Where I'd Buy a Michael Jordan Card at Every Budget Right Now

The Jordans worth shopping right now run from the 1991 Upper Deck baseball card you can buy with lunch money to the 1986 Fleer rookie in PSA 8.

Heritage's Fall Sports Catalog Auction showed how far apart two bidders can land on the same card in the same week. It closed two 1986 Fleer rookies in PSA 8, the first on Oct. 23 for $14,640 and the second on Oct. 25 for $18,300, after PSA 8s had been selling for around $17,000 the month before. The same Heritage auction sold a 1997-98 SP Authentic Sign of the Times Stars & Rookies Jordan auto, PSA 7 with a 10 autograph, for $414,800, the most any 1997 SP Authentic card has ever brought. Every PSA 8 rookie sold since Oct. 25, on eBay or at Fanatics Collect, has gone for less than $18,300. The buyer's premium is brutal.

Here's the Jordan I'd buy at every budget, from under $25 up to the PSA 8 rookie, plus a few honorable mentions I'd handle differently.

Michael Jordan cards under $25

1991 Upper Deck SP1 Michael Jordan baseball card, raw

Upper Deck put Jordan taking batting practice with the White Sox in 1991, years before he walked away from basketball. It's the most traded Jordan in this article by a wide margin, with a new copy selling every few hours.

It'll run you $25 for a clean one. Pass on anything listed higher, because another copy will sell before dinner.

1994 Upper Deck Star Rookies Michael Jordan #19 baseball card, raw

If the SP1 is literary foreshadowing with Jordan trying baseball, Upper Deck's 1994 Star Rookies #19 is Jordan going through with it. That year he played 127 games for the Double-A Birmingham Barons. A raw copy goes for about $12 with multiple sales per day.

I'd pay up to $12 and file it next to the SP1, because together they're the two cheapest ways to own Jordan's whole baseball detour.

Michael Jordan cards from $25 to $100

1989-90 Hoops Michael Jordan #200, PSA 9

This is the Jordan I'd hand someone starting a PC. PSA has graded 18,979 of them a 9, more than enough to keep a fairly priced copy listed on any given day.

A PSA 10 isn't rare either, with 7,360 out there, but the 9 gets you the same slab and leaves your pockets full to pick up another Jordan. I'd cap a PSA 9 at $70.

1990-91 Fleer Michael Jordan #26, PSA 9

If the Hoops is the starter Jordan, the 1990-91 Fleer #26 is the one sitting in everybody's shoebox, Jordan in midair with his tongue out. More than 73,000 have come back from PSA, which means you never have to chase a PSA 9.

I'd bid $90 on one and let the sellers come to me.

Michael Jordan cards from $100 to $500

1991 Upper Deck SP1 Michael Jordan baseball card, PSA 9

In 1991 you had to open about two boxes of Upper Deck to pull an SP1. Today it's the easiest Jordan in this piece to buy. The photo is from batting practice at Comiskey Park on July 25, 1990, more than three years before he signed with the White Sox.

A PSA 9 runs about $143 against around $1,250 for a 10 of the same swing. I'd bid $135 on the 9.

1992-93 Upper Deck Fanimation Michael Jordan #506, PSA 9

Upper Deck's 1992-93 Fanimation subset turned Jordan into a cartoon superhero named Agent 23. The five-card subset came from Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri just after the two left Marvel to start Image Comics, with Jordan flying over a team of droids on his card.

I'd bid $175 on a PSA 9.

Michael Jordan cards from $500 to $2,500

1988 Fleer Michael Jordan #17, PSA 9

The 1988 Fleer came out after Jordan won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, plus a second straight Slam Dunk Contest from the free-throw line. It's also the first Fleer set with Scottie Pippen in his rookie year.

I'd bid $800 on a PSA 9, a little under the $833 it's been selling for.

1987-88 Fleer Michael Jordan #59, PSA 8

Jordan's second Fleer card came out after he averaged 37.1 points a game in 1986-87, the highest scoring average in the league since Wilt Chamberlain.

I'd bid $1,200 on a PSA 8, right where the last few have sold.

Michael Jordan rookie cards from $2,500 to $10,000

1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie #57, PSA 5

The photo on Jordan's rookie card was taken two years before Fleer printed it, on the road against the Nets during his rookie season, most likely in a 111-109 Bulls loss on Dec. 14, 1984. A PSA 5 is that same photo with softer corners for about $8,000, with several selling every week.

I'd bid $7,500 on one before the holidays.

1986 Fleer Sticker Michael Jordan #8, PSA 8

Fleer packed the Jordan sticker at the same rate as the Jordan rookie, one in every 11 packs of 1986-87 Fleer, yet PSA has graded about half as many stickers in an 8. The sticker sat at the back of the pack against the wax and the gum, on a card made to be peeled off and stuck somewhere.

I'd bid $3,600 on a PSA 8.

The 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card is still the grail

1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie #57, PSA 8

Nobody's name is on the photo that made the most famous basketball card ever printed. Collectors traced it to New York freelancer Noren Trotman through a 1987 poster that used the same shot and credited him.

A PSA 8 sells almost every day, which means you can wait for your price instead of chasing a Heritage result. I'd bid $15,000.

Honorable mentions

• A raw 1986 Fleer rookie. Raw copies put the real rookie in reach, but their prices are all over the place because fakes and trimmed copies sell right alongside honest ones. The good fakes have collectors checking the color of the Fleer “Premier” arrow and the yellow on the nameplate. I'd buy it in a PSA, BGS, or SGC slab and skip the homework.
• The 1997-98 Metal Universe #23 in PSA 8. It's still sliding from its late-summer high. I'd wait for it to find a floor before buying.
• The 1990-91 Fleer All-Star #5 in PSA 9. It's a sharp Jordan for about $163, but the Hoops #200 gets you a PSA 9 Jordan for about $67 in a market that trades every day.
• The 1984-85 Star #101 in PSA 7. It's the Jordan that came out before the Fleer rookie, with no 10 among the 714 that PSA has graded. A PSA 7 costs about $132,000 and amazingly still sells a few times a month.
• Thin modern inserts, like the 2023 Upper Deck National Convention VIP Jordans. They're fun to chase, but they trade too thinly to give you a fair price to bid against.