Upper Deck Exquisite Card Values: Two Markets, One Name

Published October 8, 2026 by the HobbyCardIndex Editorial Team. Recorded sales from July 14 to October 8, 2026, catalog counts measured October 8.

Two links before the numbers. If you're holding an Exquisite card and trying to decide whether a slab is worth it, the should I grade this card checklist walks through that one card at a time. And if you want a comp tool that actually covers high-end sales like these, our Card Ladder alternatives rundown compares the free options.

We name-drop Upper Deck Exquisite all over the site, almost always as the LeBron rookie patch auto, the card every modern RPA gets measured against. We'd never priced the product itself. When we did, it turned out the name covers two very different markets, and most people searching it only mean one of them.

What is Upper Deck Exquisite?

It started as Upper Deck Exquisite Collection basketball in 2003-04, a $500 box, as far as I know the priciest product anyone had put out at that point. The rookies in that first set came as autographed patch cards numbered to 99, and LeBron James is card #78 of the 78 that our catalog lists for that first year. The run lasted through 2009-10, the Stephen Curry and James Harden rookie year, after which Panini held the NBA license.

Football got its own Exquisite from 2005, the Aaron Rodgers rookie year, and our catalog shows NFL uniforms through 2010. From 2011 to 2014 the football and basketball versions moved to college uniforms and retired legends: Michigan, Notre Dame, North Carolina. Baseball had a short Exquisite Rookie Signatures run in 2006 and 2007.

Then there's hockey, which is where most of the name lives now. Upper Deck kept the NHL license and turned Exquisite into a subset brand inside The Cup, Black Diamond, Ice and Clear Cut. That's 4,446 of the roughly 11,000 Exquisite rows in our catalog, about 40%, against 2,013 basketball rows and 1,491 football. Same word on the card, very different price tag, and I think that's what confuses people searching for an Exquisite value. Black Diamond has its own split like that, a late-1990s multi-sport set and a modern hockey product under one name, which we priced separately on the Upper Deck Black Diamond hub.

How much are Upper Deck Exquisite cards worth?

We took every recorded sale with Exquisite in the title from July 14 through October 8, 2026. Magic: The Gathering cards named Exquisite Blood came out, along with Exquisite Corpses, a Prizm card whose seller just called it exquisite, lots and a test prototype. Duplicate listings were collapsed. That left 501 single cards worth about $1.3 million.

That's the whole page in one table. Hockey is 65% of the sales and about 2% of the money. The licensed basketball years are 14% of the sales and almost all of it. One caution on timing: 453 of the 501 sales fall in August and September, and that's our coverage of this product getting deeper, not the market suddenly heating up.

What do Exquisite basketball cards sell for?

Here's the licensed basketball run split by card type. The rookie patch autos and the veteran Autograph Patches numbered to 100 are basically the product, and the base cards numbered to 225 are a footnote by dollars.

The medians are the useful part. Even inside the trophy era, 45 of the 72 sales went for under $1,000 and 20 went under $200. A 2004-05 Ben Gordon rookie patch auto sold for about $150 raw. A 2005-06 Ben Gordon base card numbered to 225 went for less than $4. So "Exquisite" alone doesn't make a card expensive, the player does.

Which Exquisite cards carry the money?

Three players, honestly. LeBron James titles were about 42% of the licensed basketball dollars, Michael Jordan about 25% and Stephen Curry about 18%. The top five sales alone were 84% of it.

Where these sold matters as much as what. Fanatics Collect and Goldin handled 19 of the 72 basketball sales and about 92% of the dollars, mostly in a couple of premium auction nights. eBay had far more listings and a small slice of the money. If you've got a real Exquisite card to sell, I'd look at the auction houses first. Our Michael Jordan cards and value page covers where his Exquisite patches sit against the rest of his market.

Is the Exquisite LeBron RPA still the record card?

Among modern basketball, it's still the reference point. ESPN reported in April 2021 that PWCC brokered a private sale of the 2003-04 Exquisite LeBron RPA parallel numbered to 23, graded BGS 9 with a 10 autograph, for $5.2 million. The same story notes a BGS 9.5 copy of the regular /99 RPA had sold for $1,850,000 in July 2020.

So is $488,000 a crash? I wouldn't read it that way. The Goldin copy in our window sat in a PSA Authentic slab, which means PSA authenticated the card and graded the autograph a 10 but gave the card itself no number grade. A card with no number usually can't be priced against a BGS 9.5, and this is one sale. What it does tell you is the floor on a real RPA, even one without a number, is still close to half a million dollars. Our rookie patch auto market read has the wider RPA picture, and what counts as an RPA is explained separately.

Are Upper Deck Exquisite football cards worth anything?

Some are, most aren't. The licensed NFL years, 2005 through 2010, had 39 recorded sales at a median around $30, and 21 of them went under $50. Two cards made up 53% of the football money: a 2009 Barry Sanders Rookie Flashback patch auto /25 in BGS 9.5 at $4,950, and a raw 2005 Aaron Rodgers RPA numbered 118 of 199 at $2,250. A raw 2009 Matthew Stafford Rookie Signature Patch /99 brought about $1,850.

