Спортын картын “нэг сая долларын клуб”-д Леброн Жэймс тэргүүлж, Маклин Селлерини шинээр элслээ

A $1 million sports card sale doesn’t feel as momentous as it might have been a decade ago, five years ago or even one year ago. There’s been one or more publicly known sports card sales of $1 million or more in each of the last nine months, and in 12 of the past 13 months.

In less than a one-month span from May to June, five new members joined the $1 million card club: Nikola Jokić, Cristiano Ronaldo, Josh Allen, Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Of those five, Wembanyama made by far the biggest splash into the deep end when his 2023 Panini Prizm one-of-one black parallel rookie card with a PSA 10 grade sold for $5.1 million in a private sale. And since then, the iconic Jackie Robinson and young gun Macklin Celebrini joined the club, the former taking longer than many baseball fans would’ve expected and the latter becoming the first hockey player not named Wayne Gretzky to join the club.

With those seven additions, there are now 33 players across five sports who’ve had one or more of their cards sell for at least $1 million, according to sales database Card Ladder. (These are all publicly known sales and there are likely more unpublicized private $1 million card deals.)

The very first $1 million sports card sale came in April 2015, when a famed 1909 Honus Wagner T206 Sweet Caporal card with a PSA 3 (on a 1-10 scale) grade sold for $1.32 million. Another $1 million card sale didn’t occur again until October 2016, when a PSA 5 example of the Wagner card fetched $3.12 million.

Fast forward a decade later and there were two cards that sold for more than $2.5 million on June 28 of this year. A LeBron James 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection rookie patch autographed card numbered 9 of 23 produced went for $2.93 million. A 2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani #150 Superfractor, the one-of-a-kind parallel of one of his top rookie cards, sold for $2.56 million.

We’ve gone from a single $1 million card sale occurring in a year to 10 sales of $1 million cards happening already in July and August. And that number could very well rise between when this was published and when you read it.

The buyer of the $5.11 million Wembanyama card in June, who spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity due to personal security concerns stemming from the high value of the card, laid out some interesting reasoning as to why he’s heavy into the ultra high-end sports card market.

“The cost to buy a franchise of any kind really, like MLS to NFL, it’s so cost prohibitive,” he said.

“So what this (high-end sports card market) has become, in my opinion, is the next best thing to that. And it might be better. Owning a professional sports team comes with an enormous amount of s—. You have to tie up an incredible amount of capital after the asset purchase for payroll and everything else. There’s social responsibility. Obviously, you’re playing in the biggest league and it’s a great asset to own and all that stuff. But if you don’t own the majority of the team — I was looking into team ownership for a lower stake in a basketball team. I was told, ‘Look man, if you’re not gonna be the governor, the main guy, the main owner, just buy season tickets on the wood because they’ll treat you better.’

“You have no voting rights. Even socially, if you wanted to … brag about that you own 10 percent of, say, the Lakers. People will be like, ‘You don’t own the Lakers.’ I tied up millions of dollars of cash for this and that’s it?

“So what is card ownership, then? If you’re going after these grail cards, like the true, true, ‘f— you’ cards. Like I have the Shohei (Ohtani)/Aaron Judge dual Logoman auto that sold. I paid $2.16 million for that. … I have people I answer to financially when I make investments or decisions. They’re like, ‘You could buy a f—ing house.’ … I say the difference is the one or two percent of billionaires in the world don’t really, really, really want my house. But they f—ing want that card, though. Somebody who made stupid, stupid, stupid money that just for whatever reason loves Wembanyama, they’re not gonna pay 3x for a piece of real estate.”

Now will every card sold for $1 million or more forever maintain that seven-figure value? Not so much. But might a $1 million card turn into one that doubles in value, or more? That’s happened, as well.

Still, there’s a pretty distinct line between repeat members of the club versus those who appear to be one-hit wonders.

Let’s take a look at the $1 million-plus card sale leaderboard (reminder that these are just accounting for publicly known sports card sales :

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The athletes with double digit $1 million sales probably shouldn’t come as a shock, but the order might be a surprise.

James topping the list by a significant margin when the likes of Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan have long been seen as the kings of the sports card world may raise some eyebrows, but his priciest card to date does include Jordan on it. Their one-of-one 2006-07 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection dual NBA Logoman patch autographed (ungraded) card sold for $10 million, which is by far James’ most expensive. But James’ aforementioned 2003-04 Exquisite rookie patch autographed cards, which have publicly sold 19 times, account for a large portion of his biggest sales.

In football, it’s Tom Brady and then everybody else. The quarterback’s 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Rookie Ticket autographed rookie card serial numbered to 100 accounts for all 22 of his $1 million-plus sales. The last public sale came in June 2023 for $1.2 million, which was half of what a copy sold for in October 2022.

It might be hard to believe that Mantle just caught up to Brady on this list in June, when his iconic 1952 Topps card with a PSA 8 grade sold at auction for $1.83 million. However, that is mostly down to the fact that the ‘52 Mantle card in top grades rarely changes hands.

