A Sports Illustrated subscription copy of Michael Jordan celebrating the Chicago Bulls' second NBA championship, graded 4.5, usually sells for about $100.
Yet a copy of that June 22, 1992, magazine in that exact grade sold early Sunday morning for $59,887 at Goldin Auctions.
What caused such an outrageous premium?
The answer: The name in the subscription box.
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Imagine a 13-year-old Bryant, having moved from Italy, pulling the magazine out of his mailbox to read about Jordan’s second title.
That connection appealed to a slew of bidders — there were 56 bids in all.
It is not known how the magazine was obtained, but it was first sold in February 2021 at Heritage Auctions for $8,400. The buyer was offered $15,000 to quickly resale the magazine, but did not accept it.
Before Sunday morning, the record for an unsigned subscription copy of Sports Illustrated was a 1956 issue of Mickey Mantle’s first appearance on the publication ($17,400 in Nov. 2022 at Heritage).
The sale also broke the record for the most paid for a celebrity’s copy of a magazine. In July 2019, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Neil Armstrong’s LIFE subscription copy of him leaving for the moon sold for $21,250 at Heritage.