold, and tying it with a 1952 Mickey Mantle card for the most expensive sports card ever sold. The James card, a 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection RPA (rookie patch autograph) parallel with the No. 23 etched on it, sold for the large sum according to PWCC Marketplace. It holds a Beckett Grading Services grade of 9 as a card and a perfect 10 signature, according to ESPN. It's one of two cards ever graded that high by Beckett. The previous record for a basketball card was a Luka Doncic Panini National Treasures Logoman RPA that sold for $4.6 million in March. The collectors card skyrocketed from $1.85 million to $5.2 million since last summer, illuminating James' value in the hobby collectors world.NBA BOYCOTT:LeBron James responds to Cincinnati bar refusing to show NBA games until he's 'expelled'THANK THE ACADEMY:Kevin Durant, Mike Conley win Oscar for 'Two Distant Strangers'According to ESPN, the buyer of the card remains anonymous. "Exquisite was a revolutionary product when it came out in 2003," Jesse Craig, PWCC's director of business development, told ESPN. "It was the most expensive retail product that had ever been released, at $500 a box, and they were only made from 2003 to 2009; the rarity of those assets carries a lot of weight for collectors and investors today." Source link
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