Victor Wembanyama was having exactly the sophomore season everyone expected.
On the court, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year was the runaway favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year in his second season.
Among collectors, Wemanyama has been arguably the most important athlete in the hobby since making his NBA debut in 2023.
On Thursday afternoon, the Spurs announced they were shutting down Wembanyama for the rest of the season, and both industries were rattled.
Sidelined by a blood clot in his right shoulder, Wembanyama is now expected to miss all of San Antonio’s 30 remaining games. Though the team believes the clot is an isolated condition, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, fans and collectors alike couldn’t help but flinch knowing how often some of the game’s greatest big men have had their careers cut short by injury.
Former Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors star Chris Bosh notably had his career ended by recurring blood clots in 2016.
Back, knee and foot issues have plagued other former No. 1 overall picks, including Yao Ming, Greg Oden and, most recently, Zion Williamson.
Williamson was a hobby darling before a series of injuries completely derailed what many expected could be an all-time great career.
In the collectible world, Williamson’s 2019 Prizm Base PSA 10 sold for as much as $1,330 during the peak of the card market’s resurgence and the height of optimism for his career. That card can be bought today for $30.
Long-term issues certainly aren’t guaranteed for Wembanyama. Brandon Ingram also suffered deep venous thrombosis in his right arm in 2018, but has gone on to have a career good enough to land a three-year, $120 million contract with Toronto earlier this month after being acquired at the trade deadline from New Orleans.
The concerns remain real, however, and there might not be a single example of an injury rocking the trading card community more than what a long-term absence could have on Wembanyama.
Wemby set a new tone for the collectable market since his NBA arrival ???? pic.twitter.com/ajHYxrKL6u
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Since making his debut, few, if any athletes, have had the impact Wembanyama has had on the collectibles market.
According to third-party grading tracker GemRate, Wembanyama was, by far, the most graded athlete at PSA in 2024 with more than 400,000 cards. Michael Jordan was the second-most graded with about 257,000.
That trend has continued in 2025, with PSA grading roughly 33,200 Wembanyama cards through a little more than 50 days. That total puts Wembanyama in a rough tie for second place with Jordan, while Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani sits in first place with about 33,600.
Through his first two NBA seasons, the grading volume for Wembanyama has been historic.
Wembanyama is already among the top 10 most graded athletes of all time across all graders, according to GemRate. As of this week, Wembanyama’s roughly 543,000 total graded cards ranks ninth all-time — seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady sits in eighth place with about 559,000.
Wembanyama cards have moved with extreme velocity on the secondary market as well, with data tool Market Movers tracking more than 350,000 sales for Wembanyama cards over the last 365 days. Jordan is second across that time period with a little less than 200,000 sales.
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There are, of course, the record sales, too.
To date, the highest public sale for any Wembanyama card is the $516,000 paid for his 2023 Prizm Black Shimmer FOTL 1/1 PSA 9 at PWCC in April 2024. Even higher is the $762,000 paid at Sotheby’s for one of the two jerseys worn during his NBA debut.
The long-term impact remains unclear, but any extended absence could still result in a course correction for many Wembanyama collectibles.
One of Wembanyama’s single best rookie cards, the 2023-24 Panini Prizm Nebula Choice 1/1 PSA 9, is currently at auction, with a high bid of $330,000 and two days remaining.
The jersey Wembanyama wore in his first All-Star Game on Sunday is up for auction, too, and sits at $48,000, with four days remaining.
Prior to Thursday, Wembanyama’s trajectory, both on and off the court, was almost exclusively upward.
Fan and collector sentiment can change rapidly, however, and this extended absence will be the first unplanned test for his market.
Based on Wembanyama’s extreme popularity so far, it’s fair to wonder whether the appetite for his low-end cards and collectibles will change at all in the short term. Collectors, especially ultra-modern collectors, have often been open to a decent amount of risk, and many will likely be happy to scoop up key cards at a discount from those abandoning ship.
How collectors assess that risk for his ultra high-end cards and jerseys might be something worth monitoring more closely, at least until his path to play is more clear.
Athlete injuries are common occurrences, but it’s not often that one causes a collective gasp across both the player’s league and the collectibles market as a whole.
Wembanyama has meant so much to both the NBA and the hobby since making his NBA debut in 2023, so expect this to be one of the most closely followed storylines, on and off the court, for the foreseeable future.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.