More than a quarter-century after publishing their last regular printed magazine, SPORT appears to be inching toward something of a comeback.

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The brand’s primary social channel, @sportthemagazine on Instagram, has been making great use of their classic photo archive in recent months, even jumping on the “What were you like in the ’90s?” trend a few weeks ago, merging Griffey and the Goo Goo Dolls for possibly the first time.

The SPORT website has published six “features” in the last two months, an official photo shoot took place for the first time in 25 years, and they keep showing up at major events, including Fanatics Fest and Super Bowl LX. These are not the actions of a company planning to recycle brand heritage in perpetuity.

This won’t matter much to magazine collectors if the content remains digital. But a recent development gives me hope for a physical future for SPORT.

In partnership with Netflix, SPORT released a limited “Collector’s Edition” commemorative issue for MLB’s Opening Night game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees on March 26. The 44-page magazine was available only for fans to “pick up” around Oracle Park, meaning it was not an official “first X fans through the gate” promotion with the Giants, but rather an informal one with an unknown print run.

Make no mistake, this was not some slapdash brochure project. The cover art was created by Neil Jamieson, the artist behind some of the most memorable sports magazine cover artwork of the last few years. The inside has several robust articles — presumably written by real people — that either nod to the history of the game or look forward to what the 2026 version has to offer.

There are four full-page ads — all for Netflix properties — and a six-page Q&A with the Netflix broadcast team. For fans lucky enough to snag one, that’s a fair trade for a free magazine keepsake with beautiful vintage photography inside.

Browse the full SPORT issue

SPORT’s cagey “comeback” language leaves the door open for all possibilities, from a full return to regular print to nothing at all. Hopefully this event-exclusive commemorative (along with the surprise Willie Mays tribute issue in 2024) was a test run for the former — or at least an indication that more special edition issues are on the way. Given the current landscape of print magazines, I’m willing to stomach some flagrant corporate sponsorship if it means we get more access to new sports mags.

Notable Sales

$6,741 CGC 9.9 SLAM Gold Metal Aug./Sept. 2025 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with JSA Authenticated Autograph (Goldin)

• Despite the indecipherable autograph, this Shai-signed Gold Metal Edition broke the record for a graded SLAM sale, topping the CGC 9.9 Caitlin Clark 1st cover by nearly $2,000.

$5,102 Sports Illustrated June 18, 1956 Mickey Mantle 1st cover (eBay)

• Minor condition issues kept this beautiful copy from approaching the five-figure sale price of another Mantle newsstand to hit eBay auction recently.

$2,013 CGC 8.5 Sports Illustrated Oct. 12, 1981 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover (Goldin)

$1,627 Sports Illustrated Sep. 26, 1960 Jim Brown 1st cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph (eBay)

$994 PSA 8.0 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover (Goldin)

$844 PSA 8.0 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover (eBay)

• Whatever your feelings about the PSA vs. CGC on the secondary market, I think we can all agree the $1,739 price tag for a PSA 8.0 first Tiger SI back in January was a little overzealous. Even with the $150 price descrepancy, these two sales are more in line with a mid-grade copy of this issue.

$763 CGC 8.0 Boxing Beat June 1987 Mike Tyson cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph (Goldin)

$695 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover (eBay)

• The front cover shows a handful of spine ticks, and the back cover has some color-breaking wear. Would this issue grade higher than an 8.0, which sold for only $150 more on eBay?

$628 PSA 7.5 Weekly Baseball Nov. 12, 2012 Shohei Ohtani (Goldin)

$625 Sports Illustrated Oct. 25, 1965 Bill Russell 1st cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph (eBay)

$397 CGC 9.0 Sports Illustrated May 4, 1992 Barry Bonds 1st cover (Goldin)

• Barry’s Netflix commentary debut was well-received. If he remains in the public eye throughout the season, he has a chance to re-frame his legacy a player and reverse his (overwhelmingly negative) public perception. I’m not holding my breath (mostly because I don’t think he cares what people think), but if that happens, be prepared to pay a little more for his rookie cards and covers.

$380 Hochi High School Mar. 15, 2012 Shohei Ohtani 1st Cover (eBay)

• A PSA 9.0 copy of this issue sold for $16,470 a few weeks ago on Goldin. This one looks closer to 0.9 than 9.0, yet someone was willing to pay nearly $400 for it. I sense there is an Ohtani wave coming, and subscribers to this newsletter would be wise to prepare for it. (Sale price confirmed via eBay Product Research.)

$372 PSA 8.5 Edmonton Oilers Program Jan. 23, 1983 Wayne Gretzky (Goldin)

$306 PSA 9.6 Beckett Baseball Card Monthly June 1990 Bo Jackson (Goldin)

$285 PSA 7.0 Sports Illustrated June 25, 1962 Jack Nicklaus (eBay)

• Full disclosure: I was the seller of this slab, and I already miss it.

$189 CGC 9.6 Sports Illustrated May 28, 2001 Ichiro Suzuki 1st cover (Goldin)

$154 PSA 6.5 Hoop NBA Yearbook ’89 Michael Jordan (Goldin)

$116 CGC 6.0 Goal March 1980 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover (Goldin)

$94 PSA 9.0 The Ring Oct. 1995 Mike Tyson, Peter McNeeley (Goldin)

$81 CGC 9.0 TIME Aug. 19, 1985 Pete Rose 1st cover (Goldin)

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Auctions Ending This Week

eBay

Ends Fri. 4/3 at 11:27pm ET: SLAM #15 Feb. 1997 NBA Rookies/Kobe Bryant 1st cover

• Even though it looks like someone used this copy as a drink coaster at some point over the last 30 years, there are still 20 watchers and several bids already on this iconic SLAM cover.

Ends Fri. 4/3 at 6:17pm ET: WWF Magazine April/May 1984 Hulk Hogan 1st cover

Ends Sat. 4/4 at 6:00pm ET: Sports Illustrated June 21, 1993 Michael Jordan “Head to Head”

Ends Sat. 4/4 at 8:00pm ET: Sports Illustrated Oct. 18, 1993 Michael Jordan “Why?”

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 2:21pm ET: “Over 15,000 copies” of The Ring

• Thousands of copies of the same four magazines listed by a seller with zero feedback. Seems like these may have fallen off the back of the truck, if you know what I mean. Bidding starts at $2,500.

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 5:28pm ET: CGC 9.2 Sports Illustrated Nov. 19, 2018 Patrick Mahomes 1st cover

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 10:20pm ET: CGC 6.5 Sports Illustrated Oct. 12, 1981 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover (Label removed)

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 10:28pm ET: Dave Campbell’s Texas Football 1960 1st edition

• If Friday Night Lights is any indication, there’s a former quarterback-turner-Chevy dealer ready top drop a few grand on this puppy.

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 11:00pm ET: Sports Illustrated 1955 lot of 50 newsstand issues, including Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Ben Hogan 1st covers

Ends Mon. 4/6 at 8:12pm ET: Sports Illustrated Dec. 17, 1990 Michael Jordan “Another Bull Run”

Ends Tue. 4/7 at 2:41pm ET: Tiger Rag Magazine 1990-1991 LSU Basketball Guide Shaquille O’Neal

• The early Photoshop work on this cover proved prescient, as Shaq would go on to destroy a dozen hoops in his career, including a full shatter during an NBA Inside Stuff shoot with Ahmad Rashad.

Goldin

Forty graded magazines are available in Goldin’s Weekly Auction ending Thursday, April 2 at 10pm ET. Here are a few highlights:

CGC 8.5 Sports Illustrated Feb. 8, 1965 Jerry West 1st cover

• At first glance, this looks like a beautiful example of a tough-to-find newsstand of the Logo. But the artwork is supposed to be royal purple, and this ink seems to have faded into a dark fuschia. The fading is so consistent, in fact, the CGC grader notes don’t even mention it, likely because the entire cover is affected. (The grader notes for a copy with fading only along the top call it out specifically.)

• Combine the color degredation with a half-dozen noticeable spine ticks, and I don’t think we should expect the final price to come close to the $3,355 fetched by the top pop a few years ago.

CGC 9.4 Sports Illustrated Mar. 6, 1972 Bill Walton 1st cover *Top Pop*

• Last week, we mentioned Bill Walton covers don’t seem to draw a ton of bidding action. This first cover might be a different story: It’s the top pop newsstand by far of just 7 total graded by CGC.

CGC 5.5 Sports Illustrated Mar. 4, 1968 Pete Maravich 1st cover

CGC 8.5 SPORT Aug. 1949 Jackie Robinson 1st cover

• I think frequent sales of the best SPORT issues — such as this Jackie and Mickey Mantle’s first cover from 1953 — will pique interest among collectors who are are laser-focused on (or perhaps priced out of) high-grade vintage Sports Illustrated first covers.

• In September, a CGC 8.0 copy of this issue sold for just $622 on Goldin. Five weeks ago, a different CGC 8.0 sold for $2,013, also on Goldin.

PSA 8.5 Weekly Baseball Mar. 26, 2012 Shohei Ohtani cover *Top Pop*

• Two weeks ago, a PSA 9.0 Weekly Baseball from Sept. 24, 2012 sold for $4,819 on Goldin. This cover predates that one by six months.

CGC 8.5 Jet Oct. 16, 1975 Muhammad Ali *Top Pop*

• This is a great photo of a late-career Ali, one I’d never seen before. It’s a shame the small-sized Jet issues look so awkward in graded slabs sized for comic books, because this is a clean cover in really sharp condition.

CGC 9.6 Beckett Basketball Monthly Feb. 1996 Michael Jordan

• As far as I’m concerned, every Beckett price guide from the ’80s and ’90s has an awesome cover. There’s a lot to love about this one — the black-and-red pinstripe Bulls jersey, the Concord XI’s, the foil Flair in the lower corner. I just hope the buyer doesn’t go too crazy. Becketts are widely available in good condition, and this CGC 9.6 is in an old slab — there’s a same-grade new slab listed on eBay for $299.

The Golf Auction

Masters week approaches, and The Golf Auction is ready. More than 900 lots close next Sunday night, a few hours after the new champion dons his green jacket. Thirteen lots include magazines, while a few dozen programs and Masters journals are also available. I’ve linked two standout pieces below.

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 10:00pm ET: Golf World Aug. 7, 1992 Tiger Woods 1st cover (Subscription)

• A copy of this issue with fewer spine ticks sold in January for $135 via eBay Best Offer.

Ends Sun. 4/5 at 10:30pm ET: CGC 9.2 Sports Illustrated Aug. 28, 2000 w/ 2001 Upper Deck PSA 10 Tiger Woods (Framed Display)

• Not that you needed (or wanted) it, but here’s a reminder of the vast value gulf between cards and magazines: With PSA 10 a population of nearly 15,000, Tiger’s Upper Deck “rookie” card routinely sells for $350-$400. There are just 59 total graded newsstand copies of the Sports Illustrated issue featuring the same photo, with a CGC 9.4 selling for $116 on Goldin last summer. I know which one I’d rather have.

Heritage

Nothing of note for now, but there are a couple very interesting pieces on the horizon. We’ll detail the best of the bunch in the next newsletter.

