Statewide Iowa — State Treasurer Roby Smith is having what appears to be a rare Michael Jordan rookie card appraised before including it in an auction.
The trading card was in an unclaimed safety deposit box turned over to the state treasurer’s office. Smith says the card is being sent to a California company that determines if sports memorabilia is legit and how much it might be worth.
A company called Fleer released a set of NBA trading cards in 1986 that included a rookie card for future hall of famer Michael Jordan. The state treasurer says experts from the Professional Sports Authenticator company will consider the Jordan card’s condition and come up with a grade.
Smith’s office hired a national firm that handles auctions for state and local governments to sell valuables from some of the safety deposit boxes that have been declared unclaimed property and turned over to the state. An online auction currently underway through next Wednesday initially included the Michael Jordan card, but Axios Des Moines was first to report it had been pulled for an appraisal. The proceeds from these auctions will be available — just in case someone discovers their name or a relative’s listed on the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt website or comes forward to claim a long-abandoned deposit box.
The state currently has three THOUSAND unclaimed safety deposit boxes and is running out of secure storage. Smith was given a tour shortly after he took over as state treasurer in January and got to see the contents of one of the boxes.
Last year, someone paid over a million dollars for a rookie Michael Jordan trading card, but it had been signed by Jordan. The value of Jordan trading cards went up in 2020 after the release of a documentary about Jordan’s career and the Chicago Bulls’ last championship season.
