2000 Bowman’s Best Franchise Favorites: Magic Johnson & Shaquille O’Neal Dual Auto (FF3A)

One of the best early double-autograph basketball cards is the 2000 Bowman’s Best Franchise Favorites card featuring Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal with stunning on-card autographs of two of the greatest players to ever play the game.

Shaquille O’Neal and Magic Johnson are two of the most iconic basketball players in history. Both players dominated the NBA in their respective eras, and their impact on the game continues to be felt today. Below we’ll explore the careers of Shaq and Magic, how their legacy has influenced the game, and a brief analysis of this incredible card.

Shaquille O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal, also known as Shaq, was one of the most dominant big men in NBA history. The Orlando Magic secured the much anticipated top draft pick in the 1992 NBA draft and Shaq quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with, averaging 23.4 points on 56.2% shooting, 13.9 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game in his rookie year. His combination of size, strength, and athleticism made him nearly impossible to guard, and he quickly became one of the league’s top scorers and rebounders.

Shaq’s impact on basketball was not limited to his individual statistics. He was also a team player, and he led the Lakers to three consecutive championships from 2000-2002. His partnership with Kobe Bryant is still regarded as one of the greatest tandems in NBA history. Shaq’s dominant style of play also inspired a new generation of big men, and his legacy continues to shape the game today.

Off the court, Shaq was also a larger-than-life personality. He embraced his role as an entertainer, releasing several rap albums and appearing in movies and TV shows. He also founded the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, which provides support and resources to at-risk youth. Shaq’s business savvy and investments in numerous businesses have also made him one of the wealthiest athletes in the world.

Magic Johnson

Erving “Magic” Johnson is another iconic basketball player whose impact on the game cannot be overstated. He was drafted first overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979 and quickly established himself as one of the league’s top players, averaging 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game in his rookie season. His combination of size, speed, and court vision made him a nightmare for opposing teams, and he led the Lakers to five championships in the 1980s.

Magic’s impact on the game was not limited to his individual statistics, either. He was also a team player who was known for his unselfishness and ability to make his teammates better. His rivalry with Larry Bird, another iconic player of the era, is still regarded as one of the greatest in sports history. Magic’s legacy continues to influence the game today, as players still strive to emulate his unselfishness and team-first mentality.

Off the court, Magic has also been an influential figure. He has been a vocal advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and has worked to combat the stigma surrounding the disease. He has also been an entrepreneur and philanthropist, founding the Magic Johnson Foundation, which provides resources and opportunities to underserved communities.

Comparing Shaq and Magic

Despite playing in different eras, Shaq and Magic share many similarities. Both players were dominant on the court and led their teams to multiple championships; Magic has 5 rings with the Lakers and Shaq has 4 rings (3 with the Lakers and 1 with the Miami Heat). Both players also larger-than-life personalities who used their platform to make a difference off the court. Shaq’s impact on the game was perhaps more physical, as his size and strength made him nearly impossible to guard. Magic’s impact was more cerebral, as his court vision and ability to make his teammates better set him apart.

In terms of their impact on the game, it’s hard to say who had a greater influence. Shaq’s dominant style of play inspired a new generation of big men, and his legacy can still be seen in players like Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic. Magic’s unselfishness and team-first mentality continue to be admired by players today, and his impact on the game of basketball is still felt. Magic’s highlight reels are about as good as it gets, especially for anyone who enjoys insane play making and beautiful assists.

Franchise Favorites Dual Auto

Shaquille O’Neal and Magic Johnson’s impact on the game cannot be overstated, and the Franchise Favorites Dual Auto showing both players in the iconic yellow Laker’s jersey is an incredible card for any basketball card collector to have in their collection. The card itself has a beautiful chrome refractor-like finish which makes it look fantastic under the right light and the on-card autographs are a nice feature, typical of many cards of the late 90’s and early 2000s. Shaq’s auto is noteworthy because he followed a slight trend among many NBA big men at the time by adding his number to his signature (other examples include David Robinson and Dikembe Mutombo).

The back of the card makes a Shaq/Magic connecting with the following text:

“In 1984, O’Neal watched Johnson swish a game-winning hook in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. It was, Shaq says, his favorite Finals memory. When O’Neal joined the Lakers in ’96, Magic was so excited that he considered a comeback. In ’00, Shaq and Johnson (a part-owner of the Lakers) celebrated the title together.”

This card rarely surfaces on eBay due to scarcity and popularity. According to PSA’s website, there are only 10 graded copies, and none have graded higher than an 8! In fact, there are no PSA 10s for any of the Franchise Favorite autographed cards. This cards scarcity also makes valuing the card quite difficult, since PSA doesn’t have any price history for this card and the only listed card available on eBay is a PSA 8 with an asking price of $2,000. The only comps are a PSA 6 Shaq Auto (FF1A), which sold for $260 back in 2021 and a PSA 7 Magic Auto (FF2A) which sold for $230 back in 2022. All in all, its a very sexy card made even sexier with the help of our model-friend Michelle.

Distinguishing Real vs Fake FF3As

Unfortunately there are many fake copies of this card floating around and its easy to be tricked. In fact, yours truly was duped into buying a fake. The card in all the photographs throughout this post is a fake, which I was annoyingly unaware of until a few people confirmed this on instagram – big thanks to @smithsportscards for the heads up and for the post about the fakes, which is summarized below.

The two biggest tells for distinguishing a real vs a fake are the front of the card, where the real copies have a slightly textured or embossed look to them, while the fakes are completely flat. The image quality on the real cards is also slightly sharper, however this is very difficult to distinguish in photographs on eBay. The image below (courtesy of Smith Sports Cards) does a nice job highlighting these differences.

The back of this card also helps to distinguish real copies over fakes. The yellow background color containing most of the text for both Magic and Shaq is a much yellower color and looks to closely match the color of Shaq’s Lakers jacket. The fakes have text boxes that are far more orange in color. Perhaps the easiest tell is the pattern of white spots that can be seen on the back of the fakes in the upper right, just to the left of the FF3A (clearly visible in the image below). The real copies don’t have that printing imperfection but that seems to be prevalent on most (if not all) of the fakes. It is clearly visible on the fake I owned, which ended up being the most compelling reason for me to destroy it.

Lastly, I’m not sure how much this will hold up, but the fake below also has a ID number that begins with the number 5, my fake copy also began with a 5. Could just be a coincidence but I wanted to call that out.

What to do if you find out you own a fake?

Destroy it. If possible, find a fun way to destroy it, but just get rid of it. You could also share your fake on instagram using the hashtag #fakesportscards to bring more awareness to collectors in general. I had some fun destroying my fake copy.

1993-94 Finest Basketball Set

If you’re a basketball card collector, then you know, or have at least heard of, the 1993 Finest basketball card set. This set is one of the most popular and sought-after sets in the hobby, and for good reason. The set is known for its sleek metallic design, innovative technology, and high-quality cards. In this post, we’ll dive into the history of the 1993 Finest basketball card set and why it’s still so popular among collectors today.

The 1993 Finest basketball card set was released by Topps, one of the biggest names in the trading card industry. The set features 220 cards, which included some of the best veteran players as well as an impressive class of rookies. What made this set so unique was the use of innovative technology to create high-quality, refractor cards. Refractor cards, for those of you new to collecting, are cards that feature a reflective surface, giving them a shiny and colorful appearance.

History of the 1993 Finest Basketball Card Set

The 1993 Finest set was the first set to use refractor technology, which made the cards stand out from any other set that had been released up to that point. The refractor cards were inserted into packs at a rate of 1 in every 18 packs, making them a rare and highly sought-after addition to any collection.

However, unlike more modern card sets, the 1993 Finest basketball cards did not say the word “refractor” on the back of the card, which is unfortunate for people trying to buy this cards on eBay and other sites.

The 1993 Finest basketball card set also featured several subsets, including All-Stars, Rookies, and Team Leaders. These subsets added an extra layer of excitement to the set, as collectors could try to complete each subset as well as the entire set.

Why the 1993 Finest Basketball Card Set is Still Popular Today

Despite being released almost 30 years ago, the 1993 Finest basketball card set is still incredibly popular among collectors today. There are a few reasons why this set has stood the test of time.

First, the refractor technology used to create the cards is still impressive today. The cards have a unique and eye-catching appearance that collectors can’t resist. Additionally, the rarity of the refractor cards adds to their appeal. Collectors love the thrill of the hunt, and trying to find a rare refractor card is a challenge that many are willing to take on.

Second, the 1993 Finest set featured several high-profile rookies, including Chris Webber, Anfernee Hardaway, Nick Van Exel, Sam Cassell, and Jamal Mashburn. These players went on to have successful careers, which adds to the historical significance of the set. Collectors are always looking for cards that capture a player’s rookie season, and the 1993 Finest set does just that.

Third, the 1993 Finest set features an impressive array of veterans, including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird (his final regular season card), Shaq (his second-year card), John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson, and many more greats from the early 90s era.

Finally, the 1993 Finest set is part of a larger trend in the hobby towards nostalgia. Many collectors who were kids in the 90s are now adults with disposable income, and they’re looking to relive the excitement of their childhood. The 1993 Finest set is a perfect way to do that, as it was a groundbreaking set that captured the attention of collectors in the 90s.

10 Most Valuable 1993 Finest Basketball Cards

Since this was the first set to feature refractors, the values are highly sought after and all 10 of the most valuable cards are refractor cards. Below is a table featuring the Top 10 (as of April, 2023) most valuable cards from this set. Toni Kukoc certainly stands out as a surprise, beating out players like John Stockton, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone to name a few.

Card #	Player Name	PSA 10 Price	PSA 10 Pop
1	Michael Jordan	$22,200	266
3	Shaquille O’Neal	$8,400	49
212	Chris Webber	$4,351	48
99	Shaquille O’Neal	$2,605	37
189	Anfernee Hardaway	$1,676	121
113	Dennis Rodman	$927	19
14	Toni Kukoc	$885	41
74	Clyde Drexler	$752	13
90	Patrick Ewing	$670	13
2	Larry Bird	$650	37

10 Most Valuable 1993 Finest basketball cards (As of 4/2023; all refractors)

Tips for Collecting the 1993 Finest Basketball Card Set

If you’re interested in collecting the 1993 Finest basketball card set, there are a few tips to keep in mind.

First, be prepared to spend some money. The refractor cards are rare and valuable, and they can be expensive to purchase. If you’re on a tight budget, you may want to focus on completing the base set before moving on to the refractor cards.

Second, make sure you’re purchasing cards from a reputable dealer. There are a lot of counterfeit or simply mislabeled cards on the market, so it’s important to do your research and only purchase cards from a trusted source.

One way to nearly guarantee you are buying an actual card from the 1993 Finest Basketball card set is to purchase a graded copy from a trusted card grader like PSA. Graded cards have been evaluated and assigned a grade by a third-party grading service, which gives collectors an idea not only of the card’s quality, but also the value of the card.

1993-94 Ultra Scoring Kings Basketball Cards: Review and Recent Sales Trends

The 1993-94 Ultra Scoring Kings inserts, an insert that used to be more or less overlooked, have recently risen to the top of many collectors wish lists. This instantly recognizable insert with a flash of lighting in the background features Jordan, Shaq, Barkley, and seven other players from the early 90s.

The cards were inserted in one out of every 36 packs on average, so they are rare, but not impossibly so. Still, finding the Jordan and Shaq cards can be a challenge, and the top graded copies of these card can set buyers back thousands of dollars.

Below I’ve covered all players featured in the Ultra Scoring Kings set, I touch on the logic of why they were included in the set, highlight some recent graded and ungraded sales, and take a look back to what these cards were selling for roughly a year ago, assuming there’s enough sales data.

Lets check out these (dare I say iconic) basketball cards from ’93-94 Ultra.

Scoring Kings #1: Charles Barkley

The first 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings insert card features ‘the round mound of rebound’ himself; Sir Charles Barkley. All of the 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings cards feature the same lightning bolt background and have the same “Scoring Kings” icon in the bottom right (but the Dumars card breaks the trend with the icon on the bottom left).

The one main issue I have with these cards is just how dark they are, which detracts slightly from the overall appeal (especially when players are wearing their away uniforms), but all in all these are still awesome early 90s insert cards.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Charles Barkley #1

The shot of Barkley is a decent close up of Chuck sporting the deep purple Phoenix Suns away uniform. Logically it makes sense for Sir Charles to be included in this set, as he held the 5th spot in terms of points per game in the 1992-93 season for scoring, as you can see in the table below.

Rank	Player	PPG
1	Michael Jordan	32.6
2	Dominique Wilkins	29.9
3	Karl Malone	27.0
4	Hakeem Olajuwon	26.1
5	Charles Barkley	25.6
6	Patrick Ewing	24.2
7	Joe Dumars	23.5
8	Shaquille O’Neal	23.4
9	David Robinson	23.4
10	Danny Manning	22.8
11	Dražen Petrović	22.3
12	Larry Johnson	22.1
13	Tim Hardaway	21.5
14	Reggie Miller	21.2
15	Alonzo Mourning	21.0
16	Reggie Lewis	20.8
17	Derrick Coleman	20.7
18	Hersey Hawkins	20.3
19	Brad Daugherty	20.2
20	Nick Anderson	19.9

Top 20 Points Per Game Leaders in the 1992-93 NBA Season

The back of the Barkley Scoring Kings card reads: “The Suns acquired Barkley not only for offense but for rebounding and leadership, too. He delivered in every respect during the 1992-93 season, especially in scoring as he posted the fourth-highest average (25.6 points per game) of his career. In the Playoffs, Barkley rallied the Suns from a 2-0 deficit to a victory over the Lakers in the first round en route to the NBA Finals.”

Ungraded copies of this card will typically sell for between $20 and $35, and you should be able to find a copy in good condition within that range. However, I was bidding on a high quality Barkley and it sold for $51, so these may be creeping up in value with collectors.

According to the PSA website, there are 73 graded copies of this card, of which 25 have received a PSA 9 and 7 have been given perfect GEM Mint PSA 10 grades.

The most recent sale of a PSA 9 occurred in April, 2021, selling for $264. Going back to April, 2020 there were two PSA 9 sales, one selling for $299 and the other selling for just $73. If we take the average of the two sales ($186) and assume $264 is a fair present day price, then PSA 9 copies of this card are up roughly 40% in a year.