Release Radar: SLAM #261 Kon Knueppel

SLAM is on a nice run lately, with this cover arriving just as Kon Knueppel became the odds-on favorite to win Rookie of the Year, ahead of first overall pick Cooper Flagg and Sixers sensation V.J. Edgecombe.

Worthless trivia: This is the first SLAM cover since the Larry Johnson Premier Issue to feature a Charlotte Hornet wearing a teal jersey.

Buy SLAM #261

Release Radar: GOLF Magazine March-April Rory McIlroy

GOLF covers are designed to be eternally pleasing on coffee tables in pro shops rather than urgently popping on newsstands. Exceptions are made, it seems, for Masters previews, which occasionally feature an indelible image from the prior year’s event. (See this illustration of Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie Shota Hayafujiand for the 2023 preview and the 2020 issue featuring Tiger’s triumphant moment in 2019).

It took nearly a year, but this Rory cover featuring an iconic photo from his win at Augusta is likely the only one of the sort we’ll see from a major sports publication. For that reason alone, I think it’s worth picking up.

Buy GOLF Mar/Apr 2026

(If you prefer a little more tilt and a lot less saturation, you can opt for the April issue of Augusta Magazine.)

Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, please reply to this email or comment below on Substack!

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In the wake of last month’s record-breaking sale of a PSA 9.6 copy of Michael Jordan’s first Sports Illustrated cover, cllct founder and former ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell posted an interesting video:

@cllctmedia

cllct on Instagram: "$1.75 ➡️ $229,360

This is now the most e…

If you can’t watch it, here’s what Rovell said about Michael Jordan’s first Sports Mirror cover, of which he owns two graded copies (emphasis mine):

“It is before he plays for the Chicago Bulls, and it has this amazing headline, ‘Michael Jordan: Will he make it in Chicago?’ This is much more rare than a newsstand edition of that ’83 SI issue, but you can get it for $750. The market needs to make sense.”

This implication — that a rare* magazine cover published early in the career of an all-time great should be valued closer to (or maybe even more than!) an earlier, comparatively common cover from a more significant publication — has stuck with me since I heard it. Should we all be snapping up hyper-obscure magazines in hopes that one day they’ll be valued like superfractors?

I’m not so sure.

I believe sports magazine collectors are driven more by nostalgia, visual appeal, and historical significance rather than sheer rarity. It’s hard for me to envision a world where a Sports Mirror issue becomes more desirable than earlier Sports Illustrateds of the same athlete simply because fewer were printed.

Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate rare covers as much as the next magazine sicko.

While I’m not a Jordan guy, I do collect Tiger Woods and LeBron James <ducks>. As I build those collections, I want to be able to recreate the timeline of their careers through magazines — from no-doubt prodigies and overrated hype-jobs through titles and retirement. That means hunting down an oversized, 20-page newsprint magazine because it’s the only cover that documents 16-year-old LeBron’s emergence at the 2001 adidas ABCD Camp.

I love this Basketball America issue, and I know of only one other copy in existence. But I don’t expect it to appeal to any collectors outside of true LeBron nerds. It’s not his earliest cover, and he’s not even wearing a familiar high school uniform. It will always be a very rare piece with a very limited market.

The Sports Mirror, with its close-up photo of MJ in his all-mesh UNC uni and the headline wondering if he can succeed in Chicago, obviously meets the criteria for displayability and, to a certain extent, historical significance. But like the LBJ Basketball America, it’s not his first-ever cover (far from it, in fact), and the publication left no cultural footprint. They’re both fantastic issues in their own right, but I doubt either will ever approach the sale prices of high-grade first SIs. That would be a market that doesn’t “make sense” to me.

Of course, I could be wrong. Last week, a CGC 8.5 copy of the MJ Sports Mirror sold for $2,109 on Goldin. (Rovell was mentioned by name in the listing title, for what it’s worth.) That’s more than double the price of a CGC 8.0 that sold on Heritage in December 2023. It’s quite possible we’re in the early days of me eventually looking like a fool.

What do you think? Should rare early magazines be valued similarly to relatively common — but more widely recognizable — first Sports Illustrated covers?

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(*The Sports Mirror issue is indeed rare, but maybe not as rare as Rovell thinks: Last month, he posted on X that there “can’t be more than 20 that exist”. There are 21 graded by CGC and PSA.)

Notable Sales

$21,960 PSA 9.8 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover (Goldin)

• This sale price (with buyer’s premium) is exactly four times as much as the $5,490 a CGC 9.8 copy sold for on Goldin in August 2024.

$2,109 CGC 8.5 Sports Mirror Oct. 1984 Michael Jordan 1st cover (Goldin)

$976 CGC 0.5 (Restored) Sports Illustrated June 10, 1963 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) 1st cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph (Goldin)

$803 CGC 9.2 1986-87 Street & Smith’s Basketball Michael Jordan 1st cover (Goldin)

• Talk about visual appeal! It never gets old seeing this issue in great condition.

$763 CGC 6.5 Sports Illustrated June 8, 1956 Mickey Mantle 1st cover (Subscription) (Heritage)

$738 PSA 9.0 Newsweek Jul. 6, 1992 Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson “Dream Team” (Goldin)

$592 CGC 8.0 SPORT Aug. 1948 Stan Musial 1st cover (Goldin)

$519 PSA 9.4 Sports Illustrated May 7, 1990 Ken Griffey Jr. 1st cover (Goldin)

• Recent sales of CGC 9.4 copies: $850 (Feb. ’26), $603 (Dec. ’25), $423 (July ’25), and $976 (May ’25)

$372 CGC 9.2 Street & Smith’s Pro Basketball 1988 First Issue Jordan-Bird-Magic (Goldin)

$336 CGC 9.6 NBA Inside Stuff 1993 Michael Jordan cover (Goldin)

• Maybe I’m missing something here. This cover image wasn’t cleverly designed to accommodate a promotional flap, and its presence only detracts from the magazine’s visual appeal. A CGC 9.2 without the flap could probably be had for about half this price on eBay.

$283 PSA 6.5 Sports Illustrated July 7, 1986 Diego Maradona 1st cover (Goldin)

$256 CGC 7.5 Sports Illustrated First Issue Eddie Mathews 1st cover (Heritage)

$224 PSA 9.6 TIME June 22, 1998 Michael Jordan 1st cover (Goldin)

$212 Sports Illustrated Mar. 27, 1961 Jerry Lucas “Basketball’s National Championship” (eBay)

$145 Sports Illustrated Nov. 27, 1978 Magic Johnson 1st cover (eBay)

$128 Sports Illustrated Mar. 4, 1957 Mickey Mantle “Spring Training” (eBay)

$89 PSA 9.8 SLAM Gold Metal June/July 2026 Jalen Brunson /94 (Goldin)

• Gold Metal SLAMs cost $94 plus shipping! This is a steal for the buyer, potentially made possible by the existence of a PSA 10 copy.

$75 Sports Illustrated May 12, 1986 Roger Clemens 1st cover (eBay)

• This one didn’t last long as a Fixed Price listing. Just 20 copies have been graded 9.0 or higher by PSA and CGC.

$61 PSA 8.5 Sports Illustrated April 16, 2001 Tiger Woods “Masterpiece” (eBay)

$59 Signed Sports Illustrated May 1, 2000 Vladimir Guerrero Sr. 1st cover (eBay)

$35 Golf Digest Nov. 1994 Tiger Woods 1st cover (eBay)

• One of Tiger’s earliest covers, the tips-and-tricks nature of Golf Digest dampens its collectability compared to Golf World, Golf Journal, and others.

• Bizarre personal life trivia: In the top-right corner is Jesper Parnevik, who would later introduce Tiger to his future wife, Elin Nordegren. Needless to say, Jesper was not pleased with Tiger in 2009.

$24 Sports Illustrated Aug. 24, 1970 Rick Barry (eBay)

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Auctions Ending This Week

eBay

Ends Sat. 3/28 at 10:36pm ET: Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover

• The fire hose of newsstand goodness from eBay seller heatherr543 has slowed to a trickle. Recent raw copies of this issue have sold in the range of $125 to $250.

Ends Sun. 3/29 at 12:00am ET: Sports Illustrated Dec. 10, 1973 Bill Walton and Len Elmore

• Bill Walton covers don’t seem to get much love, even after his death. Perhaps there are simply too many — he was on eight SIs in a span of about two years while at UCLA — or maybe it’s a classic case of bigs not having fan bases commensurate with their size. Whatever the case, this copy is in wonderful condition, with very little scuffing despite all that dark ink.

Ends Sun. 3/29 at 11:34pm ET: Sports Illustrated June 18, 1956 Mickey Mantle 1st cover

• This is the second gorgeous Mantle newsstand to hit eBay auction in the last month! With a few noticeable spine ticks — and potentially the remnants of a Mars bar in the top right corner — it’s unlikely this copy will reach that $11,457 threshold. Even so, it’s a thrill seeing these pieces uncovered in real time.

Ends Sun. 3/29 at 11:42pm ET: Sports Illustrated Oct 12, 1981 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover

Ends Mon. 3/30 at 9:05pm ET: PSA 8.0 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover

Ending Mon. 3/30 at 10:00pm ET: Dozens of authenticated HOF autographed Sports Illustrateds, most with accomplishment-associated inscriptions, including Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, Sandy Koufax, Julius Erving, Bill Russell, Hank Aaron,Pete Rose, Bobby Orr, Joe Montana, and more.

Goldin

Nearly 50 graded magazines are available in Goldin’s Weekly Auction ending Thursday, March 26 at 10pm ET. Here are a few highlights:

CGC 9.9 SLAM Gold Metal Aug./Sept. 2025 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with JSA Authenticated Autograph

• Old man rant: I understand why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wouldn’t want to spell out all 21 letters every time he signs his name. But is it too much to ask to make the “SGA” (or “Shai”?) somewhat legible, and not like a child’s attempt at drawing mountains for the first time? Signatures used to mean something, Seth!

• Anyway, I’m very interested to see where this one ends up. Gold Metal SLAMs look terrific with the CGC x JSA yellow label, and the 9.9 grade could push the price above five figures.

CGC 8.0 Boxing Beat June 1987 Mike Tyson cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph

CGC 8.5 Sports Illustrated Oct. 12, 1981 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover

CGC 9.6 Sports Illustrated May 28, 2001 Ichiro Suzuki 1st cover

• Even 25 years ago, some cover designs were so beautiful they were immediately and obviously collectible. Ichiro’s first SI is a prime example, with 60 copies of this issue graded 9.0 or better by CGC.

PSA 8.0 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st cover

CGC 6.0 Goal March 1980 Wayne Gretzky 1st cover

PSA 8.5 Edmonton Oilers Program Jan. 23, 1983 Wayne Gretzky

PSA 7.5 Weekly Baseball Nov. 12, 2012 Shohei Ohtani

• Early Ohtani covers from Japan have been on fire lately, even when he shares them with someone else or is relegated to a frowning inset, as he is here. This issue was released shortly after the 2012 NPB Draft, when Shohei was still considering starting his professional career in the U.S. right out of high school. The Nippon-Ham Fighters showed him a video depicting a meager life in the minor leagues, including long bus rides and dingy hotels. That was enough to convince Ohtani to stay in Japan for the next five years.

