NBA Rookie card stock report: Risers and Fallers for this past week

This is the weekly feature where we look at the NBA rookies and how their performances are reflecting on their 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.

It was quite the week for the rookie class as we've seen the continued ascent of Derik Queen, the emergence of Ace Bailey, and for the first time, the struggles of Cooper Flagg. Ryan Kalkbrenner picked up an injury and Tre Johnson's unexplained minutes restriction was finally explained -- also an injury.

Stock Rising

Derik Queen, New Orleans Pelicans

When we started the rookie card report at the start of the month, Derik Queen was one of the guys we first noticed seeing his market rise. Well, he's gone from this auto going from $15-30 to now consistently selling for over $120 with a recent sale as high as $150. Queen's play has been phenomenal of late. He averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 2.5 steals + blocks. He's also firmly in the NBA Rookie of the Year race.

Egor Demin, Brooklyn Nets

It has been a slow start for the No. 8 pick in the draft, but Egor Demin is starting to heat up a little bit. He's seeing more minutes and his numbers are up, which coincides with his market up as well. His /99 auto was selling for $20-30 this time last week, but now has multiples sales above $50, and one sale on Monday for $70. While he's not exactly breaking out on the court, his market is starting to reflect his additional minutes and better stats.

Stock Holding

Kon Knueppel, Charlotte Hornets

Kon Knueppel has taken over as the NBA Rookie of the Year favorite in your betting market of choice, and now his market is firmly in "hold steady" territory until Topps Chrome drops. His market has kind of plateaued, which is why he's in the stock-holding firm section. His /50 auto has been consistently selling between $800-$1000, depending on whether or not he had a game that day. His latest sale is $915 on Tuesday, and he is starting to gain on Cooper Flagg.

Stock Falling

Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks

Cooper Flagg has been playing really well, but the Mavericks continue to struggle. He's had a rough couple of games from behind the 3-point line, but has overall continued to play better when not playing point guard. This /50 auto had sales of $3850 and $5500 earlier in November, but sold for just $2426 on Tuesday. I think it would be tough for his paper cards to hold the insane value they had around release, but he's still far-and-away the top seller of the class.

Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans Pelicans

The other Pelicans rookie, Jeremiah Fears, has seen his market drop a bit lately despite him playing relatively well. He's taken a bit of a backseat to Queen the last few weeks and that reflects a bit in the card market as well. This Fears /50 was selling for around $115 a few weeks ago, but now has two straight sales at $80. With no autos in the Topps product, I imagine we'll continue to see these drop.