The Short Answer
- The most expensive sports card ever sold is the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Logoman Autographs Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant 1/1 — $12,932,000 at Heritage Auctions on August 23, 2025. Remarkably, it is graded only PSA 6.
- The previous record was the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC 9.5 ('Rosen Find') at $12.6 million, also sold by Heritage in August 2022.
- A 2026 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani dual Gold Logoman 1/1 sold privately for $11 million in July 2026 — completely ungraded.
- Three of the top four all-time sales are modern 1-of-1 Logoman patch autographs, proving scarcity now beats vintage at the very top of the market.
- At the top, a 1/1 serial number matters more than the grade — but for the other 99.9% of cards, the grade IS the multiplier: a PSA 10 routinely sells for 2-10x a PSA 9.
- Only about 8.88% of cards submitted to PSA earn a Gem Mint 10, which is why pre-screening before you pay a grading fee is the difference between profit and a burned $79.99.
The Top 10 Most Expensive Sports Cards Ever Sold
As of September 2026, the most expensive sports card ever sold is the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant #DL-KM, a one-of-one card graded PSA EX-MT 6 with a 10 autograph grade that realized $12,932,000 at Heritage Auctions' Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction on August 23, 2025. It took 82 bids to get there, and it dethroned the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC 9.5 that had held the record since 2022.
For context: the most expensive trading card of any kind is now a Pokemon card — the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator that sold for $16.49 million at Goldin in February 2026. Among sports cards, the Jordan/Kobe Logoman is king.
Here is the definitive ranked list of the ten most expensive sports cards ever sold, based on public auction results and confirmed private sales tracked by Card Ladder and major auction houses:
| Rank | Card | Grade | Sale Price | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007-08 UD Exquisite Dual Logoman Jordan/Kobe 1/1 | PSA 6 / Auto 10 | $12,932,000 | Aug 2025 | Heritage |
| 2 | 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 ('Rosen Find') | SGC 9.5 | $12,600,000 | Aug 2022 | Heritage |
| 3 | 2026 Topps Chrome Ohtani Dual Gold Logoman 1/1 | Ungraded | $11,000,000 | Jul 2026 | Private |
| 4 | 2006-07 UD Exquisite Dual Logoman Jordan/LeBron 1/1 | Ungraded | $10,000,000 | Sep 2025 | Private |
| 5 | T206 Honus Wagner | SGC 3 | $7,250,000 | Aug 2022 | Goldin (private) |
| 6 | 2009-10 National Treasures Steph Curry Logoman 1/1 | BGS 8 | $5,900,000 | Jul 2021 | Private |
| 7 | 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 | PSA 9 | $5,200,000 | Jan 2021 | Private |
| 8 | 2003-04 UD Exquisite LeBron James RPA /23 | BGS 9 / Auto 10 | $5,200,000 | Apr 2021 | Private |
| 9 | 2017 National Treasures Mahomes Platinum NFL Shield 1/1 | BGS 8.5 / Auto 10 | $4,300,000 | Jul 2021 | PWCC (private) |
| 10 | 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Superfractor 1/1 | BGS 9 / Auto 10 | $3,930,000 | Aug 2020 | Goldin |
Three details jump out of this table. First, four of the top ten sales happened in the last fourteen months — the high end of this market is accelerating, not cooling. Second, three of the top four are modern one-of-one Logoman patch autographs, a card type that did not exist before 2003. Third — and most surprising to casual collectors — the most expensive card in the world is a PSA 6, and two of the top four are not graded at all. We will unpack why below.
How the All-Time Record Has Evolved
For decades, the T206 Honus Wagner was the undisputed king of sports cards. A Wagner set the million-dollar benchmark when Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall paid $451,000 for one in 1991, and the card kept resetting its own record — $2.35 million in 2007, $2.8 million in 2008, $3.12 million in 2016, $6.6 million in August 2021, and $7.25 million in August 2022.
