Victor Wembanyama Basketball Cards are skyrocketing in value

It’s happened again. The Victor Wembanyama hype is through the roof, and his sports cards are once again skyrocketing out of the realm of normalcy. This latest wave comes after the Spurs started the season 3-0, with Wembanyama averaging an absurd 33 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 blocks per game. Just take a look at the following chart from Card Ladder, a popular platform for tracking sports card values, showing the rise in his sales prices over the past three months.

Victor Wembanyama Sports Card Prices — https://app.cardladder.com/players/Victor%20Wembanyama

Now Wembanyama has been otherworldly, but does it really warrant this kind of price boost? Take his Panini Prizm Red PSA 10 rookie card numbered to 299, which went from selling for just $3,385 to $5,280 in only three days. Buying on hype, especially when prices for championships and awards are already built in, is risky as it is. But with Wembanyama, that risk feels even higher than usual.

Victor Wembanyama Rookie Card — Victor Wembanyama rookie card that jumped from $3,385 to $5,280 in just three days. | https://www.fanaticscollect.com/weekly/35285b1e-a627-11f0-a5bf-0a58a9feac02

The reason for this is the same reason he was sidelined last year when he looked destined to win the Defensive Player of the Year award: health concerns. Health has always been, and likely always will be, a concern for a 7-foot-3 player as active and mobile as he is. And even if we are willing to look past that, history shows that centers rarely hold long-term value the way guards do. Shaq cards sell for a fraction of Kobe’s, and even all-time greats like Dwight Howard often get outsold by average guards. The data simply doesn’t support going all in on a third-year center with injury concerns and with championships and awards already built into the price.

Shaq vs Kobe Card Prices — A popular 90s Kobe Bryant insert selling for almost four times more than Shaq’s, despite having over three times the population. | https://app.cardladder.com/compare

Again, this season has looked incredible, but he’s played three games. The numbers will adjust, just like no one expects Luka Doncic to keep averaging 46, 9, and 12, or Giannis to sustain 36 and 16. Could Wembanyama prove to be the outlier and sustain his high pricing for the long run? Absolutely. But history suggests the odds are against it.