'Shark Tank' star Kevin O'Leary bought Bryant-Jordan card for $13 million

Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News on Aug 25, 2025

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NEW YORK — “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary‘s latest big investment is the record-breaking purchase of a Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan sports card at auction over the weekend.

The Canadian venture capitalist, whose reported net worth is around $400 million, revealed that he was one of three buyers to plunk down nearly $13 million for the signed collectible featuring both NBA legends on Saturday.

The $12.9 million price tag ranks as the most expensive sports card sold at auction — besting a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle No. 311, which went for $12.6 million in August 2022.

The auction house Heritage, which sold both cards, confirmed that hobby mega-collector Matt Allen and Miami-based entrepreneur Paul Warshaw partnered with O’Leary to snap up the only dual Logoman card to feature the two professional basketball stars together.

“We bought it together, yes we did,” O'Leary said during a Monday morning appearance on CNBC. “I’m very proud to own it.”

O’Leary said the three men hatched a plan to buy the item, considered “the finest modern basketball card in the world,” on a 3 a.m. Zoom call.

“It’s going to be a part of an index that I’m going to continue to grow along with my partners,” he said. “We look at it no different than our bitcoin holdings, our ethereum holdings, our gold holdings.”

Heritage’s director of sports auctions Chris Ivy said the original owner of the Jordan and Kobe card had it for over a decade. The unidentified owner was allegedly approached several times by private buyers with a “high seven-figure” price tag for the card before it went to auction.

The collectible sold coincidentally on what would’ve been Bryant’s 47th birthday on Saturday. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar died in a helicopter crash in 2020.

The card, signed by Jordan and Bryant, is only second to the record sale for a piece of sports memorabilia of any kind. Last year, Heritage sold Babe Ruth’s “called shot” jersey from the 1932 World Series sold for $24.12 million.

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