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Jerry West is a name that should be known to every basketball fan in the world, even if the heyday of his time on the court ended 50 years ago. Considering that his silhouette became the symbol for the NBA, it’s not surprising that in addition to being known as “Mr. Clutch” for his ability to perform under pressure, he was also later called “The Logo.” Who else in the history of the sport can say they have that honor? That would be ‘no one.’
West definitely earned the right to be an icon in the world of basketball. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960 to 1974 and is widely considered one of the best point guards ever seen on the court. His myriad achievements include being the 1972 NBA Finals MVP, 14-time NBA All-Star, and 10-time All-NBA First Team. He later joined the Lakers as a coach, serving as the team's head coach for three seasons, then working as the team’s general manager. He was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019 for his contributions to the sport. For Los Angeles Lakers fans, he’s a beloved figure who added so much to the team the city loves so much. His market on the team resonates so strongly that Panini Prizm has produced a series of cards featuring him and other luminaries from Laker history like Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and [Shaquille O`Neal](https://getcardbase.com/shaquille-oneal). We haven’t included those dual cards in our list since the focus here is on Jerry West on his own.
We’re focused here on showing off Jerry West’s 10 most expensive solo cards based on sales across the internet. We include each card only one time so we can show a broader number of cards. From early rookie releases, to his cards surrounding his heyday in the early 1970s, and even more modern cards that look back at his legacy, we’ll show you the full range of premium cards that celebrate this exceptional player.
If you are a regular collector of Jerry West’s cards, definitely check out his dedicated page on Cardbase, where you can find Hot Deals, trending prices, and links to buy his cards through online marketplaces across the Internet.
Best and Most Expensive Jerry West Cards
Jerry West was simply one of the NBA's greatest point guards of all time, and nostalgia for that storied time in basketball history is part of what drives the price of his cards higher. factor-issued attributes.
10. 2014 Panini Prizm Prizms Gold Pulsar Jerry West #211 - $1,999
Panini tried this solo card of Jerry West to celebrate his incredible run of success with the Lakers back in 2014. While this is one of the more sedate Prizm cards I’ve seen, they captured an excellent picture of the point guard in motion. However, without the flashy design elements so common with other Panini Prizm cards like countless color parallels, relics from game play, and even autographs, this card is much more subdued and hasn’t generated the excitement of some of the cards Panini created that paired him with other legends from the Lakers, which you’ll see further up this list.
Even so, this Jerry West card in PSA 10 Gem Mint condition can command a hefty price tag of nearly $2,000. That’s just about what a copy sold for in March 2022. A number of other Panini Prizm cards of Mr. Clutch have sold for just under this number, including single-card printings. While they haven’t proved as lucrative as some of the combined cards that pair West with other Lakers’ luminaries, but his cards from this late era do seem to be trending up in value. You’ll see a couple more on this list.
9. 2021-22 Panini Eminence Auto 14K Gold Bar Logoman 1 Ounce Jerry West /3 - #LA-JWS - $2,248
Before we get into the classic cards, let’s show off some more of the most recent cards that celebrate the great Jerry West. This Panini Eminence card just came out last year with a Gold-plated logoman celebrating Jerry West’s famous silhouette being used for the NBA logo. This unusual item was printed in a run of just three copies and it features a classic image of West running on the court in what looks to be a 1970s Lakers jersey. Of course, they’ve also had West sign the item to make it all the more collectible and appealing. Notably, if you look at West’s autograph over the years, it’s definitely been an evolution as he’s gotten older.
While ungraded, this card is sealed up with an Eminence sticker to show that Panini has taken care in the signing and protection of the card. This record price reflects on a copy sold in July 2023 for $2,248 but I can easily see this unique concept card going for more than that in the days ahead, so I’d expect it’s still a great investment if you can get your hands on one of the two remaining copies.
8. 2009 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Numbers Jerry West /44 #NP-JW - $3,705
One of the few sports card lines to challenge the exceptional Panini Prizm line is Upper Deck’s Exquisite Collection. These premium basketball cards offer more than just cardboard to celebrate great players; they come with relics, autographs, and limited editions. This Jerry West card, numbered #NP-JW, has all of these elements. Sporting a classic image you’ll see on another card further up the list, including a Jerry West signature on the right side, and some patches from his uniform below. The print run was limited to 44, West’s jersey number. This pulled out all the stops to make this card special.
This rarity and special features certainly enhance the appeal of this Jerry West card. The Exquisite Collection is printed on high-quality stock and with all of these bonuses included with the card, hopefully anyone who has them is handling them with care. That’s hard to say as not many have been graded. The record price recorded here was paid for a PSA 9 Mint copy, which sold in June 2022 for $3,705. Ungraded copies can go for much less, and are still available for a fraction of that record price As more copies of this excellent card emerge and are properly graded, we may see the card value increase, especially as the aging West is in his mid-80’s and signature cards like this one will get more valuable when he passes away.
