Kevin O'Leary Among Investors In Record-Breaking Michal Jordan, Kobe Bryant Card: Why The Shark Compares It To Bitcoin

"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary is increasing his bets in the collectibles space, which could explain why he revealed Monday that he is a co-owner of the most expensive trading card purchase ever.

What Happened: For years, vintage trading cards, like early cards of Mickey Mantle and Honus Wagner, have captivated the market and attracted millions of dollars when they came up for auction.

On Sunday, the UD Exquisite Dual Logoman Autograph serial numbered 1/1 featuring Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant set a new trading card record, selling for $12.932 million.

The card, which is graded a PSA 6 out of 10, surpassed the $12.6 million for a 1952 Mickey Mantle SGC graded 9.5 card from August 2022. The card also easily surpassed the records previously held for a modern card and basketball card with a 03-04 Exquisite LeBron James Gold RPA numbered to 23, selling for $5.2 million in a private sale in 2021.

The buyers of the card remained anonymous through the bidding process with Heritage Auctions before O'Leary revealed himself as one of the winners Monday in an interview with CNBC.

O'Leary told CNBC that he and investors Matt Allen and Paul Warshaw bought the card and invested together to avoid competing against each other.

"We bought it together, yes we did," O'Leary said. "I'm very proud to own it."

O'Leary said he doesn't believe the card will be sold again during his lifetime.

"It's going to be a part of an index that I'm going to continue to grow along with my partners. We look at it no different than our Bitcoin holdings, our Ethereum holdings, our gold holdings."

The "Shark Tank" investor said trading cards are going to be a "5% weighting into my portfolio," while comparing the asset class to the cryptocurrencies he named.

"I don't see it any differently than any of those other asset classes."

O'Leary said sports card trading is getting "institutional in nature" and prices are continuing to appreciate, similar to collectible watches.

The latest purchase adds to a collection of basketball cards that O'Leary already owns, as the "Shark Tank" investor has been adding to his collection for a few years.

O'Leary compared trading cards to rare artwork and famous artists.

"The majority of the capital gains accrue to the rarest Pollocks or, you know, Warhol pieces that are extraordinarily priced. You think and then you wait a decade and look at them again, and see you get extraordinary capital gains. It's a very thin market, but as an alternative asset class, I'm all in."

Why It's Important: Numbered 1/1, this is the only card of its kind to exist, unlike rookie cards or early cards of players.

The card is the only Logoman to feature autographs of Jordan and Bryant and the only Logoman jersey card to feature a gold logo from Jordan since it was the jersey he wore in the 1996-1997 50^th anniversary NBA season.

The purchase comes with trading cards that attract attention from investors and collectors, as live selling on platforms like Whatnot, Fanatics, and eBay Inc. EBAY makes high-value cards more accessible for people to buy, provided they are willing to pay top dollar.

GameStop Corporation GME has also pushed deeper into collectibles, offering sports trading card packs alongside Pokémon card packs in the store. GameStop also partnered with PSA, a top grading company, to allow consumers to bring in cards to ship off to grade.

The video game retailer has also recently entered the repackaged trading card market, which sees collectors and investors purchase blind bags of trading cards in search of top "grail" cards.

Apparel company Dick's Sporting Goods DKS also recently paid $1.1 million for a rare 1/1 Paul Skenes rookie card. The rookie card of the baseball star was put on display at one of the company's stores, as it also pushes into offering more trading cards and collectibles.