Jordan-Bryant Card Sells for $12.9 Million, the Most Expensive Basketball Card Ever

A trading card featuring both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant sold at Goldin Auctions for approximately $12.9 million, setting the record for the most expensive basketball trading card ever sold at auction. The sale was part of a broader Goldin event offering more than $20 million in modern trading cards, which also included a Michael Jordan final game-worn jersey and a 1992 Olympics Dream Team basketball hoop.

This is the ceiling moving. Basketball cards have long played second fiddle to baseball in the all-time auction records conversation, and a $12.9 million sale changes that framing permanently. The fact that it took two of the sport's most iconic names on a single card to get there tells you something about where the market puts multi-subject pieces relative to solo rookies — and it puts every serious Jordan and Kobe single-card holding back under the microscope. Collectors sitting on high-grade Jordan rookies, Kobe rookies, or any dual-signed material from either player now have a fresh data point that the ceiling for basketball cardboard is higher than the hobby had formally established.