Just last month, Kobe Bryant, alongside Michael Jordan, set the record for the most expensive sports card ever. After various offers, the 2007–08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman sold for over $12.9 million. It featured a game-worn Logoman patch and on-card signatures from the Bulls legend and the Lakers legend. Now, another solo memorabilia for the 5x NBA champion is dominating the headlines.
For some, collecting is not just a hobby, but also an investment. Take Kobe Bryant’s 2015-16 Kaboom BGS Black Label 10, for example. It’s a true 1-of-1 piece, and back in 2016, the value was merely $355. But now it’s well over 30000% thanks to the Goldin Co. auction this past weekend. Nearly a decade later, the price is $105,530 as per The Collectibles Guru. In terms of ranking, this beats previous Kaboom cards for Kobe Bryant.
And it’s not accidental that people are gravitating towards Black Mamba. As per GemRate, Jordan is consistently the most searched athlete on eBay every month, with total card sales of $41,598,966 from January through August 2025. With the gap of over $10 million, Shohei Ohtani comes second with $28,291,529. The third athlete is Jauden Daniels at $23,284,354. Holding his own and being better than LeBron James and Stephen Curry is the late great Lakers legend.
Not too far down, holding the 4th position is Bryant, with $18,825,908 spent on his cards during the same time period, according to GemRate. Being rare, helps in getting better value. See the case of the 2007–08 Upper Deck Jordan Bryant card. That’s why it is widely regarded as a modern “holy grail.” It surpassed a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle No. 311, which went for $12.6 million in August 2022.
Previously, the auction house, Heritage, estimated it would top $6 million, but the Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan broke records. The specialty was this card is that it was graded a PSA 6 out of 10. But this low grade did not affect the price. “Grades matter as far as pricing goes for standard-issue cards, but this is a 1-of-1, so the grade is less important overall to how the card performed.”
Who purchased the Kobe Bryant-Michael Jordan card?
The previous owner often rejected high prices for his card. ““had held the card for over a decade, turning down several ‘high seven-figure’ private offers before sending it to auction.” But who is the new owner? It’s not a single individual but a group of 3 gentlemen. Kevin O’Leary, Investor/TV personality, the Shark Tank star, Matt Allen, a hobby mega-collector, and Paul Warshaw, a Miami-based entrepreneur, were named as the third partner.
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We bought it together, yes we did,” O’Leary said during a Monday morning appearance on CNBC. “I’m very proud to own it.” O’Leary said the three men hatched a plan to buy the item, considered “the finest modern basketball card in the world,” via a 3 a.m. Zoom call. In fact, Allen is such a big collector that he has spent $4 million on two Bryant 1-of-1 signed Panini Flawless Logoman cards.
One from 2017-18 for $1.7 million and one from 2015-16 for $2.3 million. This was the record paid for a Bryant card until Saturday night’s sale. The MJ-Kobe card also beat the $5.2 million LeBron James rookie card, which was previously the highest-rated basketball card. Let’s see what next record gets broken with sports memorabilia being at the center.
