Michael Jordan's 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello sold for $2,700,000 at auction Wednesday night. That's the most expensive example of the model ever sold at a public sale.
The price blew past Joopiter's pre-auction estimate of $800,000 to $1,300,000 and more than quadrupled the previous record for a 550 Maranello.
The sale closed at 7 p.m. EDT after two weeks of bidding that drew 43 bids. It marked Joopiter's first auction in partnership with Curated, a dealer specializing in collector and vintage supercars, and the sale pushed the platform into the collector-car market for the first time.
How The Bidding Reached $2.7 Million
The $2,700,000 figure dwarfed Joopiter's own pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.3 million. Joopiter says that price is more than four times the previous auction record for a 550 Maranello. The company didn't disclose what that prior record was. The gap signals how much Jordan's ownership history moved the number.
The sale also doubled as a business milestone. It was Joopiter's first auction run in partnership with Curated, and it pushed the company beyond its existing categories of sports memorabilia, natural history, and cultural artifacts into collector cars.
"Joopiter's entrance into the collector car market marks an exciting expansion for us, and achieving a record price for the Ferrari 550 Maranello in our debut sale speaks to the strength of our collector community," said Caitlin Donovan, Global Head of Sale at Joopiter.
Why This Particular 550 Carries Extra Weight
Ferrari delivered the 550 Maranello new to Jordan in May 1997. The car became tied to the final stretch of his championship years in Chicago.
It's finished in Rosso Barchetta over tan leather and still carries the Illinois plate "MJ 5." Jordan was photographed behind the wheel just hours after winning his fifth NBA championship in June 1997, a detail that helped cement the car's identity well beyond typical Ferrari-collector circles.
Curated CEO John Temerian tied the result to a broader shift in who's buying these cars and why. "This isn't just a world-record price for a Ferrari 550 Maranello. It's a testament to the passion surrounding Michael Jordan, to Ferrari collectors, and to a new generation chasing the icons of the 1990s and early 2000s," he said.
Temerian added that the sale "signals a generational shift in collecting, in what people value, what they consider significant, and ultimately, how they look at these cars as assets."
Gallery: Michael Jordan's 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello
The Decade-Long Search That Found The Car
Jordan sold the 550 Maranello in 2002. From that point the Ferrari disappeared from public view for more than two decades.
Temerian spent roughly ten years tracking it down before finding it this year. Curated's research team worked from Ferrari's historical dealer records to trace the car, eventually locating it with a long-term California owner who had never put it up for public sale.
Temerian ultimately bought it sight unseen.
The car returned to Chicago on May 29, 2026, exactly 29 years to the day after its original delivery to Jordan. That timing set up the Joopiter sale that closed this week at more than double the high end of its estimate.
Collector interest in Ferrari's catalog has stayed strong across eras, from rare 1950s models carrying multimillion-dollar estimates to GTO-era cars pushing toward $70 million, giving the 550's result added context within the broader market for the brand.
