The 2026-27 NBA season is in full swing, and the scales of power in both conferences seem to be tipped toward unsuspecting teams.
The Memphis Grizzlies, after revamping their roster and supposedly tanking, are 5-0, while the reigning NBA champions, the New York Knicks, are 2-3 and the 8th seed in the East.
The league might be dealing with a bit of a shocking start to the season; the collectibles space for basketball trading cards has remained steady in what works and what doesn’t. Well, sort of.
Here’s a list of the most expensive hoops trading cards that have ever sold, which, more or less, stay on track, but with a few surprises along the way.
2007–08 Michael Jordan-Kobe Bryant Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs (1-of-1)
This sold on August 23, 2025, through Heritage Auctions for a whopping $12,932,000. It was bought by a syndicate group consisting of Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, Matthew Allen (known online as the collector Shyne150), and Paul Wershaw.
The card holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive basketball card ever sold at auction.
The card contains autographs from both MJ and Kobe, along with game-worn logoman patches from the two Hall of Fame shooting guards. Kobe’s patch is standard-issue, while MJ’s is from the illustrious 1996-97 season, when he won his fifth NBA championship.
2006-07 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman 1/1
This sold in a private transaction on the trading card platform Secure. The wire transfer was confirmed by Card Ladder, which caught it in progress last September.
This card sold for $10 million, making it the most expensive LeBron James card ever sold at auction. Normally, private sales like these aren’t featured on these lists, but given the sheer magnitude of the sale, it had to be mentioned.
The card is part of the ‘WonderShyne’ index, which is curated by Matthew Allen and Kevin O’Leary. This means this specific portfolio contains two of the most expensive NBA trading cards of all time.
2023-24 Topps Mercury Victor Wembanyama Gold Foilfractor 1/1 Logoman Autograph
This ‘unlicensed’ Wemby card just set the record for being the most expensive card featuring the Frenchman. Reported by Poke Color Marketplace, it sold for $8,668,100 earlier this month.
It smashed the previous record set by the 2023–24 Panini Prizm Black parallel 1/1 rookie Wemby card, which sold for $5.11 million on Fanatics Collect.
While it isn’t licensed by the NBA, it includes an autograph from Wemby and a game-worn patch. For a card that, in a way, isn’t fully official, this is quite the price tag, to say the least.
2025 Topps Chrome Rookie Patch Autograph 1/1
This set the record for being the most expensive Cooper Flagg card ever sold at auction, headlining Fanatics Collect’s Premier Auction this past September. It sold for $8.04 million.
It was later revealed that this card, along with the Dylan Harper and Kon Knueppel cards from the same series, which also sold in the millions, was bought by PrizePicks. They would insert these cards into digital packs for fans to rip open.
Upon learning about how expensive this card was, Flagg called the price tag “crazy”. He would go on to admit that he was “nervous” about signing that specific card because he knew just how much it was worth.
LeBron James/Kobe Bryant 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite dual NBA Logoman
Selling for $6.5 million this past September, this is a record sale for this specific card. It features game-worn patches from both LeBron James and Kobe Bryant along with on-card signatures.
Registered a near-mint PSA 8, it perhaps would’ve gone for even more if the PSA rating were higher, given that it features two of the greatest NBA superstars of the 21st century.