The PSA site only has two PSA 10 transactions, the first was a sale back in June, 2018 when a GEM Mint copy sold for $212. The other sale was recorded in July, 2020 when a GEM Mint copy sold for $425, almost exactly double what it sold for just two years earlier.

Scoring Kings #2: Joe Dumars

The second card in the set features Detroit Pistons’ Hall of Fame guard Joe Dumars. The lighting and the close up shot make this one of the stronger looking cards in the set, and this one is unique because it is the only one in the set with the ‘Scoring Kings’ icon on the bottom left hand side of the card.

However, Dumars isn’t nearly as recognizable a player as many others featured in this insert set (like Barkley, Shaq, and Jordan) so this card is fairly easy to pick up for $15-$25. Also, like Barkley, it makes perfect sense for Dumars to be in this Scoring Kings set, since he was firmly in the top 10 in scoring during the 1992-93 season averaging 23.5 a game.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Joe Dumars #2

The back of the Dumars card reads: “For much of his NBA career, Dumars’ offensive talents were only displayed when needed. He was named the 1989 NBA Finals MVP after he stepped up to provide the offense the defense-minded Pistons needed to win the NBA Championship. But Detroit has called upon Dumars to deliver more and more offense in recent seasons, and he has responded by leading the Pistons in scoring average three consecutive seasons (1991-93).”

There are only 38 PSA graded copies of the Dumars Scoring Kings card, making it the second to least common card to find graded. Among those 38 graded cards, 12 have received a PSA 9 grade and 5 have been granted GEM Mint PSA 10 status.

With so few graded cards there isn’t much sales history. The most recent PSA 9 copy of this card sold on May 21, 2021 for $150. Back in July, 2020 a PSA 9 sold for $44, and in February 2020 (right before the “Covid card craze”) a PSA 9 sold for just $16.

There is only a single recorded PSA 10 sale listed on the PSA site, and it sold for an impressive $383 back in January 2019.

Scoring Kings #3: Patrick Ewing

I’m not sure how to explain it, but I’ve always really liked Patrick Ewing and credit one particular Ewing card for getting me into the hobby in the first place. Anyway, I’m glad to see Ewing featured as the third card in this insert set, and he certainly deserves the spot, averaging just over 24 points per game in 1992-93.

The photo of Ewing used for this card shows Ewing mid-shot wearing the classic all-white Knicks home jersey. The white home jersey really pops against the dark background and the contrast makes for a fantastic looking Ewing card.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Patrick Ewing #3

The back of this Ewing Scoring Kings card reads: “Just as the Lakers’ half-court offense used to revolve around Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Knicks, under the direction of Pat Riley, have built their half-court offense around a dominating center. Ewing is the Knicks’ go-to guy, which is ironic considering the doubts about his offense abilities when he first joined the NBA. But in the pros, he has never posted a season average below 20 points per game.”

That last sentence is pretty remarkable, as Ewing would continue posting 20+ point per game seasons until the 1998-99 season, when he got hit with the injury bug and started winding down his career.

Ungraded copies of this Ewing card typically sell in the $10-$20 range, but graded copies will sell for much higher. According to PSA’s website, there are 57 graded copies of the Patrick Ewing Ultra Scoring Kings card. Of those 57 graded cards, 19 were graded a PSA 9 and 10 were graded GEM Mint PSA 10.

The PSA 9 Ewing Scoring Kings cards have been steadily rising for the last few years. The most recent PSA 9 sale went for $175 back in February, 2021. Going back to February, 2020 a PSA 9 sold for just $42.

Much like the PSA 9s, the GEM Mint PSA 10 Ewing Scoring Kings cards have also been steadily increasing in value, without ever seeing a dip (at least going back to 2017). The most recent PSA 10 card sold in December, 2020 for $375. Going back to July of 2020 these PSA 10s were selling for $200, and in July of 2019 a PSA 10 sold for $109.

Scoring Kings #4: Larry Johnson

The fourth card in this ’93-94 Fleer Ultra insert set features Charlotte Hornets power forward Larry Johnson. The Johnson card is a bit unique, because it is one of four not to feature a full-body shot. Instead, with LJ, they zoomed in on him mid-shot and only show him from the bottom of his shorts to the top of his release. Like the Ewing card, the photo of Johnson shows him wearing the Hornets home white uniform, so the picture of Johnson really pops.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Larry Johnson #4

The back of the Johnson Scoring Kings card reads: “NBA teams have had great difficulty slowing Johnson during his first two seasons. He is so strong and so determined that it is difficult to deny him the ball, must less stop him once he has it. He averaged 19.2 points per game en route to winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award for 1991-92, but he was just warming up. He scored 22.1 points per game in 1992-93, shooting 52.6 percent from the field.”

This card is the first on the list that I take minor issue with in terms of why it was included. Larry Johnson was an instant impact type player for the Hornets in his rookie season, and he made a strong showing in his sophomore year, nearly breaking into the top 10 for points per game in the 1992-93 season, but he didn’t quite make it and landed in the 12th spot.

Perhaps Fleer felt he had more name recognition than Danny Manning (10th) or Dražen Petrović (11th), or maybe the feeling at the time was LJ’s future was much brighter than either Manning’s or Petrović’s. In either case, I question Johnson’s inclusion in this set.

Like the Ewing card, the typical selling price for ungraded copies of the Larry Johnson Scoring Kings card will be between $10-$20. There are only 38 PSA graded copies of the Johnson card, and among those 14 were graded a PSA 9 and seven were graded a PSA 10.

There is only one sales transaction for a PSA 9 copy of this card, and that sale took place on January 7, 2021, selling for $184. There are four PSA 10 transactions listed on PSA’s site, with the most recent selling for $350 in mid-December, 2020. Back in 2019 this PSA 10 graded card sold for $154 in April and $96 in August, so even if we take the higher of the two prices this card has more than doubled in a little over a year.

Scoring Kings #5: Michael Jordan

The Scoring Kings card that nearly every 90s basketball card collector wants is the fifth in the set featuring none other than the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan. All in all its a very strong full body shot of MJ looking like he just released the ball after a fade away shot. This is one of the cleanest front-of-the-jersey shots I’ve seen on any insert, and the red from the Bulls away uniform stands out very well, despite the dark background.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Michael Jordan #5

The back of the Jordan Scoring Kings card reads: “Jordan’s average point total would be a career-high for most players. When the situation dictates, he can turn his game up a notch and put up some unbelievable numbers, reminding us that he is truly on another level. Many times during the 1992-93 regular season and NBA playoffs, Jordan elevated his game to a level only he can reach to keep the Bulls on track to their third straight NBA championship.”

Absolutely no question the Jordan card should be included in this set, as he was the Scoring King in the 1992-93 NBA season, averaging 32.6 points per game. Michael Jordan had 8 seasons where he averages 30 or more points per game, making him the ultimate Scoring King.

The only other player in NBA history to record 5 or more seasons averaging 30+ points per game was Wilt Chamberlain, who put up absolutely insane numbers back in the 1960’s, including a 50 point per game season in 1961-62.

Ungraded copies of the Jordan Scoring Kings card in good condition have been recently selling in the $500-$750 range. I had been bidding on a few for around $500 but keep getting outbid.

This is by far the most graded Scoring Kings card, with over 1,000 PSA graded copies. Among those, 211 have been graded a PSA 9 and only 97 have been given a GEM Mint PSA 10 grade.

The PSA website has tons of price history for this Jordan card, and the most recent sales for PSA 9 graded copies have been selling for roughly $2,100. The PSA 9s did balloon up in value in late February and early March, selling at one point for as much as $6K. But back in June of 2020, PSA 9s were selling between $1,100 and $1,400.

With fewer than 100 PSA 10 copies of this card, the costs are prohibitive for most collectors out there, but if you already own a very high quality copy of this card it is certainly worth sending in to be graded.

The most recent sale of a PSA 10 Jordan Scoring Kings card sold on June 20, 2021 for $18.5K. The peak sales price for a PSA 10 was on May 5, 2021 when a copy sold for $29.6K! And looking back to June of 2020, this card was far more affordable, selling in a range of $3,400 to $4,400. The graph below shows just how much this card has climbed going back to May of 2019.

PSA 10 1993 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Michael Jordan Sales (5/1/2019 – 6/202021)

Scoring Kings #6: Karl Malone

The Mailman is featured with the sixth card in this set, and rightfully so. Karl Malone, who is the second all time scorer in the NBA (roughly 1,500 shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who holds the top spot), is captured dribbling the ball wearing the Utah Jazz white home uniform, and its one heck of an image of Malone. What gets me about this shot of Malone is just how ripped he looks, with veins bulging from his neck as he drives with the basketball.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Karl Malone #6

The back of the Malone Scoring Kings card reads: “Malone averaged 27.0 points per game during the 1992-93 season, providing Utah with more than a quarter of its points. The Jazz are used to relying on him, and he is used to carrying the scoring load. The situation will continue until Utah’s opponents figure out a way to stop him, which, as his career average 26.1 points per game attests, they have yet to do.”

There is no question that Malone deserves a spot in this Scoring Kings set, given he dropped an average of 27 points per game in the 92-93 NBA season, good enough for 3rd best that year.

Ungraded Malone Scoring Kings cards typically sell between $15-$35, but its not too uncommon to see them sell for a bit more or less depending on the condition. According to the PSA website, there are 41 graded Malone cards. Among the graded copies, there are 20 PSA 9s and just 5 GEM Mint PSA 10s.

There is a fair amount of sales history for PSA 9 graded copies of this Malone card. The most recent sale of a PSA 9 went for $91 back on April 28, 2021. Interestingly, roughly a year ago there were two PSA 9 sales in May, 2020 that each sold for $125. It doesn’t feel right that this PSA 9 graded card would be down over the course of this blowout year for basketball cards, but this may be a card to watch a high graded copy for cheap.

There are only two PSA 10 sales, with the most recent selling in July, 2020 for $395. Prior to that, the only other sale was back in June, 2018 and sold for $255. Since there are only 5 graded copies of this card, I expect the GEM Mint PSA 10 sales to rise above $400 and stay at those levels, barring any career damaging news stories.

Scoring Kings #7: Alonzo Mourning

The seventh card in this set features Hornets center Alonzo Mourning, and to me this one is a bit of a head scratcher. Don’t get me wrong, Mourning was a fantastic player and did land in the top 10 for points per game in the 1995-96 season, but he was down at 15th for the 1992-93 season, plus Ultra already incorporated a Hornet into this set, so I’m not sure why they chose to also include Zo with the 7th spot.

However, I will say the shot of Mourning releasing the ball high above a defender is pretty fantastic. The lightning behind him really shines bright on this card, and I like that they used a photo of Mourning in the Hornets teal away uniforms, since they already have Larry Johnson sporting the white home jerseys. This card is also only one of three Scoring Kings cards that also captures a defensive player on the card, but the player d’ed up on Mourning is unidentifiable.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Alonzo Mourning #7

The back of the Mourning Scoring Kings card reads: “The Hornets expected Mourning to provide defense and rebounding in his first season, which he did. But he also provided a pleasant surprise of 21.0 points per game, the second-highest average on the team and second only to Shaquille O’Neal among NBA rookies, and an impressive .511 field-goal percentage. He also proved adept at making it to the free-throw line, leading the hornets in free throw attempts made (495) and attempts (634).”

Mourning was a defensive beast, and averaged 3.5 blocks and 10.3 rebounds per game to go along with those 21 points during his rookie season. But oddly enough, Mourning’s best season for free throw percentage was his rookie year, when he shot 78% from the stripe, and only averaged 69% from the line by the end of his career.

Ungraded copies of the Mourning card typically sell in the $15-$25 range, but can certainly sell for outside that range depending on condition. According to the PSA website, there are 45 graded copies of this card. Of those 45 graded copies, 18 are PSA 9s and 10 (over 20%) are GEM Mint PSA 10 graded copies.

Unfortunately there isn’t a ton of data for recent graded sales history for this Mourning card. The most recent PSA 9 card sold back in February, 2021 for $160. And if we go back roughly a year to March, 2020 there was a PSA 9 copy that sold for just $44, so the PSA 9s are up nicely in just shy of a year.

There are only 4 PSA 10 sales listed on the PSA website, and it looks as if the PSA 10s are on a nice steady climb. The most recent GEM Mint PSA 10 sold in April, 2021 for $515. The only sale in 2020 occurred in July, and sold for $285. The other two PSA 10 sales were both back in 2018, with one in June selling for $78 and one in October selling for $89.

Scoring Kings #8: Shaquille O’Neal

Easily the second most popular card in this 10-card insert set is card #8 featuring Shaquille O’Neal. The Shaq Scoring Kings card is a very nice shot of Shaq just after he released what I would ques was a low post shot over Boston Celtic’s center Joe Kleine.

Although I’m a Celtics fan, I wish this card only featured Shaq, much like the Jordan card, but its still a fantastic shot of Shaq in his pinstripe Orlando Magic white home uniform.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra Scoring Kings Shaquille O’Neal #8

The back of the Shaq Scoring Kings card reads: “O’Neal ranked eighth in the NBA and led all rookies in scoring with a per-game average of 23.4 points in 1992-93. That average is impressive, but it is just the beginning. As O’Neal gains more experience, as he improves his free-throw shooting, as Orlando continues to improve, that figure will only go up – a scary thought for the rest of the NBA.”

No question that Shaq belongs in this set, since he was in the top 10 for points per game in the 1992-93 season, with an average of 23.4 points. Unlike Jordan, Shaq would never have a 30+ points per game season, but came very close three times. In his 2nd year in the NBA he would rank 2nd in points per game, with an average of 29.3. During the 1994-95 season he led the league in points per game, again with 29.3.

Shaq’s best season points-wise came in the 1999-2000 season (his 4th season in LA) when he average 29.7 points per game, along with 13.5 rebounds per game (his career high) and 3.0 blocks per game (2nd highest in his career). That same season Shaq would help the LA Lakers win their 12th NBA Championship, as well as being honored both the league and Finals MVP.

Shaq-led Lakers defeat Pacers in 2000 NBA Finals

Ungraded copies of the Shaq Scoring Kings card will generally sell for as low as $30 and as high as $90, depending on condition. With this being the second most popular card in this insert set, it is also the second most graded card in the set, with just shy of 200 graded copies. Of those graded copies, 61 are graded a PSA 9, while only 12 were given a grade of GEM Mint PSA 10.

The most recent PSA 9 sale took place on June 20, 2021 and sold for $354, which is nearly 50% off from its peak sale back in February, when three cards sold for over $600. However, going back to late spring of 2020, this PSA 9 Shaq card was selling in a range of $250 – $350, so its either up or essentially flat, depending on how you want to look at it.

The story is a little different for the GEM Mint PSA 10 copies of this card. The most recent sale of a PSA 10 copy sold on April 1, 2021 for $3,050, which is also down from its March peak, when a PSA 10 sold for $4,000.

However, going back to early 2020, there was a sale in January 2020 that sold for just $428 (granted, that was just before the Covid closedown and subsequent card craze). But in any case, this card looks to be selling for roughly 7-times what it was selling for about a year ago.

Scoring Kings #9: David Robinson

One of the most underappreciated centers of all time gets the 9th spot on this list, and I’m referring to none other than Spurs great, David Robinson. No doubt Robinson (aka The Admiral) deserves a spot in this insert set, as he was tied with Shaq for that 8th/9th spot for points per game in the 1992-93 season, averaging 23.4 points. Robinson would actually lead the league in points per game the following season, averaging just shy of 30 per game (29.8).

Visually, I think this one is my favorite card in the set. I find this to be the best photo of the bunch, featuring Robinson in the white Spurs uniform against the dark backdrop which look awesome, and everything just works with this card.

1993-94 Ultra Scoring Kings David Robinson #9

The back of the Robinson Scoring King card reads: “Despite playing in every game, despite playing a lot of minutes, Robinson just kept putting the ball in the hoop for San Antonio in 1992-93. He led the Spurs with a 23.4 PPG average, pacing the team in scoring in 44-of-82 games. In a game against the Hornets and their front line of Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, Robinson exploded for a career-high 52 points. He also set a career Playoff high with 36 points against Phoenix.”

Like most of the other cards in this set, this ungraded card can be purchased for between $15-$35 at auction. There are 48 graded copies of this card, with 12 receiving a PSA 9 grade, and only 6 getting a top GEM Mint PSA 10 grade.

The most recent PSA 9 copy of this card sold back in February, 2021 for $199. Back in May, 2020 there were two copies of this card sold within one day of each other, with one selling for $120 and the other going for $125. Going back to May 2019 this card was selling for only $31.

As for the GEM Mint PSA 10 copies, there have only been two sales recorded on the PSA site, and both sales were within $5 of each other. One PSA 10 sold back in July, 2020 for $760. The other, which sold in November 2020, went for $765, meaning the price trends for this card are flat. But if you look at the graph on the PSA site, it looks like this card is trending up but the chart is visually misleading.

Screen Shot of Price History graph on PSA’s website for the PSA 10 Robinson Scoring Kings card (#9)

As you can see, the Y-axis starts at $759 and goes up to $766 making sales look like they are on a strong incline, which is incorrect. This leads me to my friendly public service announcement (the other type of PSA) to always double check the Y-axis.

Scoring Kings #10: Dominique Wilkins

The 10th and final card in this beautiful 1993 Ultra insert set features the high flying Hawks forward, Dominique Wilkins. Without question Wilkins deserves a spot in this Scoring Kings roster, as he was just behind Jordan in the 1992-93 season for points per game, dropping just shy of 30 points per game (29.9).

The 1992-93 season was Wilkin’s 3rd best season in terms of points per game. Wilkins led the league in points per game in the 1985-86 season when he averaged 30.3, and his best season came in 1987-88 when he averaged 30.7 to beat out Larry Bird for the #2 spot that year (Bird had 29.9 PPG), but trailing well behind Jordan who had a monster season, averaging 35.0 points per game!

The Wilkins Scoring Kings card is pretty interesting, in that the photo of Wilkins is clearly capturing him while he is getting fouled by a Chicago Bull. This card is the also unique since it nearly captures full body shots of both Wilkins and the defender. Sneakerheads may also appreciate this card because I believe Wilkins is sporting the very popular at the time Reebok pumps, featuring the pump-able basketball on the tongue of the shoe.

1993-94 Ultra Scoring Kings Dominique Wilkins #10

The back of the Wilkins card reads: “Would he ever be the same after the injury? That question dogged Wilkins before the 1992-93 season, but he quickly answered it with a brilliant effort. Wilkins, who turned 33 during the season, averaged 29.9 points per game, the third-best mark of his career. Park of his success can be attributed to his emphasis on three-point shots: Wilkins had a team and career-high 120 three-pointers.”

That final sentence on the back of this card shows just how much the game has changed in nearly 30 years. Wilkins barely led the 1992-93 Hawks in 3 pointers made, with Mookie Blaylock just two made threes behind him, but the next closest player on the team (Paul Graham) only hit 42 over the course of 80 games.

To put things in context, if we were to take Wilkins’ 120 three-pointers (over 71 games) and apply it to the 2020-21 Hawks team, he wouldn’t even be in the top three on the team for three’s, and 2020-21 was a shorter than average season. Wilkins would have been out gunned with the long ball by Bogdan Bogdanović (146 in just 44 games), Kevin Huerter (140 in 69 games), and Trae Young (136 in 63 games).

I digress. The prices for ungraded copies of this card are very affordable, with sales sometimes as low as $9 and typically not selling for over $25. This is the least commonly graded card in this set, with only 36 graded copies. Of those, 10 have been graded a PSA 9 and only 5 have received a GEM Mint PSA 10 grade.

There is very little sales history listed on the PSA website, but the most recent PSA 9 sold just a few days ago on June 23, 2021 for $200. Going back to May, 2020 a PSA 9 copy of this card sold for $100, so this card has doubled in just over a year.

Its been nearly a year since a PSA 10 copy of this card has sold, according to the PSA website. Back in July, 2020 a GEM Mint PSA 10 copy of this card sold for $240. Prior to that sale, the highest price anyone paid for a PSA 10 was $140 back in January, 2019. I’d suspect that any PSA 10 sale today would fetch close to or over $500.

Closing Thoughts

With the Jordan card from this set being so iconic and highly sought after, I think all the other cards in this set will benefit. Although the Jordan card and a few others have pulled back from all-time highs, I think all the cards from this set will be great collectors items going forward and I expect them to recover in price and push well past their all time highs in the years to come.

Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below and feel free to suggest another insert set you’d like to see reviewed. Cheers!

Past and Present NBA Players with Basketball Card Collections

If you’ve been collecting basketball cards for a while, or just recently started following the basketball card market, you know just how crazy things have been recently. There have been multiple million dollar card sales featuring some of the best players, like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Luka Doncic.

However, if you think basketball card collectors are just middle aged men looking to revive a hobby form their childhood during the Covid lockdown, guess again (but if you do think that, you’re probably correct at least 70% of the time).

There are at least a handful of past and present NBA players that are into collecting basketball cards, including some of the NBA’s best, like Lebron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Check out the seven players listed below to see who collects and even get a peak at a few cards in their collections.

Kendrick Perkins

Kendrick Perkins, the retired center who won a title with the Boston Celtics in 2008 and who presently works for ESPN as an analyst, has flaunted a few cards from his personal collection a time or two on social media. Perkins has a strong collection of PSA slabs featuring some of the best modern players, like Zion Williamson, Luka ‘The Don’ Doncic, and Ja Morant.

Below is a TikTok Perkins posted back in 2020 showing off a small sample of his collection. At the end he includes a nice little plug for PSA, saying, “If it ain’t PSA, don’t bring it our way”. You gotta love Perk!

Kendrick Perkins shows off a few PSA slabs from her personal collection

Ray Allen

The former Celtic and two-time NBA Champion, Ray Allen looks to have recently gotten into the hobby. According to a Goldin Auctions tweet from March 3, 2021, Allen purchased a 2004-05 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual NBA Logo Autograph card that features both himself, and his former Bucks teammate Michael Redd.

The Logoman cards are hugely popular and command extremely high prices. The card Allen purchased features two NBA logos in the center of the card, and is autographed by both Allen and Redd.

Goldin Auctions tweet featuring Ray Allen’s Dual NBA Auto Logoman card

Later that same day, Ken Goldin, the owner of Goldin Auctions, shared a few of the other Logoman cards Goldin was selling at the time. To date, there have been multiple million dollar and above Logoman sales.

Ken Goldin’s tweet featuring multiple NBA Logoman cards for sale on March 3, 2021

I’d love to know what Allen paid for his Logoman card, if he has any intention of getting it graded, and how many other cards he owns that feature himself or other NBA legends.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Is basketball card collecting big in Greece, or did Giannis Antetokounmpo get into the hobby once he came over to play ball in the states? Whatever the case, the Bucks All-Star and two-time NBA MVP has one heck of a collection.

Giannis shows off his incredible basketball collection on TikTok

From the looks of his deleted TikTok video (below), it looks like his collection almost entirely consists of ungraded cards of himself, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s also explored acquiring cards featuring other players as well. I wonder if his older brother and teammate, Thanasis, also collects?

Giannis shares some of his personal collection on TikTok

In a November 2021 press conference, Giannis whipped out a 2015 Panini Prizm Bobby Portis Light Blue Parallel rookie card. He talked about how his backup plan, if he ever goes broke, is to sell his cards.

Giannis Antetokounmpo shows off his Bobby Portis rookie card

According to ClutchPoints, those same ungraded Portis rookie cards jumped over 500% shortly after the Giannis press conference.

Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant, the 11 time All-Star and two-time NBA Champion, takes investing in sports cards to another level completely. Not only does he have one of the best cards in the hobby, but he also literally invests in sports cards as a category.

Durant, along with a few of his fellow investors (a group that includes Mark Cuban and Dwyane Wade) invested a cool $40 million into Goldin Auctions (for more on that deal, check out this Yahoo article). But that is just the tip of the iceberg for Durant’s very diversified investment portfolio.

But getting back to cardboard, Durant’s personal collection features some of the coolest cards you’ll ever see. Included in his collections is a one-of-a-kind dual autographed card feature Kobe Bryant and Durant himself.

Boardroom tweet featuring Durant and Kobe autographed Immaculate Collection card

According to a February, 2021 Boardroom tweet, the Immaculate Collection card (pictured above) was gifted to Durant by Panini America.

One interesting statistic that links Durant and Kobe: They are two of only three players in NBA history to have 150+ consecutive double-digit point nights in the playoffs. The third and final person to round out that list is Michael Jordan.

Serge Ibaka

Giannis isn’t the only foreign born player on this list who has shown an interest in the basketball card market. In fact, Serge Ibaka, the Congolese-Spanish big man for the LA Clippers also dabbles (or at least has entertained the idea of dabbling) with basketball card collecting.

In Episode 6 of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Weekly Vee video, he sits down with Ibaka to discuss the basketball card industry and how card prices have been rocketing to the moon.

In the video, Vee talks about how a Paskal Siakam cards were up 80-times over the course of a year. In other words, had you put down around $1,250 in Siakam rookies in early 2019 you’d be looking at $100K worth of Siakam rookies by the time Vee posted the video in early 2020. And at that time the market was still a full year away from reaching all time highs, which it has since retreated from as I write this in June, 2021.

I’d love to know if Ibaka took Vee’s advice and if so what cards he ended up purchasing and if those cards paid off. It would also be interesting to see if any other past or present NBA player saw this video and decided to get into collecting.

Lebron James

On the same day I started this blog almost a year ago, an autographed Lebron James Exquisite Rookie Collection card (serial numbered 14 of 23) sold for $1.845 million dollars, which was the highest price ever paid for a basketball card.

2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite LeBron James Rookie Patch Autograph

On that day, Lebron responded to a SportsCenter tweet saying, “Guess who else has a couple of those exact ones [Lebron rookie cards] too”.

ESPN Tweet on July 19, 2021 and Lebron’s response

Almost a year later, a copy of that same card (unclear if it was also card 14 of 23) sold for $5.2 million, to reclaim the top spot as the most expensive basketball card ever sold. If Lebron owns a couple of those cards, he’s sitting on at least $10 million worth of his own rookie cards!

Knowing Lebron owns two (or more) of the most expensive basketball card ever sold, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has at least a few other cards in his personal collection.

I’d love to know if he has many more copies of cards featuring himself or if he’s diversified his collection and put together a stack of some of his NBA idols – my best guess would be he has at least a few cards featuring Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving.

Lebron James on Larry Bird

Terance Mann

This last one is more of a one-off, and wouldn’t really classify as a player that has a true card collection. However, even though LA Clippers shooting guard Terance Mann doesn’t appear to actively collect cards, he does keep one rookie card on him at all times as his good luck charm.

In the video below, Mann reveals a beat up 2006-07 Topps Rajon Rondo rookie card (#251) during a post game interview and explains the story behind why he always has it on him. Maybe he has since gotten more into the hobby… or at least purchased a few copies of his lucky Rondo rookie.

Terrance Mann Shows Off his Rajon Rondo Rookie card during a Postgame Interview

This handful of players can’t be the only current and former lot of NBA players that are into the hobby. Especially with all the recent money flowing into the hobby, I have to believe there are more players out there. If you know of any others please be sure to contact me directly or leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to update this list.

And I don’t know about you all, but it does make me feel like a bit less of a nerd to see some of the best NBA players of all-time collecting cardboard. It will be interesting to see if that speculative Goldin tweet turns out to be accurate, and if more NBA players and athletes in other sports continue investing (using that term loosely) in the sports card market.

Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Rookie Cards: Review & 1-Year Price Analysis

If Steve Jobs, the late cofounder of Apple, designed a basketball card, I think it would look a lot like the 1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six rookie cards (although he probably would have chosen a simpler font). Jobs preferred simplicity and minimalism to complexity, and the look of these rookie cards are beautifully simplistic, which I find refreshing compared to many modern sets. I currently don’t own any of these cards, but they are high on my watch list, especially the Steve Nash, Kobe, and Ray Allen rookie cards (I’ve never been a big fan of AI).

There were a ton of big names in this rookie class, and many would say it was the strongest rookie card class of all time. Looking at the top 15 picks from the 1996 NBA Draft, it is very hard to argue that point.

At the time of writing this post (June, 2021), basketball card sales are well off there all time highs seen around February of this year, but the comparisons I’m going to make will be comparing graded prices of the top 5 cards from this set to what they were selling for a year ago. Lets check out these rookie cards.

Class of Ninety-Six Allen Iverson (#10)

With the first pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Allen Iverson, the sophomore phenom from Georgetown University. Despite being the shortest player drafted in the 1996 NBA draft at just 6 feet tall, Iverson was the total package and was a prolific scorer.

The Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Iverson rookie card captures a near full-body shot of AI gripping the basketball in both hands with nothing else on the card other than the gold lettering. A super clean and simplistic look compared to many of the modern Panini cards that feature intricate border designs and sometimes too much sizzle going on in the background.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Allen Iverson (#10)

The back of the Iverson Class of Ninety-Six card reads: “One thing can certainly be said about Allen Iverson: he lived up to the hype. And then some. The number one choice in last year’s draft placed among the top ten in scoring and steals in the season’s first half, and earned NBA rookie of the month honors in November.”

Ungraded copies of this Iverson rookie card tend to sell in the $50-$75 range, but high grade copies of this card naturally go for much more. According to the PSA website, there are nearly 175 graded copies of this card, with 100 receiving a PSA 9 grade and 28 getting a perfect GEM Mint 10 grade.

The most recent PSA 9 graded copy of this Iverson rookie sold for $150 on May 13, 2021. Last year in May a PSA 9 sold for only $12.53, so the PSA 9s are up over 1000%.

The most recent PSA 10 graded copy of this card sold in April 2021 for $740. Going back to May of 2020 (the earliest 2020 sale), a PSA 10 Iverson sold for $134.50, so the PSA 10s are up roughly 450% in about a year.

Class of Ninety-Six Stephon Marbury (#14)

With the fourth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, the Milwaukee Bucks selected Stephon Marbury, the freshman from Georgia Tech. The Bucks ended up trading Marbury to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Ray Allen.

The Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Marbury rookie card captures a full-body shot of Marbury dribbling the basketball with his right hand and none of the text flows onto the image. A stunning yet very simple rookie card design that works so well. The one issue with these cards is that they are difficult to photograph, and many images (especially of cards up for sale on eBay) look awful and don’t do these cards justice.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Stephon Marbury (#14)

The back of this card reads: “Stephon Marbury, worth two no. 1 choices to Minnesota (no. 1 choice Ray Allen and a future no. 1 pick), looks more and more like the Wolves’ franchise cornerstone. Marbury led all rookies in assists (11th, NBA), and was third among rookies at the All-Star break.”

Ungraded copies of this Marbury rookie card tend to sell in the $5-$10 range, but I wasn’t able to find many copies on eBay when I looked. According to the PSA website, there are only 13 graded copies of this card, with 8 receiving a PSA 9 grade and 3 getting a perfect GEM Mint 10 grade.

Unfortunately, there was no sales price history for any graded copies of this card available on PSA’s website, which surprised me. There were also no graded copies selling on eBay when I looked, so your guess is as good as mine for what high graded copies of this card would sell for.

Class of Ninety-Six Ray Allen (#2)

Walter Ray Allen was the 5th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves but then traded to the Bucks for Stephon Marbury. Allen tore it up for three years at the University of Connecticut, averaging over 20 points per game in both his sophomore and junior seasons, and entered the draft after his junior year.

The Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Ray Allen rookie card captures a full-body shot of Allen dribbling the ball with his left hand with only the slightest bit of text obscuring Allen’s right hand. The vibrant purple and green of the mid-90s Bucks jersey really pops on this simple design.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Ray Allen (#2)

The back of this card reads: “It looks like the Bucks can take down the ‘Help Wanted’ sign for a ‘2’ guard. Ray Allen, a consensus first team All-American in ’95-96, is providing the deadly three-point range and scoring punch that Milwaukee needs to open up the inside.”

The sales for ungraded copies of this card can be as low as $10 or as high as $50. I’ve been attempting to get this card for under $20 but so far have been unsuccessful.

According to the PSA website, there are 74 graded copies of this card, including 35 PSA 9s and 22 GEM Mint PSA 10s. The two most recent sales for a PSA 9 have both sold for $58 (on April 7th and March 18th). Last April there were 3 PSA 9 sales, with the lowest sale going for $19 and the highest selling for $50, so depending on how you look at it this card is either up more than double in a year or up slightly.

The PSA 10 sales paint a different picture. From the only two sales transactions PSA has listed on their site for this card, we see the sales trend is up nicely (over 400%). The most recent sale for a PSA 10 copy of this card sold on April 19, 2021 for $510. The other sale they have listed is from November, 2020 when a PSA 10 sold for $88.

Class of Ninety-Six Kobe Bryant (#4)

Kobe Bryant was the 13th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft and was not selected by the Lakers, but rather was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and then traded to LA for Vlade Divac. Kobe was a high school stand out at Lower Marion High School and was drafted straight out of high school. Kobe was clearly a legend in his high school for not only his on court accomplishments, but he also took R&B singer Brandy (and cousin of Snoop Dogg) to prom.

The Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Kobe Bryant rookie card captures a near full-body shot of Kobe slashing with the basketball in his outstretched right hand. Its feels like a very fast paced action shot of Kobe and it is a great shot of the front of his rookie season Lakers jersey with his jersey number in plain sight.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Kobe Bryant (#4)

The back of this Kobe rookie card reads: “Kobe Bryant, the 13th overall pick in the ’96 Draft, has certainly not been overshadowed in the hype surrounding Shaq. This is, after all, L.A. In fact, Bryant’s surge in January was a factor in L.A.’s duel with Seattle for top honors in their division.”

Sales for ungraded copies of this card are easily the most expensive on the list, with recent sales on eBay selling in the $350-$500 range.

According to the PSA website, there are just over 760 graded copies of this card. A total of 424 have received a grade of PSA 9, while only 76 have received a GEM Mint PSA 10 grade.

The three most recent sales for a PSA 9, all cards sold in June 2021, have sold for $617 on the low end, and $695 on the high end. Going back to June of 2020, the PSA 9s were selling for roughly $200-$300, so these Kobe rookies have more than doubled value over the past year.

The GEM Mint PSA 10 copies of this card have sold for as much as $18.5K back in March, 2021. However, the most recent sale of a PSA 10 sold in late May for $5.5K. There weren’t any May, 2020 sales, but on April 30, 2020 a PSA 10 sold for $700, so this Kobe rookie (like many Kobe rookies), is up big in the past year.

Class of Ninety-Six Steve Nash (#15)

Arguably the last significant pick in the 1996 NBA Draft was when the Phoenix Suns selected Steve Nash with the 15th overall pick. Nash was only the third player in the first 15 picks of the ’96 draft to have played all four years at college (Santa Clara). The other two college seniors selected in the 1996 NBA Draft were Kerry Kittles (NJ Nets 8th pick) and Todd Fuller (Golden State Warriors 11th pick).

The Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-six Steve Nash rookie card shows Nash from the knees up as he looks to be finishing a layup with his left hand. slashing with the basketball in his outstretched right hand. Overall it is a pretty decent shot of Nash, but I wish they’d zoomed in a bit more. One other minor feature about this Nash card that I like is that the card number (#15) and his selection in the draft (15th) just happen to match.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Steve Nash (#15)

The back of the Steve Nash Class of Ninety-Six rookie card reads: “Steve, who grew up in and played basketball as a high schooler in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), enjoyed a ‘dream’ homecoming of sorts in ’96-9. The Suns first rounder hit for 17 points, 12 assists, and 7 boards in Vancouver (B.C.) against the Grizzlies.”

The blurb on the back of the card captures one strong game of many more to come for the two-time NBA MVP. Ungraded copies of this Nash rookie typically sell for around $10 on eBay, and while writing this post I found a high quality copy selling for exactly $10 and jumped on it.

When checking the PSA website, the data looks a bit off because Nash is actually listed twice. So I’m not sure if there are 34 graded copies of this card or if there are 41 graded copies. If we assume the more conservative number and go with 34, we see among those 34 are 15 PSA 9s and also 15 GEM Mint PSA 10 graded cards.

There isn’t much sales data available for the Nash rookie. The most recent sale of a PSA 9 card sold back on March 18, 2021 for $128. This is up quite significantly (over 500%) compared to the sale of a PSA 9 from roughly a year prior, when a PSA 9 sold on April 17, 2020 for $21.

There is even less data available for the GEM Mint PSA 10 copies of this card. The only 2021 sale for a PSA 10 came in February, when a copy sold for $310. The most recent sale prior to that one was way back in March, 2018 when a PSA 10 sold for just $7, an unthinkably low price given the skyrocketing prices seen in the basketball market over the past year or two.

Closing Thoughts on the Class of Ninety-Six

As a life long Boston Celtics fan, it always KILLS me to revisit this unbelievable draft class. With the 6th pick in the draft, the Celtics selected my least favorite Celtic of all time, Antoine Walker. What would the late 90’s Celtics rebuild have looked like centered around a player like Kobe or Nash… or heck, even Jermaine O’Neal (selected 17th by the Blazers).

Just for fun, I also looked up the PSA prices for the Class of Ninety-Six Walker card, and the demand for this rookie card is low. The most recent PSA 10 copy of the Walker card sold in May, 2021 for $34, roughly $34 more than I would have paid for it.

1996-97 Flair Showcase Class of Ninety-Six Antoine Walker (#19)

One final fun fact about this draft class was how Ben Wallace was missed by literally every NBA team. The one time champion with Detroit, four time All-Star, and four time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, was completely overlooked until the Washington Bullets plucked the undrafted Center out of Virginia Union (go Panthers!) from obscurity.

Ben Wallace is often considered the greatest undrafted player in NBA history, and also just so happens to have been a member of this insane draft class. Wallace will also be enshrined in the NBA Hall of Fame in September, 2021.

In closing, all I can say is what a draft class and what a great rookie card set! I love the look of these cards and will be laser focused on finding quality ungraded copies of Kobe and Allen in the near future. Personally, I expect the market for basketball cards to cool even further once the playoffs come to a close, so I’ll be looking to make some strong pickups in a few weeks.

Please let me know what you think of these cards and this draft class by leaving a comment or messaging me directly. And I’m always interested in the next great guest post, collector interview, or set to review so I’d love to hear from you. Cheers!

An Inside Look at Listing a 1 of 1 Lebron Superfractor with Goldin Auctions

Back in April I had an incredible opportunity to connect with a long time basketball card collector and owner of a 1 of 1 2005-06 Topps Finest Lebron James SuperFractor card. This collector took the time to answer a number of questions about his one of a kind Lebron card, as well as talk shop about his collection and collecting more generally (you can check out that interview here).

Since that time, the Lebron Superfractor card sold through Goldin Auctions and I was able to connect again with this individual to get a sense for what the Goldin Auction experience was like. For those unfamiliar with Goldin Auctions, they’re essentially the Christies of collectables. Without further ado, lets get right to the interview.

Collector: As a preamble, I just want to say that I worry this will appear very financially focused. I got into card collecting as a kid because I love basketball and I loved having cards of my favorite players. I never for a moment thought about cards as a way to make money and prior to this, I had never sold a card or even had a card graded.

My plan was for the LeBron Superfractor card to become something of a family heirloom, but when it became apparent that I could use the card to buy a house, I felt like I had to sell. That being said, this is a story about the sale of one unique basketball card, so I will be including financial details.

1. When we connected last time, you were excited to list you 1 of 1 Lebron Superfractor card with Goldin Auctions, can you please explain what the listing process was like and were there any surprises along the way?

I think I mentioned last time that I knew I had a good card, but I didn’t realize just how good. When I reached out to Goldin, I was connected with a consignor who wanted to see photos and then immediately sent me a pretty lengthy contract to sign.

At the time, I was very surprised to be signing a contract, but in hindsight, it makes total sense and certainly came into play later on when I started receiving private offers. I was nervous about sending it through the mail and after some back and forth, they arranged for shipping labels to be sent to me, so it could be insured under them during transit.

The biggest surprises were how highly it was slotted in what was an enormous auction (slot 22), and the opening bid price of $50K.

2. Did Goldin Auctions get the card graded prior to the auction, and if so what did it grade?

Goldin took care of the grading, which I appreciated. People I spoke to assumed it would be sent to PSA because I guess some people think Nat Turner (recent owner of PSA) and (Ken) Goldin have a relationship of some sort, but it ended up being sent to BGS.

The card was really in great shape, with the only defect being a couple of small white flecks along the bottom edge on the back so I was hoping for a 9.5, but it got 9 with 8.5 for edges. I think the gold plate on a 9.5 would have really made the card pop, but what can you do!

3. You’d mentioned to me in an earlier email the craziness of the final hours of the auction, can you please describe what happened in the final hours and what you were feeling as those final bids were rolling in?

The opening bid was $50K and over the first night it went to $150K which was obviously very exciting. Then nothing happened for 3 weeks except for one more jump to $160K.

The auction was scheduled to end at 10:00 PM for new bidders; anyone that had placed a bid already could bid again in “extended bidding” after 10 PM. At 9:50, I figured it was mostly over, but in the final 5 minutes, someone bid, and then another bid.

With every bid, the countdown re-started at 30 minutes. I was at home watching a basketball game and having a couple beers and a friend was watching and texting me every time it jumped. The increments were $10K, so the jumps were enormous.

It was one of the final lots to close from the whole auction and it went into extended bidding for a couple of hours, finally closing around midnight I think. It was a ton of fun (obviously).

4. Do you have any regrets about listing with Goldin, or would you have done anything differently selling your 1 of 1 Lebron Superfractor card?

I don’t think so. In the weeks after I initially spoke you, I did a lot of research about big LeBron cards, big personal collections, etc. From what I could find, there are two collectors who own almost all of the LeBron superfractors that people know of – both active on Instagram.

Aside from those two, there is one for sale on Heritage Auction (Chrome 2004) and one for sale on Alt Investments (Finest 2007), both asking 1 million dollars. This is an insane price at baseline, but also considering we are talking about non-rookie, non-auto, non-patch cards.

After I found out about the grade, I spoke to a couple of huge personal collectors and got two enormous offers if I could get it out of the auction. I spoke to a couple of friends who’s judgement I trust, and both agreed that it made sense to keep it in the auction, as obviously these buyers were trying to get it for a price lower than they expected to pay at auction.

I wanted to know if it was even an option to pull it from the auction at this point, but my consignor indicated it was too late (the auction was going to preview the following day). I didn’t think that was unreasonable and I was not sure that I even wanted it pulled from auction – but it did feel insane not clamoring to accept the huge private offer.

Over the next three weeks after the auction opened, there was a lot online about a significant pull back in the card market, which made me nervous and feel pretty stupid for not pressing to have it pulled from auction. At the time I made the decision, I think letting it hit auction was the right call.

