An ultra-rare SGC 10 pristine 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card returns to auction after nearly five years, with an $800k estimate.
For the first time since 2020, the only SGC 10 Pristine copy of Jordan’s iconic 1986 Fleer rookie is headed to auction with Heritage Auctions.
Graded above the traditional Gem Mint 10 standard, an SGC Pristine 10 is almost never seen, especially on a card as legendary and widely collected as MJ’s Fleer debut.
Heritage describes the card as “the single finest Jordan rookie on the planet.” They also describe it as “the ultimate unicorn of unicorns” and “arguably the greatest modern card that exists.”
Based on data from GemRate, over 47,000 total copies of Jordan’s ’86 Fleer rookie have been graded across PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC. Out of that total population, just seven have ever achieved a Pristine 10 designation. Six are inside BGS holders—and only one, this exact card, sits in an SGC slab.
This isn’t the first time the card has made headlines. Back in August 2020, it sold for $420,000—a price that smashed the previous highest sale ($96k) and was more than four times the going rate of a PSA 10 copy then.
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Initially, the card was consigned to Heritage as raw before that sale in 2020—it was then sent to SGC for grading.
Following that sale, Heritage’s Chris Ivy said, “The Michael Jordan rookie card came to us ungraded, and we knew it was special from the very first moment we saw its condition. The SGC Pristine 10 Gold Label grade represents the best of the best, and that was reflected by the world-record price.”
Since that sale, Jordan rookies have had a wild ride in the hobby. At the peak of the market boom, a PSA 10 sold for $840,000 in 2021. But values have cooled in recent years, and PSA 10 copies now hover closer to the $200,000 average mark.
Sale prices of PSA 10 graded ’86 Fleer Jordans over the last 5 years.
Still, the Pristine 10 stands in a class of its own, and Heritage has slapped an ambitious $800,000 estimate on this upcoming auction. If it achieves anything like the multiple it commanded in 2020, that number isn’t out of reach.
Bidding for the card is set to open on August 23.
With only seven Pristine examples in the world—and just one in an SGC slab—this is about as close as you’ll get to a perfect MJ rookie. Expect fireworks when the hammer falls.
