THE BEST BASKETBALL CARD INVESTMENTS MARCH 2021

TOP SPORTS CARD BUYS FOR COLLECTORS MARCH 2021

AIR JORDAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

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The Air Jordan Collection

8 min readMar 17, 2021

BEST BUYS MARCH 2021

Welcome back sports card collectors to another one of our “best buys” of the month. In this article we’ll highlight several basketball cards that we feel are undervalued and solid buys for the month of March 2021.

SOME OF OUR PREVIOUS “BEST BUYS”

In our last article we highlighted Michael Jordan refractors. In just one month since we published the article Jordan refractors are up over 300%.

Hopefully some of you were able to pick up a few of these before they started to take off, or at a minimum followed the recommendation on paper and now have a little confidence that we just might know a little bit about what we’re talking about.

FLAIR SHOWCASE KOBE BRYANT

In one of our “best buys” articles before that, we recommended the 1996 Flair Showcase Kobe Bryant Rows 0, 1 & 2. For those of you that are new you can find the article HERE.

WE SELL OUR 1996 FLAIR SHOWCASE KOBE BRYANT ROWS 0, 1 & 2 FOR $30,1000 AT AUCTION ON EBAY

Long story short, we sold the 1996 Flair Showcase Kobe Bryant’s that we picked up for a total of under $1300 at auction on eBay last month for $30,100. Understand that we aren’t your typical card flippers looking solely to make a quick buck.

We’re collectors first and foremost and most of the cards we recommend (and purchase) are long term holds. But, occasionally the market starts to offer a premium that’s just too good to pass up- as was the case with the Flair Showcase Kobe Bryant Rows 0–2.

THIS MONTHS “BEST BUYS”

In this edition, our “best buys” for March 2021 we list several cards that are (in our opinion) extremely undervalued. There is ample opportunity right now to pick up some great cards at a discount. So whether your goal is adding to your personal collection (PC), buying low and selling at a profit or even buying for someone else like a son or daughter, these are cards that we believe are great buys.

Cards that we feel will be worth much more than they are right now, and in short order. Please understand that card collecting is speculative in general. The market could crash tomorrow. Never spend or invest more than you can comfortably afford to lose.

BEST BUYS MARCH 2021

CARMELO ANTHONY

2003 TOPPS PRISTINE COLLECTION CARMELO ANTHONY REFRACTOR

2003 TOPPS CHROME CARMELO ANTHONY REFRACTOR #113

2003 TOPPS CHROME CARMELO ANTHONY #113

KOBE BRYANT (AGAIN)

If you missed our previous article on Kobe Bryant and his rookies to make our Buy List, you missed out on some serious profit. The 1996 Skybox E-X2000 Kobe Bryant Stardate and the refractor RC’s that we recommended back in September turned out to be a home run.

The PSA 10 that we were able to pick up for a little over $1000 — sold at auction on eBay for $10,001.

That’s 1000% profit in under 90 days. That doesn’t happen very often. The Kobe refractors have since skyrocketed — but we haven’t sold any of those yet and don’t plan to — anytime soon.

If you missed the boat on the Kobe Bryant Atomic refractors & refractor rookie cards and they’re now out of your buying range ($4,000-$10,000+) Allen Iverson refractor RC’s are definitely worth a hard look right now.

Back to Kobe — if you’re able to swing higher figures and “money ain’t a thang” Kobe refractors are only going to go higher from here. As ridiculous as these prices look now.. in 5–10 years, these are going to look dirt cheap.

SUPPLY & DEMAND

Let’s take a look at this from a simple supply and demand standpoint — which makes the most sense to me after 10+ year career on Wall Street, running a firm and having had success trading futures, stocks, commodities and options on the floor of both the NYMEX and NYSE.

Bowman’s Best Picks Kobe Bryant & Allen Iverson refractor RC’s

With only 20–40 refractors in most of the 1996 rookie sets, 100’s of thousands of Kobe Bryant fanS from around the glob will be competing to won these prized pieces of history. To be able to own and hold — not just a rookie card, but a piece of history that is the Legend — Kobe Bryant. One of the best ever to play the game of basketball.