5. The owner of Goldin Auctions, Ken Goldin, is pretty lively on social media. Did he offer to speak with you directly or did you have any contact with him?

I did not have any contact with Ken leading up to the auction. I follow him on Instagram and he did a live preview where he unboxed a bunch of items. I was hoping the Lebron Superfractor would be one of them, because they are so rare and because refractors really benefit from live looks where you can demonstrate the shimmer.

When it wasn’t included, I sent him a DM about pumping it up and he did message me back saying there would be promotion for it once the auction opened. There was a really cool Instagram post from Goldin about it during the first week which I was happy with, and it was included in multiple emails that went out.

Goldin Auction Lebron James Superfractor post

6. What advice would you give someone contemplating listing a very rare sports card with Goldin Auctions?

I think if you have something really rare, like a one-of-one, you can find a lot of the potential buyers on social media and save the very large fees the auction houses charge.

If I could to it all over, I would have had the card graded myself and then talked to the monster LeBron collectors on Instagram to see about a private sale. This is obviously hindsight, and I still might have ended up placing it up for auction, but you can really find a lot of people on Instagram that are into buying huge cards.

7. What was the final sales price for your 1 of 1 Lebron card, and what was the share you received from the sale?

The hammer price was $280K, which is my take-home after deducting grading and shipping; then there is a buyer’s premium of 20% added (and then there was some other small fee added), so the sale price for the card was $344.4K.

As per Goldin, this is the largest Topps Finest sale ever (they love to advertise their record breakers). The sale price did not reach the pre-auction private offer I received, but I am incredibly fortunate and thrilled with it.

8. Is there anything else you want to say about your experience selling through Goldin or just about your experience selling such a rare basketball card?

I think overall, Goldin does a good job. My consignor responded to my emails incredibly quickly and they do a good job advertising.

The whole thing was a wild ride after I posted the photo on reddit. Watching all the news about the card market plummeting made it stressful (a very welcome stress) at times, knowing about the private offer before auction, but in the end, I am incredibly lucky to have pulled the card and sold it at a time when the market was insane.

My partner has tolerated me talking about this to no end over the several week stretch leading up to and during the auction. She knows more about sports cards than she would like to at this point. I can’t thank her enough for her support and engagement over that stretch.

9. This has been an awesome interview and thank you so much for answering so honestly. My last question for you is do you miss owning the card at all, or are you happy that you sold?

I miss it so much! It sounds very odd to say, but there is something strangely satisfying about owning something so rare and coveted by others, hahaha.

For years, whenever I would be talking about childhood hobbies and I would mention card collecting, people would ask “do you have any that are really valuable” and I would smile and say “I have one really good one”, but I can’t say that anymore, hahaha.

I do know where it ended up and I’m thrilled the collector that won has it now; he is pure class all around (I’ll leave it in his hands if/when he wants to reveal it). Ultimately, I am glad I sold it as the proceeds will be the down payment on a house where I will be hanging a framed version of my now favorite basketball card – 2005 Topps Finest LeBron James #85 base.

2005-06 Topps Finest Lebron James base card (#85)

Wow – what a great way to wrap up the interview.

Funny how bidding on Goldin for such a big ticket item is so similar to how things go on eBay, with prices barely moving for the first 6 days and change, then price moves going crazy in the final few minutes.

I want to again thank this collector for taking the time to thoroughly respond to my many questions and offer my congratulations for the successful sale of such a cool and rare Lebron James card. I’m confident that many people will not only be entertained by this experience, but also this interview may help a future lucky collectors better understand what to do if and when they pull acquire a whale.

Shadow, Ghost, or Cameo Cards: 20+ Non-Jordan Cards Featuring the GOAT – Including 2 that led to a Lawsuit

I recently threw out a question to the twitter basketball card community trying to learn if there was any consensus for cards of one player that also capture or feature another player. Some of the responses I received were “Shadow cards”, “Ghost cards”, “Cameo cards”, and “Photobomb cards”, but there was no real consensus. The term that makes the most sense to me is “Cameo card”, but I think “Ghost card” could work if Patrick Swayze was somehow captured in the shot.

Terrible jokes aside, there seems to be a potential market for certain non-Jordan cards that feature Jordan, and while there is no generally agreed upon term, I wanted to highlight twenty three different cameo cards below that feature Michael Jordan, including some interesting highlights about each card, as well as cover the ungraded and graded prices, assuming there are graded copies.

Most of the cards in the list below can be yours for $5 or less, but there are a few notable acceptations. Because of the low price point, I think the cards listed below are a great way for new collectors or for collectors on a tight budget to add some Jordan cards to their collections.

All the Jordan cameo cards listed below are in chronological order. For those just interested in a quick list of the cards themselves, I’ve also included a bulleted list below of all 24 cards covered in this post.

• 1990-91 Rony Seikaly #102
• 1990-91 Hoops Sam Vincent #223 (MJ wearing #12)
• 1992-93 Ultra Harold Miner RC #293
• 1992-93 Upper Deck All-Star Clyde Drexler #438
• 1992-93 Upper Deck Brian Shaw #189
• 1993-94 Stadium Club John Starks #116
• 1993-94 Stadium Club Patrick Ewing #200
• 1993-94 Stadium Club Dan Majerle #353
• 1993-94 Fleer Ultra All Rookie First Team Tom Gugliotta #2
• 1995-96 Skybox Dell Curry #12 (MJ wearing #45)
• 1995-96 Collectors Choice Players Club Grant Hill #173 (MJ wearing #45)
• 1995-96 Fleer Metal Stackhouse’s Scrapbook #S-7
• 1996-97 Stadium Club Glen Rice #51
• 1996-97 Stadium Club Andrew Lang #167
• 1996-97 Topps Chrome David Robinson #80
• 1996-97 Topps Chrome Dennis Rodman #176
• 1996-97 Collectors Choice Jim McIlvaine #334
• 1996-97 Upper Deck Memorable Moments Gary Payton #9
• 1997-98 Upper Deck Mark Jackson #51
• 1997-97 Metal Universe Titanium Penny Hardaway #7
• 1997-98 Topps Chrome Todd Day #21
• 1997-98 Upper Deck UD Choice Kobe Bryant #186
• 1997-98 Skybox Premium Reggie Miller #67
• 1998-99 Fleer Tradition Kobe Bryant #1
• 2017-18 Donruss Optic Retro Series Scottie Pippen #14 (lawsuit)
• 2018-19 Panini Contenders Dennis Rodman #33 (lawsuit)

1990-91 Fleer Rony Seikaly (#102)

The 1990-91 Fleer set was a classic junk basketball card set, although the top graded PSA 10 Jordan card (#26) from this set has sold for $900 or more on more than one occasion. This Jordan cameo card features Rony Seikaly (a favorite of mine from NBA Jam). Interestingly, this card isn’t only a Jordan cameo card, but also an error card, since Seikaly went by “Rony” and not “Ron”.

1990-91 Fleer Rony Seiklay Error Card (#102)

For those unfamiliar with Seiklay, he was a 6’11” Lebanese-born center drafted 9th overall by the Heat in the 1988 draft. He was a solid double-double threat while with the Heat, averaging 15.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in Miami.

This Seikaly Fleer card is a $5 or less card on eBay, and there are plenty ungraded copies to purchase. But since its both an error card and a Jordan cameo card, there are 52 graded copies as well (and counting). Of the 52 graded copies, 27 have received GEM Mint status with a PSA 10 grade. There has only been a single PSA 10 Seikaly sale in 2021, and that card sold in January for $80. However, this may be an interesting card to watch, especially since it is both an error card and features Jordan.

1990-91 Hoops Sam Vincent (#223)

Somehow the 1990-91 Hoops set managed to capture two of the most bizarre basketball cards ever printed, but I’ll just stick to card #223 in the set featuring Orlando Magic guard Sam Vincent (for more on this set and other interesting cards, check out the Wacky World of Basketball cards).

As you can see from the photo of this card, Jordan isn’t wearing his regular jersey, but instead is sporting the #12 long before Tom Brady. The reason why Jordan is wearing #12 rather than his typical #23 is because someone stole his jersey before the game, so he was stuck using a back up.

This card is plentiful on eBay and should be an easy pickup for around $5. There are roughly 700 PSA graded copies of this card, and of those 225 received a GEM Mint PSA 10 grade. The most recent sale for a PSA 10 copy of this card sold for $511 on April 19, 2021.

Another interesting thing to point out with this set, is that there are in fact two cards numbered 223, both featuring Sam Vincent. The only difference is the image on the front, one showing what you see above, and the other featuring Vincent in the black Magic uniform dribbling the ball. Very strange.

1992-93 Fleer Ultra Harold Miner Rookie (#293)

Owning a Michael Jordan rookie card is the pinnacle for nearly all card collectors, but only a few wealthy or fortunate collectors will ever be so lucky. However, the 1992-93 Fleer Ultra Harold Miner rookie card offers the opportunity for collectors to own a rookie card that features Jordan… maybe not the next best thing but still kind of cool in its own right.

1992-93 Fleer Ultra Harold Miner RC (#293)

The Miner rookie features a crisp shot of Jordan playing defense, with his left arm raised to unsuccessfully block Miner’s shot. Harold Miner fans also know his nickname was “Baby Jordan”, so its pretty wild to find a Miner rookie card that also happens to feature Jordan.

This card is readily available on eBay and is a $5 or below card. In fact, I was able to bid on a lot of 3 of these cards for just $1. Interestingly enough, a GEM Mint PSA 10 copy of this Miner rookie recently sold in February, 2021 for $200, making it among the most valuable top graded cards in this set.

The only other known PSA 10 cards from this set to have sold at or above $200 are the two Jordan cards (#27 which sells in the $250-$300 range, and #216 which sells in the $250-$350 range) and Shaq’s rookie card (#328), which sells in the $250-$300 range.

1992-93 Upper Deck All-Star Clyde Drexler (#438)

The 1992-93 Upper Deck All-Star weekend card (#438) featuring Clyde Drexler also happened to capture Jordan in the background wearing the all blue East All-Star jersey. It looks like Drexler may have gotten the best of Jordan on this play.

1992-93 Upper Deck All Star Clyde Drexler (#438)

This card is also plentiful on eBay and should be easy to acquire for less than $5. I wasn’t able to find any graded copies of this card on the PSA website, nor was I able to find any graded copies on eBay so I doubt there is any value in getting this card graded. However, if Jordan cameo cards ever catch on, this card featuring two HOF players with 8 championships between them might creep up in value.

1992-93 Upper Deck Brian Shaw (#189)

Brian Shaw was another Miami Heat player from the 1992-93 season to be photographed with MJ. The 1992-93 Upper Deck Shaw card (#189) has a very clean image of Jordan with his back to the camera. The other Bulls players looks to be Scottie Pippen, but since the shot of the jersey isn’t clear and I can’t see his face, I can’t be certain.

1992-93 Upper Deck Brian Shaw #189

This Brian Shaw card is abundant on eBay and can be purchased for under $5. There is no graded price history available on the PSA website and I doubt we will see any graded cards anytime soon, given the super low cost of this card and its abundance on eBay.

1993-94 Stadium Club John Starks (#116), Patrick Ewing (#200), and Dan Majerle (#353)

The 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club set is a special set, since it features three clear Jordan cameo cards, and possibly a fourth if the John Paxson card truly does capture Jordan far off in the background (I couldn’t be sure, so I’m not including it in this list).

The Stadium Club card of John Starks (#116) does clearly feature Jordan playing defense, and its very clear to me that MJ is there in the bottom right attempting to thwart Starks as he gets up to dunk the ball at the rim.

1993-94 Stadium Club John Starks #116

All of these 1993-94 Stadium Club cards are pretty inexpensive, and that is certainly true for this Starks card. When I searched on eBay, I found multiple copies selling for as little as $1 and up to $12 for a Buy It Now Members Only copy.

The 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club of Patrick Ewing (#200) is a bit of a wild picture overall but Jordan is clearly visible in the background, looking like he’s in pain and about to land on a teammate. Perhaps the Ewing and Starks photos were snapped on the same day?

1993-94 Stadium Club Patrick Ewing #200

These Ewing cards are plentiful on eBay and are cheap, with prices typically ranging from $2-$10, but this one should be very easy to pick up for under $5. Interestingly enough, the 1992-93 Stadium Club run has a Jordan base card (#1) that also features Ewing. The 92-93 Jordan card is another affordable option showing Jordan dunking on Ewing and has to be one of the 10 best dunking images of Jordan to be captured on a basketball card.

The other Jordan cameo card from this set is Frequent Flyers card #353 featuring Dan Majerle. This card is unique because its not only a Jordan cameo card, but also a clear Scottie Pippen cameo card as well, which makes it the only card of its kind on this list.

1993-94 Stadium Club Frequent Flyers #353: Dan Majerle

This card should be easy to acquire on eBay for $5 or less, but there are some obvious flippers trying to cash in on this card and selling it for as high as $75. There have been three graded copies of this card, one receiving a PSA 9, one a PSA 8, and the third was given the unfortunate grade of PSA 5. There were no sales transactions for this card, but the lone PSA 9 card is on sale on eBay for $200.

1993-94 Fleer Ultra All Rookie First Team Tom Gugliotta (2 of 5)

Certainly not the best insert on the list featuring a Jordan cameo, but the 1993-94 Fleer Ultra All Rookie First Team card of Tom Gugliotta (2 of 5) does have a very clean shot of Jordan playing defense on Gugliotta. According to the back of this card, Gugliotta was considered at the time their franchise player who the Washington Bullets were planning to build their team around.

In fact, as stated on the back of this card, “his [Gugliotta’s] ability as a passer and as a ballhandler impressed Michael Jordan and Pat Riley, who both compared Gugliotta to Larry Bird”. Those comparisons probably didn’t last much beyond Gugliotta’s first few seasons in the league.

This is another very affordable Jordan cameo card, with at least 10 or so sellers looking to deal this card for $5 or so on eBay on any given day. Surprisingly, there have been at least a few of these cards graded with PSA, but sales data is extremely limited. In fact, I only found two sales.

One was a PSA 10 copy of this card that sold for $79 back in October, 2017. The other was a very recent PSA 9 sale that sold for $15.50 on May 11, 2021.

