Cards
Wemby joins Jordan, Kobe, LeBron and Curry to fuel ‘super hot’ basketball card market
Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have all been generational talents on the basketball court.
That trio has combined to electrify fans for the last 40-plus years. Their popularity is sky high with card collectors.
But there’s a new sheriff in town. With his dazzling performance in the NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama has entered the conversation of being a generational talent.
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At just 22 years old, Wemby could be a force in the league for another two decades.
Collectors have gravitated to Wemby’s dynamic play, causing his cards to explode in value. When his 2023-24 Panini Prizm Black 1/1 card sold for $5.11 million in April, it further drove home just how hot basketball cards overall have become.
“Basketball as a whole has the deepest collector base for your more modern cards, so there’s been a ton of action as of late in basketball,” said Acquire founder Jesse Craig, who brokers private sales of cards. “You’ve seen the record-setting sales with Wemby. We’ve been privately having some record-setting sales that can’t be made public but they’re basketball as well.
“There’s just always massive demand for Jordan, Kobe, Curry, LeBron. Jordan is, obviously, at the top of that list but those four players might be half of our business.”
That point was hammered home last year when a #1/1 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Auto card of Jordan and Kobe sold for a record $12.9 million at Heritage Auctions. The sale not only shattered the basketball card record ($5.9 million for a Steph Curry card), but it surpassed the all-time sports card record of $12.6 million for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle.
Sports Card Investor founder and Cards HQ owner Geoff Wilson has felt the effect of the ever-growing basketball market. It rivals the popularity of the worldwide appeal of soccer.
“The money is really poured into the best of the best in terms of both the names and the cards,” Wilson said. “So, obviously, the Michael Jordan market has been very hot, the Kobe Bryant market’s been very hot, the Steph Curry market’s been very hot, the LeBron James market’s been very hot, and the Victor Wembanyama market’s very hot. I think those five have been the hottest names in the basketball card market, and all of their cards have gotten significant attention with some really, really big dollars being committed to their top cards.”
In Asia, the popularity of basketball is immense. When Chinese star Yao Ming entered the NBA nearly 25 years ago, overseas interest in basketball skyrocketed. China still has a huge basketball card following, and Japan isn’t too far behind.
Tatsuo Shinke, CEO of Mint Sports Cards and Games, Japan’s largest chain of sports card stores, has watched the popularity of basketball cards continue to climb over the years.
“Our stores frequently welcome tourists not just from China, but also from Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and more. For these visitors, NBA cards are a top priority.
“Interestingly, demand isn’t just limited to active players like Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama. There is huge interest in singles of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and other stars from the ’90s and 2000s. Since Japan has had a strong NBA card culture since that era, we are able to buy back vintage collections from our long-time customers and showcase them today. Being able to bridge generations and borders by delivering these ‘cultural heritages’ of the hobby to the people who seek them now is truly wonderful.”
MJ CONTINUES TO SOAR
Jordan hasn’t played in the NBA in nearly a quarter century but his card prices continue to rise at a steady pace.
According to Card Ladder, over the last year, Jordan cards as a whole are up 93%.
At the end of April, Goldin registered its largest sale of all time when a 1997-98 Upper Deck Game Jersey card of Jordan went for $4.25 million. That included a jersey swatch worn in the 1992 All-Star Game and Jordan’s autograph. Numbered #11/23, the card is graded PSA 6 with a 9 autograph.
In the past year, in-person autographed cards of MJ—especially on his 1984 Star #101 and 1986 Fleer examples—have been red hot.
In mid-June and October 2025, a pair of 1986 Fleer signed Jordan cards, both PSA 9 with 10 autographs, sold for $2.5 and $2.7 million, respectively.
In early March of this year, a 1984 Star #101 autographed Jordan in a BGS 8.5 with a 10 auto sold for $542,900. A 1984-85 Star Court Kings #26 signed by Jordan in the mid-to-late 1980s and graded a 6 by CGC/JSA went for $114,000 in early June 2026.
“Michael Jordan very rarely signs, so those cards are low population, not a lot of them out there and people see it as an even more rare version of the rookie cards,” Wilson said. “I’ve been on this for years. I’ve been kind of beating the drum about vintage on-card autographs—and those aren’t truly the vintage era, but they’re rare on-card autographs. The population in 1984 Star Jordan or 1986 Fleer Jordan is so much lower than the population as a whole of that card without the autograph. Jordan’s not going to sign very many of those.”
Forty years ago, when Jordan rookie cards were produced, serial numbered and autographed cards didn’t exist. It was once considered faux pas for collectors to get players to sign their cards, especially their important rookies. But that’s not at all true for Jordan on-card autographs.
