A 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Rookie Ticket #144 Tom Brady Rookie Autograph set a record over the weekend for the highest price ever paid for a football card, selling for $3,107,032 as a part of Lelands’ Mid-Spring Classic 2021 auction.
For those of you who follow this market, you know that this is the third time a copy of the card has set the record this year. In March, a BGS 8 copy sold for $1.32 million, and then the following month, a BGS 8.5 copy went for $2.25 million in another Lelands sale.
But this card is the holy grail, graded mint BGS 9 with subgrades of 9.5 for centering, 9 for edges and centering, and 8.5 for corners. The autograph has a grade of 10. It’s one of seven cards to have a BGS 9 grade with none higher.
Soon after Brady won the Super Bowl in February of 2021, a few owners of the other BGS 9 versions were asked if they would accept $5 million for theirs, and each one declined. Even as more of these cards trickle into the market, in lower grade, the incoming flow of BGS 9’s has been non-existent and may end with this specimen. Truly a historic offering.
Image Courtesy of Lelands