1995-96 SkyBox Dell Curry (#12)

Before Steph Curry entered the NBA he was already turning heads with his unbelievable stats he put up during his time at Davidson College. But what many don’t know is that Steph’s father Dell also had a successful basketball career, and played against some of the best players from the 90’s, including Michael Jordan. The 1995-96 Skybox card of Dell Curry (#12) clearly captures Jordan in the background playing defense.

1995-96 Skybox Premium Dell Curry (#12)

The look of this card is pretty fantastic, with the deep magenta background with the bright orange basketball with its flaming tail, reminiscent of NBA Jam. Also important to note with this card is that it might be just one of two Jordan cameo card to feature Jordan wearing #45. There are only a handful of cards featuring Jordan in a #45 jersey, and this is the only cameo card I’ve seen that has captured Jordan in that jersey.

When searching for this card on eBay, I found a few options at or under $5, but there were not as many copies for sale as I was expecting. Still, I really liked the look of this card and was able to buy a copy for $3 including shipping. I did see the PSA site listed one graded copy of this card, which received a PSA 9 grade, but I wasn’t able to find any sales prices associated with that card.

Another interesting fact about this 1995-96 Skybox Premium set is that the Jordan card from this set (#15) is an error card. The error is on the back with his block statistics, which were wrong. While the Curry card shows Jordan wearing #45, the Jordan card has him wearing his regular #23 jersey.

1995-96 Upper Deck Collectors Choice Player’s Club Grant Hill (#173)

The only other Jordan cameo card that shows Jordan wearing the #45 jersey is the 1995-96 Upper Deck Collectors Choice Player’s Club Grant Hill card (#173). This card is another nice one with a clean image of Jordan playing locked in defense on Hill, the focus on his face reminds me of how he was just as dangerous on defense as he was on offense.

1995-96 Collectors Choice Player’s Club Grant Hill #173

This card is another easy one to find for just a few dollars on eBay. Given the super low price for an ungraded copy of this card, I wasn’t all too surprised to not find any graded copies listed on PSA’s website. I did find one current copy with a BGS 9 grade that was up for auction, and with five days left of bidding the price had only been bid up to $10.

1995-96 Fleer Metal Stackhouse’s Scrapbook #S-7

Some of my all time favorite basketball card sets from the 90s are Fleer Metal and Skybox Metal. The 1997-98 Skybox Metal has one of the best base Jordan cards you’ll find from the 90s, and the 1995-96 Fleer Metal set features a strong Jordan cameo card with the Stackhouse’s Scrapbook Jerry Stackhouse card (#S-7).

1995-96 Stackhouse’s Scrapbook #S-7

Like so many other cards on this list, this is an easy one to grab for under $5. There were at least 20 or so copies when I went searching on eBay, so Stackhouse fans and Jordan cameo card collectors will have a very easy time adding this card to the collection.

There have only been two recorded sales of graded copies of this card on PSA’s website, with one PSA 10 copy selling back in June 2019 for $25 and one PSA 8 selling in February 2021 for $20.

1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Glen Rice (#51) and Andrew Lang (#167)

If you are a fan of the black pin stripe Bulls jersey, then the Glen Rice Topps Stadium Club card (#51) may be the best card from this list to add to your collection. This Glen Rice card beautifully captures Jordan in one of the coolest alternate Bulls jersey’s I’ve seen. The shot of Rice beautifully captures Jordan’s name and number, making it one of the cleanest cameo cards on this list.

1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Glen Rice (#51)

This Glen Rice card sells for around $5 on eBay, but there day I searched I found very little online inventory. I only saw 5 cards available when I searched in late April, 2021.

There were no PSA graded copies of this card, and it almost certainly isn’t worth sending this card in for grading since the best cards in this set don’t currently sell for much. To give some context, the PSA 10 Jordan card (#101) from this set sells for around $350-$400 while the PSA 9 sells for around $40-$60.

The Andrew Lang 1996-97 Topps Stadium Club card (#167) is a great shot of Lang attempting to block Jordan as he elevates towards the basket. Its a nice full body shot of Jordan, and on thing about this card that makes it rather unique is that the photo captures a clean image of Jordan wearing the iconic Air Jordan XII in black and white.

1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Andrew Lang (#167)

This Lang card is another easy one to find on eBay for around $5. There were also no PSA graded copies of this card when I checked, which shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.

1996-97 Topps Chrome David Robinson (#80) & Dennis Rodman (#176)

One of the most iconic basketball card sets is the 1996-97 Topps Chrome set, which not only was the debut set of Topps Chrome, but also happened to coincide with one of the best rookie classes of all time. This set also features three Jordan cards, the one base card of Michael Jordan (#139), as well as two Jordan cameo cards. This set also has refractor versions for all of the base cards, so there are some absolutely stunning cards in this set and it is one of my personal favorites.

The first Jordan cameo card is the David Robinson card (#80), which shows Robinson playing defense and Jordan looking to finish at the rim. This is one of the best Jordan cameo cards since it very clearly features both Jordan and Robinson equally, and its from an amazing set.

1996-97 Topps Chrome David Robinson (#80)

The ungraded copies of this David Robinson card typically sell on eBay for $10-$20, but every once in a while you’ll see auctions starting out for $1 and closing for under $10, but that’s fairly rare. There is almost no sales history on the PSA site for graded copies of this card, but a PSA 9 non-refractor sold on February 1, 2021 for $70.

A refractor copy of this card, if you are lucky enough to own one or stumble across one, could probably fetch $1,000+ in today’s market. The last PSA 10 refractor card sold in November, 2020 for $888.

The other Jordan cameo card from the 1996-97 Topps Chrome set is the card for Jordan’s teammate Dennis Rodman (#176). The Rodman card is another strong Jordan cameo card as Jordan is clearly visible in the background, along with Boston Celtic’s forward Rick Fox.

1996-97 Topps Chrome Dennis Rodman (#176)

Like the David Robinson card, the ungraded copies of this card will normally sell in the $5-$15 range. One thing to watch for with ungraded copies of cards from the 1996 Topps Chrome set, is that some scrubs on eBay will try and pass off a Topps NBA at 50 foil as a Topps Chrome card, but just double check for the Topps Chrome logo to make sure you’re actually buying chrome.

The PSA website has a few records of recent sales for this Rodman chrome card. The most recent PSA 9 sale of the non-refractor went for $68 on May 11, 2021. The most recent sale of a GEM Mint PSA 10 copy of this same card sold on March 20, 2021 for $156, although just two weeks earlier a PSA 10 sold for $500 even.

The refractor versions of this card see a hefty premium over the non-refractor base copies. The most recent sale of a PSA 9 refractor sold on February 22, 2021 (more or less the peak to date of the basketball card market) for $1,300, or roughly TWENTY times the most recent selling price of the same non-refractor card.

There isn’t any recent sales for a GEM Mint PSA 10 refractor copy of this card. The best we can do is go way back to September 2019, when a PSA 10 copy sold for $716 – what a bargain! If the math worked out the same as what we saw with the PSA 9 refractor, we’d expect the PSA 10 to sell for around $10K, but that feels a bit too high for this card in the current market.

1996-97 Collector’s Choice Jim McIlvaine (#334)

A fantastic near full body Jordan cameo card is card #334 from the 1996-97 Collector’s Choice set featuring Jim McIlvaine. The Seattle Supersonics Center is elevating to contest Jordan at the basket, and its a great offensive shot of Jordan playing above the rim. This Jordan cameo card is rather unique, because it is one of the cleanest shots of Jordan wearing Air Jordans (specifically the red and white Air Jordan XII) you’ll ever see.

McIlvaine had a fairly short NBA career, playing a total of 401 games across 7 seasons. McIlvaine only averaged about 15 minutes per game, and in those minutes he averaged about 2.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and a respectable 1.7 blocks per game.

1996-97 Collector’s Choice Jim McIlvaine #334

You’d assume the McIlvaine Collectors Choice Jordan cameo card would be another easy one to buy on eBay for $5 or less, but I only saw one copy of this card for sale, and it was a COMC sale listing the card for $6. Sure, not an expensive price, but I was shocked with how few there were listed on eBay. If you are a Jordan cameo collector and/or a sneakerhead, you may want to pounce on the single COMC card listed.

There were no graded copies listed on PSA’s website, but this could be an interesting one to get graded if a market starts to develop for Jordan cameo cards. As this is also a 1996-97 set, meaning a set that includes a Kobe rookie card, this set could gain some attention in coming years.

1997-98 Upper Deck Memorable Moments Gary Payton #9

This 1997-98 Upper Deck Memorable Moment card featuring Gary Payton throwing the rock in the direction of the photographer is a great Jordan cameo card, since the shot very clearly captures Michael Jordan playing defenses on Payton. Overall, this is a cool looking card not only because it is a Jordan cameo, but it is also a die cut card with a bit of gold leaf along the top and bottom borders.

1998 Upper Deck Memorable Moments #9: Gary Payton

This Memorable Moments card is a $5 or below for an ungraded copy of this card and when I checked in mid May, 2021 there were at least a dozen or so copies. There are no listed PSA graded copies of this card, but the most recent PSA 9 Memorable Moment featuring Michael Jordan hugging Scottie Pippen sold for $68 in December, 2020.

The text on the front of the Payton Memorable Moment card reads:

“The Glove” takes the Bulls by the horns in an overtime loss at Chicago. 3/18/97

I was able to find a 9 minute highlight video from that very night, which is absolutely worth viewing. The video features an awesome Jordan dunk at the 13 second mark, some nice Payton steals, and much more. The game was a nail biter up to the very end, but the Bulls held on to win 89-87.

Gary Payton filled up the stat sheet that night with a triple double, collecting 12 rebounds, 14 assists, and scoring 14 points. His point total was diminished due to a terrible offensive night making just 3 of his 16 shot attempts.

Both Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman would have monster rebounding nights during that game as well. Jordan had a double double, scoring 32 points and grabbing 18 total rebounds (including 8 offensive rebounds), while Rodman only scored 2 points on one put back at the rim, but cleaned up on the glass and grabbed 17 total rebounds.

1997-98 Upper Deck Mark Jackson #51

The 1997-98 Upper Deck card of Mark Jackson (#51) has a ton of cameos on it. As you can see, the photographer not only captured Jordan nearly dead center in the background, but you also have Dennis Rodman, Rik Smits, and I believe that is longtime Celtic Robert Parish off to the right, who finished his career at age 43 in Chicago.

1997-98 Upper Deck Mark Jackson (#51)

This Mark Jackson Jordan cameo card is easy to find for under $5 on eBay. When I checked for graded copies on the PSA website, I didn’t find any. This is not a strong Jordan cameo card by any means, since he is way off in the background, so I doubt this card will ever go for more than a few dollars and just be sought after by either Jackson collectors and Jordan cameo card collectors.

1997-98 Metal Universe Titanium Anfernee Hardaway (#7)

One of the most expensive cards on this unique list is the 1997-98 Fleer Metal Universe Titanium card (7 of 20) featuring Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway which also beautifully captures Jordan playing defense. These exquisite die-cut acetate Titanium insert cards were limited to one in every 72 packs on average, and there were only 20 cards in the Titanium set.

1997-98 Metal Universe Titanium Anfernee Hardaway (7 of 20)

The back of the Hardaway Titanium card reads:

“Despite a severe left knee injury last season, he bounced back to almost single-handedly knock off Miami in the playoffs. In just over four NBA seasons, he’s already appeared in 36 postseason games, averaging 20.8 points per outing.”

Ungraded copies of this card typically sell in the $200-$300 range, with the most recent sale taking place on April 22, 2021 and selling for $308. There haven’t been any PSA 10 sales of this card in 2021, but the most recent sale of a PSA 9 Hardaway Titanium card sold on March 24, 2021 for $550. The highest known sale of a PSA 9 copy of this card took place in February, 2021 when a copy of this card sold for $800.

This Penny Hardaway Titanium card is typically the third most valuable card in this 20-card set. Tied at the top are the Jordan and Kobe Titanium cards.

1997-98 Topps Chrome Todd Day (#21)

As a lifetime Celtics fan, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I don’t remember Todd Day… not even a little. After a quick search for Day’s NBA career, I discovered he was the Milwaukee Bucks 8th overall draft in the 1992 NBA draft. Day played 3 seasons for the Bucks before being traded to the Celtics in 1995 and playing for the Celtics for only 2 seasons, which makes me feel a bit better about not having any memory of him as a Celtic.

The 1997-98 Topps Chrome Todd Day card (#21), the second year of Topps Chrome, is an easy Jordan cameo card to pick up as a non-refractor, but the refractor version of this card can be a bit pricey. The Day card is very close to a full body shot of Jordan playing defense on Day, and is the second Jordan cameo card on this list that clearly featuring MJ sporting Air Jordan XIIs.

1997-98 Topps Chrome Todd Day #21

Since its a Topps Chrome card, this Todd Day and Jordan cameo card isn’t likely to be found selling for under $5. However, it should be easy to find a copy in the $10-$20 range. The cheapest I could find for the refractor was $120, but there was only one at that price. The other copies I found were much higher, asking for over $500.

There doesn’t appear to be any price history on PSA for graded copies of this card. However, like I’ve said before in this article, if and when a market develops for Jordan cameo cards, I could easily people looking to buy ungraded copies to get graded and flip. I’m sure a PSA 10 copy of this card (either the refractor or non-refractor) would go for 10x-20x what an ungraded copy sells for.

1997-98 Upper Deck UD Choice Kobe Bryant (#186)

Although this is a Kobe Bryant card, this is perhaps the worst Jordan cameo card on the list, and there just so happens to be a second (and much better) Kobe and Jordan cameo card on this list.

The 1997-98 Upper Deck UD Choice Kobe Bryant All-Star Debut card is a fantastic shot of Kobe trying to avoid the outstretched arm of Dikembe Mutombo (making his 5th All-Star appearance) and in the background MJ (making his 12th All-Star appearance) has his back to the action. You can clearly see the last 5 letters and the number 3 on his jersey.

1997-98 Upper Deck UD Choice Kobe Bryant (#186)

This one is an easy one to find ungraded on eBay for just a few dollars. There are plenty of copies of this card and you should be able to acquire it easily for around $5-$10. I wasn’t able to find this card on PSA’s website, but given the availability and affordability seen on eBay, I doubt there is much demand for graded copies of this card.

