The lights on John Brodersen’s Christmas tree didn’t work, but a belief in last-pack magic did.
Brodersen doesn’t consider himself a super collector, but he did want to rip a few boxes of the new 2025-26 Topps Basketball product while setting up Christmas decorations with his children last month.
When the lights on the tree didn’t work correctly, Brodersen and his future son-in-law, Jonathan, turned to those boxes to settle the mood.
The pair tore through two Jumbo boxes and two Hobby boxes, and it was the silver pack they saved for last that yielded one of the most important chases of the basketball season: Cooper Flagg’s 2025 Topps Chrome Silver Pack ‘80 Superfractor Autograph 1/1.
Revealing each card one-by-one, the family could see the gold finish, but excitement began to crescendo when the 1/1 stamp on the top left corner came into focus.
“We’re not by any means professionals — we had no clue it was a superfractor and at that point, we didn’t know what a superfractor looked like. … So this is definitely a Willy Wonka story for us,” Brodersen told cllct.
“Then my stepdaughter said, ‘How many cards are left, because there’s a Cooper Flagg on the back?’
There was only one card left.
Brodersen’s malfunctioning Christmas tree was thrown into the trash and the biggest hit of his life was sent to PSA before landing at Fanatics Collect where it will sell Thursday as part of the December Premier Auction.
A native of Denmark now living in Chicago, Brodersen says his biggest pull — prior to the Flagg, of course — was worth just a few hundred bucks at most. He mostly has built his collection around Vince Carter, but it’s the Flagg card that will likely change his life forever.
As of Tuesday morning, the card had reached $48,000, including a 20% buyer’s premium, on 31 bids.
Among the first high-end cards featuring Flagg in his Dallas Mavericks jersey to land at public auction, Brodersen’s 1/1 arrived as part of Topps’ first flagship licensed NBA set in more than 15 years.
Paired with a design from the 1980-81 Topps Basketball set, the Flagg 1/1 has many of the key elements that can drive significant interest on the secondary market. The timing is also good, with Flagg becoming the youngest player in NBA history to ever top the 40-point mark Monday night.
“It’s got the retro look, so it’s got a lot of those emotional triggers,” Fanatics Collect vice president Kevin Lenane told cllct. “I think, at least for a lot of people that were collecting in the '90s, some of those Topps sets were just iconic. So this is the first taste that’s coming back. And I think that’s really important to the hobby.”
The current record, according to Card Ladder, for any Flagg card at public auction is the $97,600 paid for his 2024-25 Bowman Chrome U Superfractor Autograph 1/1 at Goldin in June. Though Fanatics Collect doesn’t place pre-sale estimates on items, Brodersen’s Flagg card is expected to challenge that record, with cards featuring professional jerseys traditionally carrying a premium over collegiate or amateur examples.
“We obviously hope it hits the record ...” Lenane said. “Given the fact it’s his pro debut, it would be fitting to think that it could break a record or two here.”
Whatever price the Flagg card lands at will be life-changing for Brodersen and his family. He celebrated the pull by purchasing his first Carter 1/1 card for his collection.
Much of the profit for Brodersen, however, will go toward paying down medical debt. The first 10 to 15 years of his life in the United States were tough with his son requiring three open heart surgeries between ages 3 and 4.
“For me personally, the first priority is paying off some debt,” Brodersen said. “For Jonathan and my stepdaughter, they run a vintage business on the side, which is kind of unique, and we were actually thinking about maybe even opening some sort of business within this realm — whether it’s a hobby store or something like that — if it goes crazy.
“But [debt] is the first priority for me because that gives me peace of mind so I can smile every day.”
Want more stories like this? Subscribe to the cllct newsletter and follow cllct on X and Instagram.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the collectibles editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.