Though Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card is by far his most famous card — and among the most iconic in history — it isn’t his most valuable card.
That distinction now belongs to his 1998 SkyBox E-X 2001 Essential Credentials Now card /10 which sold for $280,600 Friday night at Heritage, surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $200,000.
The former record-holder was the 1998 Upper Deck A Piece of the Action 3 card /24, which sold for $84,000 in October 2022.
The 1998 SkyBox E-X 2001 release had two parallel sets: Essential Credentials Now and Future.
In the Now set, cards are numbered to match numbering in the set — Griffey’s card is No. 10, so it has 10 copies. In the Future set, it is numbered in reverse, starting at 101 and counting down to the card’s place in the set, so Griffey’s Future parallel has 91 copies.
PSA has graded just four copies of the Griffey Now parallel, none of which appear in public sales records.
PSA has graded 30 copies of the more common Griffey Future parallel, with a top sale of $27,300.
In March 2024, Goldin Auctions sold a pair of uncut sheets from the Now parallel set for $16,468.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.