1998-99 Skybox Premium Reggie Miller (#67)

One of the best Jordan cameo cards on this list is the 1998-99 Skybox Premium Reggie Miller card (#67). Reggie Miller, know mainly for his offensive capabilities and his great shooting range, is seen in this card making a clean block on Jordan. The high gloss refractor-like finish for the text on this card gives it a particularly premium look, so this one is certainly a top MJ cameo card in my book.

1998-99 Skybox Premium Reggie Miller (#67)

This card isn’t nearly as plentiful as so many other cards on this list, and when I searched eBay I was only able to find five copies, and none of those looked like they were in pristine condition. The five ungraded copies I saw on eBay were all typically listed with Buy It Now asking prices in the $8-$12 range.

There is a record of one of these cards graded on the PSA website, but they don’t have any transaction history.

For some perspective, I did look at what the graded copies of the Michael Jordan card (#23) from this set were selling for, and top graded were selling for about $550 on the high end, with the most recent sale taking place on May 22, 2021 and selling for $270. The PSA 9 Jordan card has been fairly consistently selling in the $75-$100 range.

1998-99 Fleer Tradition Kobe Bryant (#1)

The second Kobe Bryant card on this list is a much better Jordan cameo card than the Kobe All-Star card. The 1998-99 Fleer Tradition Kobe card (#1) shows Kobe going up for a dunk with Jordan’s unsuccessful attempt at blocking him.

1998-99 Fleer Tradition Kobe Bryant (#1)

This Kobe card is easy to find ungraded on eBay, with auction prices generally selling in the $15-$20 range, and Buy It Now asking prices posted for as low as $23 and as high as $160. Also interesting with this set, is that the Kevin Garnett card (#100) is also a Kobe Bryant cameo card.

This card does have a few graded copies listed on eBay, but for whatever reason I was unsuccessful finding the price history on PSA’s website. I did find the history of one PSA 8 that sold for $66 on June 4, 2021. My best guess based on that price is that a PSA 9 would sell for around $100-$125 and a PSA 10 would likely go for $200-$300.

Lawsuit Cards: 2017-18 Donruss Optic Retro Series Scottie Pippen (#14) & 2018-19 Panini Contenders Winning Tickets Dennis Rodman (#33)

Back in February, 2021 Forbes published an interesting article about Upper Deck filing a lawsuit against Panini for wrongfully including images of Michael Jordan for two different Jordan cameo cards. Upper Deck has the exclusive rights with MJ to use his photographs, name, likeness, etc. for trading cards, so what Panini did was a no no.

According to the complaint filed by Upper Deck, “Panini deliberately altered and manipulated Jordan’s image into the background of multiple Panini trading cards in two trading card releases to gratuitously lend on the tremendous international brand equity and goodwill of Michael Jordan who is not only one of the greatest NBA players of all time, but a current NBA owner.

Panini did so to market and increase the sale of its products and brand equity, to use Jordan for commercial gain, to confuse the market, and to harm Upper Deck including Upper Deck’s brands, goodwill, and exclusive contract.”

But lets move past the legalese and take a look at these two illegal Jordan cameo cards.

The first of the two cards in the Upper Deck and Panini lawsuit was the 2017-18 Donruss Optic Retro Series Scottie Pippen card (#14). This card features a tiny image of Jordan way in the background, and it is very easy to overlook him in the lower right corner of the card, but if you look closely you can fairly easily see that it is indeed MJ.

2017-18 Donruss Optic Retro Series Scottie Pippen (#14)

Since this is a modern Donruss card, there are numerous parallels in addition to the base, including the Holo prizm, Fast Break prizm, Lime Green prizm (numbered to 175), Blue prizm (numbered to 49), and Gold prizm (numbered to just 10).

Ungraded copies of the base card are currently pretty cheap, selling for $5-$10. Not all copies of this card also feature Jordan, so if you are interested in this Jordan cameo card, make sure you double check that Jordan is there in the lower right.

The PSA website has a limited selection of price history for the various parallels of this Pippen card featuring Jordan. The most recent selling price for a PSA 10 base copy of this card sold for $70 on March 23, 2021. There was a Holo prizm copy with a PSA 9 grade that sold on May 5, 2021 also for $70. Right now on eBay, there is a Gold prizm (4/10) with a PSA 9 grade with a Buy It Now asking price of $7,999.

The second card mentioned in the Upper Deck and Panini lawsuit was a 2018-19 Panini Contenders Winning Tickets card of Dennis Rodman (#33) that has a much more visible and blatant shot of Jordan in the background. All in all this is a nice shot of Rodman clapping above his head with Jordan trailing a few steps behind him.

2018-19 Panini Contenders Winning Tickets Dennis Rodman (#33)

I only found six copies of this card selling on eBay, with prices for an ungraded copy ranging from $40 to as high as $450. One of the six cards for sale was also a PSA 9 graded copy, with a Buy It Now asking price of $200.

The PSA website has some recent price history for this card. The recent sales for PSA 9 copies of this Rodman card have sold for around $80, with the most recent sale back in January 2021 selling for $75. There has only been a single PSA 10 sale which sold for $500 back on July 7, 2020.

Other Jordan Cameo Cards?

Despite my best efforts, I’m sure to have missed at least one or two Jordan cameo cards. I think there must be at least one out there featuring Jordan in a Wizards uniform.

If anyone with a Jordan cameo card collection stumbles across this article and know of any others, please comment below so that I can update this post. It will be interesting to see if a market starts to develop for the various cameo cards on this list, and the one that I’m saving up for to add to my stack is that beautiful Penny Titanium card.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think about Jordan cameo cards, or just cameo cards in general.

Memorial Day Sale: 90s Bulls Cards Direct from Seller (Including 10+ Different Jordan cards)

Last week I woke up to an interesting email from a collector informing me that she had a Jordan error card that I hadn’t highlighted in my April post about Jordan error cards. She included a photo, and after a bit of research and posting to the basketball twitter community, I found out she was correct. I was delighted to make a new discovery and on top of that, I was given the first crack at buying a few cards direct from this collector.

Unfortunately, I’m a bit cash poor at the moment so my offer was weak and she politely rejected (I would have done the same). However, this collector asked if I’d be willing to draft up a quick article highlighting some of her cards for sale.

Of course I said yes – so below are a handful of cards this collector is looking to sell. Connecting with buyers directly should be a win/win for both parties, so if you are interested in any of the cards below please contact Becky at rrivett40@gmail.com.

All photos below are images of the cards themselves, but I would encourage you to reach out to Becky to inquire more about card condition, since it isn’t always clear in the images in this post. Without further ado, lets see what cards Becky has in her 90s Bulls stack.

Michael Jordan Basketball Cards

Most of Becky’s collection is made up of ungraded 90s Jordan cards, including 10 of the 12 cards listed below:

• 1989 Collegiate Collection #18
• 1989-90 Fleer All Star Sticker #3
• 1990 Skybox #41
• 1990 Hoops #65
• 1990-91 Jordan Illustrated Promo (Scottie Pippen stats on back)
• 1991 Hoops USA Dream Team #579 PSA 9
• 1991 Hoops All-Star MVP #1X PSA 8
• 1991 Fleer Pro-Visions #2
• 1992-93 Fleer #32
• 1993 Upper Deck Fanimation “Agent 23” #506
• 1998 Upper Deck Living Legends #49
• 1998 Upper Deck The Jordan Files #156 (Error Card)

Below are short descriptors of the cards above, with some very recent sales history for higher graded PSA copies of each card (when available).

1989 Collegiate Collection #18

The 1989 Collegiate Collection card #18 is undeniably a cool card featuring Jordan during his tenure with the University of North Carolina. What I particularly like about this card is that its UNC vs Duke, of the best college sports rivalries of all time.

1989 Collegiate Collection Michael Jordan #18

Some recent sales of graded copies of this card are as follows:

• A PSA 8 sold on April 17, 2021 for $13.50.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 21, 2021 for $14.50.
• A PSA 10 sold on May 21, 2021 for $162.50.

1989-90 Fleer All Star Sticker #3

Jordan stickers just keep continuing to climb in value, with the 1989-90 Fleer Jordan sticker #3 up well over 500% in the course of two years. Of course, the best Fleer sticker is the sticker from the 1986 Fleer set, but if you don’t have six-figures to spend on a Jordan sticker, the late 80s stickers might be more to your liking (and in your price range).

In terms of photo quality, its a decent shot of Jordan elevating against the New York Knicks. The image does look a bit pixelated if you zoom in too close. However, top graded copies of this card have been know to sell in the $2,000-$3,000 range.

1989-90 Fleer Michael Jordan All-Star Sticker #3

Some recent sales of graded copies of this sticker card are as follows:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 26, 2021 for $49.75.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 22, 2021 for $187.50.
• A PSA 10 sold on May 10, 2021 for $1,920.00.

1990 Skybox #41

This 1990 Skybox set is a classic junk card set, but some of the cards from this set look pretty sweet, most notable the Michael Jordan (#41), Magic Johnson (#138), and Larry Bird (#14) cards. And for a junk card set, the top graded Jordan card still can fetch a couple hundred bucks.

1990 Skybox Michael Jordan #41

Some recent sales of PSA graded copies of this card are as follows:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 26, 2021 for $12.52.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 28, 2021 for $66.01.
• A PSA 10 sold on May 24, 2021 for $255.00

1990 Hoops #65

This 1990 Hoops set is an iconic junk card set from the early 90s that happens to feature some interesting cards, including an infamous Mark Jackson card (#205), as well as an interesting Sam Vincent card (#223) featuring Jordan wearing #12. But the base Jordan card (#65) is the most graded card from this set and all in all its a pretty great card featuring Jordan going up for a dunk with a very clean shot of him wearing the iconic #23 Bulls jersey.

Top graded copies of this card can sell for $500+, with the highest know sale going for $1,210 back in January, 2021.

1990 Hoops Michael Jordan #65

Some recent sales of PSA graded copies of this card are as follows:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 27, 2021 for $18.50.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 26, 2021 for $47.19.
• A PSA 10 sold on April 26, 2021 for $419.00.

1990-91 Jordan Illustrated Promo with Pippen on back

This is a weird one, and since it isn’t branded there isn’t much I could find or much that I know about this card. However, I was able to find a few examples of this card selling on eBay but that is about the extent of what I could find. The features of this card that make it interesting are the Michael Jordan illustration on the front with the Scottie Pippen stats on the back.

1990 Michael Jordan promo card featuring Scottie Pippen stats on the back

Because I don’t know how to properly identify this card, I can’t find it on PSA. If anyone has more information on this promo card, please leave a comment on this post and I’ll be sure to update this post with any and all additional information I can find.

1991 Hoops USA Dream Team #579

This is the only graded card featured in Becky’s collection, but since I was absolutely enamored with the Dream Team as a kid, I really like this card and others featuring players in the 1992 USA Men’s basketball jerseys.

I also really like the 10-player 3-card Dream Team set, enough to buy two copies and write a whole post about it. I still think its an under appreciated and under the radar set of 90s junk wax.

PSA 9 1991 Hoops Michael Jordan #579

Since its a PSA graded card, no guessing required. The sales in May, 2021 for PSA 9 graded copies of this card have been as low as $32 and as high as $76, with the most recent sale fetching $51 on May 27th.

Top graded copies of this card have been recently selling for around $150.

1991 Hoops All-Star MVP #1X

Unfortunately for Becky, this one is a bit of a dud. It is a pretty decent shot of Jordan holding up the 1988 All-Star MVP trophy, but ungraded copies of this card or graded copies with a PSA 8 or below are not very valuable. The only thing this card really has going for it is the interesting card number.

PSA 8 1991 Hoops All-Star MVP’s Michael Jordan #1X

The most recent PSA 8 sale of this card sold in late February for just over $10. GEM Mint PSA 10 copies of this card have sold for over $400, but the most recent sale went for $180 on May 21, 2021.

1991 Fleer Pro-Visions #2

The 1991 Fleer Pro-Visions six-card set is an odd one, but something about the illustrations just sits right with me. I’ve also dedicated an entire post to this funky early 90s insert set (check it out here).

The Jordan Pro-Vision card (2 of 6) is the most popular card from this set, despite Jordan not having any legs. Top graded copies of this card have sold for as much as $450, but the price is down from its early 2021 peak.

1991 Fleer Michael Jordan Pro-Visions #2

Some recent sales of PSA graded copies of this card are as follows:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 27, 2021 for $36.00.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 21, 2021 for $46.00.
• A PSA 10 sold on May 24, 2021 for $202.50.

1992-93 Fleer #32

The 1992-93 Fleer basketball set is another junk wax set, but the Jordan cards from this set are the ones to own. The 1992-93 season is also Shaquille O’Neil’s rookie season, so Jordan isn’t always the main card to own for different 92-93 card sets.

The 1992-93 Fleer set actually features four different Jordan cards: card #32 (seen below), #238, #246, and #273. Card #273 is my personal favorite, featuring Jordan soaring over Patrick Ewing, which is an image I’ve seen on at least one other basketball card.

1992-93 Fleer Michael Jordan #32

The Jordan card Becky is selling, card #32, is a card that has seen multiple sales above $500 for GEM Mint PSA 10 copies. Some of the most recent PSA graded sales of this card include:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 25, 2021 for $22.50.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 6, 2021 for $48.00
• A PSA 10 sold on April 30, 2021 for $266.69.

1993 Upper Deck Fanimation “Agent 23” #506

The Fanimation cards from the 1992-93 Upper Deck set were a fairly decent attempt to mix comic books and X-Men like cards with the best basketball players from the early 90s. Jordan’s card (#506) is easily the most valuable, but all the Fanimation cards are actually pretty cool. There is even a card featuring both Jordan and Larry Bird (#510)… if only Magic were on there too!

1993 Upper Deck Fanimation “Agent 23” #506

The top graded Jordan Fanimation card has sold for as much as $1,495 back in March. Prices for this card are off their highs, but it is still consistently fetching prices above $500. Some recent PSA graded copies of this card include:

• A PSA 8 sold on May 6, 2021 for $47.97.
• A PSA 9 sold on May 10, 2021 for $110.00.
• A PSA 10 sold on May 21, 2021 for $730.00.

1998 Upper Deck Michael Jordan Living Legend #49

There are over 100 of these 1998 Upper Deck Living Legends type cards and there isn’t much PSA data available for any of these cards, which leads me to believe they aren’t very valuable. When I searched eBay for a copy of Living Legend card #46, I found a few available for $5 or less.

