Cooper Flagg trading card with game-worn debut patch sparks auction frenzy, sells for $8.04 million

A Friday morning rush hour of intense bidding sent the one-of-one Cooper Flagg Topps Rookie Debut Patch Card skyrocketing at auction, selling for a record-setting $8.04 million. The price more than doubled during the feverish close of the auction presented by Fanatics Collect.

The card of the Dallas Mavericks star forward became the third-most expensive NBA card ever, trailing only the dual Kobe Bryant–Michael Jordan and Jordan–LeBron James cards that each sold for more than $10 million last year.

It also ranks as the fifth highest sports card sale, according to Card Ladder. A Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card sold for $12.6 million at a Heritage auction in 2022, and an ungraded Shohei Ohtani 2026 Topps Chrome Gold Logoman patch autograph card fetched $11 million July 30 in a private sale.

Flagg, the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft out of Duke, was Rookie of the Year at age 19 and set an NBA record for teenagers by scoring 40 or more points four times, breaking the record of three set by James in the 2003-2004 season.

At a Fanatics Fest in New York in July, Flagg signed the Rookie Debut Patch Autographed (RDPA) card then took the stage with ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi.

“I was a little nervous,” Flagg told Negandhi. “I’ve signed a lot of cards, but that one was a little nerve-wracking.”

Why? The card features a patch that Flagg wore on his Mavericks jersey during his first NBA game. Pairing the game-used memorabilia with a rookie’s signature has almost overnight made the RPDA cards the most sought after by collectors on the market.

The previous high paid for a Flagg card was $366,000 — a mere 4.55 percent of $8.04 million.

Two RPDA cards besides Flagg’s also sold for millions at Friday’s auction: San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper‘s card went for $2.88 million, and Charlotte Hornets forward Kon Knueppel’s card fetched $2.34 million.

RPDA cards are the latest brainstorm from Fanatics, which acquired the Topps sports and entertainment trading cards and collectibles business for approximately $500 million in January 2022.

The company leveraged partnerships with the NBA, MLB, NFL and Union of European Football Associations by announcing in 2023 that MLB rookies would wear a Debut Patch on their jersey sleeve during their first game. The patch is removed, authenticated and packaged with a trading card autographed by the player.

The existence of the Debut Patch cards spurred immediate excitement from the NBA when Topps resumed printing licensed cards for the NBA in October 2025 for the first time since 2010. Introducing Debut Patches to rookies and producing RPDA cards was a no-brainer.

“You know it’s such a simple idea, but fits perfectly into sort of like the ethos of the trading card world,” Matt Holt, NBA vice president of merchandising partnerships Matt Holt told the Athletic.

Rather than risking damage to the cards, a redemption card bearing a code serves as a placeholder in the pack. The result is that the Flagg card was graded a PSA Gem Mint 10 with a 10 autograph grade — as close to perfect as possible.

The Flagg card was randomly inserted in a pack of Topps 2026 Chrome Basketball Update Series and placed on the market Aug. 6. Jason Williams, 50, of Clover, S.C., acquired the card after spending $515 to land a spot on RhodyBreakers, a retail shop affiliate that opens boxes of trading cards on a livestream.

Williams was watching the stream on a television as his wife and son were getting ready for bed when a life-changing fortune became theirs.

“They slid that card over, and I just slid to the floor crying,” Williams told ESPN. “It took me about five seconds to realize what I was looking at on that screen.”