The modern era of eight-figure cards began in earnest in 2020-2021, when a combination of pandemic-era liquidity, new high-net-worth buyers, and mainstream media coverage pushed the ceiling past $5 million for the first time. The Mike Trout Bowman Chrome Superfractor sold for $3.93 million in August 2020 — a record at the time — and within twelve months the record had been broken four more times.
The current top of the market was set by a three-card flurry between August 2025 and July 2026. The Jordan/Kobe Dual Logoman's $12.93 million auction result in August 2025 was followed a month later by a reported $10 million private sale of the Jordan/LeBron Dual Logoman, and in July 2026 the 2026 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani Back-to-Back dual Gold Logoman — pulled from a pack that same year — sold privately for $11 million. The group behind the Ohtani purchase, which includes collector Matt Allen ('Shyne') and investor Kevin O'Leary, also owns the Jordan/Kobe card.
One under-appreciated data point from August 2026: a 1952 Topps Mantle graded PSA 8 with the MBA Silver pedigree sold at Heritage for $3.721 million — roughly double the $1.83 million another PSA 8 Mantle brought just two months earlier at Goldin. Same card, same grade, double the price. At the very top of the market, provenance and eye appeal can matter as much as the number on the label.
Most Expensive Baseball Cards Ever Sold
Baseball cards account for the deepest bench of seven-figure sales, and the market is anchored by three names: Mantle, Wagner, and Trout — with Ohtani now forcing his way into the conversation.
1. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, SGC 9.5 — $12.6 million. The 'Rosen Find' copy, sold by Heritage in August 2022, remains the most expensive baseball card and the most expensive graded card of any sport. Collector Anthony Giordano paid $50,000 for it in 1991. Only three copies of the '52 Mantle grade higher than a 9 across all grading companies, and this is the finest known.
2. T206 Honus Wagner, SGC 3 — $7.25 million. Fewer than 60 Wagners are known to exist, and this example — sold in a Goldin-brokered private sale in August 2022 — holds the public price record despite a mid-grade. A PSA 8 Wagner ('The Phoenix') is believed to be worth considerably more but has never tested the open market at that level.
3. 2026 Topps Chrome Ohtani Dual Gold Logoman 1/1 — $11 million (ungraded). The most expensive modern baseball card ever sold, and it has never seen the inside of a grading slab. Featuring Logoman patches from Ohtani's back-to-back MVP seasons, it sold privately in July 2026 to the same investment group that owns the Jordan/Kobe card.
4. 1952 Topps Mantle, PSA 9 — $5.2 million. Sold privately through PWCC in January 2021, this was the first Mantle to break $5 million and kicked off the modern record run.
5. 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Superfractor 1/1, BGS 9 — $3.93 million. Sold at Goldin in August 2020, it was briefly the most expensive card ever and remains the most expensive card of any active-era player other than Ohtani's logoman. Buyer Dave 'Vegas Dave' Oancea reportedly turned down $6 million for it in 2022.
Honorable mentions: the 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth ($7.2 million, December 2023 — technically a baseball card of Ruth's minor-league Orioles, which would rank #4 overall if counted as a standard card), the 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth PSA 9 ($4.2 million), and the August 2026 PSA 8 Mantle at $3.72 million mentioned above.
Most Expensive Basketball Cards Ever Sold
Basketball owns the top of the market. The Upper Deck Exquisite Collection — which debuted in 2003-04 at a then-shocking $500 per box — is responsible for three of the five most expensive cards ever sold.
1. 2007-08 UD Exquisite Dual Logoman Jordan/Kobe 1/1, PSA 6 — $12.93 million. The holy grail of modern basketball: the only card ever produced with game-worn NBA logo patches and on-card autographs from both Jordan and Bryant. Heritage's Chris Ivy called it 'the finest modern basketball card in the world.' The PSA 6 grade is a footnote — a 1/1 has no comparable, so condition grading adds little information.
2. 2006-07 UD Exquisite Dual Logoman Jordan/LeBron 1/1 — $10 million. Sold privately in September 2025, reportedly ungraded. The second dual-Logoman pairing of the two biggest names in the modern hobby.
