One of the best Kobe Bryant cards ever produced has surfaced at Goldin Auctions with a starting bid of $100,000.
The 1997-98 SkyBox E-X2001 Essential Credentials Now Kobe card has never sold publicly and is serial-numbered to just eight.
Goldin’s example is graded BGS 9, one of five at the grade with two higher, and was graded nearly 18 years ago in July 2007.
“The Kobe Bryant Now is one of his best cards without question,” basketball card expert Adam Gray told cllct.
The 1997-98 SkyBox E-X2001 set had two Essential Credentials parallels, dubbed “Future” and “Now.” Each takes the 80-card base set (excluding checklists) and applies hyper-limited serial numbers to each card.
“Now” parallels are 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. “Future” parallels work in the opposite direction, with Mercer serial-numbered to 1 and Hill to 80.
Gray called it “one of the greatest parallel sets of all time.”
RELATED STORIES:
- Kobe Bryant's 81-point game still scores with collectors on 19th anniversary
- Vanessa Bryant announces new book, honoring legacies of Kobe, daughter Gianna
- Piece of Kobe Bryant's high school court up for auction
- Kobe Bryant's locker sells for $2.88 million at Sotheby's
- Kobe Bryant's 'Achilles jersey' sells for $1.22 million at Goldin
It’s this unique configuration, along with the beloved design of the set, which resulted in one of the rarest and most valuable Bryant cards of the era. Plus, it’s one of three cards from the set to be serial-numbered to the player’s jersey number, along with Allen Iverson and Damon Stoudamire.
There are 73 Bryant cards from the “Future” parallel. PSA and BGS have graded a total of 58 copies of the “Future” parallel in total, with the top sale belonging to a PSA 9 copy which fetched $90,000 in September 2022.
However, due to the scarce nature of the “Now” parallel, no public sales of any of the eight cards have been found in recent years.
The value of such an elusive card is always difficult to ascertain, but hints provided by other cards from the set suggest this could reach deep into the mid-six figure range.
A Dennis Rodman card from the same parallel, numbered to five and graded PSA 8, sold for $219,600 just last month — his most valuable sale to date.
Allen Iverson’s “Now” parallel, numbered to three and graded PSA 5, is currently at auction at Heritage with a bid of nearly $200,000 with buyer’s premium, already the most valuable Iverson card by more than double.
An uncut sheet of the “Now” parallels, featuring Michael Jordan, Bryant and Iverson, sold for more than $115,900 at Goldin in September.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.