Michael Jordan’s First NBA Cover Sports Illustrated Sells for Graded Magazine Record $378,200

Michael Jordan has another auction record, this time in a category that has been gaining serious momentum over the past year. A December 10, 1984 Sports Illustrated featuring Michael Jordan on his first cover as an NBA player sold for $378,200 at Goldin, establishing what the auction house says is the highest public sale ever recorded for a graded magazine.

The newsstand copy, graded CGC 9.8, features Jordan soaring toward the basket in a Chicago Bulls uniform beneath the now-famous headline “A Star Is Born.” It was the first CGC 9.8 example of the issue to reach public auction in three years. The last one appeared at Heritage Auctions in August 2023 and sold for $126,000, which at the time was itself a record for any graded Sports Illustrated magazine.

A lot has changed in the graded magazine market since then. Earlier this year, a PSA 9.6 copy of Jordan’s November 28, 1983 Sports Illustrated cover debut, showing him at North Carolina alongside teammate Sam Perkins, sold for $229,360 at Goldin. That became the magazine record at the time.

Then Mickey Mantle moved the bar again. A PSA 9.6 newsstand copy of the June 18, 1956 Sports Illustrated featuring Mantle’s first cover appearance sold for $328,180 at Goldin on June 28. That stood as the public record for any graded magazine heading into the latest Jordan auction.

Jordan has now taken the record back at $378,200. The 1984 issue occupies an unusual place in his memorabilia history. It is not Jordan’s first Sports Illustrated appearance. That distinction belongs to the 1983 North Carolina cover. But “A Star Is Born” is his first Sports Illustrated cover in a Chicago Bulls uniform and arrived during the opening months of his rookie season, before the championships, scoring titles and worldwide fame that would follow.

Condition is where the latest copy separates itself. CGC said ahead of the sale that only four of the 125 newsstand examples it had graded were CGC 9.8 as of early August. Newsstand copies are particularly desirable because they lack the mailing labels found on subscription versions and are difficult to locate in elite condition more than four decades after publication.

Magazines were never designed with long-term preservation in mind. They were handled, stacked, read, bent and often discarded, making sharp corners, clean spines and glossy covers increasingly difficult to find as the grade rises. That has helped create a market that in some ways resembles both comic book collecting and sports card collecting. The athlete and moment matter, but so do the edition and grade. A common issue in average condition can remain relatively accessible while a top-grade newsstand example of the same magazine can sell for six figures.