Wemby, Yamal, Willie Mays, and SGA - Four Card Sales This Week You Simply Have to See
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The Hobby had a big June, with Card Ladder registering over $300 million in sales for the month. With the first six days of July in the books, let's take a look at some of the major sales of this last week.
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Its well know that Wemby snapped his fingers and became a Hobby superstar. From get-go, he's been one of the biggest pieces to the Basketball Hobby puzzle. However, the cards, while still valuable, have dipped somewhat even though his performance has been great and potential plain to see. Perhaps the Wemby market was oversaturated, and of course, there can be hesitance from collectors when investing in a big as tall as Wemby. The news in February that he had developed blood clots and would be shut down for the season also brought some reasonable caution.
However, this week saw a top-end Wemby sale once again break six figures. This 2023 Donruss Optic 1/1 sold for $133,000 on July 3. This is the ninth-biggest Wemby sale of all-time, per Card Ladder, and the biggest solo card sale of his since March 21, when his 2023 National Treasures Logoman Patch 1/1 sold for over $500,000.
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When it comes to The Hobby and The Beautiful Game, it's been the Year of Yamal. Since May 1 alone, we've seen 70 Yamal sales of $10,000 or more. The young phenom has gone from strength-to-strength, from a star turn at 2024's European Championship, to establishing himself as perhaps the best player in the world already. This 2023/24 Topps Inception Red Auto numbered to five sold for $45,100 on July 3. The card, a PSA 10, actually fetched significantly less than a PSA 9 of the card that sold on June 5 for almost $59,000. It will be interesting to see if Yamal cards have reached something a plateau after such an incredible boom. Per Card Ladder, Yamal's 3-month rate of growth is an incredible +182.4% at writing. The 1-month is only +5.34% and the last two weeks have registered a rate of growth of -0.40%.
This beautiful Mays card from the iconic 1952 Topps set is always worthy of mention when it sells. This particular card, a PSA 7, sold on eBay for $44,000. That makes it, per Card Ladder, the third-highest sale of a PSA 7 of all-time, and highest such sale since 2023. The highest grade ever sold remains a PSA 9. In 2016, the top price of that Mays card was reached, when it sold for almost $500,000. Over the last six months, Card Ladder registers a rate of growth of over 5% for Mays cards.
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Only a couple of weeks removed from taking home his first NBA Championship (along with his first NBA Finals MVP Award) SGA has actually seen his card prices go down. You can read more on that in this excellent piece from Collecting on SI writer Jason Neuman. Over the last month, Card Ladder lists SGA's rate of growth at -14.06%. The biggest SGA sale of the week went to this 2018 National Treasures Patch Auto /99. The card, a BGS 9, sold for $33,750 on July 1. At this grade, it's the second-highest sale of all-time, and interestingly, the top three have all come since June 26. For comparison, SGA's 2018 Panini Prizm Gold /10 sold for $132,000 on June 27, down from a high of $152,501 on March 29.
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.
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