Worth Every Penny: Anfernee Hardaway’s Basketball Card Legacy
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In his short-lived prime, it wasn’t a stretch to call Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway the NBA’s most captivating, must-see young superstar: a 6-foot-7 wizard with the ball who’d swiftly change direction, glide to the basket with long, effortless strides, and either flick a no-look pass or rise above the rim for a leap-out-of-your-seat dunk.
Before knee injuries turned his career into one of basketball’s great what-ifs, Hardaway made two All-NBA First Teams prior to turning 25 and, alongside Shaquille O’Neal, formed the game’s most dynamic pairing since Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Although Hardaway’s post-Magic career never reached the heights of his early years, nostalgia for his Orlando-era brilliance is still fueling strong trading card sales and keeping him relevant in modern products.
For ’90s collectors, his appeal will always be rooted in what he accomplished in a relatively short time and the excitement he brought to the game and to packs, as one of the league’s most electrifying young playmakers.
Hardaway’s 1993 Finest Rookie Card
When the Magic improbably won the Draft lottery for the second consecutive time, conventional wisdom was that Orlando needed a big man like Chris Webber to pair alongside O’Neal.
But the Magic changed course after Hardaway wowed executives in a second, secret workout, leading to a stunning Draft-night trade that sent the No. 1 pick to Golden State in exchange for the Memphis State guard and future picks.
Shortly after its release, Hardaway's 1993 Finest #189 rookie card was selling for $20 , while the short-printed Refractor was listed between $200 and $250 in Beckett's price guide. Two years later, the base card had climbed to $24, while the rainbow-foil parallel had jumped to $225. By 1998, they were listed at $35 and $250, respectively.
Today, a PSA 10 base rookie is valued at around $400, according to Card Ladder, up 55.63% over the past year. A PSA 9 has more than doubled, from $25 to $58.
The last PSA 10 Refractor, with a population of just 33, sold for $4,440, an 83.09% year-over-year increase.
Hardaway Stars in 1995 Skybox E-XL Natural Born Thrillers
By his second year, Hardaway was a full-fledged superstar, an All-Star Game starter and a fringe MVP candidate.
With his size, creativity, and above-the-rim finishes, there was little the oversized point guard couldn't do as he helped lead the Magic to a then-franchise-record 57 wins and past Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs to reach the NBA Finals.
Orlando's floor general is one of 10 players featured in the 1995 Skybox E-XL Natural Born Thrillers die-cut, gold-foil insert set, celebrating stars who were the league’s main attractions and appointment viewing for fans.
It’s presumably a play on the 1994 film Natural Born Killers, because that’s the kind of creativity manufacturers had during the ‘90s.
A PSA 9 of Hardaway’s #6 card is up a staggering 236.62% over the last 12 months, with the last sale of $225 setting a new high for the grade in Card Ladder’s database.
Penny Was a Cut Above His Peers
Hardaway was pulling off feats few peers could in 1995-96, making his second consecutive All-NBA First Team and All-Star Game start, and finishing third in MVP voting.
His popularity off the court was perhaps rivaled only by Lil’ Penny, his wisecracking puppet alter ego voiced by Chris Rock in a series of hilarious Nike commercials, where he, like many of us at the time, fantasized about dating Tyra Banks.
When O’Neal left for Los Angeles in free agency next summer, Hardaway became the unquestioned face of the franchise, earning his third consecutive (and spoiler alert: final)
All-NBA selection and carrying a depleted, seventh-seeded Magic team with back-to-back 40-plus-point performances against the Pat Riley-led Heat. This was during an era when it wasn't unusual for entire teams to struggle to reach 70 points.
The unmistakably over-the-top ’90s design of 1996 E-X2000 A Cut Above takes that concept quite literally, with a circular saw-blade die-cut across the top and silver, reflective holographic foil. No. 1 is shown driving to the rim in his blue Magic pinstripes and signature Air Penny 1s.
