{"id":1848325,"date":"2026-03-26T15:11:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1848325"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:11:27","slug":"did-jared-mccain-buy-his-73000-rookie-card-maybe-thats-a-second-contract-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1848325","title":{"rendered":"Did Jared McCain buy his $73,000 rookie card? \u2018Maybe that\u2019s a second contract purchase\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just because Jared McCain<\/a> happens to be in his second year in the NBA on a rookie contract worth nearly $20 million doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s throwing caution to the wind when it comes to his spending habits as a sports card collector.<\/p>\n

Case in point, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard signed one of his best and rarest rookie cards \u2014 a one-of-a-kind 2024-25 Panini Flawless NBA Logoman patch card from his time as a Philadelphia 76er \u2014 with his name and the inscription, \u201cI need this card back.\u201d The card is set to change hands from its original owner after selling for $73,505<\/a> via auction through Goldin on March 14.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s hands, though? Not McCain\u2019s. At least not yet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverybody thought it was me,\u201d McCain said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Guys, I am not spending $70,000 on a card.\u2019\u2029Yeah, I do need it back. But you know, maybe that\u2019s a second contract type of purchase. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a rookie contract purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n McCain\u2019s 1\/1 Panini Flawless Logoman rookie card, inscribed with \u201cI need this card back.\u201d Photo courtesy of Goldin Auctions<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

McCain admits he\u2019s terrible at opening wax packs and his mom isn\u2019t too happy sometimes when he spends his money on cards or jumping into box breaks on live streams<\/a>. Still, the 2024 first-round pick possesses the same passion as many hobby enthusiasts in collecting the \u201cGOATs\u201d in terms of players \u2014 Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, and he\u2019s looking to add some from Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes \u2014 and the types of cards he collects (saying he owns a few gold Kaboom cards, which are serial numbered to 10).<\/p>\n

McCain will be putting his hobby knowledge to work Thursday evening when he hops on an eBay Live stream<\/a> with Goldin Auctions to sell cards of many of the players he collects, like Jordan, Bryant, Curry, Shaquille O\u2019Neal and, of course, McCain himself.<\/p>\n

The former Duke star talked to The Athletic<\/em> about his passion for the sports card hobby, what\u2019s untouchable in his collection and his desire to obtain an odd-ball item from one of his favorite \u201cGOAT\u201d players.<\/p>\n

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What do you make of this growth in the hobby and how long have you been into it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah it\u2019s really awesome to see because when me and my older brother were younger, he used to have a huge collection and I used to just go in and mess up cards and bend them and didn\u2019t know anything about anything. But I had a collection, and we would always go to the (Michael) Jordan camp in Santa Barbara. You were allowed to get one thing or two things signed. And so we still have a few cards of Michael Jordan signed and some posters.<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

And so that\u2019s kind of where it started a little bit. Then it kind of died down from my middle school years. Then I got back into it more and looked at it a little bit more in college. Then my rookie year, when I got hurt (meniscus tear in his left knee), it was like, \u201cOh wow! This is amazing!\u201d And then it just exploded from there. It\u2019s gotten so big the past year and a half or so. It\u2019s really cool to see. I love seeing all these people send me their cards and even just signing cards for kids or people outside the hotels. \u2029It\u2019s really cool to see more and more people getting into the hobby because it is fun and it\u2019s a cool thing to do.<\/p>\n

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How many people come up to you with cards because they know you\u2019re into this?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, I feel like it\u2019s a lot.\u2029A lot of the questions, even whenever I go outside the hotel or when I see people and they know I\u2019m gonna be there, it\u2019s like, \u201cWhat have you been collecting?\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned some of the Jordan autographed stuff you own. \u2029But what\u2019s the one or two things in your collection that are untouchable, no price, you\u2019re never getting rid of them?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been collecting all my favorite players\u2019 jerseys, and a lot of them are personally given to me. Like, LeBron. He wrote my name on it when he signed it and gave it to me, which is insane. My personal jersey collection, that\u2019ll never be touched for sure. I\u2019m gonna frame that in my house.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got LeBron, KD (Kevin Durant). I still haven\u2019t played against Curry. I think I\u2019m 0-for-4 playing when he hasn\u2019t played and I\u2019ve played, and then I was hurt last year. So I\u2019ve got (Jalen) Brunson, Jimmy Butler in his Heat jersey, which is nice. (Tyrese) Halliburton.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny. I asked Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) for his when I was on the Sixers. And I think he forgot or whatever. I probably should\u2019ve pressed him about it, actually. But he texted me when I got traded. He\u2019s like, \u201cYou still want that jersey?\u201d And I was like, \u201cOh, I can wait on it. I guess I\u2019m good.\u201d But I definitely still want it, of course.<\/p>\n

And then I have this one Kobe. I don\u2019t know the exact name of the card, but it\u2019s a gold medal card from when he was on Team USA. I have always loved Kobe\u2019s Team USA number 10 jersey. That was one of the first main cards I got and it\u2019s a really nice one. I\u2019ll probably never, ever sell that one.<\/p>\n

Is there an image out there that you\u2019ve seen of yourself playing that you would like on a card that\u2019s not on a card yet? Like a moment for you or a dunk or a big shot.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not many dunks out there for me. I feel like they\u2019ve gotten from the pictures I\u2019ve seen, they\u2019re pretty spot on the ones that I would like. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a card from when I first came back from injury and I scored my first bucket and I\u2019m running down the court with my hands in the air. I think that\u2019d be a cool moment to capture.<\/p>\n

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Is there a piece, like a card or a piece of memorabilia of any athlete out there that you don\u2019t currently have that you would like to have?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow! There\u2019s so many things. It\u2019s probably a Curry (item). It\u2019s something Curry. And I think it\u2019d be really cool to have a signed golf club of his because I know he\u2019s really into that. Other than a game-worn jersey, I don\u2019t know what shoes he\u2019s rocking nowadays, but I think a golf club would be a pretty cool one to have.<\/p>\n

Have you made any crazy trades or any good finds?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to the National (Sports Collectors Convention) last year. I was walking around and someone was like, \u201cYou want to do a trade?\u201d And I was like, \u201cSure.\u201d I\u2019m looking for this Curry card that he had. It\u2019s the classic (2009 Topps Chrome Curry rookie card<\/a> in a BGS 9.5 grade). Not the Refractor, but it has that shiny look. I was looking for that and he said, \u201cIf you beat me in a pop-a-shot (basketball game), then I can get it for free.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, this is a perfect deal.\u201d Then I forget what I had to give up (if I lost). I was a little scared because pop-a-shot, it\u2019s not real basketball. You never know how good someone could be. But I clutched it up and I was able to get that for free. It was a great bargain for me.<\/p>\n

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Jared McCain cards<\/div>\n

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The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just because Jared McCain happens to be in his second year in the NBA on a rookie contract worth nearly $20 million doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s throwing caution to the wind when it comes to his spending habits as a sports card collector. Case in point, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard signed one of his best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1848325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1848325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1848325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1848325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1848325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}