“The fact that you don’t have any options from ’84 Star or ’86 Fleer for autographed cards—there’s just no autograph cards during that era and they’re not serial numbered—that makes it a lot tougher to make an argument that you shouldn’t sign these cards,” Craig said. “I want a Michael Jordan rookie card and I want it signed. Well, that sounds like a real reasonable thing but you start signing some of these other cards, they’re going to be more controversial. If a card’s numbered out of 50, the purists in the space, they like the card itself and don’t think it needs an autograph, then you’re going to have some guys that love it and some guys that hate it. I don’t think there’s really any controversy to ’86 Fleer or ’84 Star autos, I think they’re great.”
Since a large quantity of collectors have bought into the fact that Star cards are a viable brand and PSA started grading them again four years ago after a long period of time of abstaining, prices of Jordan’s cards have reacted strongly.
Remarkably, Jordan’s Star #101 cards in a PSA 7 have now eclipsed $100,000.
“That card has gone up 20 times or more in the last 10 years,” Craig said.
With the Star #101 fetching such high figures, it has priced out a lot of collectors who have chosen to move onto other Star Jordan cards. The hottest of those Star cards is the Olympic Gold Medalist #195 and the NBA Rookie of the Year #288.
“There are multiple options within the ’84 Star, which is kind of cool and I really like that,” Craig said. “There’s different photo variations and different cards, but then for ’86 Fleer you can just go down the grade and that’s it.”
A 1984 Star Olympic Gold Medalist #195 Jordan in a PSA 7 sold in January 2024 for $3,973. Fast forward to the end of May this year and that same card went for $35,400—an increase of 791% in less than 2½ years.
Another example of the explosion of Jordan Star cards is his 1985 Star Gatorade Slam Dunk #7—a BGS 8.5 sold for a record-high $15,600 at the end of May. One year earlier, that card was purchased for $2,250, which is up 593.33%.
“The entire Star market started with the Star 101, but it has spilled over to the other 1984 Star cards like the Olympic card and the Rookie of the Year card,” said Wilson, who bought a Star #101 in a PSA 8 at the 2022 National Sports Collectors Convention. “Now, it’s gone beyond that and it’s gone into his subsequent sets of Star. I think people are realizing that these are Michael Jordan’s earliest licensed cards, and they are also a lot rarer than his 1986 Fleer card. So, I think the collector community didn’t value that for decades, they didn’t really place the value on that. But now things have shifted and people are really looking for those rare cards to hold.”
As Jordan Star cards continue to hit all-time highs, his 1986 Fleer cards haven’t made it back up to the lofty COVID prices. At the peak of the Jordan craze during the pandemic, a pair of PSA 10s sold for $738,000. That grade card now fetches about $350,000, but PSA 9s are up to $40,000-50,000 now.
“That one’s going to take longer, because it’s a higher population card and I think the taste of the sports card community has shifted somewhat,” Wilson said. “I think the sports card community as a whole right now is really valuing rarity. His 1986 Fleer is not that rare of a card, even in a PSA 10 condition, compared to a lot of the other cards that are currently setting all-time highs.”
Jordan insert cards from the late 1990s are really having a moment and setting record prices. Rare, numbered versions of Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems (PMG), Molten Metal, Exquisite and refractors from Jordan’s playing days are all the rage.
A Jordan 1998 Skybox Molten Metal Fusion /250 #41 BGS 9.5 sold for $103,800 at the end of May 2026. Just 14 months earlier, that card sold for $29,280.00, an increase of 254.51%.
“Over the years, as innovations like refractors, Legacy Collections, Precious Metal Gems, autographs, jerseys and patch cards emerged, they captured collectors’ attention and surpassed these two rookie cards in both popularity and value,” Shinke said. “The old maxim I learned when I started collecting—‘the rookie card is the origin and the pinnacle of collecting’—seemed to have become a thing of the past.
“Recently, however, we’ve seen a massive resurgence of that classic philosophy, and these two cards are the ultimate symbols of that revival. That being said, not many people in Japan actually own them. When basketball cards peaked in Japan during the late ’90s, high-impact hits like autographs were just hitting the market. Consequently, while collectors knew these iconic rookies existed, they prioritized the newer, flashy hits, making the vintage rookies harder to pull the trigger on. If someone in Japan holds one today, it’s considered incredibly cool.”
WEMBY FACTOR
After his run in the NBA Finals, it’s a safe to say Wembanyama is the hottest current NBA player to collect.
Jimmy Mahan—who owns five card shops, including Kentucky Roadshow in Lexington, Ky.—received an interesting message earlier this year.
“I had a general manager for an NBA team I was introduced to through a former NBA player and he asked me, ‘Can you get me a couple different guys, including Wemby? I don’t care what it is. And Jordan is another one of these old vintage players that I love.’ He didn’t care what it cost, he would cover it,” Mahan said.
“For an NBA GM to text me and say, give me an older card like the old generational talent of Jordan and a newer card of Wemby—and I can tell you he was not associated with the Bulls or the Spurs—he’s saying, outside my organization, we all saw Jordan, but give me one of this and one of this. To me, that was a pretty awesome juxtaposition of generational and generational. What a cool thing.”
