Cooper Flagg's NBA Rookie Debut Patch Autograph sells for $8.04M at auction, becomes third-most expensive NBA card ever

One of the most anticipated auctions in collecting history ended early Friday morning, with Cooper Flagg's NBA Rookie Debut Patch Auto selling for $8.04 million, making it one of the most expensive sports cards ever sold.

The card, auctioned on the Fanatics Collect platform, is now the third-most expensive NBA card ever, trailing only two dual logomen (Kobe Bryant-Michael Jordan and Jordan-LeBron James) which each sold last year for eight figures. The Flagg RDPA — graded a perfect PSA 10 for both the card and autograph — now also represents his highest card sale ever, with the previous record standing at $366K.

After his Rookie of the Year campaign , the one-of-one Flagg became one of the biggest chase cards ever , sparking a frenzy over the summer as Topps released its Topps Chrome Basketball Update set. The Mavericks offered an impressive bounty for the card, including signed memorabilia, VIP experiences and 32 years of lower-level season tickets.

Ultimately, the card's redemption was pulled in an online break by Rhody Breakers last month and the winner — identified as South Carolina man Jason Williams — opted to consign the life-changing card to Fanatics rather than accepting the Mavericks' bounty or using the Alt platform, which held a pre-auction that guaranteed a sale of at least $3.8M. Ken Goldin also offered a $1.5M cash advance if the card were to be consigned to his auction house.

In addition to Flagg's card, similar RDPA's for Spurs rookie Dylan Harper and Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel also sold early Friday morning in the same auction. Harper's card sold for $2.88M and Knueppel's for $2.34M. The three RDPA's were the only cards in the premier auction to sell for more than $1M and now represent the three highest sales for such cards across any sport.

Topps introduced Rookie Debut Patch Autograph cards in its MLB product in 2023, but they did not become a mainstream craze until the following year, when Paul Skenes' version led to a hunt similar to Flagg's. Skenes' RDPA was eventually pulled by a young collector and sold to Dick's Sporting Goods for $1.11M and put on display in a Pittsburgh-area store.