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 the investment opportunities for The 2003-2004 NBA rookie class, which includes LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony.
- Upper deck exquisite hobby box
- A fun (free) way to test your card-picking skills
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.
Contest / FREE Money Alert
We use CardLadder for a lot of our modern card price research, and they’re doing something quite cool over the next few weeks. Seems like it might be right up our readers’ alley.
Here’s how it works
Choose a bunch of cards (or a few cards) totalling up to $10k or less, and have it locked in BEFORE 1 July 2021.
Watch those cards go up (or down) in value during the month of July.
The degenerate with the best ROI in those 31 days wins a free one year subscription to CardLadder Pro + a 2019-20 Panini Prizm Cello Box (worth $1200)
My strategy
There’s no day trading allowed; once you’re locked in July 1st, you’re riding with what you’ve got. So you need cards that will have a catalyst that will drive forward their value in July.
So either…
Option 1: Gamble on the NBA
Choose a player from the team you think is going to win the NBA championship (someone from the Clippers, Bucks, Suns, or Hawks). Ideally someone with a shot at winning the MVP. Here are your best options:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Trae Young (Hawks)
- Devin Booker (Suns)
- Paul George (Clippers)
The Suns and Bucks are joint favourites to win, by the way.
Option 2: Do the hard work
CardLadder updates their card values whenever something is publicly sold at auction. Usually eBay or one of the bigger auction houses.
It usually takes CardLadder a couple of days to update prices.
If you’re willing to put in some work, you can find assets that are guaranteed to go up in value 1st July or later.
I think you see where I’m going with this.
- Look through all the auctions on 30th June to see what’s closed (or about to close) for significantly higher than the price that’s in CardLadder.
- Lock those assets into your portfolio, and wait for the new, increased prices to update a day or two later.
- Instant ROI.
None of Heritage, Goldin, or Robert Edwards have auctions closing on 30th June, but PWCC does. It’s their “Round 2, Baseball 1994-2021, Basketball, Football, Hockey,” and it closes at 9pm PST. You can also watch auctions ending throughout the rest of eBay.
If you fancy a go, click below. Full disclosure, it’s an affiliate link, so I’ll get a few bucks if you sign up to their pro plan.
Table of Contents
2003 – 2004 Upper Deck Exquisite Basketball Hobby Box
About the Asset
This is a sealed box from the 2003 – 2004 UPper Deck Exquisite Basketball Set. Each sealed box contains one autographed patch card numbered /100, one signed rookie patch numbered /200, and three other cards /225. Each of the above has smaller print run parallels as well.
In addition to rookie cards for LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade, Upper Deck also had exclusive signature agreements with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant that year.
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 on 22nd June 2021 at 8pm EST. It has a market cap of $79,750 and no retained equity.
Add IPO to calendar
About the 2003 – 2004 NBA Rookie Class
Among Rally, Otis, and Collectable, they’ve IPO’ed five cards from this set with two queued to go. We’ve written about Jordan, Anthony, James, Bryant, and co extensively. This rookie class – and this set — is packed with NBA’s greatest players.
Recent sales history and Valuation
Inferred value is $60k to $75k
Not a Sponsor
I’d like to take a moment to highlight a charity run by a friend of ours. We’re getting involved, and I hope you do as well if you’ve got some free time.
The Prison Math Project connects incarcerated individuals to mentors in the outside world. The programme gives them coaching on their math studies and helps integrate them with the wider maths community.
Listen to what one beneficiary had to say:
“Many times I, myself, – and I believe I speak for all self-educated learners in prison – will proceed down a subject of interest not knowing where to begin or what comes next, or if we lack any necessary background education to even understand what we’re studying. Many of us just desire guidance in our studies… someone to point the way.”
It’s an amazing project.Volunteer for or Donate to PMP
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