Paolo Banchero cards to collect before the 2025-26 NBA season begins
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Heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, the Orlando Magic are poised and projected to make a deep run for this year’s NBA Championship. The centerpiece to their success has been their star: 2023 Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero.
At only 22 years old, Banchero has been a major part of the Magic’s Playoff runs in the last two years; with trade movement and FIBA success in the offseason, Banchero, along with Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, and Desmond Bane, are no longer rookies on the rise, but believable contenders.
Though Paolo has been a hot commodity in the card market since he declared for the NBA Draft in 2022, there is still room for growth if he maintains his steady ascent and overall good health. There are plenty of options for every type of modern collector looking to add P5 to their card case.
Standard Paolo Banchero Card Fare
The best place to start with any modern basketball star is Panini Prizm. As the number one draft pick in 2022, Paolo is firmly set in the Panini era with easily attainable and emblematic cards of the time.
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The 2022 Panini Prizm #249 base is Banchero’s most-graded card by PSA with 2,921, followed by the Silver Prizm with 2,578 according to Gemrate. As the stalwart product for Panini, these two parallels are both reasonably priced and readily available. The highest sale of this card, however, was the gold /10 parallel in a PSA 10 that sold for $36,000 in May of 2023.
Paolo Banchero Case Hits
With Paolo joining the NBA in 2022, he hit the sweet spot of established Panini products and the limited time before Topps obtained the NBA license. Amongst those products are some of the most identifiable and coveted case hits.
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Two of the most popular case hit inserts across the hobby are Kaboom and Downtowns. The top Paolo Kaboom is from his rookie year and appears in 2022 Panini Crown Royal while his rookie Downtown comes out of 2022 Panini One and One.
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For another staple case hit, Color Blast, Banchero shows up with the insert in Prizm, Prizm Monopoly and Obsidian, and even has a dual with Magic legend Shaquille O’Neal. His most prominent Color Blast, however, is from Spectra. The horizontal rookie card from 2022-23 doesn’t come up for sale often and the highest sale price of $4,250 in September 2023, but with non-rookie and college versions of the Color Blast, there are plenty of more affordable options.
High End Paolo Banchero Cards
For collectors interested in Banchero’s higher end products, look no further than 2022 Panini NBA National Treasures. Attributes like on-card autographs, rookie shield logo, and numbering no higher than /99 facilitates the aura and enticement of the true RPA (rookie patch autograph) sought after by collectors. Paolo’s highest-selling card is his 2022 Panini NBA National Treasures one-of-one RPA Logoman in a PSA 10 at $158,612.20 in March of 2024.
Also popular for higher-end NBA cards is Panini Flawless. For Paolo, 2022-23 Flawless allows for some beautiful designs with on-card autographs and player-worn patches. His highest-selling Flawless card is a horizontal dual logoman of Banchero and the king himself, LeBron James at $59,630 in May of 2024. There are, however, many Flawless cards of Paolo in his Magic uniform available for under $1,000, if you want to add a high-end brand to your collection at a more affordable rate.
Paolo Banchero and the rest of the Orlando Magic squad kick off their 2025-26 season in a home game against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:00PM EDT.
Lauren is a writer, collector, Orlando Magic basketball fan, and artist. Her writing can also be found on Hobby News Daily. You can follow her at instagram.com/laurengoeshere.