The 19 Most Expensive Tennis Cards of All-Time

Date of Sale: 5/22/22

2003 was a year in the hobby where we saw the origins of many generational athletes. In basketball, we got our first cards of LeBron James.  In soccer, we got RCs of Cristiano Ronaldo.  And in tennis, NetPro produced the first licensed rookies/autographs of Serena Williams. She is one of the most influential athletes ever, and this rare rookie patch autograph is a grail for many trading card collectors.

Date of Sale: 5/24/21

That same 2003 International Series also contains the first patch autograph of Roger Federer, a player whose name is etched on 20 Grand Slam trophies. The Swiss-born pro was once at the top of the world rankings for over 237 straight weeks, which speaks to his level of domination. This stunning Beckett 9.5 copy reached a final auction price of over $181,000 in 2021, and it is the definitive holy grail piece of one of the most recognizable names in tennis.

Date of Sale: 3/21/22

Serena’s first-ever appearance on a card stems from the Sports Illustrated For Kids cutout section. Because these cards have perforated edges and are placed in a magazine, they are notoriously difficult to grade.

This PSA 10 copy is a rare anomaly, and there are only eight of these Serena rookies to achieve gem mint status. It sold for as high as $117,000 during a 2022 PWCC Premier auction but the most recent one sold for $32,400 in September of 2022.

Date of Sale: 1/24/22

Many collectors consider this to be Serena Williams’ “true” rookie card, as it is the first one to come from a pack-issued set. The 2003 NetPro Elite set features some of the most iconic players of all time, including Williams, Federer, and Nadal. The glossy parallel is also only limited to 100 copies, making it one of Serena’s rarest cards in existence. This POP-29 rookie sold for as high as $96,000 in January 2022.

The most recent copy sold in April of 2023 for $16,500.

Date of Sale: 9/22/22

Novak Djokovic is a Serbian-born tennis star who has certainly carved out a spot in the Mount Rushmore of the men’s circuit. His dominance atop the ATP’s World #1 ranking is one of the most remarkable feats in all of sports, and he has been instrumental in historic matches versus Federer and Nadal. This rookie autograph is a POP 8, and it’s undoubtedly Djokovic’s best trading card in existence.

Date of Sale: 2/5/22

Federer’s NetPro Elite rookie comes from the same set as Serena Williams’. The card showcases an iconic pose of the Swiss legend mid-serve, and the glossy backdrop gives this card unparalleled aesthetic appeal. Interestingly enough, this $52,000 rookie is #1/100, meaning it was the first card in the print run. Sometimes, the first or the last card in a print run will give the card a value boost, which works out in the seller’s case for this stunner. 

In recent years, Naomi Osaka has emerged as one of the brightest stars in tennis. While she’s taken a break from the courts in the last few major circuits, her accomplishments and victories are extremely impressive for someone who just turned 25. This autographed card of Osaka comes from the Topps Transcendent set, which is one of the most prestigious in all of the Hobby. It’s a red 1/1 parallel, and it fetched a five-digit price tag in 2021.

Date of Sale: 9/24/22

Carlos Alcaraz is a 19-year-old tennis phenom from El Palmar, Spain. He signed with NetPro as an exclusively licensed athlete in 2022, and he now has several collectible RPAs. This ‘03 throwback is seemingly his best, as it sold for a record $32,400 after Alcaraz won the 2022 U.S. Open.

Date of Sale: 2/17/22

This card is a 1/1, meaning they only made one of them. Making it even more special is the fact that it was graded a PSA 10, and the auto also received a 10. Leaf cards are not traditionally the cards to collect in the major sports, but this card is absolutely beautiful. It should be interesting to see what this card sells for if/when it comes back up on the market.

Date of Sale: 1/13/22

Much like the Roger Federer NetPro Elite card, this Rafael Nadal features the young star mid-serve with a gray backdrop. Just like his rival, this is another extremely valuable card, selling for $25,000 during a 2022 eBay auction.

