A Jalen Brunson card that collectors will never be able to find a second copy of is drawing serious money at auction.
The New York Knicks star’s 2024-25 Panini Revolution Kaboom! Vertical Green 1/1, graded PSA 9, has reached an $85,000 bid in Fanatics Collect’s August Premier Auction. The card had attracted 18 bids as of August 27.
That price alone puts it among the more expensive modern Brunson cards to surface publicly. But what makes this particular card unusual is right on the PSA label: 1/1.
There is only one Green parallel of Brunson’s Vertical Kaboom from the 2024-25 Revolution set. And recent sales of cards immediately below it on the scarcity ladder help explain why bidders are already well into five figures.
Jalen Brunson’s Green Kaboom Has No Exact Comp
Panini’s Vertical Kaboom checklist includes Brunson alongside stars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama.
The regular Vertical Kaboom is already a difficult pull. Panini then created a Gold parallel limited to 10 copies and the Green parallel limited to exactly one. Brunson’s Green No. 13 is that lone card.
That distinction makes determining its value difficult.
The standard version gives one starting point.
PSA records show a PSA 10 Brunson Vertical Kaboom sold for $11,500 on July 26, after other PSA 10 copies brought $9,000 on June 26, $9,600 on June 19 and $10,659 on June 16. PSA lists 18 examples of the standard Vertical Kaboom in a PSA 10 grade.
The Green card now at $85,000 is a PSA 9 rather than a PSA 10, but its serial number changes the equation: the standard Kaboom can appear again. The Green cannot.
A Gold /10 Brunson Kaboom Sold for $30,300
An even more relevant comparison surfaced earlier this year.
A Gold version of the same 2024-25 Brunson Vertical Kaboom, numbered to 10, sold through Fanatics Collect for $30,300 with buyer’s premium on May 22. That card carried a BGS 9 grade and drew 47 bids.
The current $85,000 bid on the Green is already roughly 2.8 times that sale price.
That does not necessarily mean the Green should sell for any specific multiple. One-of-one cards can behave differently because two collectors who both view the card as a centerpiece can push an auction well beyond conventional comparisons.
Brunson’s market has also demonstrated just how high that ceiling can get.
A 2018 Panini Prizm Choice Nebula Brunson rookie 1/1 graded PSA 9 sold for $312,000 through Fanatics Collect in June. Fanatics lists that result among its notable high-end sales.
That card has an important advantage over the current Kaboom: it is a Brunson rookie card from the 2018-19 season.
Another Brunson rookie 1/1, his 2018 Contenders Optic Gold Vinyl Rookie Ticket autograph graded PSA 9, sold for $35,100 on July 24.
Those wildly different results illustrate why “1/1” alone does not establish value. Set, design, rookie status, autograph content and collector demand all matter.
Kaboom Brand Gives Brunson Card Another Selling Point
The current card does have something beyond scarcity working in its favor: the Kaboom name.
Panini introduced the comic-book-inspired insert in 2013, and the design has developed into one of the company’s recognizable modern chase cards. Fanatics Collect specifically describes the Green parallels as some of the rarest versions collectors pursue.
For Brunson collectors, that creates an unusual combination: a recognizable insert, a Knicks superstar and a card with an absolute population ceiling of one.
The $85,000 bid has already put a substantial premium on it compared with the Gold /10 and standard Kaboom versions.
How much further it goes will provide another useful data point for a Brunson card market that has already produced a $312,000 sale this summer.
For this card, though, there will never be a second Green copy coming along to settle the debate.
Rare Jalen Brunson Card Goes Up for Auction With $85,000 Bid and Counting