Given that Victor Wembanyama made a list of the most graded baseball cards earlier this year, it should come as no surprise that collectors are getting his trading cards graded at a rate that far outstrips the cards of any other NBA player over the 2024 offseason. According to grading company PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), from June through August of this year more than 132,000 Wembanyama cards were submitted to them — more than the next nine NBA players on the list combined.
PSA’s Top 10 most graded NBA players during 2024 offseason (based on volume of cards PSA graded from June 2024 to August 2024) :
- Victor Wembanyama: ~132,000 cards
- Anthony Edwards: ~34,000
- LeBron James: ~20,000
- Brandon Miller: ~17,000
- Luka Doncic: ~13,000
- Stephen Curry: ~11,000
- Scoot Henderson: ~8,000
- Amen Thompson: ~7,000
- Derrick Lively II: ~6,000
- Jayson Tatum: ~6,000
Grading is a process in which a third-party company examines cards or other collectibles and certifies their condition based on factors ranging from sharpness of corners to image centering and much more, usually on a scale from 1-10, with the latter being close to perfect. PSA is by far the largest grading company in the industry and cards that carry a PSA 10 grade can demand a significant premium on the market.
The rate at which a player’s cards are graded can be an indicator of how strongly collectors believe in their market value. Wembanyama, the NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year, has inspired frenzied interest since before he even entered the league and it has held strong going into his second season. In April, his most expensive card to date — the one-of-a-kind 2024 Panini Prizm Black Shimmer First Off The Line #136 graded a PSA 9 — sold at auction for $516,000. Earlier this month, Topps sold the Mercury: Victor Wembanyama set for a whopping $8,000 per box. Each box contains eight rookie cards, including at least two autographed cards. Sealed boxes of that product are now selling for around $10,000 each on eBay.
PSA’s Top 5 Victor Wembanyama graded cards (based on volume of cards PSA graded from June 2024 to August 2024):
- 2023 Panini Prizm #136
- 2023 Panini Select #87 (blue parallel)
- 2023 Panini Prizm Monopoly #81
- 2023 Panini Donruss Optic #225
- 2023 Panini Donruss #220
Realizing his appeal, card manufacturers Panini and Topps have been producing a much larger variety of Wembanyama cards than they do for most players (hence why he’s even appearing in baseball sets). As a result, his total number of cards on the market, and number of graded cards, is rapidly rising even though he’s only been in the NBA for one season. Before too long, he could even have more graded cards than Michael Jordan, perhaps the most collected athlete of all time.
“Given the influx of new products in the coming years where Victor Wembanyama could remain a primary chase, it seems possible that he could surpass Michael Jordan in the future,” PSA President Ryan Hoge told The Athletic. “Michael Jordan has long been the gold standard of the hobby, especially in the modern era, and the demand for his cards and other greats at his level will always remain strong. But the available supply isn’t constantly growing like that of Wemby’s.
“In recent years, we’ve seen a significant shift where newer, elite athletes like Wemby are gaining more traction and growing at a faster pace in the market, especially with newer collectors. What’s most interesting about Wemby is that demand for his cards has grown so much in a short amount of time. Wembanyama is already the most-graded current/active basketball player at PSA in 2024, and to date he’s ranks at No. 7 most-graded basketball player of all time, based on all-time volumes of cards graded: (No. 1) Michael Jordan — 1,128,739 cards graded to date, (No. 7) Victor Wembanyama — 335,871 cards graded to date. The rapid pace at which Wembanyama is rising could indeed lead to him surpassing some of the all-time greats in graded cards sooner than we might expect.”
Given that supply and demand for Wembanyama cards have both been high, it has kept prices around his most graded cards in check to some degree. His 2023 Prizm #136 card is already one of the 30 most graded cards of all time in PSA’s database, surpassing cards that have been on the market for up to decades longer. As a result, a PSA 10 graded copy of it currently costs less than $100, according to Card Ladder, which tracks sales across top online marketplaces. That’s down from the more than $500 it was going for at the start of 2024, which the set first came out.
There is one other basketball player currently seeing explosive growth in collector interest: Caitlin Clark.
“It’s not an equal comparison due to a number of factors, however, Caitlin Clark has made a massive statement on the hobby and women’s sports overall,” Hoge said. “She’s the clear No. 1 most-collected and most-graded women’s basketball player this year, and has generated record-breaking demand for women’s basketball cards. So far in 2024, Clark had the largest increase in PSA-graded cards among all basketball players, and Wemby had the second-largest increase over the same time period. Both athletes are seeing growth at rapid rates, which we will continue to see because the demand for the highest quality cards becomes the top priority in thriving markets and categories.”
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(Top photo: Ronald Cortes/Getty Images; card image: PSA)