PSA 6.5 Hoop NBA Yearbook ’89 Michael Jordan

• Two weeks ago, a CGC 8.0 copy of this issue sold for just $163 on Goldin.

CGC 9.0 TIME Aug. 19, 1985 Pete Rose 1st cover

CGC 9.0 Sports Illustrated May 4, 1992 Barry Bonds 1st cover

PSA 9.6 Beckett Baseball Card Monthly June 1990 Bo Jackson

• Would you believe me if I told you this was one of the most-graded magazines to date? More than 250 are in the CGC Population Report, plus 47 in PSA’s. People apparently did not throw away their Becketts!

PSA 9.0 The Ring Oct. 1995 Mike Tyson, Peter McNeeley

• Hardly a top-end Tyson, but it gives us an excuse to revisit McNeeley’s legendary interview before walking out to meet his fate. Shout out Snubby, should out Medfield.

Heritage

Ends Sun. 3/29 at 11:00pm ET: CGC 5.5 UBC Magazine November 2005 Shaquille O’Neal

• This is where we’re at with Heritage: A publication for a cable company in Thailand is the only graded sports magazine auction ending this week. How the mighty have fallen.

Release Radar: Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge on the cover of Sports Illustrated

Baseball returns this week, and our beloved Sports Illustrated decided the best way to celebrate would be to dress the sport’s two biggest stars as if they’re either in a wedding party or about to host Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, respectively.

Jokes aside, this is a pretty cool cover showcasing the two Ruthian figures of the modern game. It calls to mind the April 13, 1981 issue featuring star third basemen Mike Schmidt and George Brett, two future Hall of Famers in their own right. Unlike that ’81 cover, I don’t expect SI to re-use this same photo four months from now.

Buy this SI issue

If the formal nature of that cover bores you, you may be interested in the 2026 Athlon Sports MLB Preview, which — like last year’s edition — has the look of a vintage Topps card with the wood grain background and waving banner name plate. In addition to Ohtani, variant covers of Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Cal Raleigh are also available.

Buy Athlon MLB Preview

Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, please reply to this email or comment below on Substack!

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Last week, the defensive-minded Bam Adebayo — Mr. 20 PPG himself — knocked the basketball world off its axis by scoring 83 points in a single game, eclipsing Kobe Bryant’s high mark from 2006 and warranting an homage to Wilt Chamberlain’s legendary 100-point effort.

Hysterical backlash aside, Bam’s achievement was undeniably memorable. SLAM seized the moment, releasing a special “instant” cover to commemorate a milestone reached by only one other player in NBA history.

In addition to the standard covers — which are still available — this issue received the typical SLAM special treatment — 94 Gold Metal Editions, as well as Orange Metal Editions available for 48 hours only. In an X thread, SLAM’s Director of Special Projects Austin Kent described the late-night teamwork required to bring this cover to life:

SLAM’s signature style is close-up studio photography of the cover subject, with a few recent game-action exceptions, including new Laker Luka Doncic (Apr/May 2025), Caitlin Clark’s first Fever cover (Oct/Nov 2024), and Anthony Edwards’ unforgettable posterization of John Collins (Apr/May 2024).

The Bam 83 cover represents something different, an idea in the vein of Panini Instant and Topps NOW — which happens to be a revenue fire hose for Michael Rubin’s trading card empire.

SLAM can replicate this with the most viral moments in basketball each year — an Earth-shaking dunk, a historic single-game performance, or the birth of a potential dynasty — keeping them top-of-mind for basketball collectors of all types and breathing new life into the (mostly barren) landscape of modern sports magazine collecting.

(Consider this: Nearly one month later, the publication most associated with the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” has yet to release a cover commemorating the Olympic golds won by the US men’s and women’s hockey teams in Italy. Even worse? We all know they’re not going to.)

If SLAM wants to take the concept a step further and enter the Willy Wonka Zone, they should consider randomly inserting gold metal editions or autographed copies (with tasteful blank space for the signature) into orders for standard issues. PSA does this with the variants of their monthly magazine, and once Topps realized the power of the Golden Ticket, they never looked back.

@drakes_pc

Drake on Instagram: "Peyton Manning Signed PSA September 2025 M…

As much as we love the musty old issues first opened by our grandparents, it’s nice to get excited about something new in the print world. With multiple variants for each issue, early cover debuts for rising stars, and now game-dated, limited-edition commemoratives, SLAM is almost single-handedly keeping sports magazines relevant among modern collectors.

More Magazines Than Ever at the Chicago Sports Spectacular

The biannual Chicago Sports Spectacular took place this past weekend, March 13-15. It’s a solid (if predictable) show with about 200 tables of sports cards and memorabilia and a not-overwhelming amount of Pokémon.

(For those of you who had the distinct displeasure of cramming between the new vendor tables upstairs at last year’s National, imagine that room completely full and with aisles much wider than 1.5 adults.)

I’ve attended the five most recent shows — almost always as soon as doors open for the “sneak peek” on Friday afternoon — and have seen a few things evolve on the magazine front.

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Quantity

There were more ungraded sports magazines at this show than any Chicago Sports Spectacular I’ve been to so far. Probably by a wide margin.

Quantity was not a problem. Quality was a different story.

But that’s okay! Unless there’s a vendor who sells only magazines, I’m not expecting a high concentration of curated key issues at this show. I expect a box or two of mostly subscription Sports Illustrateds and SPORTs with random Michael Jordan covers set aside and priced higher. Even without finding a hidden gem, it’s usually worth the trip just to flip through covers I don’t often search for online.

Prices

Like just about everything other than Lay’s potato chips, prices for ungraded magazines at this particular show are going up.

Sellers that once charged between $5 and $20 per magazine showed up this year with more issues in worse condition and sticker prices of $10, $25, $40, or more. And I’m not mad about it! Please don’t put in the newspaper that I’m mad.

Repeat vendors charging higher prices is a sign of steady sales. If they’re moving mags quickly, they’re more likely to source them for other shows, exposing more collectors to the idea of collecting and preserving vintage sports magazines. I’m happy to pay up to encourage that movement.

(But I was certainly more selective with my purchases than I have been in the past.)

Storage and Condition

Most vendors that I know previously sold magazines at this show had them bagged, boarded, and stored in appropriately sized cardboard boxes this year. Sure, the bags were of varying age, size, and condition, but they got the job done.

Other vendors — likely new to selling magazines — were less careful with their products.

Several boxes I saw were jammed with raw issues … and nothing else. No bags, no boards, not even the plastic sheet protectors I used put in little binders for book reports in elementary school. Thankfully I didn’t come across any treasures damaged by these ghastly storage methods. But that didn’t make searching through them any less harrowing.

A few sellers offered issues in such bad condition I wondered if I was on MTV’s Boiling Points. This Tiger Woods ’97 Masters Sports Illustrated looked like it had been scraped off the pavement after a heavy rain, dried on a hot dog roller, then tossed back outside in time for a hailstorm.

The same seller also had this bizarre slab for sale: A water-damaged, sticker-over-the-label subscription copy of Mario “Gretzky” Lemieux’s first Sports Illustrated cover, graded CGC 3.0. Pop 1, all higher.

Beggars can’t be choosers, of course. I was thrilled to see so many mags available at this show — a steady trend over the last two years.

But I’m hoping a magazine collector sets up a mags-only table at The National (or next Spectacular) with clean bags, nice slabs, and clear labeling, setting an example for other vendors who view magazines as nothing more than table fillers and showing card loyalists that magazines are worthy complements to their collections.

Notable Sales

$16,470 PSA 9.0 Hochi High School Shohei Ohtani 1st Cover (Goldin)

• Not only is this PSA 9.0 not a top pop, the issue isn’t even Ohtani’s first appearance on the cover of a magazine! And yet we’re looking at a sale of $16,470 — roughly half the price of a PSA 9.0 Mickey Mantle Sports Illustrated published a half-century earlier. Shohei Ohtani is inevitable.

• This piece is apparently from the collection of cllct founder and former ESPN sports media reporter Darren Rovell.

$3,965 PSA 9.8 LeBron James 1st Sports Illustrated cover (Goldin)

• Just over a year ago, a CGC 9.8 copy of this issue sold for $1,830 on Goldin.

$2,623 PSA 6.5 (Auto 10) Lewis Hamilton AutoWeek 1st cover (Goldin)

• After a dreadful first year at Ferrari, Lewis found his way onto the podium this week for the first time since leaving Mercedes. As he inches toward retirement, a memorable season from one of F1’s all-time greats could drive demand for this awesome cover of the then-13-year-old prodigy.

$977 CGC 8.5 Tiger Woods 1st Golf World cover (Subscription) (Goldin)

$350 CGC 7.5 Tiger Woods 1st Golf World cover (Subscription) (eBay Best Offer)

• Speaking of teenage prodigies, this 1992 issue is believed to be the first magazine cover for Tiger Woods. The 16-year-old had just won his second consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur.

• In January 2025, a rare newsstand copy (or at least one without an address printed in the white box) sold for $417 at auction on eBay. There is only one graded newsstand out there — a CGC 8.0.

$213 Magic Johnson 1st pro Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$169 Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

• The vintage newsstand SI auctions from eBay seller heatherr543 continue to trickle out. As of this writing, they have at least 36 other issues up for bid.

$163 CGC 8.0 Michael Jordan Hoop NBA Yearbook ’89 cover (Goldin)

• In 1987, the Slam Dunk Contest was very much alive, and the only evidence you need is this photo of a mid-air Mike reversing without a sponsored prop in sight. It’s one of the coolest MJ covers in existence, regardless of publication. There are only 15 copies graded — four higher than this CGC 8.0.

$153 CGC 9.4 Michael Jordan Dallas/Fort Worth Avid Golfer March 1999 cover (Goldin)

• Easily the best magazine cover featuring Michael Jordan sitting on a bucket of range balls.

$153: NBA Today ’84 Draft Guide with Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon (eBay)

$135 Hank Aaron “715” Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$118 Ken Griffey Jr. 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$115 Magic Johnson 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$103 Hank Aaron 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$101 PSA 9.6 Photographer’s Forum Summer 2002 Kobe Bryant cover PSA 9.6

• We made a big deal about this (very cool) issue last week, and now I’m sitting here wondering why I didn’t bid on it. Congrats to the buyer, and condolences to the seller, who almost certainly hoped for a better return.

$79 Magic Johnson “The Magic Show” Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$70 Bill Bradley 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$47 PSA 1.5 Wayne Gretzky 1st Sports Illustrated cover (Subscription) (Goldin)

$45 Larry Csonka “Rough and Ready” Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

$27 David Thompson 1st Sports Illustrated cover (eBay)

• This is a beautiful cover (in phenomenal condition!) of one of the most impactful high-flyers in basketball history. Ten years from now, when all games are played on LED courts by players wearing holographic AI jerseys controlled by Kalshi users or whatever, we can look to magazine covers like this one for a reminder of the beauty of hoops on hardwood.

