It has been more than 60 days since the purchase window for the 2024 Olympic Games Topps NOW card featuring LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant closed.
And two months later, after a then-record 588,035 base cards were ordered to chase arguably the biggest card of 2024, the 1/1 triple autograph parallel is still nowhere to be found.
Despite a number of fake imitations listed on the secondary market in recent weeks, the redemption for the 1/1 likely remains inside one of the 1,688 sealed packs containing short prints and parallels that were randomly included with orders of the base card.
Topps responded to cllct’s weekly request for the status of the redemption Monday by confirming it had yet to be claimed.
To date, no Topps NOW card has been marketed as heavily as the triple autograph. And outside of the card commemorating Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 season, which sold a record 653,737 copies, no Topps NOW card has received as much interest from collectors during the release window.
If every purchaser of the card knew exactly what they were chasing, why hasn’t the card surfaced? According to some hobbyists, it seems most likely the redemption is trapped inside one of the sealed packs listed for sale on the secondary market.
According to eBay research tool Terapeak, 30 sealed packs containing a short print or parallel have sold for $1,000 or more, including five that topped $3,000, with a high of nearly $4,000. The last confirmed sale of a sealed pack appears to be for $3,050 via auction Oct. 6.
Another dozen or so sealed packs appeared to be listed for sale Monday.
Sports Card Investor founder Geoff Wilson is among those that believe the card might be floating around on the secondary market — or maybe it's just lost.
“Who knows? Could be on eBay or could be a lost-in-the-mail situation,” Wilson told cllct. “Plenty of people ordered these cards and then probably changed addresses by the time they arrived, and maybe it didn’t get forwarded. Or maybe it’s sitting in someone’s desk drawer somewhere. Whatever it is, I hope it gets found and redeemed soon.”
Along with Wilson, who at one point offered a $250,000 irrevocable bid if the owner placed the card in Sotheby’s Holy Grails auction, Goldin founder Ken Goldin was among the first to place a bounty on the card — Goldin’s offer was a $150,000 cash advance and Lot No. 1 in the house’s next Elite Auction.
According to Topps, the card could have been in the hands of its new owner by the end of September. Now midway through October, the timeline has lasted longer than many expected with interest in the card so high, and Goldin believes the value of the card might be negatively impacted.
“New issues always affect older ones,” Goldin told cllct. “The longer time it takes could impact it.”
So far, the largest bounty offered for the card came from hobby shop Grand Slam Collectibles, which offered $500,000 if the 1/1 received perfect autograph grades from either PSA or Beckett.
At one point, Milwaukee Bucks superstar and card collector Giannis Antetokounmpo appeared to offer double whatever the highest bounty was at the time — making his offer $1 million — though the post offering that amount appears to have been deleted.
Both Goldin and Wilson confirmed to cllct Monday they likely won’t be issuing any new bounties for the card whenever it does appear.
Instead, Goldin firmly believes he’ll hear from the owner whenever the card surfaces, and he’ll then negotiate privately one-on-one when the time comes.
Wilson simply doesn’t believe a seven-figure offer is worth matching, though he doesn’t rule out buying and ripping another sealed pack or two as the odds of pulling the 1/1 slowly increase.
“The card is awesome but $1 million for it is too high in my opinion,” Wilson said. “I’d love to see it sell for that, but I wouldn’t be the buyer.
"For $1 million there are other more historically significant cards that I’d rather have. But if Giannis or whoever wants to pay that for the card, more power to them, it’s great for the hobby overall.”
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.