3. 2009-10 National Treasures Steph Curry Logoman Rookie 1/1, BGS 8 — $5.9 million. The July 2021 private sale that held the basketball record for four years. Again: a BGS 8, not a gem — because there is only one.
4. 2003-04 UD Exquisite LeBron James RPA /23, BGS 9 — $5.2 million. The April 2021 sale that made LeBron's rookie patch auto the most coveted modern basketball card. A BGS 9.5 copy of the same card reportedly traded hands for around $4 million in a separate deal.
5. 2018-19 National Treasures Luka Doncic Logoman 1/1 — $4.6 million. A private sale reported in early 2021 that made the then-second-year player's card one of the most expensive in history before he had played a single playoff game.
Also notable: Giannis Antetokounmpo's 2013-14 NT Logoman 1/1 ($1.86 million, September 2020), Kobe Bryant's 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Emerald /10 (reported ~$2 million private), and Victor Wembanyama's 2023-24 Prizm Black Shimmer 1/1, which set a modern non-Logoman record before the dual Logoman sales reset the ceiling.
Most Expensive Football Cards Ever Sold
Football cards trail basketball and baseball at the very top, but the gap is narrowing — and 2026 delivered the first new seven-figure football card in four years.
1. 2017 Panini National Treasures Patrick Mahomes Platinum NFL Shield 1/1, BGS 8.5 — $4.3 million. The most expensive football card ever sold: a July 2021 private transaction brokered by PWCC Marketplace, purchased by LJ's Card Shop of New Albany, Ohio. The card embeds the actual NFL Shield logo from a game-worn jersey and is the apex of Mahomes' 2017 National Treasures RPA parallel ladder.
2. 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket Tom Brady Auto /100, BGS 9 — $3.107 million. Serial number 8/100, sold at Lelands in June 2021. This is the card that defined the modern football market — the same card had sold for $2.25 million (BGS 8.5) in April 2021 and $1.32 million (BGS 8) in March 2021. Three sales, three grades, three records in four months: it remains the cleanest public demonstration of how grade moves price on a serial-numbered card.
3. 2025 Topps Chrome Honors Josh Allen MVP Gold NFL Shield — $1.35 million. The surprise entry of 2026: a redemption card honoring Allen's 2025 MVP season, sold through Fanatics Collect — the first new seven-figure football sale since 2022 and a signal that the NFL high end is active again.
Below the top three, the 2017 NT Mahomes RPA /99 in BGS 9.5 has sold in the $800,000-$1.2 million range, and Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Jayden Daniels RPAs occupy the $200,000-$500,000 tier. Football's ceiling is set almost entirely by quarterbacks — no non-QB football card has ever sold publicly for seven figures.
Most Expensive Hockey Cards Ever Sold
Hockey's market is smaller but remarkably stable, anchored by two rookie cards that have held their records for years.
1. 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky Rookie, PSA 10 — $3.75 million. Sold by Heritage in May 2021, this remains the most expensive hockey card ever. The OPC Gretzky is one of the most condition-sensitive rookies ever printed — rough-cut edges and poor centering are the norm — which is why only two PSA 10s exist and why the grade drives essentially all of the value. A PSA 9 of the same card sells for under $300,000: a >10x grade premium.
2. 1911 C55 Georges Vezina, PSA 7 — ~$1.2 million. The 'Chicoutimi Cucumber' rookie from hockey's first major card set holds the vintage hockey record outside Gretzky.
3. 1979 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky, PSA 10 (second copy) — $1.29 million and the 1966 Topps Bobby Orr rookie, PSA 9 (~$660,000) round out the top tier.
The modern hockey market's chase card is the Upper Deck Young Guns rookie — Connor McDavid's 2015-16 Young Guns PSA 10 has sold above $75,000, and Connor Bedard's 2023-24 Young Guns drives heavy grading volume. If a 1/1 McDavid or Bedard patch auto ever surfaces at auction, it would challenge for hockey's #2 spot, but for now Gretzky owns the record the way he owns the record book.
