Luka Doncic rookie card sells for record $3.12 million at auction

Early Friday morning, an extremely rare Luka Doncic rookie card sold for $3.12 million with buyer’s premium, the most ever paid for a basketball card at public auction.

The 2018-19 National Treasures RPA (rookie patch autograph) Logoman features an on-card autograph and a player-worn NBA shield logo — hence, “Logoman” — and is numbered 1-of-1. This is the same Doncic Logoman that reportedly changed hands in a private sale in March 2021 for $4.6 million — at the time, the most expensive basketball card ever.

This was the first time the Doncic Logoman hit the open market. The record for a basketball card is the $5.2 million LeBron James RPA, brokered by PWCC in April 2021. The Luka Logoman now accounts for, publicly and privately, the second- and third-highest prices ever realized for a basketball card. The $2.7 million Michael Jordan Upper Deck Game Jersey autographed patch card, sold in October 2021, remains the fourth-most expensive.

“This is the highest price ever realized for a basketball card sold in a verified public auction,” said Jesse Craig, vice president of sales at PWCC. “This was an important moment for the market to decide on the value of Luka’s best trading card. The card stood on its own merits [and] if you include private sales, Luka now sits between the high sales for LeBron and Jordan. The market confirmed Luka is in rare air in terms of collectability with this sale.”

The Luka Logoman, as far as this sale goes (per PWCC): is tied for seventh-most expensive trading card ever sold at a public auction; 14th-most expensive card ever sold in public auction or reported private sale; and the most expensive basketball card sold this year, public or private. (Rankings do not include private fractional purchases/valuations, as opposed to sales numbers.)

In early November, Doncic, who is in his fifth season with the Dallas Mavericks, became the first player since the 1962-63 season to notch 30-plus points in each of a season’s first seven games. He leads the NBA with 34.4 points per game and a 33.1 player efficiency rating.