Michael Jordan Insert in rare company, card takes over The Hobby
In this story:
Move over PMG, step aside Star Rubies, there is a new level of rarity in town, and its the Skybox Molten Metal Fusion Titanium. This is not the run of the mill version that was inserted into 1:96 packs, these were the scarce version that is only numbered to 40.
This Michael Jordan card does not pop up in the wild too often, but when it does, expect to take out a mortgage.
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Packs in the 1990's were full of inserts, typically pulling 1 in every 2 packs on average. Collectors had a chance to pull their favorite players, and it was fun seeing a design pop up, that was different from the base card. In between all of this, without collectors realizing, extremely rare and numbered cards were inserted. If a collector wasn't aware of what was pulled, these would be mistaken for "just another insert".
In 1997 Skybox Metal came out with their Precious Metal Gems, also known as PMG. Due to the scarcity of these cards, and being their debut, they are typically the go to of scarce cards in the 1990's. Recently this Michael Jordan card, being only a PSA 5, still carried a hefty price tag of $378,000.
As stated previously, this 1998 Molten Metal Titanium is numbered to only 40, and is an absolute beauty. With a signature jump shot of Jordan, and using a punch needle technic to create a silhouette of him in the background, this card stands above the rest.
The Beckett registry shows there are only 7 of these cards graded a 9, and just one in existence graded higher. The last one sold recently for $325,000, and was a BGS 8.5. Its going to be interesting to see where this one lands.
Goldin Auction has the honors of listing this masterpiece. Seeing that it's already at $305,000 and the auction doesn't end until December 6th, we may see some new records set.
I do wonder, what serial number 23 of 40 would go for?