Most Expensive Soccer Cards Ever Sold
Soccer is the fastest-growing card market in the world and got a new record-holder in 2025 — fittingly, Lionel Messi.
1. 2004-05 Panini Mega Cracks Lionel Messi #71, PSA 10 — $1.5 million. Sold through Fanatics Collect's private sales network in September 2025, this is the most expensive soccer card ever. It broke a record that had stood for three years — and it did so days after Goldin brokered a $1.1 million private sale of another PSA 10 copy of the same card. PSA 10 Mega Cracks Messis are effectively the PSA 10 Fleer Jordans of soccer: the population is fixed, demand is global, and every new record pulls the floor up.
2. 1958 Alifabolaget Pele #68, PSA 9 — $1.33 million. The February 2022 private sale that made Pele's rookie the first seven-figure soccer card. Another PSA 9 copy sold at Goldin's 2026 Global Football Auction for $976,000 — still the auction record for a Pele card.
3. Erling Haaland 2019 Topps Chrome Bundesliga Autograph Superfractor 1/1 — ~$442,000 and the 2018 Panini Prizm World Cup Kylian Mbappe Gold /10 (~$160,000+) headline the modern tier.
With the 2026 World Cup played on North American soil and soccer card grading volume up sharply year-over-year, this is the sport most likely to produce a new entry on the all-time list in the next record cycle. A true game-worn Messi or Mbappe Logoman-equivalent 1/1 would likely clear $3 million today.
Does the Grade Matter? Scarcity vs Condition at the Top of the Market
Look at the top-10 table again and you will notice something that seems to contradict everything collectors are taught: the most expensive card in the world is a PSA 6, and two of the top four are not graded at all.
The resolution is simple. At the absolute apex, the buyers are purchasing the object itself — the only Jordan/Kobe dual Logoman that exists, or ever will exist. When supply is literally one, there is no 'better copy' to wait for, and the grade becomes descriptive rather than determinative. The same logic explains the BGS 8 Curry Logoman at $5.9 million and the ungraded Ohtani at $11 million.
But this only applies to true 1/1s and irreplaceable vintage. For every card below that tier — meaning every card you and I will ever actually buy, sell, or grade — condition is the single biggest price variable:
- A 1979 OPC Gretzky PSA 9 sells for ~$280,000; the PSA 10 sold for $3.75 million — a 13x premium for one grade point.
- A 2000 Contenders Brady Championship Ticket sold for $1.32M (BGS 8), $2.25M (BGS 8.5), and $3.1M (BGS 9) — each half-point worth nearly a million dollars.
- A 1952 Mantle PSA 8 brought $3.72 million in August 2026 while PSA 5s sell for under $300,000.
- A typical modern rookie card: raw ~$30, PSA 9 ~$60-80, PSA 10 ~$150-300. The entire value thesis is the top grade.
Only about 8.88% of cards submitted to PSA come back Gem Mint 10. That scarcity is the engine under every PSA 10 premium in this article — and it is also why roughly 91% of submissions fail to capture that premium. The collectors who win this game are the ones who know their card's real condition before they pay the grading fee.
What These Sales Mean for Your Collection
You are probably not holding a Jordan/Kobe Logoman. But the mechanics that made it worth $12.9 million — scarcity, condition sensitivity, and verified authenticity — scale directly down to a $40 rookie card.
The lesson of the million-dollar sales is not 'buy expensive cards.' It is 'understand what drives price.' Scarcity you cannot control. Condition you can — and at normal price levels it is worth more than anything else. The difference between a card worth grading and a card worth selling raw is often invisible to the naked eye: 58/42 centering instead of 52/48, a whisper of edge whitening on the back, a print line only visible at an angle under light.
This is exactly the problem AI pre-grading exists to solve. A $0.19 pre-grade scan tells you a card's likely PSA outcome — with sub-scores for centering, corners, edges, and surface — before you commit $59.99-$199.99 to a PSA submission and 40-100 days of turnaround. In our internal benchmark, the model matches PSA within one grade point on 89% of cards (n=10,000), and collectors who pre-screen their submissions report cutting wasted grading fees by 40-60%.
