The Chairman of the Federal Reserve signaled last week that interest rates are coming down. In response, the stock market shot up to all-time highs. And just two days later, this autographed Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant double Logoman card became the expensive sports car of all-time selling for nearly $13M on August 23rd after receiving 82 bids:
The buyers were Matthew Allen, Kevin O’Leary and Paul Warshaw -- O'Leary, a Canadian entrepreneur and investor, is most famous for being “Mr. Wonderful” on ABC’s Shark Tank. In an Interview on CNBC, O'Leary called the card an asset similar to Bitcoin, gold, art or other collectibles, but "a lot more fun.”
Was this record-setting sale warranted? Was it the beginning of a new collectibles bull market or just a mere outlier?
In its favor, this one-of-one card is the only dual Logoman ever produced featuring both Kobe and Jordan. As background, Logoman cards feature game-worn jersey patches cut from the NBA uniform that contains the NBA logo of Jerry West -- the Logoman. Bryant signed 11 dual Logoman cards before his untimely death in 2020, and Jordan signed eight, but this is the only card that includes both NBA legends together.
This card was the most expensive sports card ever sold, but not the most expensive sports collectible of all-time.
This sale eclipsed the previous sales record for a sports card -- a $12.6M sale in August 2022 for an SGC 9.5 copy of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card which was, at the time, the highest price ever paid for a sports card at a public auction. It did sell towards the back end of the collectibles boom just as the market entered a long-running bear market. This suggests to me that this card might have sold for less had it come to market in 2023 or 2024.
As additional context, the most expensive sports collectible sale of all-time was the August 2024 $24.12M sale of the jersey Babe Ruth wore during a 1932 World Series game in Chicago when he allegedly predicted that he would hit a home run (which he famously did).
While the double Logoman card sold for just over half of that amount, I'm not surprised -- this particular Babe Ruth jersey is truly the stuff of legends.
The Bryant & Jordan Logoman card sold for more than twice as much as the most expensive comic book of all-time.
In comparison to other types of collectibles, the Bryant / Jordan Logoman card sold for more than twice as much as the most expensive comic book ever sold -- a $6M sale in April 2024 for a CGC 8.5 Pedigree copy of Action Comics #1.
Interestingly, Heritage Auctions, which is highly regarded as one the largest and most well-respected auction houses in the world, estimated that this double Logoman card would bring in "at least $6 million." The estimate was almost certainly based upon the most expensive basketball card of all-time, a Steph Curry rookie Logoman card that was autographed by Curry which sold privately for $5.9M back in 2021. Heritage's pre-auction estimate for the Jordan / Bryant card was most likely on the conservative side because the Steph Curry card sold during the pandemic-fueled collectibles boom of 2021-22.
Now that values have reached pre-pandemic levels, and we've likely shaken out many of the short-term investors looking to make a quick buck over the past few years, this breakout sale could be a reflection of larger shifts in the marketplace.
Does it tell us anything that the card sold for over 2x Heritage's pre-auction estimate?
