A new high watermark has been set for the most expensive Allen Iverson card ever sold — and it’s not even close.
Iverson’s 1997 Skybox E-X 2001 Essential Credentials Now, graded PSA 5 and serial-numbered to just three, sold for more than $700,000 Friday at Heritage Auctions, blowing away the previous Iverson record held by the $79,200 sale of a 2016-17 Panini National Treasures autographed Logoman in August 2021.
It didn’t take long for the card to achieve the record, with bidding reaching $128,100, with buyer’s premium, in the first week of January — more than three weeks before the auction closed.
The newly crowned king of Iverson cards is as rare as it gets, with none of the three copies produced having previously sold publicly. The record-setting card, which was submitted raw to Heritage at the Toronto Card Show less than three months ago, is the only copy to surface publicly more than 25 years after its release.
The card is a “Now” parallel from the SkyBox E-X2001 set, which basketball card expert Adam Gray told cllct earlier this month was “one of the greatest parallel sets of all time.”
The 80-card base set (excluding checklists) was serial-numbered to match the player’s card number in the set, meaning card No. 1 (Grant Hill) is limited to one copy, while card No. 80 (Ron Mercer) is numbered to 80. In this case, Iverson’s card is No. 3 in the set, thus only three copies and the extreme scarcity.
The set’s “Future” parallels work in the opposite direction, with Mercer serial-numbered to 1 and Hill to 80. Iverson’s “Future” card from the set, which has one of the largest print-runs, is numbered to 78. The top sale for an Iverson card from the set belongs to a BGS 8/7 which sold for $10,877 in 2023.
Adding to the allure of the card is the fact it is one of three from the set to be serial-numbered to the player’s jersey number, along with Kobe Bryant and Damon Stoudamire.
Earlier this month, Goldin Auctions revealed it was selling another grail card from the set, Kobe Bryant’s “Now” /8, marking the first time one of those parallels had surfaced at public auction. Bidding for the Bryant card, considered one of his most desirable from the era, is currently sitting at $317,200 with buyer’s premium and three weeks remaining at auction.
A Dennis Rodman “Now” parallel, numbered to 5 and graded PSA 8, sold for $219,600 last month — his most valuable sale to date and the previous record for any 1997 Skybox E-X 2001 card.
Another key card from the set is, predictably, Michael Jordan, who has “Future” parallels limited to 72, which has a record sale of nearly $200,000. The rarer “Now” Jordan parallel has not sold publicly since 2016, when a BGS 9/9 sold for $51,988.98. If that card surfaced today it would likely be a seven-figure sale.
An uncut sheet of the “Now” parallels, featuring Jordan, Bryant and Iverson, sold for more than $115,900 at Goldin in September.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.