A Michael Jordan Precious Metal Gems card just reminded the hobby how far the market can run.
Jordan’s 1997 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems red, numbered 52 out of 100 and graded BGS Near-mint 8, finished at Alt for a final sales total of $1,473,989, including buyer’s premium. The card was already sitting at $962,502 with 19 bids and two days still left on the auction before it crossed the seven-figure line.
The card checks a lot of the boxes collectors chase. It’s a color match to the Bulls’ team colors, it shows Jordan stretched out and reaching for what looks like a dunk at the rim, and it comes from the middle of Chicago’s second run at a three-peat championship. The back includes the stamped serial number below Jordan’s 1996-97 and career statistics, along with a bust shot of him in his road red Bulls uniform.
What makes the result even louder is how far it cleared the card’s recent comps. According to Card Ladder, the last sale of the same card in a BGS 8 came on June 1, 2024, when it sold for $298,900 at Goldin after 20 bids. Both cards share the same grade, though the 2024 copy had better subgrades aside from surface.
This Alt sale also moved past the last sale of the same card in a BGS 8.5. Card Ladder lists that one at $651,333.60 on December 6, 2025, also through Goldin, with 46 bids.
The broader Precious Metal Gems market has been climbing fast, and this Jordan is the clearest kind of proof. It smashed the previous BGS 8 sale, got there with time left on the clock, and then ended above the last sale of a higher-graded copy.
That kind of surge isn’t limited to Jordan either. A PSA 6 copy of Nomar Garciaparra’s 1998 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems, numbered to 50, sold for $5,600 on August 6 through eBay, according to Card Ladder.
With Jordan and PMGs both running hot, rarer versions and stronger grades may keep reaching levels that would have sounded absurd not long ago. But the market keeps doing what it does: breaking records.
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