The last raw copy sold for $609, which is a 35.89% year-over-year increase, and since the funky shape makes high-grade examples challenging to find, a BGS 9.5 brought in $2,500 on September 21.
Penny’s Metal Universe Precious Gems
As quickly as Hardaway vaulted into the conversation of the game’s elite superstars, he soon found himself on the outside looking in, after his first major knee surgery forced him to miss most of the 1997-98 season.
Despite playing only 19 games and putting up drastically diminished numbers, he was again voted as an All-Star Game starter, largely because back then, fans just checked off the first few names they recognized on paper ballots at Foot Locker (Grant Hill and Alonzo Mourning were fan-selected starters in 2001 despite appearing in 17 games combined!).
Of course, neither fans nor card manufacturers had any way of knowing that they’d already seen the best of Hardaway, who, at 26, should’ve only been entering his prime.
The majority of his most coveted and highest-selling cards were produced during that time, led by several Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems parallels. Although they were largely overlooked at the time, those short-printed variants command massive price tags today.
A PSA 7.5 1998 PMG sold for $15,600 on September 25, while a BGS 9.5 copy brought in $43,200 last February, the second-most for any Hardaway card tracked by Card Ladder.
His 1997 PMGs have sold in similar price ranges, with an auction for a Red /100 in PSA 6 slab ending just shy of $27,000 last October, and the /50 Metal Universe Championship version selling between $13,000 and $15,000, depending on the grade.
Penny’s Instant Impact in Phoenix
Hardaway managed to play all 50 games during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, but he wasn’t quite the same explosive player who once dominated the league and scaled mountains of NBA centers.
His departure for Phoenix in the offseason remains one of the most jarring ESPN bottom-line alerts of the ’90s. After one productive season alongside Jason Kidd, injuries piled up, microfracture surgery further limited him, and his role gradually diminished.
Hardaway was an obvious inclusion in the 1999-00 Topps Chrome Instant Impact insert set, devoted to 10 players who joined new teams. It's an interesting time capsule of what was seen as the promising start of a new chapter for a player who had been one of the NBA's biggest young stars in Orlando.
A PSA 10 last sold for $150 on September 9, while a PSA 9 can be picked up for under $40.
Penny Finishes Head of the Class
At this point, we can yada-yada Hardaway’s final four NBA seasons, when he was a shell of the superstar he once was and his minutes and numbers declined even more in New York and Miami.
The Knicks actually traded the fading star back to the Magic in 2006, but Orlando robbed him of a storybook ending by waiving him before he could suit up in blue and white again.
22 months later, his up-and-down, 14-year career ended for good when the Heat, who reunited him with O’Neal in Florida, released the seldom-used guard after only 16 games.
Among Hardaway’s final playing-days releases is a 2004 Flair Head of the Class Patches card, numbered to 33, featuring a swatch from his Knicks uniform alongside pieces from Webber’s and Allan Houston’s jerseys. The late-career memorabilia card brings together three members of the 1993 Draft class, who each, at one point, had their moments in the spotlight.
Card Ladder shows just two sales in the past five years, with the most recent being a Hardaway jersey-number match, serial-numbered 1/33, that sold for $160 in October 2023.
Even as injuries changed the course of his career, they didn't erase the impression No. 1 left on a generation of ’90s collectors.
That lasting impact explains why demand for his cards, and the surprisingly high prices they command, remain well above those of many stars from his era with far more decorated careers.
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Alex Kramers is a Florida-based sportswriter who has covered the NBA and NFL since 2009. He served as a Sacramento Kings reporter and digital media coordinator from 2012-2014 and has written regular feature stories for the team's website. He has also covered the Miami Dolphins for DolfansNYC, and has produced content for publications including HOOP Magazine and Orangetheory Fitness. An avid sports-card collector since childhood, he has amassed one of the biggest Mitch Richmond collections in the world, and seeks out Florida Panthers cards and memorabilia with his son.