The collectors in this article's tables did not get lucky — they bought the best copy of the right card. Pre-screening is how you find the best copy of yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most expensive sports card ever sold?
The most expensive sports card ever sold is the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Logoman Autographs Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant 1/1, which realized $12,932,000 at Heritage Auctions on August 23, 2025. It surpassed the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC 9.5 ($12.6 million, August 2022). Notably, the Jordan/Kobe card is graded only PSA 6 — its 1-of-1 scarcity, not its grade, drives the price.
What is the most expensive baseball card ever sold?
The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded SGC 9.5 ('Rosen Find') holds the baseball record at $12.6 million (Heritage, August 2022). For a modern player, the 2026 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani dual Gold Logoman 1/1 sold privately for $11 million in July 2026 — ungraded.
What is the most expensive basketball card ever sold?
The 2007-08 UD Exquisite Jordan/Kobe Dual Logoman 1/1 at $12.93 million — it is also the most expensive sports card of any kind. The previous basketball record was the Steph Curry 2009-10 National Treasures Logoman 1/1 at $5.9 million.
What is the most expensive football card ever sold?
The 2017 Panini National Treasures Patrick Mahomes Platinum NFL Shield 1/1, which sold for $4.3 million in a July 2021 private sale brokered by PWCC. The most expensive football card sold at public auction is Tom Brady's 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket auto /100 at $3.1 million (Lelands, June 2021).
Why did a PSA 6 card sell for $12.9 million?
Because it is a one-of-one — the only card ever produced with game-worn logo patches and autographs from both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. When supply is literally one card, there is no better copy to chase, so the grade becomes descriptive rather than price-determining. For serial-numbered or mass-produced cards, the grade remains the dominant price variable.
What is the most expensive sports card you can still pull from a pack?
Modern chase cards like Topps Chrome and National Treasures 1/1 Logomans and Superfractors are still being pulled. The $11 million Ohtani dual Gold Logoman was pulled from a 2026 Topps Chrome pack. Football's most recent seven-figure card, the Josh Allen NFL Shield ($1.35 million), was a 2025 Topps Chrome Honors redemption.
How much does grading add to a card's value?
It depends entirely on the grade. A PSA 10 typically sells for 2-10x the same card in PSA 9 and often 10-20x raw near-mint value for modern cards. A PSA 8 or below can actually sell for less than raw on modern cards once fees are counted. This is why pre-grading — knowing the likely grade before paying the fee — is the highest-ROI step in the submission process.
Will the sports card record be broken again soon?
Very likely. Three of the top four sales ever happened in the last 14 months, and the same buying group now owns both the Jordan/Kobe card and the Ohtani Logoman. The most-watched candidates: the PSA 8 T206 Wagner ('The Phoenix'), a potential 1/1 Messi or Mbappe patch auto, and any future Jordan/LeBron/Kobe triple Logoman.
Sources & Further Reading
- Heritage Auctions — Jordan/Kobe Dual Logoman $12,932,000 record sale (Aug 2025)
- AP News — Jordan/Bryant card sells for record $12.9 million
- The Athletic — Shohei Ohtani card sells for $11 million, third-most-expensive sports card
- Heritage Auctions — 1952 Topps Mantle $12.6 million sale
- ESPN — Messi Panini Mega Cracks rookie sells for record $1.5 million
- CBS News — Tom Brady autographed rookie sells for record $3.1 million
- Card Ladder — verified sports card sales database
JT Thompson has focused on vintage sports cards (pre-1980) for more than 20 years. He is a regular contributor to vintage collector forums, has consulted on authentication issues for high-value pre-war cards, and teaches collectors how to spot trimming, recoloring, and restoration on classic cardboard.
With submission floors rising, pre-screening is no longer optional. Use our AI Pre-Grade Calculator to score a card's PSA 10 odds before you pay, and the Submission Planner to pick the right tier.