Robbin Stowers arrived at a sports card shop in Mesa, Ariz., early last month to ensure she got her three grandsons the box of 2025 Topps Chrome Football cards they wanted while they were at school.
She waited outside the shop for an hour before it opened that day, and in return for her patience, she secured a box that her grandsons later found to contain one of the best cards in the whole set: the redemption card for the one-of-one Josh Allen autographed Gold NFL Shield patch card.
The family consigned the card to Fanatics Collect to sell in an auction that ended early Friday morning, with the Allen card going for $1.35 million — more than $1 million more than the previous record for an Allen card ($288,000 for a Panini National Treasures rookie patch autographed card numbered 1 of 10 that sold in 2022).
It’s also the first NFL card of any player to sell for seven figures since a Tom Brady autographed rookie card went for $1.2 million in June 2023, and the most expensive NFL card made in the last five years.
Those records speak to the value of the newly introduced Gold Shield cards — each NFL award winner from 2024 wore special gold NFL logo patches on their jerseys throughout last season, some of which were then used to create Topps trading cards signed by the players. That included Allen as the 2024 season’s MVP.
The rarity and special nature of the game-worn patches put a unique premium on the cards’ value in the eyes of high-end collectors.
Stowers told The Athletic before the auction ended that the proceeds from the sale would be divided up between her three grandsons: 15-year-old Dylan, 12-year-old Harrison and 10-year-old Stephen.
The Allen card wasn’t the only notable sale in the auction, though.
LeBron James’ one-of-one 2025 Topps Chrome Superfractor, which bears his new crown-style autograph, sold for $1.25 million. A 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky autographed rookie card in a PSA 9 grade (with a 10 autograph grade) also sold for $540,000, a new record for an autographed hockey card and the second most expensive Gretzky card ever, according to Fanatics Collect.
This follows the company’s announcement of the private sale of a Cristiano Ronaldo card for $1.35 million, a new record for his card and the second-highest known sale of any soccer card ever.
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