Hours after Team USA's gold-medal victory over France in men's basketball Saturday, Topps made waves when it announced all purchasers of the Topps NOW card ($11.99) would be entered into a sweepstakes to win a triple autograph card featuring LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.
The result was a print run of 588,035, the most ever for a Topps NOW card.
The triple auto marked the first time a LeBron autograph appeared on a Topps card (though he previously signed a chase-card alongside his son, Bronny, for a Bowman release), the first card featuring both LeBron and Curry and the first card featuring all three players together.
The card became an instant hit, and by early this week multiple bounties had been placed on the autograph card, including one by Geoff Wilson of Sports Card Investor, who offered $100,000 in addition to a “VIP Experience.” Goldin Auctions founder Ken Goldin then offered a bounty in the form of a $150,000 cash advance if consigned through the auction house.
Consensus quickly formed among experts and the larger community on social media that even those six-figure offers were below market value.
The possibility of winning the card drove sales to record heights for the base card, which went on sale Saturday evening and closed Tuesday.
While Topps releases Topps NOW products frequently, often in reaction to viral moments or milestones, this marks the first time the company included a sweepstakes of this magnitude. Though randomly inserted parallels and autographed cards are commonly included, never before has a card of this value been in the mix.
Considering the massive success of this initiative, it seems quite likely that this will become a trend.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.