Rare Tom Brady card, owned by Saco man, to be auctioned

SCARBOROUGH — One of just 20 special football cards featuring Tom Brady in the year he won his first Super Bowl is coming up for auction.

A 2002 Topps Finest X-Fractor card showing football quarterback Tom Brady rests inside a transparent case last week in Gorham. Troy Thibodeau from Saco River Auction estimates the card will fetch six figures when it’s auctioned on Jan. 31.

The 2002 Topps Finest X-Fractor card is expected to draw six figures, underscoring the hot market for memorabilia associated with the quarterback dubbed the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time, said Troy Thibodeau from Saco River Auction. Brady won his first Super Bowl on Feb. 3, 2002.

The card was purchased in 2002 by a collector in Saco who took an interest in Brady’s connection to the Michigan football program, Thibodeau said.

“Although he had just won a Super Bowl, he wasn’t the Tom Brady that we know now,” he said. “No one thought Brady would become the GOAT.”

X-Fractor cards change appearance depending on light. Another of the 20 sold for $75,000 but the card that Saco River Auction is putting up for sale on Jan. 31 is the only one to achieve the highest-grade offered by Professional Sports Authenticator, Thibodeau said.

No one is hotter than Brady for collectible sports cards. A signed rookie football card sold for $2.25 million last year. Then that was topped a few months later with another signed rookie card at $3.1 million.

Brady, 44, began his professional football career with the New England Patriots, where he won six Super Bowls. He won a seventh Super Bowl after signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has played in the game 10 times.

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