Cooper Flagg debut patch trading card sparks

A Friday morning rush hour of intense bidding despatched the one-of-one Cooper Flagg Topps Rookie Debut Patch Card skyrocketing at public sale, promoting for $8.04 million. The price more than doubled during the feverish close of the public sale offered by Fanatics Collect.

The card of the Dallas Mavericks star ahead turned the third-most costly NBA card ever, trailing only the twin Kobe Bryant–Michael Jordan and Jordan–LeBron James playing cards that each offered for more than $10 million last yr.

It also ranks as the fifth-highest sports activities card sale, according to Card Ladder. A Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card offered for $12.6 million at a Heritage public sale in 2022, and an ungraded Shohei Ohtani 2026 Topps Chrome Gold Logoman patch autograph card fetched $11 million July 30 in a non-public sale.

Flagg, the first choose in the 2025 NBA draft out of Duke, was rookie of the yr at age 19 and set an NBA file for youngsters by scoring 40 or more factors 4 occasions, breaking the file of three set by James in the 2003-2004 season.

At a Fanatics Fest in New York in July, Flagg signed the Rookie Debut Patch Autographed (RDPA) card, then took the stage with ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi.

“I was a little nervous,” Flagg told Negandhi. “I’ve signed a lot of cards, but that one was a little nerve-racking.”

Why? The card options a patch that Flagg wore on his Mavericks jersey during his first NBA sport. Pairing the game-used memorabilia with a rookie’s signature has virtually in a single day made the RPDA playing cards the most sought after by collectors on the market.

The earlier high paid for a Flagg card was $366,000 — a mere 4.55% of $8.04 million.

Two RPDA playing cards in addition to Flagg’s also offered for tens of millions at Friday’s public sale: San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper‘s card went for $2.88 million, and Charlotte Hornets forward Kon Knueppel’s card fetched $2.34 million.

RPDA playing cards are the latest brainstorm from Fanatics, which acquired the Topps sports activities and leisure trading playing cards and collectibles business for roughly $500 million in January 2022.

Fanatics leveraged partnerships with the NBA, MLB, NFL and Union of European Football Assns. by asserting in 2023 that MLB rookies would put on a Debut Patch on their jersey sleeve during their first sport. The patch is eliminated, authenticated and packaged with a trading card autographed by the participant.

The existence of the Debut Patch playing cards spurred speedy pleasure from the NBA last October when Topps resumed printing licensed playing cards for the league for the first time since 2010. Introducing Debut Patches to rookies and producing RPDA playing cards was a no-brainer.

“You know it’s such a simple idea, but fits perfectly into sort of like the ethos of the trading card world,” Matt Holt, NBA vice president of merchandising partnerships, told the Athletic.

Rather than risking injury to the playing cards, a redemption card bearing a code serves as a placeholder in the pack. The result’s that the Flagg card was graded a PSA Gem Mint 10 with a 10 autograph grade — as close to excellent as doable.

The Flagg card was randomly inserted in a pack of Topps 2026 Chrome Basketball Update Series and positioned on the market Aug. 6. Jason Williams, 50, of Clover, S.C., acquired the card after spending $515 to land a spot on RhodyBreakers, a retail store affiliate that opens bins of trading playing cards on a livestream.

Williams was watching the stream on a tv as his spouse and son have been preparing for mattress when a life-changing fortune turned theirs.

“They slid that card over, and I just slid to the floor crying,” Williams told ESPN. “It took me about five seconds to realize what I was looking at on that screen.”