7. 1974 Topps #176 Jerry West - $3,997
In his final year of play in the NBA, Jerry West was still putting up impressive numbers. 14 years with the Lakers had already cemented his career as one of the greatest runs in the league. Yet, years of injuries and finally a serious one in his last year showed that it was time to move on. He’d finally claimed an NBA Finals just a couple years before so he certainly had nothing to prove. At 36, he was playing against a lot of players more than a decade younger than him and his last year was more of a supporting role. The time was up, even for the legendary point guard who had been the backbone of the Lakers for ages.
His last card is a fairly standard 1970s Topps card with a basic design and an image of West in his Lakers gear. While Mr. Clutch still looks strong, it’s a far cry from his early 1960s cards with his youthful form in the air near the net. Yet, there’s still a lot to appreciate about the final card featuring him in regular play. While you can find the 1974 Topps #176 Jerry West card for less, a PSA 10 Gem Mint copy was the one that sold in August 2021 for this record price. PSA 9 Mint copies have been sold in recent days for a few hundred to nearly a thousand dollars. A small price to pay, really, for the capstone card from the career of this basketball great.
6. 2020 Panini One and One Timeless Moments Auto Gold Jerry West #TML-JWS /10 - $4,500
This Panini One and One Timeless Moments series was issued with a few variations, including a single Black copy that is currently available for sale for about $18,000. The card captures a quiet moment of Jerry West on the court, awaiting the completion of a free throw. Mr. Clutch was always on the move, so this was always a rare moment of rest for the relentless point guard. The card captures the quiet of this moment brilliantly regardless of which version you get. Even the variants produced in larger quantities are often rare and difficult to find, but they all look amazing.
The Gold copy of that Jerry West card that set this pricing record was a PSA 10 Gem Mint copy and it sold in December 2021 for $4,500. While that single-issue black copy, pictured below, will break this record easily when it is sold, that will shoot the value of this recent card right up to the range of Jerry West’s rookie cards. Such is the power of these lush designs, autographs, and limited editions that have become the norm for modern sports card collecting.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/404201133678
5. 1963 Kahn's Wieners Jerry West - $5,349
In the wild west of basketball card printing in the mid-sixties, the folks at Kahn’s Wieners continued to publish cards to pack with their products. While their 1960 Jerry West card that predates his official rookie card from Fleer has gotten more recognition (more on that further up the list), this 1963 Jerry West card features an excellent action shot for the 1960s. Look at West delivering on an amazing dunk. Even capturing this moment in time with cameras of those days was probably pretty lucky, and we collectors get to enjoy the fruits of that photographer’s labors. If only this has inspired more of the professional sports card printers to think outside the simple posed shot, we’d have had great shots like this decades before they became the norm.
While it’s captured in black-and-white, it’s among the most compelling Jerry West cards around there. Even the back of the card jokingly calls West “the tallest 6’3” ever” and even calls the dunk on the front a ‘stuff-shot’ since he’s using both hands. Helpfully, the text also notes that usually players have to be three inches taller to perform this feat, but West is delivering them anyway. Like the 1960 Kahn’s Wieners card, Jerry West’s signature is emblazoned on the front of the card since the rest of the copy on the front is noting that Kahn’s Wieners is the sponsor.
The card itself is hard to find in ideal shape due to the distribution of these cards through meat packages, but the impressive copy that sold for a record price was graded PSA 9 Mint. That’s as good as it gets for these cards per PSA, which is why it sold in December 2014 for $5,349. Not a lot of them are out on the market, but you can expect if we see more in this kind of condition, they will spike up in price.
4. 1961 Fleer Jerry West Snags a Rebound #66 - $5,577
Fleer didn’t get to produce a lot of basketball cards during their short run with the NBA license at the time (although they’d come back boldly in 1986), but they did get us two excellent Jerry West cards. In addition to his formal rookie card further up the list, this excellent card shines as one of the best cards from a truly iconic set from the early era of basketball cards. While the copy-heavy card steals a lot of space for the team name, the photograph of Jerry West using all of his 6’3” inches of height to grab a rebound still looks amazing for the time.
While sports card photographers would later realize how much we want to see the whole body of a player, especially basketball players who seem to defy gravity in some of these shots. Still, the 1961 Fleer Jerry West Snags a Rebound #66 card has a simple, classic look to it with bands of single-colors, and the often-puzzling Lakers’ giraffe, an off-and-on team mascot that seems to have been birthed out of this Fleer set. Despite a lot of confusion about the origin of that mascot, it’s appeared many times on Lakers’ memorabilia over the years.
While this card’s price has been volatile in recent days, a PSA 9 Mint copy sold in July of 2016 for a record price of $5,577. Since then, more sales in the thousands have happened, along with a handful of lower-grade copies that have sold in the hundreds of dollars. As usual, even one grading point can make all the difference in the world when it comes to pricing and valuation of classic sports cards.
