Welcome to Sports Cards Insider – FREE Version. We use Moneyball tactics to discover undervalued, mispriced, and hidden gems in Fractional Investing.
Today, we’re covering investment opportunities for Ken Griffey Jr and LeBron James:
- Ken Griffey Jr 1989 Upper Deck BGS 10 IPO’ing on Rally
- Some iconic alternate Griffey rookies (and a $50 voucher code)
- LeBron James 2003-04 UD Black Diamond Rainbow /10 BGS 9.5 IPO’ing on Collectable
- Some undervalued LeBron cards trading elsewhere
Insiders get one dedicated email for each asset with more analysis, comps, and full valuations. We also give the AA Verdict for each card: a straight up Yes or No. Free members only get a weekly roundup.
Table of Contents
Ken Griffey Jr 1989 Upper Deck BGS 10
About the asset
This is a BGS 10 graded copy of Ken Griffey Jr’s iconic rookie card from the equally iconic 1989 Upper Deck baseball card set. There are 113 BGS 10s in circulation with four graded BGS 10 Black label. This card only misses out on Black Label by one subgrade, with its centering slightly off. It’s in the top 0.3% of cards submitted to BGS.
Many of these cards had a factory wrinkle on the back, which made it exceptionally difficult to grade higher PSA 6 (and BGS equivalent). That said, there are still nearly 4,000 PSA 10 versions of this card in circulation.
For this asset, Insiders also learned:
- Projected growth trend
- Full valuation
- Asset class volatility
- Our verdict on the asset as an investment
About the drop
This asset will drop on Rally 21st July at noon EST with a market cap of $20,000 and no retained equity. From then, there will be around five month lockup before trading begins on a quarterly basis.
Add IPO to calendar
About Ken Griffey Jr
George Kenneth Griffey Jr was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 2016 with the highest share of the vote ever – 99.32%.
Over his 22 years in the Majors, he:
- Hit 630 home runs
- Was a 13x All Star
- Won the AL MVP
- Won 10 Gold Gloves
- Won 7 Silver Slugger Awards
- Was the AL home run leader four times
He also managed to hit back to back home runs with his dad, Ken Griffey Sr, which is pretty awesome.
Griffey Jr was the youngest player ever to reach 350 home runs at age 28 and finished with 630, but the last ten years of his career was largely marred by a string of injuries.
Recent sales history and Valuation
Inferred value is $15k to $20k
Other ways to invest in Ken Griffey Jr
As the PSA 10 version of this card is far more populous, it’s also far more affordable. Look to find it for under $2,500.
There’s actually one up on OnlyAlt right now for $2,200. Use this link to sign up and get $50 off your first purchase.
If you’re after an alternate rookie card, you can find his 1989 Topps Traded PSA 10 for under $200. His 1989 Fleer rookie can be had for a similar price.
But my favourite Griffey rookie card is this one featuring Jr and Sr together. At $100, you get half off if you use the referral link.
LeBron James 2003-04 UD Black Diamond Rainbow /10 BGS 9.5
About the asset
This is a BGS 9.5 graded copy of LeBron James’s 2003/04 Upper Deck Black Diamond series. This was a premium set (you can buy a sealed hobby box for around $4,000) featuring several memorabilia cards and parallels. Each base card had a Bronze (/100), Gold (/25), and Rainbow (/10) parallel.
There are currently twelve of these ten cards registered with BGS, which indicates that at least two owners didn’t like their original grade and resubmitted the card. Four of those twelve are BGS 9.5, as is ours.
For this asset, Insiders also learned:
- Projected growth trend
- Full valuation
- Asset class volatility
- Our verdict on the asset as an investment
About the drop
This asset will drop on Collectable 21st July at 2:30pm EST with a market cap of $85,000 and $25,000 retained equity (33%). From then, there will be around three month lockup before trading begins on a daily basis.
Add IPO to calendar
About LeBron James
We’ve written about LeBron James a lot. Pop into the archives if you’d like to learn more.
Recent sales history and Valuation
Inferred value is $20,000 to $35,000
Other ways to invest in LeBron James
If you’d like to buy fractional shares of Bron Bron, there are several undervalued options on Otis and Rally at the minute.