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Auctions Ending This Week

eBay

• Ends Wed. 3/18 at 7:37pm ET: Signed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1st Sports Illustrated cover

• Ends Thus. 3/19 at 1:02pm ET: Wilt Chamberlain 1st Sports Illustrated cover

• Ends Thu. 3/19 at 1:43pm ET: Mickey Mantle Sports Illustrated “Spring Training” cover

• Ends Thu. 3/19 at 1:44pm ET: Floyd Patterson Sports Illustrated cover

• Ends Fri. 3/20 at 12:30am ET: PSA 8.5 Tiger Woods “Masterpiece” Sports Illustrated

Goldin

Goldin has nearly 100 graded magazines available in their Weekly Auction ending Thursday, March 19 at 10pm ET. Here are a few highlights:

• PSA 9.8 Sports Illustrated Oct. 28, 1996 Tiger Woods 1st Cover

  • Already at more than $8,500, this PSA 9.8 Tiger Woods 1st SI cover could double the sale price of the CGC 9.8 copy that sold on Goldin in August 2024.

• CGC 0.5 (Restored) Sports Illustrated June 10, 1963 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) 1st Cover with JSA Authenticated Autograph

  • Muhammad Ali officially changed his name less than nine months after his this issue of Sports Illustrated hit newsstands, making a “Cassius Clay” signature on his first cover rarer than a pre-fight press conference without a rhyming prediction from The Champ.

  • Because of the rarity of the signature, I tend to think the pool of potential buyers skews more toward autograph and Ali collectors, rather than graded magazine collectors. I have no idea what to expect as far as price.

• PSA 9.4 Sports Illustrated May 7, 1990 Ken Griffey Jr. 1st Cover

  • Baseball, hot dogs, Ken Griffey Jr. in the ’90s.

  • Forgive me, but I can’t resist comparing PSA and CGC sale prices of key issues like this one. The most recent sales of CGC 9.4 copies I could find are $850 (Feb. ’26), $603 (Dec. ’25), $423 (July ’25), and $976 (May ’25). That’s a big range for this one to potentially fall within, so there may not be a clear takeaway.

• PSA 9.8 SLAM Gold Metal June/July 2026 Jalen Brunson Cover /94

  • The rare 9.8 that is not a top pop!

• PSA 6.5 Sports Illustrated July 7, 1986 Diego Maradona 1st Cover

• CGC 9.2 1986-87 Street & Smith’s Basketball Michael Jordan 1st Cover

• PSA 9.0 Newsweek Jul. 6, 1992 Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson “Dream Team” Cover

• PSA 9.6 TIME June 22, 1998 Michael Jordan 1st Cover

Heritage

The following auctions close on Sunday, March 22 at 11pm ET:

• CGC 6.5 Sports Illustrated Mickey Mantle 1st Cover (Subscription)

• CGC 7.5 Sports Illustrated First Issue Eddie Mathews 1st Cover

Coming Soon: Tracking Pop Reports for Key Issues

GoCollect offers some useful tools for those interested in sales and population data for graded magazines. But PSA has not yet shared their census information with them, leaving us to kind of eyeball things in their user-hostile Magazine Population Report.

Next week, I’ll share a Google Sheet with the combined CGC and PSA population reports for a few dozen key newsstand issues of Sports Illustrated, SPORT, TIME, SLAM, etc. In each newsletter roundup, I’ll update the counts and note any major changes.*

(*Unless, of course, I discover this data is already being tracked somewhere else, in which case I’ll bail on this project faster than SLAM put out that Bam cover.)

I’m sure GoCollect will eventually get access to PSA’s data, but until then, this will help us get a better handle on significant additions (or subtractions!) to the graded populations of sports magazines.

Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, please reply to this email or comment below on Substack!

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That escalated quickly!

Last week, we wondered what might happen if this graded copy of Michael Jordan’s first Sports Illustrated cover broke the record for highest sale of a graded magazine. At nearly $230,000, the PSA 9.6 slab raised the bar by more than $100K, perhaps Mike’s most significant shatter since that backboard in Italy.

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The sale is already being covered on sites like Darren Rovell’s cllct, with more mainstream headlines sure to trickle in once the work week gets started.

So what should we expect in our once-quiet little corner of the sports collecting world? I have some guesses:

• If you grade magazines purely for resale, it’s time to do so exclusively with PSA. This sale — combined with other recent examples of the so-called PSA premium — buries CGC-graded sports magazines in the same category BGS occupies in trading cards. We’ll still see big sales of high-end CGC slabs (they did have a 15-year head start, after all), but a lot of blue labels will be exchanged for red, and the vast majority of new sports mag submissions will be sent to PSA.

• Even if you don’t deal in graded mags, you can still expect to pay more for vintage Sports Illustrated issues and all notable Michael Jordan covers, at least in the short term. There are more buyers today than there were yesterday, and they’re already on the hunt.

• More raw magazines will surface. The headlines will trigger attic-digging from people who know they have old issues laying around, but don’t necessarily want to go through the rigmarole of researching and getting them graded. Moreso than usual, garage sales and eBay could be bountiful this spring.

We should also reiterate the possibility of more bad actors entering the space. Things could get hairy on eBay.

Subscription issues with address labels cleanly removed will be marketed as newsstand copies, with lighting and focus positioned so residue is difficult to detect in listing photos. Suspiciously clean autographs on vintage magazines will start popping up, unauthenticated and for bargain prices. And maybe — just maybe — some reprehensible paper expert will go through the trouble of counterfeiting an entire 100-page magazine covered in color ink.

(That last one seems far-fetched, but the point remains. We should all be careful out there!)

@psacard

PSA on Instagram: "When his iconic “A Star Is Born” cover hit n…

More six-figure sales are on the way. Dozens of graded grails have never come to auction, including high-grade first covers of Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Larry Bird, Tiger Woods, and others. If any whale collectors decide to unlock their safes and sell into this cycle of attention, we’ll see all sorts of player- and publication-specific records.

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As Peabo Bryson and Regine Belle once said, we’re in a whole new world.

Other Notable Sales

⚽ Lionel Messi’s first Sports Illustrated cover graded CGC 9.8 sells for $31,270

The secondary headline from a record-breaking night of graded mags on Goldin belongs to this modern classic variant cover. With baby blue titling and the GOAT draped in the Argentinian flag, Lionel Messi’s first appearance on a flagship SI looks as if it was designed with CGC’s label in mind.

There was an indication this sole top pop would draw a very large number. In October, a CGC 9.0 copy sold for $6,100 on Goldin when there were already 12 copies with higher grades in the CGC Population Report.

I’m not a soccer guy, but even I know Messi is massive beyond rational thought. PSA 8 copies of his Panini rookie card sit in the $30K price range, with a PSA 10 hitting $1.5 million six months ago. This sale may also draw attention to Messi’s earlier non-SIs, such as his 2005 El Grafico cover with Ronaldinho, a 2009 FourFourTwo in Argentina blue, a 2012 TIME portrait, even an oversized 2009 ESPN The Magazine, a copy of which sold this morning on eBay.

🏀 Wilt Chamberlain’s first Sports Illustrated sells for $500

Yours truly tried to pull the ol’, “Watch the listing and hope the seller immediately offers me a discount” move with this one. Another (wiser) buyer chose not to play games, and bought this beauty for the full fixed price.

Only 25 newsstand copies of Wilt’s SI debut have been graded by CGC, with just one in the PSA pop report so far.

🏀 Michael Jordan’s first Sports Illustrated graded CGC 7.0 sells for $2,025

Hopefully we were wrong last week about this slab, and the buyer is happy with their purchase. 😬 But I have a feeling we may be seeing these same listing photos back on eBay in short order.

What We’re Watching

📸 Summer 2002 Photographer’s Forum graded PSA 9.6 on Goldin

This stunning cover shot of mid-three-peat Kobe Bryant has another NBA connection: The photo was taken at the home of courtside fixture James Goldstein.

The Sheats-Goldstein Residence has been featured in several music videos, TV shows, and movies, from The Big Lebowski to Selling Sunset. It is almost as recognizable in Los Angeles as the silhouette of Kobe himself.

This PSA 9.6 copy was originally listed on eBay for an exorbitant Buy-it-Now price, so I’m happy to see it pop up for auction on Goldin. The pool of potential buyers is likely limited to Kobe super collectors based on LA, but this cover captures those two things so well that a few of them may decide it’s a must-have mag.

🐅 Shaq’s first Sports Illustrated cover in a CGC 9.0 on eBay

eBay sellers with stones can occasionally reap (moderate) rewards with $0.99 starting bid auctions ending in prime time on Sunday nights. With 30+ watchers and six bids already, this Shaq first SI is guaranteed to sell — probably for a good price — while other copies in similar grades sit stale, with fewer watchers, awaiting offers.

• CGC 9.2 for $475 OBO

• CGC 8.5 for $299 OBO

🥊 Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquaio dual SI cover for $30 OBO on eBay

When these two fought in 2015, it was about five years two late. Eleven years later, I’d be more interested in their rematch if it was taking place in Sphere rather than the Sphere.

Still, Floyd and Manny defined their era of boxing, and this flip cover promoting their initial showdown gives them both the full-page treatment they deserve. It’s Manny’s only Sports Illustrated cover appearance (so far), while Floyd loomed behind (much to his chagrin, I’m sure) Oscar De La Hoya on another megafight preview issue.

🎤 The Source Sports June 2000 featuring Kobe Bryant on eBay

Hip-hop magazine The Source — like SLAM before it — was so hot in the late ’90s that starting a spin-off publication seemed like a great idea. And given some of the extremely 1999 covers they produced in that brief window, I’d argue it was!

@moldedbyculture

moldedbyculture on Instagram: "Vince Carter & Eve Photographed …

If I win this auction, I may choose a grading service based on which will accommodate the slab label note, “Only Kobe Bryant magazine cover where his hands are on fire.”

Release Radar: Ohtani and Vlad Jr. on the cover of Sports Illustrated Kids

Cuban mixed media artist Lisett Ledón delivered the goods for the latest issue of Sports Illustrated Kids, depicting the big blue tank Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (maybe) barreling one off a towering, overwhelming Shohei Ohtani, just as he did in Game 4 of last year’s World Series.

Since Ohtani’s first cover appearance six years ago, SI Kids has minimized the “Kids” in their branding to the point that some covers can easily be mistaken for flagship SIs. While this is probably bad for getting more children into reading and sports, I suppose it’s good for the adults who collect magazines with cool covers like this one. Please don’t look at me weird if you see me with five of these at the Barnes & Noble checkout!

Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, please reply to this email or comment below on Substack!

When the Goldin social team breaks out the royalty-free music and fancy animations for an Instagram Reel dedicated to a single graded magazine, you know things are getting serious.

A week before bidding closes, this PSA 9.6 copy of Michael Jordan’s first Sports Illustrated cover is already up to $43,920 with buyer’s premium. There are rumblings it could approach — or even exceed — the all-time record sale price of $126,000 for a graded magazine.

