Card collecting always has been about the chase, and the chase has never been more difficult.
It’s painfully ironic, really.
The marketplace is currently packed with more cards stamped as “1/1” or “One-of-One” than ever, and yet the search for true one-of-a-kind collectibles has never been more difficult.
Artificial scarcity has driven the hunt for true scarcity, and that hunt hit its crescendo early Sunday morning during Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction.
Among the greatest basketball cards ever created, the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Michael Jordan-Kobe Bryant Dual Logoman Autographs 1/1 sold for $12.932 million, including buyer’s premium, to set the record for the most expensive sports card at public auction.
Considered a stunning result to many collectors, the card dethroned the previous record $12.6 million paid for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC 9.5 in 2022.
The sale also more than doubled the previous record for any basketball card and any card from the modern era, which was held by the $5.2 million paid in a private sale for a 2003-04 Exquisite Collection LeBron James Gold Rookie Patch Autograph /23 in 2021.
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On the surface, the sale signaled to some collectors a potential shift in sentiment from vintage to modern. With money shifting from an older generation to newer, younger collectors, it’s possible Honus Wagner and Mickey Mantle no longer resonate as powerfully as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
According to Card Ladder’s public records, that theory has merit.
Prior to Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Auction, 36 of the top 50 sports card sales logged by Card Ladder, both public and private, so far in 2025 were for cards from 1980 or after.
Of the top 10, seven are modern cards.
Another theory, which possibly has even more merit, is Sunday’s record-breaking sale featured a card that simply has no equal.
The previous record-holder, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, has more than 2,900 graded examples in existence, according to third-party grading tracker GemRate. There are three PSA 10 copies — none of which have sold at public auction.
Though the T206 Honus Wagner, which is considered by many to be the “Holy Grail” of trading cards, has fewer than 50 graded examples across PSA and SGC, it’s still far from one of a kind.
The Exquisite Collection Jordan-Bryant Dual Logoman Autograph is one of a kind, and it’s not because “1-of-1” was arbitrarily stamped onto the front.
Jordan has appeared on a number of Logoman cards over the years, including eight examples from Exquisite Collection’s “Dual NBA Logo Autographs" set. Four of those eight total cards featured Jordan alongside LeBron James. Jordan appeared with Bryant only once.
Other years of Exquisite Collection have featured Dual Logoman cards of Jordan with Bryant, but only this example features autographs from the pair.
There are even five Exquisite Collection Triple Logoman cards featuring Jordan, James and Bryant together. None feature ink.
The Jordan-Bryant Dual Logoman is even more notable because it’s the only example to feature a gold logo from Jordan, which was worn during the 1996-97 season to celebrate the NBA’s 50th anniversary.
Upper Deck’s Exquisite Collection is considered one of the most important and influential card sets of all time, and there’s only one Jordan-Bryant Dual Logoman Autograph.
In a marketplace flooded with rarity for rarity’s sake, cards with deeper meaning continue to float to the top. Prior to Sunday, seven of the 10 highest sales logged by Card Ladder in 2025 featured high-quality patches, including three Logoman cards and one MLB Rookie Debut Patch.
“You’re taking this already elite, insane thing, and you’re adding to it two qualifiers that are just impossible to get past,” Basketball Card Fanatic Magazine founder Adam Gray told cllct. “It’s the best version of the Logoman on the best player ever, and it’s the one-of-one with these two that are inseparably connected.”
Critics of the sale will point toward cards being inferior to entire jerseys. The sentiment isn’t uncommon or completely unwarranted, but cards carry a premium for many collectors.
Cards are easier to display and some value owning one important object over the pairing of multiple.
Still, it will be difficult to argue to some that a single card with pieces of a jersey should top the record sales of entire game-used jerseys for both Jordan ($10.1 million) and Bryant ($7 million).
The math doesn’t always have to work, however. When bidders are hunting for something special, rules can often get thrown out. Maybe they were thrown out Sunday morning.
“People want the best, and the two guys that were bidding on this wanted to own the best thing,” Gray said. “It’s not just about a Jordan Logoman and a Kobe Logoman. They want to own the best thing, and in their minds, this is probably the best basketball card in existence, or at least on the very, very short list.
“That’s why it doesn’t even need to make sense.”
The nuance of Logoman patches and true scarcity versus artificial scarcity might not even matter for a card like this.
The connection between Jordan and Bryant specifically could be more powerful than any other variable at play. Bryant ascended to NBA immortality by putting his own twist on Air Jordan’s legacy. The style, the competitiveness, the ruthlessness on the court.
Off the court, Bryant’s impact seemed destined to again emulate Jordan if not for the tragic helicopter crash that cut Bryant’s life short and changed the NBA community forever.
Collecting at its core is a deeply emotional process, and emotion can, at times, be the most important driver for any decision.
Maybe the Dual Logoman sold for logical reasons as a truly scarce asset in a market that can sometimes feel too vanilla. Or maybe the reason is far more simple — only the buyer truly knows.
No pair of professional athletes has been as closely and deeply connected as Jordan and Bryant, and no card has represented that connection as well as this copy.
Like Jordan and Bryant individually, just one Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autograph for the pair was created, and there will never be another.
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.