Right: If I was new, I would say first, “Who do I like? Who did I really enjoy watching play?” That should be the first thing. If you didn’t like the player or weren’t a fan of the team, it’s kind of heresy to collect their cards. But find the player that you’re a fan of, and if it’s one of the greatest players of all time – like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Kobe Bryant – those players will still have fans 50 years from now.

Then I would focus on getting the nicest, rarest card you can afford of those players. Going back to our earlier discussion about serialized cards and limited edition cards, those are going to be more desirable. If you can get one from their rookie year or maybe their sophomore year, those are going to be even more valuable. Michael Jordan’s cards were not serialized when he entered the league, but one of his cards that is gaining popularity is the 1984 Star #101. It was technically his first card issued, although it was not released in a pack. The way Star distributed these products was in team bags, not wax packs. That didn’t happen until the 1986 Fleer, which is the iconic card.

PSA did not grade Star cards for many years. We did grade them initially, maybe from 1991 to 1993. But then questions arose about the authenticity of the cards and if they were reprints later. We could not distinguish the originals from the reprints, so we stopped grading them for 20 years. We started grading them again in the summer of 2022 because we had more knowledge of the product and could distinguish between versions. Since then, the Michael Jordan 1984 Star #101 card has grown in popularity compared to the Fleer. We have only graded about 300 Star cards compared to thousands of Fleer cards. From a scarcity standpoint, especially at high grades like PSA 8 or 9, it is rare. We have not even graded a 10 because the card is usually off-center. I think we only have 25 or 30 PSA 8’s graded, and there are only three PSA 9’s. It’s a very rare card to find in high quality.

Another card that has become popular are Jordan’s cards from the 90s, especially the serialized ones like the PMGs (Precious Metal Gems), which are highly sought after. Upper Deck made the first game-worn jersey cards in 1997, using Michael Jordan’s All-Star Game jersey from the 1992 season. There were two variations, a non-signed version and a signed version, hand-numbered to 23. That card is super iconic and highly sought after, and started the trend of game-worn patches. This trend parallels many Kobe Bryant cards that were released a year after his rookie season, which led to the trend of limited edition, serialized patch cards.

The 1997 PMG was the biggest sale, bringing in $2.7 million. But this year, a one-of-one card from the 2003 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Logo Man sold at a Goldin auction for $2.9 million. That is now the biggest sale.

Right: Yeah, the Jordan. There’s also a LeBron James card from that set that was sold years ago. I don’t know what it’s worth now, but I do know who owns it. There was a profile on him—I can’t remember which publication did it—but he bought that card for about $300,000, maybe six or seven years ago. It’s the LeBron Logo Man one-of-one, which I think is more valuable than the Jordan and Kobe because it’s LeBron’s rookie card. I believe we gave it a PSA 9.