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First, some facts:

• The record sale belongs to a CGC 9.8 copy of Michael Jordan’s “A Star Is Born” SI cover — his first in a Bulls uniform — which sold at Heritage Auctions in August 2023. At the time, there were three CGC 9.8 newsstand copies of that issue. There are now four, and one PSA 9.8.

• 9.6 is the “top pop” among all graded newsstand copies of the UNC issue. There is one CGC 9.6, and presumably one PSA 9.6. (Since we can’t link to specific entries on the PSA Pop Report, you’ll just have to trust us when we say it has not yet been updated to include the slab in question.)

Now, conjecture:

What will it mean for the magazine collecting niche if this issue sets a new record?

• PSA grabs the wheel. If a PSA-graded Sports Illustrated shatters a record sale price, they will make sure people know it. The sale will be on their website, magazine, and social channels (which dwarf CGC’s and have a mostly sports-interested audience). The first graded magazine many people see will be in a PSA slab.

• A potential shift in most-desired MJ cover. The “Star Is Born” cover, in my view, is more visually appealing and historically important: It’s an action shot of Air Jordan — the sole focus of the photo and cover story — in a red Bulls uniform with a prophetic headline. But those things may not outweigh the same “first” factor that has pulled baseball card collectors from from Topps rookie cards to 1st Bowmans.

• More collectors get into magazines. A record sale price would make headlines, exposing people not only to the concept of magazine grading, but to magazine collecting in general. As a guy who likes talking about sports magazines, I think this would be great!

• Some profiteers descend on the niche. The big number would also raise the antennas of flippers, who migrate from one collectible space to another, raiding niches for resources like the aliens in Independence Day. I’d rather this didn’t happen, but it may be worth selling into spikes caused by sharp increases in liquidity. (Note: I am not even remotely an economist.)

Of course, we could just have a mere five-figure sale on our hands, and most of these points will be moot. We’ll find out one way or another next Saturday night (or Sunday morning).

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💸Ungraded Newsstand Copy of Mickey Mantle’s First SI Cover Sells for More Than $11,000

Fresh off the $34,000 PSA 9.0 sale of Mickey Mantle’s first Sports Illustrated cover, a beautiful ungraded copy of the same issue sold for nearly one-third that price in an eBay auction.

In classic eBay fashion, the price doubled in the final seconds, as six bidders clicked and tapped and hoped their routers didn’t blip. Thankfully, there are no reports of any cardiac events associated with the chaotic closing minute.

This likely represents the highest-ever sale of an ungraded, unsigned SI that wasn’t previously owned by the person on the cover or some other famous athlete. Perhaps too many qualifiers to put on a plaque, but it’s still a milestone worth noting.

A few relevant sales that put this number in perspective:

• In May 2024, a CGC 8.5 copy of this issue sold on Heritage for $10,800. Fifteen months later, a different CGC 8.5 copy sold for $21,350 on Heritage.

• Last February, a signed, ungraded subscription edition sold on eBay for $8,299 in February 2025.

• A 1916 issue of Sporting Life newspaper (“Devoted to Base Ball, Trap Shooting and General Sports.”) with 21-year-old Babe Ruth on the front page sold for $9,900 on Heritage in March 2024.

As we mentioned last week, even if you’re not a buyer at these prices, it’s still a bit of a thrill being involved in a niche young enough to still have random, museum-quality attic discoveries.

And if nothing else, rising prices at the top should validate your decision to pay your hard-earned money for the covers that mean something to you.

Other Notable Sales

⛳ Arnold Palmer’s first SI cover in newsstand sold for $392. It’s also the first cover for Don Finsterwald and Ken Venturi, which gives me an excuse to recommend a great golf book: The Match by Mark Frost.

A CGC 7.0 copy sold for $381 last year on Goldin, though that one had some pretty noticeable visual defects, including color fading along the spine and a date stamp across the title. With some cleaning, the issue above will likely grade higher than that.

🐯 Five Tiger Woods SI issues in great condition sold for $97.52. Someone got a great deal on this lot, and I am kicking myself for missing out on it.

As golf remains fractured and without a dominant, magnetic star with mainstream appeal, I believe Tiger Woods magazine covers (and trading cards, memorabilia, etc.) will continue to rise in popularity. It helps that he’s still public-facing through TGL appearances and perpetual teases that he might play The Masters.

☘️ Two subscription copies of Bob Cousy’s first Sports Illustrated cover sold for $77. This is such a great cover, with Cousy snaking around a pair of All-Stars — one of whom seems to have set a screen on his teammate amidst the Cousy confusion.

The lighting on the court looks almost cinematic. It’s no wonder the Houdini of the Hardwood was a Blue Chips scene-stealer nearly 40 years later.

🤔 Michael Jordan’s first SI cover sold for just $255. With address label-attached copies of this issue widely available for $70-$100 in good condition, this sale price doesn’t exactly reflect a slam-dunk newsstand copy.

If you, uh, zoom in on Mike’s thighs — where a label might normally be — two dark marks appear, separated by about the width of the two strips of adhesive commonly used at the time. The marks don’t seem to reflect light the same way the rest of the cover does, which leads me to believe they could be glue remnants that have absorbed dirt over the years.

But maybe not? The seller didn’t clarify the type of issue in the listing (nor did they respond to my message asking about it), but to their credit, they did provide plenty of photos of the area.

For the buyer’s sake, I hope I’m wrong. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time I’ve misjudged a listing photo!

What We’re Watching

🍁 Jackie Robinson’s first TIME cover on eBay. It’s a Canadian edition — hence the maple leaf at the top — but I’ve never felt that should affect its desirability. The cover portrait (drawn by prolific TIME illustrator Ernest Hamlin Baker) captures the grace of an American icon in 1947, the year he broke baseball’s color barrier.

A U.S. edition of this issue sold for $500 on eBay in December. Because this particular auction closes on a Wednesday morning, one might be able to snag it for less than that.

Click here to read the original cover story from this issue.

🏀 Michael Jordan’s first SI cover graded CGC 7.0 on eBay. Nice piece, right? Not so fast my friend!

Upon closer inspection, there are some major issues here:

• The case is probably cracked. On the back side near the top right corner, there’s a thin white line that doesn’t look like a light reflection. A curved slash covers the top left corner of the inner well, and there may also be some chipping or cracking of the well just above the mag’s top line.

• More chips than a bag of Ruffles. There’s a medium-sized plastic chip inside the case near the bottom of the back cover, a smaller one over the bar code on the front, and who knows how many others floating around in there.

• Cover on the run? The baby blue front cover is not aligned with the brown page behind the gatefold, and because the plastic bumper designed to hold up the magazine no longer functions, the rest of the mag is sitting flush on the bottom of the case.

None of these issues are disclosed in the listing description. The cert photos on CGC’s website shows this slab was once clean, smooth, and centered. Sad!

This is a good reminder that magazines can sustain damage while inside (cough CGC cough) slabs. All it takes is one corner drop for sharp pieces of interior plastic to start wreaking havoc on those thin sheets of paper. Don’t just look at the number in the corner — always check to make sure the slab itself is in good condition!

🏀 LeBron James’s first Sports Illustrated cover in a PSA 9.8 on Goldin. The most recent sale of a CGC 9.8 I could find was for $1,830. Will the “PSA Premium” be on display here?

Long-term, I’m interested to see how the two pop reports develop for this issue. PSA has already handed out more 10s to ultra-modern issues than CGC has in two decades, but anecdotally, collectors are seeing lower grades from PSA when crossing over from CGC.

Two thoughts I can’t figure out how to tie into paragraph form:

• If PSA is consistently more stringent than PSA — as early anecdotal evidence suggests — we should expect to see a lower percentage of “Chosen One” 9.8s compared to CGC. (Currently, 12.7% of CGC-graded newsstand copies are 9.8, compared to 20% for PSA. )

• While not “ultra-modern”, this issue is new enough — and collectible enough at the time — that it’s conceivable a 10-worthy copy exists. Will PSA be tempted to put a gold label on the most famous SI issue of the last 25 years? It would certainly be a headline-grabbing event.

Coming Soon: Piecing Together the Rarity of Early SLAM Cover Variants

Most SLAM heads are familiar with the early cover variants that rarely pop up on the secondary market. Lately I’ve been doing some digging in hopes of clarifying how these covers were originally distributed — and if the #7 Hakeem cover even exists. If all goes well, we should be able to present some rough estimates in an upcoming newsletter roundup.

Reminder: Subscribe for Free to Get Your Michael Jordan Magazine Collector’s Checklist

As a thank-you to our earliest readers, we’re offering a free download of our Michael Jordan Magazine Collector’s Checklist to anyone who becomes a free subscriber.

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After subscribing, you’ll receive a welcome email with a button prompting you to create a copy of the original Google Sheet, where you’ll be able to:

• Track your personal collection

• Add issues to your want list

• Browse 350+ MJ covers released since 1983

The file itself isn’t large, but it does require a lot of screen space. We recommend opening on a laptop or desktop computer, rather than your phone.

We’ll be adding more player-, team-, and publication-themed checklists in the coming months. Subscribe now to get your copy!

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Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, simply reply to this email or comment below on Substack.

Two weeks ago, a buyer paid a Jeep Grand Cherokee amount of cash for a PSA-graded newsstand copy of Mickey Mantle’s first Sports Illustrated cover. This week, somebody laid a pristine one right on their desk and put it on eBay. Both events are equally rare.

Swiping through the listing photos feels almost naughty: You’re seeing the Mona Lisa without its protective glass, a masterpiece exposed to the elements. Prized paper breathing the same air as junk mail and grocery store receipts.

The staples look fresh from Swingline, the colors richer than the person who’s going to buy it, and the interior pages have less foxing than Curb Your Enthusiasm after Loretta broke up with Larry. Sure, it has a few scratches on the back cover. But what 70-year-old among us is without a few wisdom lines?

Ungraded newsstand copies in this condition don’t come up for auction often, so it’s difficult to predict how this standoff among the bidders will end. Will we see a slow build toward a rational market price, or a classic Sunday night frenzy in the final seconds?

The seller, heatherr543, has listed a handful of other vintage SI’s for auction. Some newsstand, some subscription, all classic covers in excellent condition. We’re lucky to be into this hobby at a time when these types of finds can still occur.

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PSA Expects to Roll Out Collection and Set Registry Features for Magazines in 2027

If you’re like me, you have on more than one occasion tried to add PSA slabs to your Collection by manually entering cert numbers in the app.

Save your finger taps, because that functionality won’t arrive until “sometime in 2027”, according to PSA’s GM of Pop Culture Elizabeth Gruene.

Ryan Hoge, President of Grading Business at Collectors (PSA’s parent company), recently teased a major revamp of the existing Set Registry:

It goes without saying that an active, competitive, and easy-to-use Set Registry would be a major additive to our niche. Magazines aren’t released in sets like trading cards, so the creation of checklists would not only drive demand for some presently underappreciated issues, but also help new collectors structure their collections with intention.

⏪ Rewind: LeBron’s “Chosen One” SI Cover Released 24 Years Ago This Week

Twenty-four years ago this week, Sports Illustrated introduced the world to LeBron James.

