A Tiger Woods rookie card cut from an SI For Kids magazine sold through eBay for $55,000 on February 16th.
The card, which comes from the magazine’s 1996 issue, was given the elusive “Pristine” grade from Beckett, displaying virtually no flaws. The magazine issue also featured cut-out cards of athletes from different sports, including Jerry Stackhouse, Curtis Martin, and Doug Floutie, and even figure skater Chen Lu.
Of course, Tiger’s card is the only one of the bunch that is worth substantial value, and just like every other sports card in the industry right now, the value has rapidly risen for the 1996 Woods rookie card. A raw or ungraded version of the card will generally sell in the hundreds, but the PSA or BCG 10’s are extremely rare and valuable because the cards had to be manually cut-out and are printed on flimsy paper.
According to Golf Digest, in December, the same BCG Pristine Woods card sold for $26,400. While this Tiger Woods rookie card has more than doubled in the last few months, it is not the steepest asking price for a 15-time major champion card as Tiger’s BCG 9.5 2001 SP Auto /25 currently has an asking price of $295,000 on eBay.
After the amazing impact that ESPN’s “The Last Dance” had on Michael Jordan card prices, it will be interesting to see if HBO’s “Tiger,” a two-part documentary of the life of Tiger Woods, will drive attention to his cards and memorabilia as well.
