Record! Messi star card sold at a sky-high price of $1.5 million

According to ESPN, a Messi rookie card from the Panini Mega Cracks series in the 2004/05 season was successfully sold for $1.5 million, setting a record for the highest transaction amount of football cards. The previous highest price was $1.33 million, which was set by the Alifabolaget series Bailika in 1958 in a 2022 deal.

It is understood that this historical Messika was rated as a full score of 10 by the card rating agency Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).

Sources revealed that this Messi card was given a total of 838 ratings, of which only 20 were awarded a full score.

It is worth mentioning that this card sold is also equipped with Mike Baker Authenticated diamond-level certification. This is a re-certification service for PSA, BGS and SGC rating cards, and is regarded as a symbol of top quality in the collection world.

This transaction was completed by Acquir on behalf of the seller (Acquir is a high-end private trading venue established at the end of 2023) and was sold through Fanatics Collect's private sales network.

Fanatics Collect was just established to build a bridge for high-end buyers and sellers, specifically to match some rare cards that are not sold publicly.

The platform only accepts transactions of more than US$10,000. In the first month of official operation, 40 transactions were completed, with a total amount of US$8 million.

Just a few days ago, they had just led to another Messi rookie card deal for $1.1 million.

Finally, let me briefly introduce Panini company.

Panini is a veteran company from Italy, most famous for various sports stickers and star cards. Especially the official sticker book of the World Cup, countless fans have bought it in each World Cup. In addition to football, Panini also makes collection cards for sports such as basketball and rugby, which can be regarded as a golden sign in the collection circle.