Some cards are famous for the player. This one is famous for the insert. The Precious Metal Gems parallel — PMG for short — turned the 1997-98 Metal Universe set into the stuff of legend, and the Jordan is its crown. The green version was numbered to just ten copies.

Ten. For the most collected athlete who ever lived, in the glittering, foil-etched style that defined late-'90s card design at its most extravagant. When one surfaces, the whole hobby watches.

One of ten in the world — the insert grail of the foil era.

The PMGs are as fragile as they are rare; the etched foil chips at the edges almost on contact, so survivors in real condition are scarcer still than the number on the back. It is, by most measures, the modern Jordan grail — short of a one-of-one.