A Lionel Messi rookie card recently sold for $1.5 million in a private deal to become the most valuable soccer card in existence.
Sold through Fanatics Collect’s new private sales network, the 2004-05 Panini Mega Cracks PSA 10 tops the $1.1 million paid for a similar example in a private deal brokered by Goldin earlier this week.
The previous record for any soccer card, according to Card Ladder's public records, was the $1.33 million paid for a 1958 Alifabolaget Pele PSA 9 in a private sale in 2022.
The record deal is the latest in a recent run of seven-figure private sales for Messi’s iconic Mega Cracks rookie card that started when another PSA 10 example — there are just 20 total — sold privately through Fanatics Collect for $1 million during the National Sports Collectors Convention in August.
That seven-figure sale landed less than a month after another copy sold for $825,000 in a private deal at Goldin on Aug. 2. Prior to August, the record for Messi’s Mega Cracks rookie was the $336,000 paid at Goldin in June 2021.
Messi’s newest record-breaker arrives as the latest highlight for Fanatics Collect’s private sales network, which generated roughly $8 million in sales across between 30 and 40 transactions during its first full month in August.
The private sales network is currently reserved for deals of $10,000 or more and made up of a group of buyers carefully vetted by Fanatics Collect.
Though brokering private deals is nothing new for major auction houses, Fanatics Collect’s vaulting service is something the company believes offers a different dynamic by potentially pairing high-end buyers with cards they didn’t know could be available.
“There’s just a much broader network of both items and customers for us to work from,” Fanatics Collect vice president Kevin Lenane told cllct. “It’s a pretty powerful tool, which is why we’re able to get to $8 million in our first earnest month. That’s the wrinkle.”
“I think for a lot of auction houses, the biggest ally is that we have so much information based on the cards you store with us, buy with us, sell with us, and we’re just taking control of that,” senior account executive Sean Hayden added. “We’re utilizing it in a different way than we had in the past.”
According to Lenane, a major goal for the network is to eventually better serve underbidders following an auction loss by pairing them with other options whenever possible. Some collectors might also simply prefer private deals to auctions, and Fanatics wants a clear path for those hobbyists, too.
“At the end of the day, it’s about getting people the cards that they want — we want to get collectors the cards that they’re looking for in every way we possibly can,” Lenane said. “Obviously, we want to capture a market and sell them ourselves, but we can provide the collector with multiple ways to get the things they’re looking for and this is just another way to do it.”
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.