I saw a few of the other Living Legends cards were graded on the PSA website, but I didn’t see any graded card for card #46. Given the ungraded cards are available for only a few bucks, this one probably just isn’t worth grading, so lets move on the the final card featured in Becky’s collection.

1998 Upper Deck The Jordan Files #156 (Error Card)

If you count the Jordan promo card seen earlier as an error card, than this 1998 Upper Deck Jordan card is the second error card on this list. The error on this card isn’t instantly obvious, but it is clearly there if you examine the front of this card for a few moments.

This was the card I was referring to up at the top of this post that Becky emailed me about, and one that I will need to add to my post about Jordan error cards (I’m undecided if I’ll add the promo card to that post as well).

1998 Upper Deck Michael Jordan #156 (error card)

The error on this card, in case you haven’t found it, is below the Blazer’s logo, where the word “Rockets” is clearly visible in red lettering. It should, of course, say Trail Blazers in that space. I haven’t seen any other copies of this card with the Rockets error, so this card could be valuable.

There have only been a handful of these non-error cards graded, and the most recent grade for a PSA 10 sold in March, 2021 for $130. If this error card were to receive a top grade, I’d expect it could fetch quite a bit more than $130, but I’d rather not hazard a guess since it would just be a pure guess.

Other Bulls Cards for Sale

Dennis Rodman Cards

Becky has some other 90s Chicago Bulls cards as well, including at least 3 of Dennis Rodman. I can’t make out exactly what two of the three Rodman cards are, but the image below shows the front of the three she sent me.

The card below in the top right is a 1997-98 Topps Finest Masters (#220). It is unclear from the photo if it is a refractor or not, but the protective coating is still intact.

Dennis Rodman Bulls Basketball Cards

Becky also had at least five more Jordan cards that I just didn’t have the energy to write about, but if you are in the market for Bulls cards and want to buy direct from her, please reach out to her at rrivett40@gmail.com.

I never thought I’d be writing a post helping someone else sell their collection, but I’m excited to possibly help connect some buyers with this seller. I’ll also try and update this post later with sales prices, so check back in a week or so if your interested in what these cards sold for.

Basketball Card Collector Interview with Card Purchaser

I’ve been way behind with a few basketball card collector interview posts and some other posts as well as a result of my wife and I relocating from Boston to Austin. It was quite the trip but I’ll spare you all the details of the harrowing 3-day drive in a 17-foot U-haul.

Right before the move I was very lucky to connect with a blogger that I greatly respect to get insights on their blog, basketball card collection, and on where they see the basketball card hobby going over the next few years. Without further ado, lets get to the questions and answers with Card Purchaser.

1. What inspired you to launch the Card Purchaser blog in the front half of 2020?

During the early lockdown days I found that I spent all of my free time looking at cards on the internet. I discovered card twitter and started my own Twitter account (@CardPurchaser) to chat and talk with people about cards and it turns out that a LOT of other people were doing the same thing.

After a few months of lockdown and working from home the project I was working on was cancelled. I decided to do Card Purchaser full time and get information about sports card out to people.

2. Are you new to collecting cards or have you been collecting for a while, and was there a particular card or set that got you into collecting?

I’ve collected off and on my whole life. I was in college buying cards on eBay with money orders. Over the years I’ve restarted collecting several times but really got back into it in 2019. I look back at some of the prices of boxes I ordered in October 2019 and January 2020 and can’t believe how low those prices seem now.

3. How would you describe the sports card scene in your neck of the woods?

Before Covid I was in Houston, but working in the oil and gas industry I’ve moved around a lot, so I haven’t ever gotten too into the local card scene.

I hope to make it to Chicago for the National if it happens as scheduled this year but a lot can happen between now and then. The last time I was at a card show I was about 12 and it’s been close to that long since I’ve been in a card store. Most of that is just due to a lack of local card shops and adult responsibilities.

4. How do you typically go about purchasing basketball cards (packs at target, online box/case breaks, individual cards, etc.)?

I try to get lucky and buy them online. The last basketball release I got online was Prizm Draft Picks. The last in store release I got was March 2020 I found a Walmart full of Prizm. I did not buy the whole supply! Otherwise I would typically try to find the lowest prices on a competitive marketplace like eBay.

5. What is the most valuable basketball card you have in your personal collection, and what is your favorite card in your collection?

I’m mainly a baseball collector. My most valuable basketball card is probably a 2019-20 Mosaic Zion Williamson rookie card graded PSA 10.

PSA 10 2019 Panini Mosaic Zion Williamson Rookie #209

My favorite basketball card I own at the moment is a PSA 6 Fleer Sticker Hakeem Olajuwon rookie. If I had unlimited funds I would definitely have some Jordan and Rodman in the collection but I always lose the bidding!

1986 Fleer Sticker Akeem Olajuwon (9 of 11)

6. What is the best card you ever pulled from a pack and what was that experience like?

I don’t open as many packs as I want! The last big “hit” I got was a 2020 Topps Bo Bichette Independence Day RC #’d to 76 on release day in 2020! It was definitely an exciting experience and I had to spend a lot of time looking into Bo Bichette! I ended up selling the card that night. This was before the big card boom in 2020.

7. If Kazaam Shaq appeared and said he would grant you a single wish to add any basketball card to your collection but with the condition that you could never sell it, what card would you wish for?

Probably one of the shiny rare Michael Jordan cards I dreamed about as a kid! More specifically, the Emotion set had some great looking Jordans which would be awesome to own. The Ntense card was like the dream card for me but the base was a great card as well.

1994-95 Skybox Emotion N-Tense Michael Jordan (#N3)

8. Where do you see the basketball card market five years from now?

I think it’s going to be very closely tied to the economy. I’m hoping it has normalized a bit but the big classic cards will always be in demand.

9. Do you see basketball cards and basketball related NFTs (like NBA Top Shot) coexisting, or do you think cardboard or NFTs will ultimately win out?

I see them as different markets. The overlap is in investors and real team/player collectors. The middle ground of card collectors probably doesn’t have a lot of interest in NFTs and if they do its not for most of the same reasons as why they like collecting cards.

10. What advice or tips would you give someone new to basketball card collecting, or card collecting in general?

Study! Spend time reading Beckett, card twitter, and other sources. Research the different sets being released and figure out what you want before you blindly spend money figuring it out!

11. My last question for you is, was there a question you were hoping I would ask? If so, what was it and how would you answer?

You asked the exact right amount of perfect questions.

Another great interview in the books and a big big thank you to Card Purchaser for taking the time to talk shop. It is always refreshing to hear about other collectors getting back into the hobby after a bit of a hiatus, and I couldn’t agree more with the advice to new collectors. Studying and doing your research is absolutely critical.

As much as it pained me to read, I also appreciated the honesty hearing about making the Bo Bichette sale before the big card boom in 2020. I also sold a few cards at the worst possible time, including a Skybox E-X2000 Kobe rookie (that one hurt), so I know what its like to sell a card, only to see it explode in value shortly after the sale.

If you enjoyed this interview and want to get more collector insights, please be sure to check out what other collectors have to say about their collections.

The list of interviews include:

• An insane interview with one lucky 1 of 1 Lebron Superfractor owner
• Connecting with new collector Elite Collections
• Insights from fellow blogger Hoops Hobby
• A double interview with the two founders of SportsCardsPro

And as always, if you have thoughts on this post or are interested in connecting, please leave a comment below or feel free to reach out to me directly.

How many Michael Jordan Error Cards are there?

Everybody makes mistakes, and every once in a while those mistakes are captured on cardboard. When there is a card error for an unknown player hardly anyone notices, but when it happens to the greatest basketball player of all time, people notice.

I’ve been trying to find out just how many Michael Jordan error cards have been printed. Despite my best efforts, its still not exactly clear how many MJ error cards are out there, but to my knowledge there are at least three that are well known and documented. There certainly could be others, but until I hear otherwise, I’m only going to stick to the three I know.

Below I’ll point out the mistakes on the three well known and well documented Jordan error cards as well as highlighting the prices of ungraded cards listed on eBay and any recent PSA sales. So lets check out some Jordan error cards.

1992-93 Upper Deck In Your Face #453

The first error card on this list features an absolutely stunning shot of Jordan going up for a dunk. The card in the image below is the 1992-93 Upper Deck In Your Face Michael Jordan card (#453).

The error on this one is difficult to spot, but its in the gold foil in the upper right of the card. If you zoom in, you’ll see the two years printed on this error card show 1985 and 1990, which is incorrect. The correct years for Jordan were 1987 and 1988.

1992-93 Upper Deck In Your Face Michael Jordan (#453, error card)

To Upper Deck’s credit, they caught this error and fixed it. What this means, is that there are both error cards and non error cards floating around out there. Below is the image of the corrected card.

1992-93 Upper Deck In Your Face Michael Jordan (#453, correct card)

You may be wondering, how did this error happen? Its actually a pretty easy problem to solve when looking at the list of graded cards on PSA’s website. As you can see on the screen shot below, it was a simple swapping error with Dominique Wilkins, who also has an error card and a corrected card out in the market.

Screen shot of PSA 1992 Upper Deck page

Finding an ungraded copy of the Jordan In Your Face error card is a challenge, as many collectors know about this card and quickly snatch it up if they see one selling on eBay. However, I’ve seen this ungraded error card sell in a range of $50-$75, which to me sounds like a steal if you find one that could receive a strong grade.

This GEM Mint PSA 10 Jordan error card is a $1,000+ card, and has sold for as much as $2,875 back in February, 2021. The PSA 9s have been selling in the $250-$350 range.

The non-error card is no where near as valuable. The PSA 10 corrected card sells in a broad range of $200-$350. The PSA 9 has recently sold for as low as $43, but it looks to typically sell in the $50-$100 range.

1995-96 Skybox Premium #15

This Jordan error card is probably the easiest one to miss on this short list, but you don’t necessarily have to be a true stat maniac to catch this one. The front of this card, as you can see, is absolutely fine. In fact, I love the design of this card and since its a very affordable ungraded card, I grabbed a great looking copy off eBay for under $5.

1995-96 Skybox Premium Michael Jordan #15 (front)

The error for this card is found on the back, and if you think you know your Jordan stats, I challenge you to find it before you scroll down.

The error is there, but its very minor. Its nearly impossible to know this off the top of your head, but the error is in the blocks column. They didn’t get any of the years wrong, but look at that career block total!

There aren’t too many guards that I know of who can get more than 3-times more blocks than steals. The number they meant was 697 after 10 seasons, but someone fat fingered the total and an extra 2 slipped in.

Now you might be wondering who holds the record for most career blocks in the NBA. In case you were, let me save you a google search.

There have only been 5 players to record 3,000 or more blocks in their career, and those players were Tim Duncan (3,020), Mark Eaton (3,064), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3,189), Dikembe Mutombo (3,289), and the block king is Hackeem Olajuawon with 3,830 career blocks. I hope that helps put the incorrect Jordan block total into perspective.

The ungraded prices for this card, like I said earlier, are dirt cheap, and you should be able to find a copy for around $5-$10. However, the GEM Mint PSA 10 copies have been climbing in value in 2021. There have only been two PSA 10 sales in 2021, but the first sold on January 30th for $475, and the most recent sale took place on February 18 and sold for $888.

1993-94 Topps #23

This one is special, because the razor-sharp editing team at Topps managed to let not just one, but two errors slip past them and make it onto this Jordan card. On the front of the card is a slight error, listing Jordan as a forward, even though he has always been listed as a shooting guard. A fairly minor error, all things considered, and at least they didn’t list him as a center.

1993-94 Topps Michael Jordan #23 (Front)

The more egregious error is only visible when you flip to the back of the card. Before getting to the error, I do want to point out that I love the fact that this card is #23 in the set. I can’t explain it, but I love basketball card sets that give Jordan the #1 card in the set, or line it up so that he has the 23rd card in the set, and Topps made that happen, which is pretty cool.

Lets talk about the second error on this card, which is Jordan’s incorrect birth date. If Topps had only messed up the year, month, or day this error may have easily slipped passed most people and been labeled as ‘just’ a solo error card. However, all aspects of Jordan’s birthday were off, and off by quite a bit.

Many Michael Jordan fans likely know that Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NY on February 17, 1963. Its hard to imagine for those of us who grew up watching Jordan, but he will be celebrating his 59th birthday in less than a year… I feel old!

However, according to this Topps card, Jordan just recently celebrated his 53rd birthday. Or, to put it another way, if the April 3, 1968 birthday from this Topps card were correct, than he would have been just 16 years old when he first stepped on the court in his 1984 debut with the Bulls.

1993-94 Topps Michael Jordan #23 (Back) with wrong birthday highlighted

Naturally, I was compelled to search for NBA players born on April 3, 1968. According to a 2019 Hoops Hype article I found, not a single player that has played in the NBA was born on that date, which makes the error even more mysterious. I learned that Pervis Ellison was born on that date but a year earlier, while LaBradford Smith also shares that birthday, but was born the year after. So as far as I can tell, not a single NBA player was born on that date. Very strange.

I like to believe that perhaps it was an editor’s last day and they hated their job, so as a parting “F You” to their boss, they inserted their own birthday in place of Jordan’s. If that’s the case, then its pretty darn hilarious. But who knows, maybe it was just one totally random error that will live on as a mystery.

Also interesting to point out with this card is that PSA does not label this card an error card, while they do label the other two cards on this list as error cards. I find that to be very strange, especially since this is the most erroneous Jordan basketball card I’ve ever seen. Maybe they will start labeling this as an error card when they get back to business… someone please give them a heads up.

All 3 PSA graded Jordan Error cards, but the 1993 Topps not labeled an error. Why?

Since this is just a base card, it is a very easy card to pick up and add to your Jordan collection, and I recently just purchased one. You should be able to get this one for under $5. At the moment, this card doesn’t command crazy high prices for graded copies, even on the highest end. The recent sales prices for PSA 10s have been holding steady around $200. The PSA 9s have typically been selling in the $80-$100 range, but the most recent PSA 9 did sell for $170 in early April.

If you have a couple of copies of this card, it may be worth your while to send the best copies in to be graded. You’ll pretty much break even if you get any 8s, but getting a 9 or a 10 will make your $20 grading expense well worth it. Out of the 235 total graded population for this card, 122 have received a grade of PSA 9, while 42 received GEM Mint PSA 10 status.

And that does it for this short list of true Jordan error cards. If you know of any others, please leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to add to this list and do some research about the error and highlight the value of the card.