Stunning Mantle SI Hits eBay in a Listing Worthy of Five Exclamation Marks
Plus: Collections and Set Registries on the (far) horizon at PSA, a huge Pokémon sale (not that one), remembering "The Chosen One", and more
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.
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
8.0 for $859 on 12/18/25 on Goldin
Ungraded newsstand for $400 on 12/31/25 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.
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*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.
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.
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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