There are a lot of times where we hear about basketball memorabilia selling for obscene amounts of money, especially if it's in good condition. That has happened recently with a basketball card featuring Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Rich Mueller of Sports Collectors Daily has recently reported about a 2008 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor Kobe Bryant being sold for $312,000 at a PSA auction. The card was reportedly lost in a shoebox and happened to be one of the only 50 copies of its kind in the world. It is also one of the six copies rated Gem Mint.
It sat in a shoebox for years but over the weekend, one of the 50 copies of the 2008 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor Kobe Bryant–the card that shows him being guarded intensely by LeBron James–sold for a whopper of a price.
The card was brought to last summer’s National Sports Collectors Convention by a collector who had opened packs just stuck them away. He brought it to PWCC’s booth at the show in Chicago where it was authenticated and graded by PSA. It came back a 10 and went into PWCC’s November Premier Auction where it sold for a record-setting $312,000 on Saturday night. The card is one of six rated Gem Mint.
There's no doubt that this is a huge price for a basketball card, but the prices for those products are high due to collectors. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are both popular players, so it makes sense that their cards would be extra expensive.
Kobe Bryant products have gotten expensive in general, and there were previous reports of NBA players spending 5-figures to acquire pairs of sneakers from his line. That just speaks to the high demand for Kobe Bryant merchandise, and this card isn't the only thing related to the legend that will be expensive now and in the future.
More must-reads: