In the early morning hours of September 25 (Friday), Cooper Flagg’s rookie debut patch card was sold for a whopping $8.04 million after a two-week auction ended in an intense bidding war.
This sale makes it the most expensive single-player rookie debut patch card ever sold, breaking the previous record held by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes ($1.1 million).
It also becomes the most expensive single-player card ever sold. Only two cards have sold for more: the LeBron James–Michael Jordan ($10 million) duo card and the Kobe Bryant-Jordan ($12.9 million) card.
After 83 bids over two weeks, the final five hours saw an intense battle for the one-of-a-kind memorabilia. According to Fanatics, the card’s price at 9 PM on Thursday was still $3.5 million. But over the next five hours, it shot up to its eventual sale price by 2 AM.
This also beats the previous record for the most expensive Cooper Flagg card ever sold by approximately $7.7 million (previous record: $366,000). The Mavericks may have contributed to that card’s exorbitant value.
In early August, the Mavericks made a ‘bounty’ trade offer open to the general public for whoever found the Cooper Flagg card. It included A signed, game-worn Flagg rookie jersey and a postgame photo with the star, along with two Mavericks season premium lower-level tickets for 32 years.
They would also receive round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and game tickets for their road trip to see the Mavericks play the Celtics. The package also included a private photo shoot with Flagg’s Rookie of the Year trophy from last year, the Larry O’Brien Trophy, a team meet-and-greet, and a VIP tour of Dallas’ practice facility.
According to Fanatics, Flagg’s card belonged to collector Jason Williams of South Carolina and was pulled in a break by Rhody Breakers in Rhode Island. In the end, he used Fanatics Collect to auction off the card, which he originally acquired for just $515.
Cooper Flagg heard about this sale and responded with just six words.
“Sounds like they got a steal,” Flagg said. The card commemorates Flagg’s debut performance in the league, where he had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the Mavericks’ 125-92 loss to the Spurs.
Two other debut patch cards, from the Spurs guard Dylan Harper and the Hornets sharpshooter Kon Knueppel, sold for $2.88 million and $2.34 million, respectively, at the same auction.
Meanwhile, Cedric Coward and Ace Bailey‘s debut patch cards are expected to fetch seven figures as well ($1.5 million estimated sale price). But clearly, Cooper Flagg’s card headlined the auction and stole the show.