A rare Kobe Bryant card just became the latest sports card to eclipse the 7 figure plateau. A 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Emerald Kobe Bryant card fetched $2M in a private sale according to PWCC Marketplace.
While there have been several cards to break the million dollar barrier in recent years, what makes this sale unique is that the card, graded an 8.5 by BGS (Beckett Grading Services), is neither a rookie, an RPA, or contains any kind of game worn memorabilia. While the card is serial numbered, outside of that, for all intents and purposes it’s a rather run of the mill 2nd year card.
While the card itself is technically numbered out of /100, only the first ten cards in that run of 100 came with the Emerald background. There are currently no examples of the card graded higher than the BGS 8.5 version, with PSA submissions maxing out at 7.
Because of the foil background, finding Metal Universe cards in near mint or better condition from this era have become increasingly rare. Long coveted amongst collectors, the Metal Universe designs were recently relaunched by Upper Deck to the delight of modern collectors.
Even still, a $2M price tag for a second year, non-auto/patch card is perhaps one of the more eye popping price tags in recent sports card history.