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Serena Williams is breaking records without even touching the tennis court.
Earlier this week, tennis' G.O.A.T shattered an auction record after her autographed rookie card from 2003 sold for $44,280. This is the highest sale ever of a women athletes' sport card, and brook a nearly 30-year record previously held by star soccer player Mia Hamm, whose rookie card sold for $34,440 in 1993.
According to ESPN, Williams' autographed card was acquired by Alt –– an alternative-asset trading platform –– for a private client.
"People are accepting women's trading cards as collectibles," Ken Goldin, leader and founder of Goldin Auctions, said. "We've seen that gradually increase over the past three years, with a heavy increase in the second half of 2020 up through 2021."
Goldin said this increase is because people are forming "GOAT collections" of sports memorabilia.
"The effect you have with Serena is that there are a lot of people putting together GOAT collections. They want Pele, Ali, Jordan, Tiger, Brady ... and they include Serena."
Williams hasn't graced the court since July after leaving Wimbledon due to an injury. She recently announced that her 2021 season was over but the 23-time grand slam champion is still busy, giving back and making moves.
The highly-anticipated King Richard biopic is on its way to theaters next month, which features a new song by Serena's good friend Beyoncé.
Williams is also teaming up with Michael B. Jordan to do a $1 million startup competition at the actor's HBCU Basketball Classic happening next month, too.
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