12/5 NBA Rookie Card Report: Who is Hot? Who is Not?

This is the weekly feature where we look at the NBA rookies and how their performances are reflecting on their card market. It's safe to say this class is living up to the considerable hype as more of the lottery talents are moving into their respective starting lineups. With just the 2025-26 Topps Flagship out so far, we'll be monitoring those cards. Additionally, with not enough data yet for the rookies on CardLadder, we'll just be monitoring a few select cards of each player.

We've seen the rookie class really start to take off in the last few weeks as the stars have started to expand their roles. We also got the return of the No. 2 pick, Dylan Harper, from injury to more normal minutes in the last week, which will only further boost this rookie class. The market has hit a bit of a lull as we wait for Topps Chrome to ship, but on the plus side, we'll have more data soon.

RELATED: 11/28 Rookie Card Report

Stock Rising

Dylan Harper, San Antonio Spurs

The No. 2 overall pick is back in action and after taking a few games to get back up to speed we saw him score 15 points in just 21 minutes on Tuesday against Memphis. The market is starting to respond as well as this /99 auto from 2025-26 Topps Flagship hit a low of $130, but bounced back after Tuesday's performance with a $202.50 sale which is more in line with what he was seeing before his injury.

Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans Pelicans

Fears was in our stock down category last week, but a big week has his stock soaring. This true gold /50 from Topps Flagship sold for just $38 on Nov. 19th, but was up to $132.50 on Dec. 1st and then $190 confirmed the morning of Dec. 5th. With Fears' play improving, it shouldn't be suprising to see his market taking a big jump after gamedays.

Ryan Nembhard, Dallas Mavericks

Well, here's a unique situation for us -- Ryan Nembhard doesn't have any rookie cards in 2025-26 Topps Flagship. However, he's been playing so well he's only been outscored by his fellow teammate, Cooper Flagg, for rookie scoring last week. He's averaged 17.7 points of late, with a standout 28-points and 10 assists against Denver. This is his 1st Bowman /50 from 2022-23 Bowman Chrome basketball, which was selling around $3 for most of the last year, but sold for $20 on Wednesday. We'll need more data for him, but he's worth mentioning and monitoring for now.

Stock Down

VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia 76ers

Edgecombe came out of the gates flying to start the season, and while he has cooled off a bit, he is still playing well. However, he missed some time around Thanksgivng and his market has taken a noticeable dip since. With no autos in the product, we are keeping our eyes on the Topps Chrome Gold /50 silver park insert, it was selling for as high as $1300 around release date, but the last two slaes have been $730 and $560.

Tre Johnson, Washington Wizards

Well, we finally figured out why Johnson's minutes were limited before Thanksgiving thanks to an injury and now with Johnson on the sideline, his card market is hitting the skids as well. Johnson has no autos in 2025-26 Topps Flagship, but monitoring his gold /50 it is down big in the last month. With sales at or above $100 in early November, before the calendar turned to December his /50 last sold for $61. Unfortunately, the first sale in December was $43. Once healthy, the No. 6 overall pick should see his market bounce back.