Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2021 Issue

Another Record Price for a Collectible Card

The $2.25 million Brady card (Lelands photo).

The $2.25 million Brady card (Lelands photo).

Once in a while, a collecting field becomes so hot it's hard to even keep up with what is going on. Such is the case with collector cards these days. It's reminiscent of tulips a few centuries ago, but hopefully, with a better ending.

 

Last month we wrote about a slew of record prices for collectible cards. Between last November and March, record prices were set for cards in every major team sport – baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer. That article has already become outdated. Another record price has come tumbling down and it isn't even close. That record lasted only a month before being eclipsed by a new record price that is almost $1 million higher.

 

Last month, Lelands, a sports auction house, set a new record price for a football card. That price was $2.25 million, or, to be exact, $2,252,854.80. It was a rookie card for one Tom Brady, a 2000 Playoff Contenders Champion Rookie Ticket produced in “only” 100 copies. As you may know, Brady has gone on to have a very record-setting career himself. Based on this price, the complete card run, if in comparable condition, would be worth $225 million today.

 

What is astonishing is how fast these prices have risen. A month earlier, the same card, in very similar condition, sold for $1.32 million. That is an increase of $930,000 or 70% in just one month. This latest card was graded at 8.5, and 9 for the autograph, while the one from a month before was graded an 8 with the autograph at 10.

 

Making this all the more remarkable is how fast football cards had been appreciating even before the March sale. The $1.32 million paid for the March Brady card itself broke a record only one month old, and that, too, was by a large margin. The previous record was for a Patrick Mahomes card that sold for $861,000. So that was an increase in over 50% in just a month. But as they say on TV infomercials, “wait, there's more.” Another Brady card sold in January for what is believed to have been a then record price of $556,000. The Mahomes card, too, represented over a 50% increase from the previous record. Add them all up and you have an increase in the record price paid for a football card between January and April of over 300%.

 

Another way of looking at it is that another copy of the $2.25 million Brady card, in a little better condition (9/10) sold for $400,000 two years ago. That is a 460% rise in value in just two years. How are your investments doing?

 

So, what does Tom Brady think of all this? Interviewed on Good Morning America, Brady said, “It’s surreal, and it makes me want to go check all my cards that I have stored. There’s got to be one in there somewhere. And I kept all these cards for all these years. You know, when I was coming out I tried to make some money. My agent, Steve, was like, ‘I got a trading card deal for you. Sign a thousand cards and they’re going to pay you like 20 cents a card.’ And I was like, ‘Twenty cents a card? I’m going to be rich!’ Unbelievable. Twenty-one years later you see these cards that are worth that kind of money. I definitely should’ve kept some of them but whatever I think it all worked out pretty good.”

 

Now, would you like some more evidence of just how crazy the card collecting field has become? Unlike with books, there are independent grading services that will put a condition score on cards so collectors can put an informed value on them. The primary grader is PSA. Recently, they stopped accepting new cards for evaluation. The reason? They are overwhelmed. They have such a large backlog of cards to grade they don't know when they can get to them all so they have just stopped accepting any more. In a letter from PSA President Steve Sloan, he explained, “The sheer volume of orders that PSA received in early March has fundamentally changed our ability to service the hobby. The reality is that we recently received more cards in three days than we did during the previous three months. Even after the surge, submissions continue at never-before-seen levels. Given our growing backlog, it would be disingenuous for us to continue to accept submissions for cards that we will be unable to process in the foreseeable future.”

 

These are not some tattered old cards someone found in the attic, worth maybe a few bucks each. These are cards often worth thousands, even hundreds of thousands, once in awhile millions, of dollars. Would you like a tulip with that?

Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
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    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
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    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
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    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025 Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025
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    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
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    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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