Before the nationally televised games, the Hummer H2, and the all-white draft night suit, the high school junior posed with a gold ball on the cover of SI, captioned by copy that would kickstart unprecedented hype and instantly spawn skeptics:

“The Chosen One”.

This was a declaration so bold it bordered on reckless, breaking containment in the sports world and putting America on a first-name basis with the teenager from Akron. ESPN, still wielding the power to set the sports, wasted no time drawing a straight line from Wilt through Magic, Michael, and Kobe to the newly crowned King James. No athlete before or since has entered their professional career with greater expectations.

One of the hobby’s most-graded, “The Chosen One” issue represents one of the last moments SI could profoundly shape the sports conversation. Whatever you think of him, LeBron somehow lived up to utterly insane, almost delirious hype — hype that couldn’t exist in today’s fractured media ecosystem, where algorithms distract us with our specific interests and the monoculture is limited to Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl.

As his inevitable (and potentially exhausting) retirement tour approaches, I hope LeBron is celebrated for his accomplishments under the weight of the three words on that SI cover, rather than discounted for who he’s not.

💸 Notable Non-Sports Sale: Shiny Pokémon TIME Bolts to $32K

While it’s not a sports mag — unless you consider battling with Poliwhirl (which I don’t recommend) an athletic competition — this 1999 Pokémon TIME had already established itself as a keystone modern issue even before this CGC 9.8 copy sold on Goldin during a Pokémon auction headlined by Logan Paul’s $16 million Illustrator card.

Now Pikachu is right up there with Sandy Koufax.

Previous sales of this cover, starting with the earliest (all graded by CGC):

• 9.4 for $2,769 on 9/21/24 on Goldin (Australian edition)

• 9.4 for $2,501 on 12/29/24 on Goldin

• 7.0 for $658 on 3/23/25 on eBay via Best Offer (author’s sale)

• 8.5 for $677 on 10/18/25 on Goldin

• 9.0 for $2,800 on 12/9/25 on eBay via Best Offer*

• 8.0 for $859 on 12/18/25 on Goldin

• 5.5 for $525 on 12/31/25 on eBay via Best Offer*

• Ungraded newsstand for $400 on 12/31/25 on eBay via Best Offer*

• 7.0 for $1,075 on 2/21/26 on eBay via Best Offer*

Were the high-dollar bidders for the CGC 9.8 Pokémon fanatics, or collectors of historically significant pop culture magazines? The answer may indicate whether it’s worth speculating on other early Pokémon covers such as Nintendo Power and The New Yorker.

*Prices confirmed via 130point.com

Other Notable Sales

🥅 A crisp newsstand copy of the “Miracle on Ice” SI sold for $527. If this auction closed after Sunday’s Team USA–Canada gold medal showdown, would we be looking at a four-figure sale?

🏀 Kobe Bryant’s first action shot SI cover where he’s not enveloped by a defender sold for $306 in a PSA 9.8. Of the 44 total copies graded by CGC and PSA, ten are 9.8s. This slab was previously listed on eBay for $999.

⛳ A CGC 9.8 copy of Tiger Woods’s 1997 Masters SI sold for $1,525. This issue is incredibly tough to get in a high grade: Of the 104 slabbed by CGC, only eight sit with a top pop. Will we see this one cross over and become the second PSA 9.8?

⚽ Mia Hamm’s first solo SI cover in a PSA 9.8 sold for just $89. Rising interest in women’s sports today has not necessarily translated to nostalgia for the trailblazers of the ’90s. Hamm’s resume is impeccable — four NCAA titles, two Olympic golds, two World Cups — but her present-day star power pales in comparison to the likes of Alex Morgan and social media-savvy Trinity Rodman, the highest-paid player in the NWSL.

🐜 Anthony Edwards’s second (and most memorable) SLAM cover in a CGC 9.6 sold for $69. Ant’s jam over John Collins shook the basketball world to the point where SLAM broke their photoshoot routine and immortalized it on the cover of issue #249.

This awesome variant had the misfortune of being released alongside Caitlin Clark’s SLAM debut. Only 17 newsstand have been graded by CGC, compared to a staggering 276 Clarks — 165 of which are 9.8's!

What We’re Watching: Signed Early Covers

🏎️ Lewis Hamilton signed AutoWeek — his first-ever magazine cover at age 13 — on Goldin. Foxing and markered address box be damned, this is an awesome piece. A newsstand copy of this issue — if one exists* — is my personal white whale.

*CGC has two separate entries in their census for this issue, but I’ll believe there’s a blank box (or bar code) version out there when I see it.

🏈 Steve McNair signed first Sports Illustrated on eBay. Back when athletes took pride in the details of their signatures! McNair inscribed this one with his “Air” nickname and jersey number.

One of the best players in the history of the SWAC, McNair finished third in the 1994 Heisman voting after throwing for 47 touchdowns his senior year at Alcorn State.

🏀 LeBron James signed Ohio Roundball Prep magazine on eBay. Chronicling “LaBron’s” quest for a second state title, this newsprint-style mag is likely James’s first cover as the primary subject. The signature looks early as well.

This piece likely appeals only to the most hardcore LeBron fan or completionist, so at $5,000 it might sit for a while. It would be interesting to see something like this in an auction format. My sense is that demand for obscure early LBJ items won’t spike until he announces his retirement.

🥊 Mike Tyson signed The Ring first cover on Goldin. Most Tyson autos I’ve seen on magazines are large, zig-zaggy, and appear to have been scribbled quickly. This one is tight and angled perfectly along his arm for high visibility. Shout out to Iron Mike for the thoughtful penmanship.

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After subscribing, you’ll receive a welcome email with a button prompting you to create a copy of the original Google Sheet, where you’ll be able to:

• Track your personal collection

• Add issues to your want list

• Browse 350+ MJ covers released since 1983

The file itself isn’t large, but it does require a lot of screen space. We recommend opening on a laptop or desktop computer, rather than your phone.

We’ll be adding more player-, team-, and publication-themed checklists in the coming months. Subscribe now to get your copy!

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Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, simply reply to this email or comment below on Substack.

One of the most impressive public collections of newsstand Sports Illustrated issues — including high-grade first cover appearances of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Wayne Gretzky, Roberto Clemente, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, and more — has been crossed over from Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).

Lou, formerly known as the CGC Sports Illustrated King, announced his switch last month in a post under his new Instagram handle, @psasiking. His decision was motivated by a belief that PSA is the hobby’s gateway to mainstream adoption. Future magazine collectors, Lou predicts, are likely current sports card and ticket collectors — groups are already brand-loyal to PSA.

In total, Lou submitted more than 150 CGC-graded Sports Illustrated issues to PSA for crossover pressing and grading. Based on his returns, Lou estimates “around 50% cross at the same grade, 40% at lower grades, and 10% get a higher grade” than they received from CGC. If that trend holds long term, high-grade PSA slabs may become even more desirable than same-grade CGC copies.

Lou shares his collection on Instagram @psasiking.

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SLAM Restocks Graded Inventory

I like graded magazines. I love SLAM. I’m not sure how I feel about SLAM selling their own graded magazines.

More than any other publication, SLAM presents itself as collectible. Each issue now has variant covers, and each variant has a limited edition Gold Metal version. Their partnership with CGC allows for collectors to pay extra for a genuinely cool custom label, so it’s no surprise they want to expose their readers to the existence of graded magazines. These are good things!

But SLAM selling their own graded mags raises a few questions: Where are they sourcing these issues? Are they buying them back from customers, or simply dusting them off from their in-house reserves? Could they pull fresh batch from the printing line and ship them directly to CGC for grading? Would collectors really care if they did?

To be clear, I don’t think these things are happening. The very recent covers in the store top out at 9.4 — a nefarious scheme would surely include some 9.8s. But I’m imagining the sports card-equivalent scenario where Topps sells PSA-graded, highly desirable Topps rookie cards on Topps.com. Separate entities with different parent companies (as SLAM makes clear about CGC at the top of the page), but the practice would only invite conspiracy theories in an already conspiracy-minded hobby.

For now, only standard, non-limited issues are available. This will probably remain the case. But if slabbed gold metal editions start showing up in the SLAM Goods store, I’ll have a few more questions.

🥊 The Ring unveils complete digital archives

“The Bible of Boxing” has experienced a renaissance both online and in print since Saudi billionaire and chairman of the country’s General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh acquired the publication from Oscar de la Hoya in November 2024. A second website relaunch arrives with a staggering, exhaustive archive of the century-old magazine.

@ringmagazine

Ring Magazine on Instagram: "An unrivalled heritage in boxing …

Boxing nerds (there are dozens of us!) and sports historians could spend months digging into more than 1,300 issues published since 1922. From Jack Dempsey to Terence Crawford, the careers of every notable fighter are chronicled in the pages of The Ring — a publication that has weathered the peaks and valleys of both print and boxing itself. The archive is fully searchable and available to anyone with a free account.

The physical magazine is difficult to find on newsstands in the U.S., but it’s worth tracking down. Recent covers feature stunning artwork on heavy stock matte paper with minimal text — a major departure from The Ring’s traditional style. Surrounded by hollowed-out, overpriced, ad-heavy publications on the newsstand, The Ring looks and feels better than ever.

Boxing magazine collectors (a niche within this already small niche) are no doubt aware of these developments. But as the sport expands its reach on Netflix and Paramount+, I predict one or two Ring covers over the next few years will attract the attention of “mainstream” sports mag collectors as well. Let's just hope it's not Jake Paul.

💸 New Record for Mickey Mantle’s First SI Cover … and Another $30K Sale Two Days Later

In a highly anticipated auction (for those who pay attention to such things), a PSA 9.0 copy of Mickey Mantle’s first Sports Illustrated cover closed at nearly $35,000 last Saturday.

The previous high for this issue (as far as I can tell) was $27,600 for a CGC 9.0 in August 2022 on Heritage Auctions. Last August, a CGC 8.5 in a new slab sold on Heritage for $21,350.

Two days after the PSA 9.0 auction ended, a CGC 9.0 transacted via Best Offer on eBay for “just” $30,000.

Strangely, I’ve seen no headlines about the Goldin sale — nothing on cllct, Sports Collectors Digest, Sports Collectors Daily, or Collectibles on SI. PSA posted about it, but that’s to be expected.

It probably doesn’t help that Topps announced a ’52 Mantle redemption as part of their Series 1 baseball release this week. $35k is small potatoes by comparison.

Most of us aren’t playing in this price range, and are unlikely come across a copy buried in a box at a garage sale. So what does this sale mean, other than, big magazine price go up?

To me (and maybe to state the obvious), it’s another sign that PSA has already established itself as the preferred grader for sports magazine collectors.

This is not entirely unexpected. We know sports card collectors pay a premium for PSA slabs compared to BGS, SGC, and others (the “others” being brands that have not yet been swallowed by PSA’s parent company). Most Sports Illustrated collectors come from — or are at least familiar with — the world of sports cards. The boring red box means more to them than the pretty blue gradient.