Date of Sale: 1/9/22

Here we have a 2018 Upper Deck Employee Exclusive Serena Williams autograph. This card draws inspiration from the iconic 2003 Exquisite Basketball set, which has proved to be one of the most valuable in the Hobby. Over the years, other athletes have gotten their own ‘03 Exquisite patch auto, including Tiger Woods and Connor McDavid. Obviously, Serena deserves one as well, and it’s no surprise that this one sold for just shy of $23,000 in 2022.

Date of Sale: 2/15/21

Here is another stunning sale that seemed at the time, at least on the surface, to be extremely confusing and almost too good to be true. This is the base Serena NetPro PSA 10, not the more rare glossy version. The print run on this card was relatively large. There are a ton of raw examples out there selling for around $25 at the time.

On the Card Talk Podcast (@cardtalkpod), a few days after this sale, the hosts speculated that it's possible the buyer misunderstood what they were buying and thought they were getting the glossy version. However, all we can go on is the information presented, and it appears that this sale went through.

With that said, the last example of this card was sold on May 7, 2023 for just $56.20.

Date of Sale: 2/24/21

When I originally wrote this article in late 2021, I had this to say:

"A PSA 9 SI For Kids card of Naomi Osaka selling for $13,400 is probably the most stunning sale on this entire list. Honestly, it makes no sense to me. While the future is bright for Osaka, she is not Serena... at least not yet... and she has quite a long way to go.

Serena's PSA 10 SI for Kids sold for thousands less than Osaka's PSA 9 in an apples-to-apples comparison. Somebody has to explain this purchase to me and why it makes sense in comparison to the rest of the cards I mentioned."

Turns out I was right. A PSA 9 sold at PWCC on May 7th for $93.60, one of the more eye-popping percentage losses I have ever seen in sports cards.

Date of Sale: 2/10/21

This card came in the 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter baseball set, with the Serena Williams being part of the "framed autos" inserts that came in 1/277 packs. There were 37 athletes in "group A" of this insert, giving you about a 1/10,294 chance of getting one of these Serena cards in a pack.

This card is graded a PSA 10, and the auto also received a 10. The $9,000 price tag may seem like a lot of money at first glance, but in comparison to much less rare NetPro base cards, it may have been an absolute steal.

Date of Sale: 2/19/21

This card was serial-numbered to 2000, but amazingly, there are only 214 of them that have been graded PSA 10's in the population (194 PSA 9's).

Even with the relative rarity of this card, the value has pulled back dramatically since this $9000 sale, with recent copies going for around $500-600.

• Date of Sale: 12/12/20

Arthur Ashe is the only black man to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open, He was also the first to be selected to the U.S. Davis Cup team. Ashe retired in 1980 after a legendary career that saw him peak at number 2 in the world in May of 1976.

Sadly, he is also well known for contracting the HIV virus from a blood transfusion in 1983 and died in 1993 due to AIDS-related pneumonia.

There are only 3 of these cards in the entire world that are graded by PSA, and this PSA 5 has the highest grade of them all (the other two are PSA 2's).

• Date of Sale: 2/16/21

The PSA graded population on this card is just 25. When you have a population this low, prices can get a little crazy when markets heat up. However, the price of this card is way down since this sale, with one most recently selling for just over $50.

There are actually two Venus Williams cards in this set, the base, and the "event edition." The base is almost equally as rare, with only three PSA 10's in the population.

Date of Sale: 1/31/21

Roger Federer. Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic. Pretty much every list of the "best male tennis players of all time" has these three at the top.

The PSA population of these cards is wildly low, with only 3 graded versions out there, and this being the only PSA 10. With that kind of rarity, this is another card that I believe could have a big run in the coming years.

Date of Sale: 2/23/21

Some of the younger people who are reading this article won't understand what a cultural icon that Andre Agassi was in the 1990s when his Nike sneakers were almost as popular as the Air Jordans, and his list of endorsements seemed never-ending.

The eight-time Grand Slam champion and 1996 USA Olympic team gold medalist had a legendary rivalry with Pete Sampras that was must-watch television, even for those who weren't exactly huge tennis fans.

I would not be surprised if Agassi cards go on a big run in the coming years. Whoever bought this card for $1500 got a steal, in my opinion.