LeBron James Rookie Card Sells For Record $5.2 Million

It must feel good to be King James. Despite being sidelined for the longest duration of his historic Hall Of Fame career, LeBron James is still finding ways to break records.

A 2003-2004 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection RPA (rookie patch autograph) LeBron card sold for $5.2 million with PWCC Marketplace. The card is now the most expensive basketball card in history, breaking the record of a Luka Doncic rookie card that sold for $4.6 million. The sale ties the all-time record of any card with the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, purchased in January also through PWCC Marketplace.

“Exquisite was a revolutionary product when it came out in 2003,” said Jesse Craig, PWCC’s director of business development. “It was the most expensive retail product that had ever been released, at $500 a box, and they were only made from 2003 to 2009; the rarity of those assets carries a lot of weight for collectors and investors today.”

Most owners of James cards are reluctant to sell them right now. People think that the value is still going to rise.

“The majority don’t want to sell,” Craig said. “There are a select few that want to capitalize on the rise of the market, but it has to be kind of the perfect storm for someone to release a card of this magnitude.”

“There are LeBron cards [still] out there, I would say, worth over $10 million,” Craig said. “And let’s be clear: There are three Mantle PSA 10s that, whenever they transact, will break every record there is. But as a market, there are so many desirable cards that haven’t sold yet publicly.”