The college years sell for even less. From 2011 to 2014, 22 football sales had a median under $9, and the best was a 2013 Jerome Bettis Limited Logos patch auto /10 at $275. The basketball college run looks pricier on paper, about $13K on 14 sales, but nearly all of that is three Jordan and LeBron "Dimensions" sales between $3,000 and $5,500 from a single auction source that also double-listed them. I'd treat those three as unconfirmed until we see them again.

What are Exquisite hockey cards worth?

Mostly a few dollars, with The Cup as the exception. Here's the hockey side split by the product the Exquisite card came out of, as the seller titled it.

The split that really matters is signed against unsigned. Unsigned Exquisite rookies and veterans, the /299 and /399 cards out of Black Diamond and Ice, had a median of about $8 on 196 sales, and 112 of those sold under $10. Autographed patch cards ran about $70 on 56 sales, and The Cup's autographed patch cards held at about $69 on 41. Black Diamond memorabilia cards without a signature sat in between, around $30 on 24 sales.

The top of the hockey side was a 2024-25 The Cup Alex Ovechkin Exquisite '03 Tribute Black patch auto /25 at $3,000, then a 2015-16 The Cup Sidney Crosby Exquisite Endorsements at about $2,240. Macklin Celebrini's seven Exquisite sales had a median around $150, with his Black Diamond dual swatch /75 near $430. The five biggest hockey sales were about 31% of the hockey dollars, against 84% on the basketball side, so this market is flatter and far cheaper. If you're working through a box of The Cup, our Upper Deck The Cup hockey page has the full set read, and the 2025-26 Upper Deck Ice hub covers the Ice side.

Should you grade an Upper Deck Exquisite card?

For the licensed basketball cards, often yes, but read the numbers carefully. Raw base cards numbered to 225 or 199 sold at a median around $60 on 11 sales, graded ones about $740 on 11. That gap is mostly the players, though. The graded copies were Kobe, Jordan, LeBron, Shaq and McGrady, and the raw ones skewed to Ben Gordon, Deron Williams and Jason Kidd.

The patch autos have one more wrinkle. A lot of Exquisite titles carry two grades, one for the card and one for the signature, like "BGS 8, autograph 10." Buyers price both, and an on-card auto from 2003 has had twenty-plus years to fade or smudge. On hockey, the math rarely works. Paying to grade an $8 Black Diamond rookie loses money, and even The Cup patch autos around $70 need a star name to clear the fee.

The rough version: grade the licensed-era stars and the RPAs, leave the modern hockey subset raw unless the player is a Celebrini or an Ovechkin. Our Topps Dynasty card values page runs the same encased-hit question on a modern product, and the Panini Flawless hub covers what the high end looks like after Panini took over basketball.

Frequently asked questions

What is Upper Deck Exquisite?

Upper Deck Exquisite Collection was a $500-a-box premium basketball product that launched in 2003-04 and ran through 2009-10. Football followed from 2005, and today the Exquisite name lives on as a hockey subset inside The Cup, Black Diamond and Ice.

How much is an Exquisite LeBron James rookie worth?

The 2003-04 Exquisite LeBron James RPA #78 /99 sold for $488,000 at Goldin on September 20, 2026, in a PSA Authentic slab with a 10 autograph. Higher-grade copies have sold for far more, including $1,850,000 for a BGS 9.5 in 2020.

How much are Upper Deck Exquisite basketball cards worth?

Licensed 2003-04 to 2009-10 cards had a median sale near $735 in our window. Rookie patch autos ran about $1,780 at the median, while numbered base cards of role players sold for under $50.

Are Upper Deck Exquisite hockey cards valuable?

Most aren't. Unsigned Exquisite hockey cards had a median of about $8. Autographed patch cards ran near $70, and only star cards like a 2024-25 Ovechkin Tribute Black /25 at $3,000 reached four figures.

When did Upper Deck stop making Exquisite basketball?

The last NBA-licensed Exquisite Collection was 2009-10, which carries the Stephen Curry and James Harden rookies. Upper Deck later made college and retired-player Exquisite basketball from 2011 to 2014.

What is the most expensive Exquisite card sold recently?

The 2003-04 LeBron James RPA at $488,000 on September 20, 2026. Next came a 2009-10 Stephen Curry rookie auto parallel /31 in PSA 10 at $186,000 on September 25.

How we counted

Sales are recorded sold listings from July 14 to October 8, 2026 with Exquisite in the title. Magic: The Gathering, Exquisite Corpses, a Prizm card described as exquisite, lots, a test prototype and catalog import rows were excluded, and duplicates were collapsed on title, price and date, plus same-day, same-price, same-player repeats. Sport comes from the player name matched to our Exquisite catalog, with a few hand fixes, and era from the year in the title. Hockey host product comes from the title only, which is why 86 sales have none. Prices in the prose are rounded. The sales came from eBay, Fanatics Collect, Goldin, Heritage and other public auction results.