A trading card from LeBron James' rookie NBA season sold at auction for $1.8 million, making it the most expensive basketball card of all time
- A LeBron James rookie card has sold at auction for $1.845 million, making it the most expensive basketball card of all time.
- Sold at Goldin Auctions on Sunday, the lot was won by Leore Avidar, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lob.com.
- Only 23 versions of the record breaking card were made, according to ESPN, however it was only one of two graded as a 9.5 mint gem.
- "This really was the single best LeBron card that somebody could have hoped to get," Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions told ESPN.
- "It was very active bidding, a lot of bidders, and we're happy with the results."
A LeBron James rookie card has sold at auction for $1.845 million, making it the most expensive basketball card of all time.
It is also the priciest trading card of any kind sold in the modern era — since 1980.
Sold at New Jersey auction house Goldin Auctions on Sunday, the card, which pictures James during his debut NBA season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, received 34 bids, starting at $150,000.
According to Darren Rovell of Action Network, the eventual winner of the lot was Leore Avidar, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lob.com, a San Francisco-based company which automates mail for businesses.
Only 23 versions of the record breaking card were made, according to ESPN, however it was only one of two graded as a 9.5 mint gem by Beckett grading service.
"There are only two of them, one of them is in private hands and the other was up for auction," Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions told ESPN.
"So this really was the single best LeBron card that somebody could have hoped to get. It was very active bidding, a lot of bidders, and we're happy with the results."
The previous record for the most expensive ever modern-era trading card was set in May when Goldin Auctions sold a mint-condition rookie card depicting Los Angeles Angels baseball star Mike Trout signed by the star himself for around $922,000.
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