DALLAS, TX.- In the 1990s and 2000s, “A.I.” meant just one thing: Allen Iverson, the 11-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, MVP and member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. Like the commercial once said, Heritage Auctions remembers. So do those collectors who helped usher the 49-year-old into the record books over the weekend when an Iverson 1997 SkyBox E-X 2001 Essential Credentials Now, numbered 2/3 and graded PSA Excellent 5, sold for $701,500 to obliterate the previous record for one of Iverson’s cards.
That’s no hyperbole: The previous Iverson record was $79,200, achieved in 2021 with the 1/1 2016-17 Panini National Treasures Logoman Autographs. As Sports Collectors Daily noted Sunday, Heritage’s $701,500 realized for the Skybox essential is “the 11th highest public sale of a sports card produced in the 1990s.”
Heritage’s January 31-February 1 Winter Sports Cards Catalog Auction was an overwhelming success, realizing $10,687,238 thanks to the more than 2,300 bidders who participated over the weekend. As Heritage Executive Vice President Joe Orlando says, “Strength could be found everywhere.”
Eleven cards, spanning modern basketball to vintage and historic baseball, cracked six figures. And the present-day NFL wasn’t far behind, as Joe Burrow’s 1/1 2020 Panini Immaculate Collection NFL Shield Joe Burrow Premium Patch Rookie Autograph threw for nearly $90,000. There were 2,337 lots in this event, and many blew past their pre-auction estimates to set auction records.
Michael Jordan’s 1997-98 SkyBox Metal Universe Jordan Precious Metal Gems insert, the most vaunted of the additions to the SkyBox set, realized $378,200, a new record in this grade — PSA Excellent 5 — for the coveted insert from Jordan’s last championship season. This Ruby Red example is No. 67 of only 100 issued with the set, back when numbered cards really were next-to-impossible to pull.
“There is a generation of fans and collectors who feel that the 1980s and ’90s were the golden age of basketball, and with so much attention given to limited-edition cards today, you could easily make the case that the truly scarce basketball inserts of the 1990s were a major part of reshaping the hobby,” says Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions. “The Iverson and Jordan cards started it all, and generations from now, collectors will likely point to this period in card manufacturing — and their success in this auction — as a pivotal moment in the hobby.”
Another Jordan wasn’t far behind that beloved SkyBox insert: the 1984-85 Star Company Jordan card, to be precise — his actual rookie card, the first one officially licensed, offered in this auction alongside the other 11 Bulls who made up the Chicago set. Jordan’s Star card is no stranger to Heritage, which sold a signed example in December for $120,000. However, after a long pause, Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) only began grading the 1984-85 Star cards in July 2022.
This Near Mint-Mint+ 8.5 example sold for $366,000, which makes it the second-most valuable example of Jordan’s Star rookie card behind only one of the three PSA 9 examples that realized $444,000 three years ago.
This auction also featured several hundred historic baseball cards from the vaunted Rounders Collection, including more than 520 T206s and early 20th-century cards, almost all low-population rarities with hard-to-find backs.
Rounding home first from the Rounders Collection was a 1909-11 E90-1 American Caramel Joe Jackson graded SGC Excellent 5. There are only two examples graded higher, which is why this historic offering from Shoeless Joe realized $292,800. Close behind was the 1953 Bowman Color Mickey Mantle from The Rounders Collection, a PSA Mint 9 with just one higher that realized $256,200.
The Rounders Collection also contained what ranks among the ultimate chase cards in The Hobby: the 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal 350/30 Eddie Plank graded PSA Very Good 3.
The combined grading companies have certified about 100 surviving examples of Plank’s card, whose T206 should have existed in multitudes. Yet it’s almost as much a rumor as Honus Wagner’s legendary T206. Theories concerning its scarcity — a bad printing plate and his alleged disdain for tobacco (like Wagner) chief among them — “and yet, still, to this day, nobody knows for sure,” says Orlando.
Only eight Planks have ever been graded higher, which explains why this Very Good 3 example realized $237,900 to exceed its pre-auction estimate.
The Rounders Collection offered resulted in several more six-figure rewards: The 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth graded PSA Near Mint-Mint 8 sold for $183,000. One of Honus Wagner’s highest-graded 1914 Cracker Jacks, a PSA Excellent-Mint 6 example, realized $165,920. A 1909-11 T206 Piedmont 150 Cy Young (Portrait) graded PSA Near Mint-Mint 8 sold for $103,700. And a 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig graded PSA Near Mint-Mint 8 realized $100,650.
Joining those historic offerings in the six-figure stratosphere was a wax box of 1962 Topps Baseball (5th & 6th Series) cards containing 21 unopened packs. The potential inside — a Lou Brock rookie or maybe an All-Star card featuring Hank Aaron, Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle — helped the fresh-to-market box realize $152,500.
