The card, a 2026 Topps Chrome Updates NBA Debut Patch autograph, contains a patch worn by Cooper Flagg during his very first NBA game. Produced as a single copy, it ranks, according to The Athletic, as the fifth-highest sum ever publicly recorded for a sports card. The previous record for a Debut Patch card, across all leagues, belonged to baseball player Paul Skenes at 1.11 million dollars.
The sale also tops the 7.25 million dollars paid in 2022 for a T206 Honus Wagner card. In the same auction, the card of Dylan Harper, a Spurs rookie, reached 2.88 million dollars, and that of Kon Knueppel, a Hornets player, sold for 2.34 million. Cooper Flagg’s first jersey had sold for one million dollars in February.
The Mavericks had made a public offer to try to buy back the card. Jason Williams chose not to accept it. He described the moment he found it: “It took me about five seconds to realize what I was looking at, and then I curled up in the fetal position crying like a baby.”
I called my mother, back in Indiana, on Sunday after dinner. I told her a man had paid five hundred and fifteen dollars to open three boxes on a screen, found a one-of-one card, and refused to hand it back to the player’s team. She asked if she still had mine. My card from 2000, the one from the Charleroi club, a photo of me in front of the badminton lines, printed by the sponsor. It has been on her fridge for a quarter of a century. Nobody has made her an offer, not the club and not me.
Let me tell you: I came for one year, with a bag. I still have the bag. My mother has the card. The man says it took him five seconds to understand what he was looking at. My mother, when she got mine, took five seconds too, then asked whether anyone in the photo had played defence. There was only me and the badminton lines. Here, when we win, we check first.
On Sunday mornings, my under-10s trade cards by the court before training. I told them a card had just sold for eight million dollars. They asked how much the card of the kid who does the box-out was worth. I said: on my mother’s fridge, a lot. That evening, I asked her if she would ever sell mine. She said: see, that’s why he didn’t hand his back either.
It’s true, we checked: Basket USA.
