The sports trading card business is projected to reach $98.75 billion by 2027. It just got a bit bigger as LeBron James’ “Triple Logoman” card has sold for $2.4 million. But it didn’t rake in nearly as much as auctioneers had hoped.
The bidding for the Triple Logoman card began at $500,000. Goldin Auctions handled the sale. “The LeBron James Triple Logoman card is the undisputed holy grail of modern cards,” Goldin Auctions founder and executive chairman Ken Goldin told USA Today.
The card contains the NBA patch from three of James’ jerseys, and, according to auctioneer Goldin, this rare LeBron collectible could “rewrite sports memorabilia history,” Fox Business reported.
The Triple Logoman card is one-of-a-kind but didn’t pull in what experts had expected. It was believed the card could net a record sum of nearly $7 million.
It also didn’t beat out a different James card, which sold for $5.2 million last year.
What makes the James Triple Logoman card so special? It is only the fifth Triple Logoman card created by Panini. They all feature authentic patches of the NBA logo, but this is the first time all patches came from a single player: James, making it one of a kind. The card has three logos cut from jerseys James wore with the three franchises he has played for: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, CBS Sports reported.
Panini is an Italian company headquartered in Modena, Italy. A family business, it was named after the Panini brothers, who founded it in 1961. Panini is one of the world’s largest sports trading card companies today. It produces books, comics, magazines, stickers, trading cards and other items through its collectibles and publishing subsidiaries.
The new owner of the James card reportedly has not yet been revealed, and it doesn’t seem to be hip-hop mogul Drake. Drake had been trying to track down the LeBron James Triple Logoman card before it went to auction. And the “Falling Back” artist reportedly spent $200,000 in his search for the card.
In March, Drake bought 14 boxes of the 2020-21 Panini Flawless set, costing around $15,000 each. He posted the purchases on social media. He had hoped to find James’ card on one of the sets, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. It was actually found on May 6 by a man who discovered it while doing a livestream on Whatnot. Whatnot is an online community marketplace where sports cards are bought by those watching a “breaker” open packages live, Barrons reported.