In Mahan’s eyes, Wemby has really sparked interest in the NBA from younger collectors and casual fans. The “Wemby factor,” as Mahan calls it, can’t be overstated.
“I think you have a generational thing occurring that you haven’t seen since that year three Steph Curry,” Mahan said. “Everybody likes to collect a Cade Cunningham or Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or someone like that, these are great players, these are MVPs, but when you see a Wemby, a Curry, a generational, game-changing event occur, it attracts everybody. It is a moth to a flame when somebody like Wemby comes along. Where casual fans not only watch the game, they call me and they say, ‘Jimmy, how do I get a card of this guy?’
“He’s a 7-foot-5 crossover, top-of-the-key, pullup 3-pointer guy and block everything and dunk everything. That to me is a huge part of this, where you see a great MVP like Shai or an MVP like a young player, but you don’t see a 7-foot-5 guy do this. You don’t see a Steph Curry pull up from 35 feet and hit on a consistent amount of 3s. You don’t see those for every 25 years, and I think that drives a huge amount of people to the product.”
So, what Wemby cards are hottest at the moment?
Wilson says Wemby cards are hot across the board. But his 2023 Topps Mercury cards, which are unlicensed, have been fetching crazy numbers. Wilson knows that firsthand. In early May, he had his sights set on Wemby’s 2023 Topps Mercury Wingspan Autograph Superfractor in a PSA 9 through an auction on Goldin. Wilson was willing to bid between $50,000-$80,000; however, his pricing wasn’t nearly high enough
“I couldn’t believe how high it went for. It went for over $120,000, and I was the under bidder on it,” Wilson said. “It was a huge result for that card.”
Just two months earlier, Wemby’s first licensed autographed Superfractor from the 2025 Topps Chrome release sold on Goldin for $488,000.
The highest sale for a Wemby card was in February 2025 when his 2023-24 Panini Prizm Nebula Choice one-of-one in a PSA 9 went for $860,100.
Bryant, who passed away six years ago, has had his cards constantly going up.
“You always have a correlation between Kobe and MJ,” Craig said. “So, if an MJ sale happens, all of a sudden, you go, ‘Oh, MJ’s about two times Kobe. So, we know if an MJ sold for a million—depending on some outside factors—you can kind of count on Kobe being about a half a million.”
And just like Jordan, it’s the late 1990s inserts of Bryant that have caught fire. At the end of April this year, a 1997 PMG Green Bryant (one of 10) in a PSA 5 sold for a record $3.15 million.
“A lot of those late ’90s inserts, the Star Rubies, the Precious Metal Gems, the Molten Metal, the Fusion cards, those are all super hot,” Wilson said. “Prizm Golds are very hot from 2012 through last year. Kabooms, before they had color variations, the Golds in recent years, have been extremely hot.”
TOPPS ROOKIES
When Topps was able to start producing licensed basketball cards again in October 2025, it helped the basketball market surge as well. The iconic Chrome brand was back, and collectors were ready.
“I think it plays into it a lot, because I think what’s happening is Topps and Fanatics have done an excellent job of marketing sports cards and building excitement and hype,” Wilson said. “I think they’ve been very successful in getting a lot of new people to pay attention to cards. These people are entering and they may be buying a box of a new Topps product when they enter. But they start to look back to the past and that’s when you see the purchases of some of these Kobe cards and Jordan cards.”
Having a really good rookie class in Topps’ first licensed set back? Well, that was just icing on the cake.
The top five picks in the 2025 NBA Draft all had strong seasons. Top selection Cooper Flagg led the way with No. 4 pick Kon Knueppel and No. 3 V.J. Edgecombe not far behind. No. 2 pick Dylan Harper took a big step forward during the playoffs.
“It was a wonderful time for Topps to take over the license,” Wilson said. “Cooper Flagg cards have been super hot, too. I put him below the other names I mentioned, but as like the next one down, like sixth place in the hottest basketball cards. Kon Knueppel, his cards were hot all season long. You’re seeing Dylan Harper cards heat up as well.”
Having a strong rookie class was a massive win for the entire collecting community, noted Shinke. But it’s especially great for younger and new collectors entering the hobby.
“This year, while everyone entered the season hunting for Cooper Flagg, the checklist offers deep satisfaction because you can hit high-quality rookies in almost every pack—whether it’s VJ Edgecombe, who dominated from opening night, Dylan Harper, who made a spectacular run to the Finals, or Kon Knueppel, who was a top contender for Rookie of the Year,” Shinke said.
“Securing these rookie cards during their debut year allows collectors to invest in and enjoy their careers over the long haul, creating a much deeper personal attachment to the players. With so many new collectors in the market right now, this class provides incredibly positive momentum.”