What is slightly surprising is how quickly PSA topsy-turvied it on CGC. Their first slabs hit the market less than six months ago!

It’s possible we’re seeing a temporary bump, big money distracted by the shiny new toy. But I think the trend will become a truism in short order.

Major pieces (like those from the collection of @psasiking) have either crossed to PSA or were held back from grading in anticipation of their entry to the market. Sales like this will only encourage more cracking and crossing over of CGC slabs.

Assess these vibes: PSA Magazine publishes a full article about Sports Illustrated every month, while CGC posts an SI cover on Instagram maybe once a quarter. It simply feels like CGC has conceded the space to CGC. Perhaps they know retaining sports mag collectors is an uphill battle, and they’ve shifted their focus maintaining dominance in comic books.

Plus, once a mag’s in a PSA slab, I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to get it out.

Other Notable Sales

🏀 Signed copy of Kobe Bryant’s first SLAM cover sells for $1,713 on eBay. In a previous listing, the seller claimed the signature was from 1998. Note the “8” inscription!

✈️ Michael Jordan’s first Dick Vitale’s Basketball cover nets $499 in a fixed price listing. This issue and the 1985-86 preview featuring a classic Air Jordan photo command high prices despite being too large to fit in any slabs.

📈 Satchel Paige’s Our Sports cover draws $1,710 on Goldin. The price on this CGC 6.5 copy stands out, in part because a CGC 6.0 sold for less than half that just six weeks ago. In both instances, there were only three graded higher by CGC at the time.

What We’re Watching

🏈 A rare autographed copy of Jim Brown’s first Sports Illustrated cover is up for auction on eBay. A graded newsstand copy sold for $885 last year, so perhaps this ungraded subscription copy (with a few major creases) can be had for significantly less.

🏀 In the wake of Chris Paul’s retirement, this $20 copy of his first SI cover caught my eye. CP3 was the last man standing from the ’05 Draft (before Cooper Flagg was born!), and as his debut cover reminds us, one of our few remaining connections to a totally different era of the NBA.

⚾ If there was any doubt that this is Mike Trout’s first SI cover, the man himself confirmed it with an awesome inscription beneath his signature in blue ink. This piece will be available in an upcoming Heritage auction.

🥊 With so much graded mag activity shifting to Goldin, the possibility exists for nice pieces to fly under the radar elsewhere. I’ve got my eye on this CGC 8.0 SI cover commemorating Ali-Frazier III, the “Thrilla in Manila”.

⛵ Shortly after buying the Atlanta Braves but before starting CNN and WCW, Ted Turner won the America’s Cup. This copy of his only appearance on the cover of SI looks to be in terrific condition. eBay auction ends Saturday, Feb. 21.

New Release Radar: SI’s Indiana CFP Championship Commemorative

The Indiana Hoosiers have been national champions for nearly a month, but their SI commemorative cover still stands out as the best among recent magazine releases.

Fernando Mendoza’s instantly iconic fourth quarter dive into the end zone is the defining image of that game and his Heisman season. It’s a reminder of what SI covers once were so frequently: stunning photos of unforgettable sports moments.

I still can’t really wrap my head around Indiana football’s turnaround. Part of me wants to buy this issue just to have tangible proof that it happened.

Thanks for reading our first newsletter roundup. If you have any feedback or ideas for what we should cover in the future, simply reply to this email or comment below on Substack.

Share Sports Mag Collector

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After subscribing, you’ll receive a welcome email with a button prompting you to create a copy of the original Google Sheet, where you’ll be able to:

• Track your personal collection

• Add issues to your want list

• Browse 350+ MJ covers released since 1983

The file itself isn’t large, but it does require a lot of screen space. We recommend opening on a laptop or desktop computer, rather than your phone.

We’ll be adding more player-, team-, and publication-themed checklists in the coming months. Subscribe now to get your copy!

On June 25, 2025, one collector paid more than $700 for the only copy of Kobe Bryant’s first solo SLAM cover to achieve an elusive 9.8 grade from Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). Published more than 25 years ago, the square-spined issue is covered in deep black and bright yellow ink, somehow journeying from a newsstand in March 1998 into a CGC slab in 2023 without acquiring any scratches, bends, or scuffs along the way. Pieces like that don’t come around very often, and any SLAM collector or Kobe fan would be proud to own it.

Unfortunately, despite the slab label indicating it’s an original, the issue was printed in 2021 and sold as a collector’s item in the wake of Kobe’s death the year prior.

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The SLAM Rewind Series

In November 2020, SLAM announced the first installment of their Rewind Series, beginning with the cover that most epitomized the mag’s young, independent, and in-your-face attitude: The March 1999 edition featuring Allen Iverson with his hair out, wearing a throwback 76ers jersey, draped in diamonds, and holding an ABA-styled Spalding during the NBA lockout. It is arguably the most memorable SLAM cover ever, and it remains in high demand for collectors to this day.

The series continued with a special Michael Jordan issue in February 2021 and the Kobe Trilogy later that year. These Rewind issues are complete cover-to-cover reprints of the originals, with one small outward-facing difference: There’s no bar code nestled in the corner.

This makes sense, of course. The special editions were only available to order online directly from SLAM. With no distribution at bookstores or newsstands, no bar code-scanning was necessary. For people who just want to flip through the glossy nostalgia, this doesn’t really matter. For collectors and archivists willing to pay big bucks for originals, it’s a crucial difference.

Verifying Subscription Delivery Methods of Early SLAM Issues

The absence of a bar code does not automatically mean a SLAM issue is a reprint. Subscribers in the late 1990s through the early 2010s received issues with their address printed in white boxes where a UPC would normally be. Earlier subscription copies were mailed in plastic bags, seemingly eliminating the need for a bar code.

So before making any rash declarations, we wanted to confirm SLAM’s subscription delivery methods from this era — especially in 1998 and 1999.

This wasn’t easy. In their early days, SLAM invested in its newsstand success before building a subscriber base. And if those rare, bagged subscription issues were identical to newsstand versions, they’d become indistinguishable once removed from the bag.

After some digging, we were lucky to find subscription examples of both issues #24 (bagged) and #32 (glued label), each with bar codes printed on the front cover:

The difference in delivery method traces back to a change in SLAM’s ownership. While CGC’s Population Report lists issues #1 (May 1994) through #33 (April 1999) under Harris Publications, Inc., in reality Petersen Publishing began printing the magazine with issue #28. This confirmation is easy: “A Petersen Publication” is printed on the front cover of every issue from September 1998 through March 2000. (The Rewind series is produced by the current publisher, Slam Media, Inc., so the former publisher names are absent from the reprints.)

During the Harris era, both subscription copies we’ve seen were bagged (including #22 Rafer Alston), while Petersen-era subscriptions through #35 (August 1999) used glued paper address labels. The first white-box, barcode-free subscription copy we’ve found is issue #36 (September 1999).

The presence of bar codes on subscription issues from this era confirms that barcode-free copies were not part of the original subscription run and can safely be categorized as reprints.

How Many Slabbed SLAM Rewind Issues Are Misclassified As Originals By CGC?

Vintage SLAM heads — not to mention Kobe and Iverson collectors — deserve to know the true “top pop” issues among these classic covers.

Using auction results tools such as WorthPoint, PicClick, and eBay’s Product Research (as well as searching on Google Images and Instagram) we’ve identified 20 SLAM Rewind editions certified by CGC as originals, with eight others very likely to be reprints based on their certification numbers.

Unsurprisingly, an overwhelming number of the high-grade copies are reprints.

To help track which slabs are affected, we’ve compiled a list of the grades assigned by CGC to all five issues that received the SLAM Rewind treatment. This document includes certification entries, links to auction listings, and archived photos for every slabbed copy of SLAM #24 (March 1998), #32 (March 1999), #66 (February 2003), #126 (April 2009), and SLAM Presents #20 (1997) we could find. Click below to access the full document.

View full Google Sheet

There are still some missing pieces to the puzzle, but as the Allen Iverson portion below makes clear, the problem is significant.

The pervasiveness of slabbed reprints is harmful not only for the buyers willing pay hundreds of dollars for what they reasonably believe are mint copies of authentic originals, it also depresses prices for sellers of the true “top pops” of each issue. This CGC 8.5 Iverson slab is a stark recent example of that effect:

How CGC Can Make This Right

Ideally, CGC would add a note to each issue’s census entry explaining how many copies of each grade were incorrectly certified as original prints. They should also offer to reholder any misclassified SLAM Rewind slab with correct labeling and a new certification number, removing those grades from the census as they’re returned.

I reached out to CGC with these suggestions, and a customer service rep replied that label correction and reholdering is complimentary, and that they’ll notify the grading team about the affect SLAM issues. Based on this response, I don’t expect a note to be added to the census entries.

SLAM has done nothing wrong, of course. But with their variants, exciting cover debuts, and limited edition metal covers, they’ve done more to attract new collectors to the space than any other publication. To make things easier for newbies and vets alike, SLAM could add a special “Rewind” stamp to the cover of future reprints, clearly separating them from the ’90s and ’00s originals.

I know we’re not dealing with five-figure mags here. But I love preserving vintage SLAM issues — complete with their double-sided posters and yellowed “11 CDs for 1¢” Columbia House ads — and it pains me to see this corner of the niche muddied by confusion.

So reader, if you see something, say something! If you own or see one of these slabs in the wild, email me a clear photo so we can finally determine the true top pops of these iconic issues.

For many of us, sports magazines were once weekly ritual. Racing to the mailbox to grab the latest issue Sports Illustrated or checking the newsstand to see which high school phenom made the cover of SLAM — opening a fresh mag brought the same rush as ripping a pack of cards. Unforgettable moments were captured on their covers, newly minted superstars immortalized in gloss.

Most of those copies didn’t survive. We wrote on them, stacked them in damp basements, and eventually tossed them out. That’s why finding issues in good condition today is so difficult. But just like trading cards, vintage sports magazines are worth rediscovering — and preserving.

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If you’re ready to revisit that mailbox feeling (or experience it for the first time), keep reading to learn the basics of this growing hobby and building a collection you’ll treasure for years to come.

The Most Desirable Covers

• First Covers (sometimes abbreviated as “FC”) are a magazine’s version of a rookie card. They’re typically the most sought-after issues, but not always. Michael Jordan’s third SI cover — his first in a Bulls uniform — generally sells for more than his debut cover with UNC teammate Sam Perkins.

• Visual appeal matters too, of course. Covers that feature iconic photos (such as Tiger Woods’ 2001 “Masterpiece” SI) or capture memorable moments are sometimes more sought-after than covers featuring studio photo shoots.

• Covers that are meaningful to you. Chances are, there’s at least one magazine cover featuring your favorite team, player, or moment in sports history. Hunting those down is just as fun as searching for an underpriced gem to flip.

Subscription vs. Newsstand Issues

In the mid-1990s, Sports Illustrated shifted from paper subscription labels affixed with adhesive to addresses printed in white boxes directly on the covers.

• Subscription issues are sent to households and have address labels either glued or printed on the cover. Because of this, “sub” copies typically sell for less on the secondary market, making them affordable alternatives to the often pricey newsstand issues.

