Landmark Jordan Card Graded By BGS

Apr 3 2006 12:05PM

In the basketball hobby, there is no more recognizable card than the 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie Card. Yesterday Beckett Grading Services (BGS) recognized its first BGS 10 Pristine grade on the card. The first and highest sale of a BGS graded Jordan Rookie Card was a BGS 9.5 Gem Mint card in the spring of 2002 for $77,200 to a collector in Australia.

"This Jordan rookie card is likely the single most important card ever graded by BGS, and a landmark card in the hobby. There is no telling what the market will bear on this card," said Mark Anderson, Senior Manager of Beckett Grading.

"Cards from this set are always condition sensitive, with just five Pristine examples in the entire set graded thus far out of over 16,000 graded cards. It is the first Jordan Rookie Card to earn BGS Pristine status. Typically, edges are chipped, centering is off, corners are white, and surface problems abound. On this example, the edges in particular were exceptionally strong," added Anderson.

The 2002 Jordan sale of $77,200 is believed to be the largest recorded sale for a single basketball card and is hands down the largest single basketball card sale of the modern era. In recent years as more Jordan Rookie Cards have been graded there has been a natural reduction in value due to a larger supply of Gem Mint graded cards.

BGS took possession of the card at the recent Chicago Sun-Times card show. The owner delivered the previously PSA 10 graded card to BGS and requested that the card be "crossed over." The owner's aim with crossing this card over was to increase the recognized value of the card on the secondary market by having the recognized leader in the grading industry slab or encase the Jordan rookie card. BGS has been recognized by consumers for the last six years in a row as the industry's top grading company.