LeBron James rookie card sells for record sum at auction

LeBron James rookie card sells for a record sum at auction.

Dude. Someone just earned the Fan of the Year award after paying almost $2 million for a LeBron James rookie card. That’s some serious dedication.

According to ESPN, it was a 2003-2004 Upper Deck rookie patch parallel card and it sold for a record-setting $1.845 million to the Leore Avidar, who happens to be the Lob.com CEO.

The card can be viewed here and has the following product description:

"Encapsulated and graded GEM MINT 9.5 by BGS, with signature graded “10” by Beckett. Rookie Card.LeBron James’ ascendency to the uppermost heights of NBA glory has continued, uninterrupted, for nearly two decades. The young phenomenon from Akron, Ohio, who was only the second high school player in history to be selected as the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, was chosen on June 26, 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He next became the youngest Rookie of the Year in NBA history – while averaging 20-plus points per game during the 2003/04 campaign – and the first-ever Cavaliers player so lauded."

Thank goodness the card is signed at least!

The sale is the biggest of any NBA card in history but pales in comparison to some of the baseball cards sold in history.

“If we were talking about a T206 [Honus] Wagner, or a 1952 [Mickey] Mantle, it probably wouldn’t be that much news,” said Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions. “But when you’re talking about a card that was literally produced 17 years ago and is for a guy still playing in the NBA, it’s just shocking news to a lot of people. It’s really where my particular industry has been going for several years.”