One of Kobe Bryant’s rarest and most desirable basketball cards from the 1990s has sold for $579,500 via Goldin Auctions, which makes it one of his most valuable cards ever, and one of the most expensive sports cards of its decade.
The 1997-98 SkyBox E-X2001 Essential Credentials Now parallel had been very elusive, with no public sales until now – This is the first time it had surfaced to be auctioned.
There are only eight copies of the card in existence, and the version that sold on Sunday is graded a 9 by BGS.
All eight copies have been graded by Beckett, with two achieving a 9.5, five achieving a 9, and one copy achieving an 8.5. One of the two 9.5 graded versions would likely sell for even more, if they were to be auctioned.
The Essential Credentials parallels from The 1997-98 SkyBox E-X2001 set remain some of the most popular from the 1990s, with its unique, innovative concept.
The “Now” parallels have their serial numbers tied to the player’s card number in the set. The “Future” parallels use the opposite numbering scheme; So for example, Grant Hill, whose number 1 in the set, has 1 “Now” card and 80 “Future” cards.
Kobe Bryant is number 8 in the checklist and therefore has 8 copies of his “Now” parallel and 73 copies of his “Future” parallel.
Bidding for the card finished on Sunday February 23rd at $475k, with the buyers’ premium taking the total paid up to $579,500.
The total places it just below a PSA 10 graded copy of Bryant’s 1996 E-X2000 Credentials card, which sold for $617k in 2021, in the list of the most expensive sports cards of the 1990s.
It also fell short of the price paid for an Allen Iverson Essential Credentials Now card (graded PSA 5), which is from the same set, but has fewer copies, with only 3; That sold at auction for $701,500 earlier this year.
