There’s always a good chance that when things go up, they eventually have to come down at some point in time. Case in point, this rare Kobe Bryant pull from the 90s and the NBA card market as a whole. While a select few names are trending up because of the playoffs, like those that feature Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, and Jimmy Butler, most cards are going down now, including one insanely beautiful slab of the Los Angeles Lakers’ All-Star guard.
In a post shared by Cardporn on Instagram, a PSA 10 1999 Fleer Mystique Raise The Roof insert of Bryant dropped hard in value recently. The said Kobe Bryant card, which is numbered 40 out of 100 copies, was sold via an auction hosted by Goldin last February. The final price it attained back then was $96,000. All things considered, that’s a pretty expensive price for a card of its kind.
But here’s where things get sad. The same graded Kobe Bryant card was auctioned once again by Alt, a collectible card trading platform, earlier this month. It sold for $49,120, which is far off from its value a couple of months ago. Doing the math, that’s a loss of around $46,880.
Judging by that number alone, it would appear that the individual or organization who purchased the card of the Lakers’ star from Goldin’s February auction lost a lot of money. And that happened just because there was a hope that the said card can be flipped in exchange for a profit. As it stands, that isn’t the result that came through.
Of course, it isn’t just this Kobe Bryant card that’s not doing so well. As a matter of fact, the entire NBA card market is trending down, with the exception of the remaining stars competing in the playoffs. This downward spiral is expected to continue into the offseason and weeks before the next season begins. By that time, the prices of basketball cards will once again spike up.
But until then, collectors are advised to be cautious with their purchases. It’s best to wait for things to bottom out before splurging on NBA cards. Otherwise, you would end up losing a ton of money, just like what happened with the Kobe Bryant card above.