Subscription labels can be removed and presented as newsstand editions by nefarious sellers. When buying older issues, look closely for faint glue residue or paper loss where a label might normally be.

• Newsstand issues are sold at bookstores, airports, newsstands, etc. and have no address labels attached or printed. Because newsstand copies are much rarer, not personalized, and often discarded, collectors are willing to pay a lot more for them.

During SI’s peak in the 1990’s, an estimated 2-3% of their 3 million issues in circulation were sold at newsstands.

What to Know About Grading, Cleaning, and Pressing

Just like with trading cards, magazine collectors can send their issues to be graded and encased in sturdy plastic slabs for long-term protection.

Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) has been grading magazines since 2009, and until recently, they’ve been the only game in town. Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) — the dominant grading service for sports cards — began accepting magazine submissions in July 2024.

• Grading scales: CGC grades on a (mostly) half-point scale up to 9.0, then in increments of (mostly) 0.2. A grade of 9.8 is considered mint, with only a handful copies having recently achieved a 9.9 or 10. PSA grades on the same scale, with one exception — they’ve opted not to assign 9.9’s to comics or magazines.

• Cleaning: Dry cleaning — the removal of dirt and soiling from magazine covers — is acceptable prior to grading. Techniques using chemicals and light therapy can lead to “Restored” classifications, which diminishes desirability among collectors.

• Pressing: Most magazines are heat-pressed by collectors before grading. This process helps remove non-color breaking defects such as dents, bends, crunches, ripples, spine rolls, and more.

Tip: Maintain your magazines’ condition by storing them in plastic archival bags with backing boards, away from sunlight and moisture.

Key Resources

• Graded population reports:

  • CGC Population Report

    • A recent update to their tool makes it slightly better looking, but seemingly less useful. You may need to enter the date as well as the publication name to find the grades you’re looking for.

  • PSA Population Report

    • PSA’s relatively new magazine Pop Report is a little unwieldy, but pretty slick once you get the hang of it. Click the drop-down on any issue entry to see totals broken down by subscription and newsstand editions.

• SI cover database: SportsIllustatedIssues.com lives up to its billing as “the worlds largest and most comprehensive catalog for Sports Illustrated Issues collectors”. Search by player, team, even sport. An indispensable resource!

• Facebook: Join the group “CGC/PSA Sports Illustrated” to ask questions and learn from both new and longtime collectors.

For additional resources, including cover archives of other publications, click here.

Like most sports-obsessed kids growing up in the ’90s, I collected trading cards, played Madden and NBA Jam, and spent my summers outside, pretending to be the players I watched on SportsCenter or NBA Inside Stuff.

My parents, sensing an opportunity to Trojan horse more reading into my life, started buying magazine subscriptions as birthday gifts. First S.I. for Kids, then the big-boy Sports Illustrated, and eventually the cool-guy ESPN The Magazine.

Their plan worked. Every week from the time I was probably nine years old, I read at least one sports magazine cover to cover, stopping only to marvel at the rich color photographs that — as far as I knew — only existed in those publications. Opening the mailbox on SI delivery day was a rush, knowing I’d spend hours poring over everything inside, from the “Faces in the Crowd” blurbs to the in-depth Gary Smith profile. I didn’t know it at the time, but magazines were just as important to my youth reading diet as textbooks and novels.

The covers from that era — even the bad ones — are seared into my mind. Tiger Woods’ PGA Championship playoff point, days after we watched the drama unfold on CBS. Prime Shaquille O’Neal barrelling toward the rim, Maverick grasps no match for his cartoon superhero arms. Japanese rookie sensation Ichiro Suzuki bursting out of the batter’s box and onto the national stage, framed stunningly by the flag of his home country. Honestly, I could probably tell you what the weather was the day this Sammy Sosa cover arrived, swinging out of his shoes late in a 20-homer June.

Naturally, I saved just about all of them. Years of subscription issues and grocery store purchases piled into plastic totes, unlikely to be reread but too important to throw away.

You know what happened next: The internet siphoned our attention away from paper media. Hefty weekly mags retreated into thin monthly rags filled mostly with ads. Name-brand writers found TV and podcasting easier (and more lucrative). By the 2010s, the best sports profiles and longform articles lived in digital spaces like Grantland and SB Nation, and Wright Thompson’s pieces for The Mag were available for free on ESPN.com. Magazines were no longer an essential part of the sports fan’s media diet.

For the next decade I clicked and flicked without realizing how much I missed the thrill of opening a fresh SLAM or Sports Illustrated in their respective heydays. Print was dead, buried in storage totes in my parents’ basement (before being hastily exhumed and tossed out when they moved houses).

During one mindless scroll in 2022, I saw a video of an enthusiastic man named Jim showing off a graded Sports Illustrated — a Tim Duncan cover I recognized. This was a revelation. The same mags I was so excited to pull from the mailbox and read for hours as a kid are still out there, waiting to be rediscovered, preserved, and appreciated all over again.

@cgcsportsillustrated#whodoyoucollect #thehobby #sportscards #gradedcomics #cgccomics #psacards #bgs #nba #spurs #lakers #kobe #kobebryant #losangeles #sanantonio

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So I started hunting down my favorites, and in the process learned about some amazing issues from before my time and outside my knowledge base. Jackie Robinson smiling on the cover of TIME in 1947, months after breaking the major league color barrier. A title-stripped and banned-from-boxing Muhammad Ali controversially depicted as a martyr by Esquire in 1968. Teenage Lewis Hamilton — nearly a decade before his Formula 1 debut — stoic on the cover of AutoWeek in 1998.

Holding these issues in your hands, it becomes clear: Cheap paper booklets designed to be discarded are now historical artifacts worth preserving.

Perhaps more than any other medium, magazines tell the story of American sports over the last 80 years. Dynasties rose, reigned, fell, and false-started on their covers. Stars were born and busts were molded by their declarations of greatness. Sports mags documented tragedies, exposed scandals, and captured triumphs so iconic you probably already knew what cover that was before clicking the link.

This is why I’ve been pulled into collecting sports magazines. Preserving the most significant covers is just as gratifying as stumbling upon a less valuable issue I remember from childhood. Both endeavors deliver the same thrill I had opening the mailbox all those years ago.

It’s nostalgia for a ’90s childhood, sure. But as an adult in a world where the weekly sports publication has been replaced by a fire hose of rage-bait takes, there’s a deeper appreciation for the historical value and cultural significance of magazines created by professional writers, editors, fact-checkers, designers, and photographers.

And not for nothing, they look really cool.

If you had a similar experience with magazines, I think you’ll like it here.

My goal with this post is not to navel-gaze, but to establish credibility as an actual magazine enthusiast. I’m not here to hype up my holdings or get rich off flips.

This is about connecting with other magazine collectors, creating a hub for resources and discussion, and documenting happenings in our corner of the collecting world. We want to help newbies and old heads alike make the most of their hobby.

If you share this love for sports magazines, or if you just want to learn more about a new(ish) category in collecting, subscribe for free below. You’ll get a newsletter roundup in your inbox each week, a link to download our Michael Jordan Magazine Collector’s Checklist, and access to occasional single-topic deep dive posts.

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If you have tips or ideas for what we should cover, feel free to message me on Instagram or send me an email at sportsmagcollector@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.

This week, I received my first graded magazine submission back from PSA. After nearly throwing my back out carrying the package, I put together some initial thoughts on the slabs themselves:

Packaging

It seems PSA does not want to deal with reholder requests for damaged slabs. These things were so well-protected during shipping you’d have thought they were sending me the nuclear football. Each slab is separated by packing paper and secured by purpose-made foam packaging end caps.

I don’t want to jinx future orders, but it seems very unlikely any PSA slabs could be damaged during shipment.

Slab Size and Weight

As anyone who has held both immediately noticed, PSA’s slabs are heavier and sturdier than CGC’s. The plastic is also clearer, with no blue tint. For card collectors, I would compare the PSA magazine slab to a One Touch and a CGC slab to a top loader. These are premium holders in both rigidity and clarity.

The slabs are about a half-inch taller than CGC’s from top to bottom, which means the Superior Fit sleeves made for CGC slabs don’t seal, and Casematix’s velcro storage boxes don’t close. Hopefully both companies come out with new storage accessories to accommodate PSA’s products. (Update: Superior Fit now has sleeves available for PSA magazine slabs!)

The weight becomes an issue when transporting large quantities. By my calculations*, the PSA slab weighs 12.8 oz. more than CGC’s, or about three-quarters of a pound. A box of 20 PSA slabs weighs at least 15 pounds more than the same mags in CGC slabs. If you’re setting up a full table of graded magazines at a card show, you might be transporting an additional 90-120 pounds of slabs from the car.

*For this test, I used three copies of SLAM #15 — one ungraded, one in a CGC slab, and one in PSA. The raw issue weighed 8.0 oz., the CGC slab 29.5 oz., and PSA 41.8 oz. A box of 20 PSA-graded issues of SLAM #15 would weigh more than 52 pounds!

The Love/Hate Label

The label is what it is. A white box with a red border isn’t going to win any design awards, but it is recognizable and conveys authority to sports collectors who are unfamiliar with magazine grading. So that’s good.

The label notes are detailed, identifying each magazine as newsstand, subscription, label removed, etc. This is great when you’re looking at one up-close, but it's not as convenient when scanning listings on eBay or elsewhere. CGC’s bold, italicized “Subscription Edition” floating above the notes and below the publication title is easy to spot, even in small photos.

The top labeling, however, is a disaster. It’s maybe half the width of CGC’s top label, with tiny font, and buried beneath plastic that isn’t very clear. Worse, the text faces the wrong direction. (Update: Recent submissions have come back with the text direction corrected, which is great! Unfortunately early-subbed slabs will forever look like the goofy dragon meme in my boxes.)

Because the top label sits in a recessed portion of plastic, my gut tells me the width won’t be increased any time soon.

Speaking of label width, I would really prefer if the label extended the full width of the case.

Comic books are obviously the priority as PSA enters this market, but by using the same size label for magazine slabs, they’re indicating that it wasn’t worth the money to create a separate label for the comparatively small market of magazine collectors. That’s unfortunate, because SI collectors have been very eager to embrace PSA’s entry into the market. Hopefully PSA is willing to make this change once they have a foothold in the market.

Things I Noticed in My Submission That Might Not Affect All PSA Magazine Slabs

It’s not visible in these photos, but a few of my cases have spots of rainbow-like iridescence on the surface. This phenomenon is called “Newton’s Rings”, and it either wasn’t as common on my CGC slabs, or I didn’t notice it as much. My guess is, since the slab well is thinner than CGC’s, this rainbow-like “illusion” will be more common in PSA slabs.

All five magazines in my batch appear to have some waviness at the top and bottom of each issue. None of the grader notes mention this, so I don’t believe the waves were there before grading. I suspect it might be related to the encapsulation process, or the snug fit of some issues. Not ideal!

For now, I’m planning to continue grading with PSA. The app is better, the slabs are better, and the pop report will be better once it’s finally up and running. There’s still some room for fine-tuning, but this is clearly a good start.