He was an absolute terror for opposing defenses for over 20 years. Through 3 decades… many of us grew up watching Kobe. Millions of people’s lives have been shaped and influenced by the incredible play, relentless work ethic, killer instinct, charisma and style of one man — Kobe Bryant. The Black Mamba.

Kobe Bryant instilled in so many of us the mamba mentality. He gave his all to basketball and after retiring — gave that same love and dedication to his daughters, to women’s basketball and more.

If you think for a second that there aren’t 22 people in the world who are willing and able to spend 50K+ in 5–10 years for one of these.. you’re out of your mind. Extremely limited demand, eye appeal, one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game.. it’s not rocket science. Scarcity +increased demand many collectors return to the hobby — not to mention a Hall of Fame induction coming and a movie to be made on his life.. Barring any economic disaster, recession or disease — these Kobe Bryant refactors could easily be worth 100K+ in the next 5–10.

Historically, the next best rookies follow suit. In the case of the 1996 Rookie refractors- the next rookie that we anticipate card prices taking off off is Allen Iverson. Later followed by Ray Allen.

ALLEN IVERSON

ALLEN IVERSON REFRACTOR ROOKIE CARD BUY LIST

There are a number of reasons we like the refractor rookies as opposed to base (although for those with less to spend base rookies can still do very well) Namely, scarcity and eye appeal.

1996–97 Bowmans Best Picks Allen Iverson Atomic Refractor

1996–97 Bowman’s Best Retro Atomic Refractor

1996–97 Bowmans Best Picks Allen Iverson Refractor

1996–97 Bowman’s Best Retro Refractor

1996–97 Finest Gold Heirs

1996–97 Finest Refractor

NON REFRACTOR ROOKIES

1996 FLAIR SHOWCASE ALLEN IVERSON ROW 0

1996 FLAIR SHOWCASE ALLEN IVERSON ROW 1

1996 FLAIR SHOWCASE ALLEN IVERSON ROW 2

LEBRON JAMES ROOKIES

2003 TOPPS CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION LEBRON JAMES #1

Easily the most undervalued and unappreciated LeBron James rookie card and quite possibly my all-time favorite. This card is constantly overlooked as collectors & investors the higher valued LeBrons — like the 2003 Topps Chrome Rookie — but don’t pass up an opportunity to own this LeBron RC.

Due to it’s extremely low Pop count and stunning eye appeal, this could easily be one of, of not the most valuable LeBron Rookie cards when it’s all said and done.

Especially the Red parallel /299, which have already begun to see a skyrocketing increase in value. And while the 2003 Topps Contemporary Collection Red /299 is already out of most collectors’ budgets, there’s still time to add the base rookie before it takes off into the stratosphere.

2003 TOPPS CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION #1

2003 BAZOOKA LEBRON JAMES GOLD #276

2003 BAZOOKA LEBRON JAMES GOLD #223

2003 BAZOOKA LEBRON JAMES #276

2003 BAZOOKA LEBRON JAMES #223

TRACY MCGRADY

1997 FLAIR SHOWCASE TRACY MCGRADY ROW 0

1997 FLAIR SHOWCASE TRACY MCGRADY ROW 1

1997 FLAIR SHOWCASE TRACY MCGRADY ROW 2

SHOP OUR EXCLUSIVE HIGH-END COLLECTION

Many of the cards listed for sale online and especially on ebay are reprints. These are becoming harder to spot as fraudulent sellers have upped their games. Reprints are simply copies of original versions of the card. Many times the cards sold online are copies of the original or just outright fakes (shitty attempts at reprints).

Reprints hold no value (that’s why you see some cards that you’d think would be worth a lot of money selling online for so cheap. Obviously fake cards aren’t worth anything. Originals hold value and obviously rookies, autographed cards, rare inserts, short prints (cards that are numbered on the actual card itself) are worth much more and are only increasing in value.

Everything listed on on our site is Authentic, Rookie, Autographed or both. This also includes rare, limited edition, short-print and low numbered cards (some 1 of 1’s) that can’t be found anywhere else.

So whether you’re here to shop, just looking to read and learn, or you’re considering returning to the hobby, follow our blog and learn which brands are the best investment, which are most likely to increase in value, where to sell them for top dollar and also what common mistakes to avoid.

With a little guidance, you can build a valuable collection or make some money on the side while reliving the nostalgia of basketball card collecting as a kid.