Erling Haaland for just $125,000? rookie card as soccer market explodes
How much will one of the European giants have to pay to sign Erling Haaland when the transfer window opens on July 1? Borussia Dortmund want in the region of €180m for the prolific striker, according to ESPN sources. If Borussia Dortmund keep him another season, then they could lose him for €75m, with his reported release clause kicking in next year.
Haaland’s potential is frightening, aged 20, he has already scored 20 Champions League goals, in just 14 matches. An unfortunate injury could derail his career; his goals record could dry up.
I remember back in 2003, 2004, 2005 thinking ‘oh my! These LeBron cards are going for crazy money’ and now you look back and think, ‘actually, they were cheap.’
“With this Erling Haaland card, we could be talking in five years and that card could be worth a million dollars. You just don’t know where it’s going to go.”
Across all sports, the trading card market is seeing its records toppled on a near-monthly basis. For the vintage ones — usually those cards produced before 1980 — the record stands at $5.2m, paid by actor Rob Gough for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. For modern cards, an unknown buyer spent $4.6m in February for a 1/1 autographed card of NBA star Luka Doncic. But soccer is creeping up on the heels of the more established markets.
“Soccer is our highest growth category right now,” Ken Goldin, founder of sports trading card specialists Goldin Auctions, tells ESPN. “When I started the business in 2012, the people looking for soccer cards were non-existent. It is our biggest growing international market.”
Sports trading cards vary in rarity, desirability and condition, and with different grades and different variations, it’s a confusing market to understand from scratch.
