Blake Griffin Card Sells for $38,000

I've often lamented the fact that newcomers in the games of professional sports often have insane selling prices for their rookie cards. This is driven by the card companies that produce autographed patch cards that are numbered 1-of-1 for that set.

That rookie starts throwing heat at 100 mph, dunks over everyone in sight or throws for 4,000 yards and collectors go ga-ga – even with a full history of other players who started fast, fell on their face and lost all collector value.

Not all rookies fail. Some prosper, such as Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers. He has become one of the bright stars of the NBA.

But one of his cards sold on eBay for $38,032. Larry Canale, in his current Online Auctioneer column for SCD, revealed the sale to me earlier this week, as the seller was just awaiting payment, whic apparently came through, as the seller expected it to.

Digest that for a moment: $38,000. For a 2009-10 card, non-graded. It's a very nice card, signed with a NBA Logoman patch. But what??

Kudos to the seller for getting that much money. As for the buyer, well good luck ever getting a price like that again. Ever.

I've stated many times the vintage cards people could buy – that have sustained value that even increases with time – for the money spent on new cards, but I'll digress here.

Props to Panini, as I'm sure this will get more legs as the story continues to circulate.