For the first time since September 2023, a 1984 Star Michael Jordan PSA 8.5 will cross the auction block, this time at Heritage later this month. The card has a pre-sale estimate of $400,000.
The controversial card has shattered records in nearly every grade since reaching unprecedented heights in 2024 — first by dethroning the 1986 Fleer record with a $925,000 private transaction to become the most valuable Jordan “rookie.”
Though it has regressed in recent months, the limited-release issue remains far pricier than in any years past.
Despite these watershed sales in the wake of the eye-catching PSA 9 record — and a subsequent privately reported deal said to be in excess of $1 million for another PSA 9 — there were no public sales of any Star Jordan graded above a PSA 8.
The last PSA 8.5 example to sell fetched $144,000.
Considering the scarcity of the card, which PSA has graded 423 total times, with just three PSA 9s and only four PSA 8.5s, it’s not altogether surprising. With so few available, and owners presumably bullish on the future of the card, it makes sense there wouldn’t be a deluge of public auctions of these upper-echelon copies.
The most recent sale of a 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 was $177,000 at the end of December.
While the high grade of the Star Jordan card is certainly the bulk of the value, the lot also contains the entire Chicago Bulls Team Set, which was how Star distributed the cards in 1984 in small plastic bags.
Sealed team bags with all of these cards, including the Jordan on the front, have appeared with relative regularity at auction recently, with one selling fora little less than $55,000 in September 2024, though the cards were in seemingly inferior condition.
As sales have sagged for slightly more common lower grades such as PSA 7s, this PSA 8.5 example provides an opportunity to test the market and see whether any collectors have been biding their time for a chance at one of these elusive copies.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.