Low-grade Jordan rookie takes $7,119 on 38 bids

It cleared 38 bids and still landed below the $8,357 median for other PSA 5 copies of the same card.

A 1986 Fleer #57 Michael Jordan rookie in a PSA 5 holder sold for $7,119.00 on Tuesday after 38 bids. It was the most notable of 295 qualifying single-card Jordan sales we tracked that day — and it was neither the biggest figure on the board nor a premium.

Why it matters

The day’s largest number, $39,000.00, was an asking price on an accepted best offer, so what actually changed hands was never published. A contested 38-bid auction tells you what the market will pay. A negotiated private number tells you only what was asked.

By the numbers

• $7,119.00 — the hammer price, against an $8,357.00 median across 13 verified PSA 5 sales of the same card. That is 0.85x: a discount to its own grade, not a premium.
• 198 of 295 — sales with a confirmed paid price, worth $257,782.50 at a $550.00 median. The other 97 were accepted best offers carrying $137,793.42 of asks.
• $26,500.00 — the day’s top confirmed paid sale, a 1998 Skybox PSA 8 bought outright at 0 bids.

Zoom in

Two copies of the same rookie cleared in two different grades. The PSA 5 drew 38 bids at $7,119.00; a PSA 3 drew 49 bids at $6,000.00. The weaker card pulled more bidders and less money. Neither was the day’s most contested card: 91 bids landed on a $615.00 1989 Hoops #200 in a PSA 10 holder.

Reality check

One auction is one auction, and we are not calling a trend off it. The wider baseline will not support one either: the 1986 Fleer comparable pool ran 108 sales from a $6,700.00 lower quartile to a $17,400.00 upper quartile on a $9,300.00 median — a 2.6x spread against the 2.5x ceiling we quote inside. A comparable set spanning several different cards is not a comparable set, and valuing off the wrong peer group looks rigorous while being wrong, which is why the same evidence-led approach to stocks settles the peer group first. The $8,357.00 figure survives because it compares PSA 5 to PSA 5.

What's next

Watch whether the $8,357.00 PSA 5 level holds. Two mid-grade #57s inside one session, both clearing under their own grade’s median, reads as noise once and as a level the third time. If you are holding one, track the grade-matched comp, not the headline sale. Monday’s Jordan sale set the most recent marker.

How we track this

RazMania monitors completed eBay sales daily, filtering out multi-card lots, reprints, merchandise and cross-listed items to isolate genuine single-card sales. Prices are final sold prices. The $8,357.00 figure is the median of 13 verified sales of the same card in the same grade, unsigned and unaltered, with this sale excluded; the wider 1986 Fleer pool was rejected for dispersion and no multiple is quoted from it. Our trailing context pull covered 36 days, not 90. eBay reports sold date, not sold time.