Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Brunson Square Off as Card Market Looks On
In this story:
Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton and New York Knicks talisman Jalen Brunson have been two of the best stories of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Haliburton has led his Pacers with some incredible late-game heroics, as has Mr. Clutch himself, living up to his name in the weeks since winning the 2025 NBA Clutch Player of the Year Award. Now, the two guards square off with a spot in the NBA Finals on the line. WIth legacies at stake, the card market will be watching with great interest. Let's take a look at where things stand as we get set for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Unsurprisingly, both Haliburton and Brunson have seen some big sales during their respective playoff runs. For Haliburton, the biggest sale at writing, per Card Ladder, comes in at $9,900 for this PSA 9 2020 Donruss Optic Black 1/1, which sold on May 18.
RELATED: Haliburton For the Win, His Cards Resurge
This PSA 10 Brunson 2018 Panini Prizm /5 sold for $7,499, also on May 18. Card Ladder registers only two sales of the card at this grade, with this sale representing an increase from the $6,999 the card sold for in July of 2024.
RELATED: Downtown, Kaboom, & Color Blast Prices of Conference Final NBA Teams
Tyrese Haliburton's Card Ladder Rate of Growth has increased by almost 9% over the last two weeks. When it comes to Card Ladder's market cap metric Haliburton sits at $2.6 million, just ahead of the likes of LaMelo Ball, Devin Booker, and Donovan Mitchell. Trae Young and Zion Williamson are the two active players just ahead of Haliburton, and one has to wonder if he can start to track them down if he can lift Indiana onto the big stage of an NBA Finals.
RELATED: Jalen Brunson's Play and Cards Both Reach New Levels
Interestingly, Brunson's rate of growth per Card Ladder is nearly identical to Haliburtons, increasing by 9.26% over the last two weeks. Brunson's market cap metric places him in a class with the likes of De'Aaron Fox and Tyrese Maxey. It's fair to think that interest in Brunson is set to climb, particularly if he can take the big-market New York Knicks to the Finals.
A PSA 10 Haliburton 2020 Panini Prizm White Sparkle RC sold for $1,450 on May 20. Card Ladder lists 13 sales of this card and grade, and this is the top of the bunch. On May 15, the card sold for $1,405. The 13 sales range from $455 - $1,450.
Meanwhile, this PSA 10 2018/19 Panini Prizm Blue Prizm /199 color match from Brunson's days in Dallas, sold twice on May 21, for $1,750 and $2,000. Card Ladder resgisters 24 sales of this card and grade, with these two sales being the biggest yet listed, by quite some distance. Before these sales, the 22 previous listings range from $120 - $1,325. As recently as May 8, this card sold for $1,300.
All in all, both of these stars have had to work incredibly hard for years to break into the NBA elite. Now, both of them stand only four wins from a trip to the NBA Finals, and perhaps, another leap into the upper echelons of basketball and The Hobby.
Michael Terry is a writer based in Brooklyn. He specializes in sports, culture, and collecting. His work has appeared at Topps RIPPED, ESPN, Grantland, Vice Sports, and more.
Follow michael_a_terry