3. 1960 Kahn's Wieners Jerry West - $8,711
Another pre-rookie card featuring Jerry West from the nice folks at Kahn’s Wieners, this card shows you how there were other companies interested in tapping into the increasing power of sports to bring people together in the days before sports card dominance by the popular publishers. Like Entenmann’s with hockey cards, the folks at Kahn’s Wieners enjoyed producing cards like these to honor great basketball players and reward their customers with a special collectible.
Of course, that meant these cards were packaged with Kahn’s meat products, so getting pristine copies of the card can be a bit of a challenge. The card is wonderful for its time and status as a promotional card from a food company. The image is a solid black-and-white photo from 1960, with a cheerful-looking West dribbling the ball on court. They’ve even added a print of his signature on the front since the rest of the copy on the front of the card is promoting the quality of their products. The backside, in a hastily typeset description, does give you the particulars about why Jerry West was so special, noting his many college honors.
Collectors know that Jerry West’s official rookie card is his 1961 Fleer card, but this one came out more than a year earlier. This was issued shortly after Jerry West became the number two pick in the 1960 draft and it also happened just as the Lakers were moving from their home in Minneapolis to the golden shores of Los Angeles. As noted above, these in-pack cards were distributed with Kahn’s food products so it isn’t likely you’ll find a copy without some level of blemish. Per PSA, the rating on the copy that set the record for this card was only a PSA 8 NM-MT, but it still managed to sell for $8,711 back in October of 2011.
2. 1968 Topps Basketball Test Issue Jerry West #19 - $38,167
As collectors, we love rare cards of all types. Misprints, inserts, and test printings are always going to be exciting because we know their limited nature means they are harder to get and will end up being more valuable. So, it’s no surprise that this test printing from 1968 of Jerry West would be one of his more expensive cards. The card itself has an excellent photo of a broadly smiling West with the ball in hand, ready to hit the court. Topps printed just a small number of these test cards and, per the PSA grading database, fewer than 10 have been submitted to them for grading.
Since this card, and others in the 1968 Topps Test Set, were never released commercially, it’s all the more challenging to find a copy. Cards from the set have surfaced now and again, presumably from people with a connection to the Topps organization. As a result, the pricing has been high for even moderately-graded copies of this rare treasure. Thus, in May 2022, a PSA 8 NM-MT copy was sold online for over $38,000, making it one of Jerry West’s most valuable trading cards.
1. 1961 Fleer Jerry West Rookie Card #43 - $87,000
As is often the case, the rookie card is the most valuable card a player ever appears on. Jerry West’s attractive rookie card from Fleer in 1961 is no exception. While a basic 1960s-era rookie card, this cardboard collectible introduces Jerry West to the world with a good description of his accomplishments during his early days in West Virginia. Sporting an Los Angeles Lakers outfit of the time, with his signature “#44” on the front and with what can only be called a slightly awkward city name ft, West looks ready to take on the world in this black-and-white shot with yellow and red. For L.A. Lakers and Jerry West fans, this is the holy grail of basketball cards.
While this card remains at the top of the list of the most expensive Jerry West cards, prices will vary a bit based on the condition of the card. WIth a card that is over sixty years old, it can be hard to find copies in minty-fresh condition. Thus, the sales of recent copies have mostly been in PSA 8 NM-MINT condition, usually selling in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. However, PSA 9 Mint copies of 1961 Fleer Jerry West Rookie Card #43 have sold for considerably more. In August 2021, a copy in this condition sold for $87,000. There are just a handful of these Jerry West rookie cards out there, and none in the PSA system that have hit their top mark, PSA 10 Gem Mint. Thus, we can expect sales of the most pristine copies of this card to sell for even more money in the future.
Jerry West: The Lakers Legends Trading Cards
For Lakers fans, it doesn’t get much better than Jerry West. With his enormous contributions as a player for 14 years, and then acting as a coach and the manager of the team, he helped make L.A.’s best basketball team what it is. His tenure with the team spanned decades and it’s hard to imagine how this team would have excelled for so long without his hand on the court and then on the sidelines.
We hope this list of the 10 most expensive and best Jerry West cards gave you a good overview of his career, while also showing off the best collectibles that commemorate Jerry West’s exceptional career in basketball. As you can see from the frequency with which he’s paired on dual, trio, or quad cards with other Lakers legends, West will always be a big part of the Lakers’ legacy. He came here when the Lakers were just adjusting to playing in the sun instead of the snow, and it’s kind of amazing he’s still around to enjoy the team’s success after he helped build it up so much. We hope this story of “The Logo” who was also “Mr. Clutch'' will inspire you to add some Jerry West cards to your collection. They will remain a solid investment as well as a testament to a career defined by elegance, tenacity, and unparalleled skill. Happy collecting!
