Michael Jordan is one of the biggest names in sports cards, but his card market is not one clean market. The 1986 Fleer rookie card, the 1986 Fleer sticker, rare 1990s inserts, Upper Deck autographs, game-used cards and important high-grade copies live in a completely different world than ordinary late 80s and 90s base cards. … Read more
Upper Deck is in a strange place today. Not gone. Not irrelevant. But also not sitting in the middle of modern basketball cards anymore. A quick look at the Upper Deck Store in May 2026 says enough. Goodwin Champions, Skybox Metal Universe Champions, World of Sports, multi-sport boxes, hockey, nostalgia, niche products. That is the … Read more
Today I want to look at a question that matters a lot in modern sports memorabilia: Are Fanatics COAs legit? I am using a real example from my own collection: a signed Victor Wembanyama basketball from Fanatics. Wembanyama is already one of the most important young names in basketball, and after becoming one of the … Read more
People tend to focus on the headline numbers. The $10.5 million Jordan jersey at Sotheby’s. The Dynasty Collection sneakers at $8.5 million. The 1986–87 Fleer rookie card with an autograph that reached $2.7 million. Game-worn Finals sneakers from 1998 selling for more than $2 million. The same name keeps appearing across all of them. Jordan. … Read more
The 1986–87 Fleer basketball set is probably the holy grail for many basketball card collectors. Michael Jordan is the obvious reason. His 1986 Fleer rookie card is one of the most famous sports cards in the world. In a high-grade slab, it is not just a card anymore. In many parts of the world, and … Read more
Rafael Nadal memorabilia is not one clean market. He is one of the biggest tennis players ever, the face of Roland Garros, and part of the Federer-Djokovic-Nadal era. Even people who barely follow tennis understand the name. That gives his memorabilia a strong base. But a signed racket, a triple-signed display, a Topps Chrome autograph … Read more
Sports memorabilia can look like an easy market from the outside. Buy the famous name. Wait. Sell higher. That is usually how people lose money. The hobby is full of names everyone understands: Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Diego Maradona, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, LeBron James, Shohei … Read more
A lot of old sports stuff was never supposed to become “an asset class.” It sat in binders, shoe boxes, dealer cases, childhood bedrooms, garage shelves, old shop inventory and those weird plastic pages that always felt slightly sticky. Then the people who grew up around that stuff got older, got jobs, got bonuses, sold … Read more
In September 2016, California passed a new law, Assembly Bill 1570 (AB 1570), aimed at providing stronger protections against the fraudulent sale of signed sports memorabilia (California Legislative Information). Unlike earlier regulations, which mainly focused on sports memorabilia, AB 1570 expanded the rules to apply to all autographed items sold for $5 or more. The … Read more
On September 19, 2024, Ohtani etched his name into baseball history with a feat no Major League player had ever achieved: a 50/50 season—50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. That night, in a historic matchup against the Miami Marlins, Ohtani delivered a performance for the ages: six hits in six at-bats, including three home … Read more