From one-of-a-kind rookie cards and Logoman patches to a triple autograph from three basketball legends that has yet to surface, 2024 was packed with incredible sports cards.
Led by releases from Topps and Panini America, a handful of cards stood above the rest, however, and captivated the hobby and its many collectors.
Here are cllct’s top five sports cards that were released in 2024.
2024 Olympic Games Topps NOW LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant Auto 1/1
Of all the cards released in 2024, none was chased as passionately as the Topps NOW James/Curry/Durant triple autograph.
At the time, collectors purchased a Topps NOW-record 588,035 orders of the base card, hoping to pull the autograph. A number of high-profile collectors even offered six-figure bounties for the card or spots in an upcoming auction.
Months after the redemption for the card was mailed out, it remains one of the most important cards ever created that has yet to surface publicly.
Not even Topps knows where the triple-autograph card is — a third-party auditor did ensure the redemption was randomly included in an order and sent — and it likely remains trapped inside one of the 1,688 sealed packs that contain short prints or parallels. Those sealed packs have sold for as much as $4,000 on the secondary market and have recently fetched $2,000.
2024 Topps Chrome Update Paul Skenes Rookie Debut Patch Autograph 1/1
In 2023, Topps set out to create the ultimate rookie card with the Rookie Debut Patch Autograph. Featuring a one-of-a-kind patch created for and worn only during a player’s MLB debut, the hope was the cards would become the most coveted for each rookie.
Now in their second season as part of Topps Chrome Update, the RDPA set has captivated the hobby while backed by a dynamic rookie class that includes Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Holliday, Jackson Chourio and more.
Of those rookies, none is more sought after than Skenes — even the Pittsburgh Pirates desperately want the card.
It’s hard to know how much the Skenes RDPA will sell for when it is inevitably pulled, but secondary-market prices are encouraging.
Junior Caminero’s RDPA recently sold at auction for $66,000 to set a record for any RDPA and any Caminero card.
Jackson Chourio’s RDPA reportedly sold privately for $105,000 in December, though that sale has yet to be confirmed publicly.
2024 Topps 50/50: Shohei Ohtani Dynasty Black Logoman 1/1
Baseball and the hobby at large was dominated by Shohei Ohtani in 2024.
Of course there’s the $4.4 million sale of his 50th home run ball, which set a record for any ball sold at auction. Home runs No. 51 and No. 54 even fetched $427,000 and $158,600 each, respectively.
To celebrate Ohtani’s historic 50/50 season, Topps released a special Shohei Ohtani: 50/50 set dedicated to the Dodgers superstar. Among the chase cards included is a special Dynasty Black Logoman 1/1 card featuring the MLB logo from the pants Ohtani was wearing when he hit home run No. 50.
The set includes two other Dynasty Black 1/1s — they feature the batting gloves Ohtani wore — though the pants will be the most sought after. The Ohtani Dynasty Black cards are also among the first to land as part of a new initiative from Topps to include more Logoman cards for baseball’s top stars.
2023/24 Panini Prizm FOTL Victor Wembanyama Black Shimmer 1/1
If the cards of the year were determined by quantity and not quality, Wembanyama’s 2023 Prizm Base PSA 10 would win in a landslide with a population of more than 24,000 and more than 7,000 sales over the last year, according to data tool Market Movers.
As expected, Wembanyama was one of the hobby’s most popular athletes in 2024, while backed by staggering grading numbers and even his own dedicated ultra high-end set that retailed for $8,000 per box.
Wembanyama’s best card to sell this year was, by far, his Black Shimmer 1/1 from Prizm First Off the Line, which fetched $516,000 at PWCC in April.
To date, the Wembanyama market has been complicated, with Panini America holding exclusive rights to make licensed NBA trading cards with team names and logos, while Fanatics holds Wembanyama’s autograph rights.
So far, the hobby has placed a higher premium on high-end licensed parallels than unlicensed autographed cards.
In addition to the high-end parallels, Panini has also delivered a number of highly-coveted insert sets, such as Kaboom, Downtown and Color Blast, that many collectors have again preferred over some of the top unlicensed cards.
2024 Panini Select WNBA Caitlin Clark Signatures Gold Vinyl 1/1
Like Wembanyama, Caitlin Clark was among the most popular athletes for collectors in 2024. She saw staggering grading numbers, and her cards set multiple records.
Prior to a flagship WNBA release, Clark’s Panini Instant cards sold with extreme volume.
Then in October, Panini released Origins WNBA, which featured Clark’s first pro rookie cards from a traditional release. Unlike the market for Wembanyama, Clark’s licensed cards and autographs are consolidated under Panini, and collectors have swarmed to those products accordingly.
Panini followed WNBA Origins with Select WNBA — Select has long been one of Panini’s most popular brands — and the result was the $235,850 paid for a Clark Gold Vinyl Autograph 1/1 PSA 10/10 at Goldin in December, a record for any Clark or WNBA card to date.
The upcoming Prizm WNBA set will likely be the most important WNBA product ever released, and Clark’s top chases are expected to immediately challenge the current record.
Honorable mention: 2023 Bowman University Chrome LeBron James/Bronny James Dual Autograph Superfractor 1/1
For a moment, the LeBron James/Bronny James Superfractor 1/1 was arguably the most important card released in 2024. It arrived alongside the shocking news that, after decades with Upper Deck, LeBron would begin signing autographs exclusively for Topps and Fanatics.
Expectations for Bronny were still relatively high at the time, and the card sold for $114,000 at PWCC in March.
Since then, Bronny has struggled to stick in the NBA and his card market has shifted accordingly.
Though Bronny's cards aren’t as highly sought after anymore, his game-worn memorabilia has done extremely well at auction, with a jersey from the 2024 NBA Las Vegas Summer League selling for $38,400 at Sotheby’s in September.
In December, a pair of jerseys worn by LeBron and Bronny during the Lakers’ season-opener, where they became the first father-son duo to share a court together, sold for $102,000 at Sotheby’s.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.