It Is Michael Jordan's Turn

The 2012-13 UD Exquisite Collection Basketball 16-time Michael Jordan autograph booklet has been found. It was pulled Wednesday night (12/4) by someone at Dan’s Sports Card & Games during a live break on Breakers.tv They have since posted the card on their Twitter (and FB) pages.

 

The LeBron version sold for $7,500 a little over a week ago, I wonder if his Airness will top $10k?

The Closing Gavel Falls On LeBron!

Last week 2012-13 UD Exquisite Collection Basketball was released and one of the two biggest hits (the Jordan version is the other big hit) was pulled on the first day, the 16-time LeBron James autograph booklet. It was posted up for auction on 11/19 with a 99 cent opening bid but that did not last for long, within 24 hours it had jumped to over $3,500. Now the 6 day auction comes to a close with the final price of… $7,500

 

That breaks down to $468.75 per signature, is that a reasonable price for a LeBron sticker autograph? I wonder what the Michael Jordan 16-time autograph booklet would go for if it were put up for auction?

Upper Deck.... WTF?

Today’s “WTF?” Moment goes to Upper Deck and their Michael Jordan and LeBron James 16-autograph booklet cards. That is one booklet with 16 autographs of Michael Jordan! Jordan and LeBron’s autographs have some of the highest value in all of sports but will 16 sticker autographs equate 16x the value?

 

Upper Deck teased these images on their blog yesterday along with other images from the upcoming Exquisite Collection Basketball set scheduled to come out in two weeks.

 

My first thought, besides OVERKILL! was what if some unscrupulous person gets a hold of one of these books, removes the 16 stickers and affixes them to 16 regular Michael Jordan (or LeBron James) cards and advertises them as “Proof” or “Unreleased Test” cards. Sure it will cost them some good money upfront for the 16 signature card but if they can make significantly more back on 16 fake 1/1 cards then the ends will justify the means. Sure the autograph will have value but it is still just a sticker attached to a $5 card that you just paid thousands of dollars to add to your collection.

My second thought was, is Upper Deck liquidating its autograph sticker stock for a reason? Could Upper Deck be long for this world or are they anticipating loosing player contracts?