All of the $1 million-plus Wagner sales are attached to the well-known T206 card. Meanwhile, there’s a wider variety of Babe Ruth cards with $1 million-plus sales, including two sales that have occurred this year. Ruth’s most expensive sale came when his 1914 Baltimore News rookie card with an SGC 3 grade fetched $7.2 million in December 2023. The exact same card only sold for $4.03 million in October 2025.

Given how wildly popular Jordan remains in the hobby, that he isn’t even within the top five players on the list might be the biggest shock of all. He does hold the title, along with Kobe Bryant, in having the most expensive publicly known sports card sale ever, with their shared 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection dual NBA Logoman patch autographed one-of-one card that sold for $12.9 million in August 2025.

Part of the reason Jordan doesn’t have more tallies on the list is because his 1986 Fleer rookie card isn’t super scarce. According to Gem Rate (a database of graded cards), there are 340 Gem-Mint PSA 10 graded copies of this card. The only two 1986 Fleer Jordan cards that are within his $1 million-plus card collection are autographed versions with PSA 9 card/10 auto grades that sold for $2.5 million and $2.7 million in June and October 2025, respectively. (For perspective, a 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 non-autographed card last sold at auction for $384,000.)

Bryant may have the most diverse spread with 12 different $1 million-plus cards. But also his top two card sales came with dual NBA Logoman patch cards that also included Jordan. Bryant’s top solo card sale occurred recently when his 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Green serial numbered to 10 with a PSA 5 grade went for $3.15 million in April 2026.

The next cluster is an interesting cross-section of players and sports ranging from legends who took a longer time to reach the club to someone like Ohtani, where it’s safe to assume that his total will keep increasing sooner than later.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way player didn’t have a $1 million card sale until March 2025. Yet he’s had five since then, with Ohtani’s mega-splash occurring three weeks ago when his one-of-a-kind 2026 Topps Chrome dual Gold Logoman autograph (signatures in English and Kanji) card sold for $11 million. It became the third most expensive publicly known sports card sale ever. There are still top Ohtani cards out there that haven’t been publicly sold (or at least haven’t come to market since he became a perennial MVP) that would likely capture a $1 million-plus price tag.

Players like Roberto Clemente, Wayne Gretzky, Stephen Curry, Pelé and Patrick Mahomes all seem to fit the billing of having a $1 million-plus card. All are all-time greats with icon status in their respective sports. You’d say the same for Lionel Messi, but it took him until Sept. 2025, when two examples of his 2004 Panini Sports Mega Cracks rookie card with a PSA 10 grade sold for $1.1 million and $1.5 million less than a week apart.

Then there’s Judge.

He’s easily one of the best baseball players of his generation, but for way too long other players in other sports claimed higher card sales than the New York Yankees outfielder. Even far less accomplished players on his own team had higher sales. For example, the top selling card of Yankees teammate Jasson Dominguez stands at $474,000 (a February 2022 sale). It wasn’t until March 2026 when a Judge card surpassed that figure, hitting the $5 million mark(!). How does that happen? It’s as if the market suddenly woke up to Judge, with three different cards selling for at least $1.95 million between March and May 2026.

On the flip side there’s Justin Herbert.

Some misguided buyers within two days of each other in September 2022 spent $1.1 million (2020 Panini Prizm Black Finite one-of-one card with a Beckett 9 grade) and $1.8 million (2020 Panini National Treasures NFL Shield patch autographed one-of-one card — Beckett 8.5 card/10 auto grade) on Herbert rookie cards.

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Are the rest simply one-hit wonders? Right place, right time?

The list of players with just a single entry is so fascinating. From legends like Wilt Chamberlain, Lou Gehrig and Robinson to modern hobby darlings like Paul Skenes and SGA. Among the group, the cards for Joe Burrow ($1.7 million to $950,402.52), Anthony Davis ($1.02 million to $333,700) and Reggie Jackson ($1.01 million to $869,940) have dropped below the $1 million mark in value.

It would be tough to guarantee any of these other players will find another $1 million sale. Someone like Burrow needs to win a Super Bowl for any kind of hobby springboard. SGA and Jokić have won NBA MVP awards and championships, but their markets might be tapped out. And Davis realistically has no business even being mentioned within this group.

Legendary players that haven’t reached the $1 million card plateau include:

• Hank Aaron: $720,000 (1954 Topps PSA 9, August 2022)
• Larry Bird and Magic Johnson: $840,000 (1980-81 Topps PSA 10, August 2021 and April 2022)
• Ty Cobb: $876,000 (1909 T206 PSA 4.5, September 2020)
• Willie Mays: $478,000 (1952 Topps PSA 9, May 2026)
• Bill Russell: $660,000 (1957 Topps PSA 8.5, May 2023)
• Tiger Woods: $552,000 (2009 Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Numbers inscribed autograph with James Beckett 8.5, January 2026)

And who will be the first women’s sports athlete to join the $1 million club?

Caitlin Clark has come closest to date, with two card sales over $500,000 last year, including a high of $660,000 for her 2024 Panini Flawless WNBA Logowoman autographed and inscribed one-of-one card. The next closest is Serena Williams, whose 2003 NetPro International Series Authentic Apparel rookie patch autographed card with a PSA 8 card/10 auto grade sold for $266,400 in May 2022.

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