Athletes such as U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky are rarely seen as highly collectible in the card market — except for every four years, during the Olympic Games.
This year, as Ledecky enters the games as the favorite in the 1,500-meter freestyle (she is undefeated in the race in her professional career), chasing her 12th medal and eighth gold, her cards have seen a flurry of activity.
???????????????????? ????????????????: 7x Olympic gold medalist swimmer @katieledecky will have a 1/1 auto relic card included in the upcoming 2024 Topps Chrome U.S. Olympic & Paralympics Team Hopefuls product ???????? pic.twitter.com/MM5UqY55WD
— Topps (@Topps) June 22, 2024
Given the limited supply of cards for the all-time great Olympian, the newly released 2024 Topps Chrome U.S. Olympic & Paralympics Team Hopefuls set, featuring one of the most popular cards in recent memory — an autographed patch card — has become a highly sought-after chase.
Prior to the 2024 product, Ledecky's top cards came from the 2013 Sports Illustrated for Kids set, which has perforated edges known for resulting in condition issues and low grades. One of the two PSA 10 examples of that card sold for $1,600 in June 2023, previously holding the record for her top card sale and now placing second on the all-time list.
Ledecky’s collectability has been proven on the open market, as one of her autographed patch cards, numbered to five, sold Monday for $2,250 on eBay — the highest price paid for any Ledecky card and the first to eclipse $2,000. The 1-of-1 card teased by Topps on social media has yet to surface.
In fact, a look at her top-selling cards reveal a flurry of activity in the past week.
Of her 10 most expensive cards, according to CardLadder, five occurred in the last three days. All of those five come from the 2024 Topps product, which was released July 26 — none of which have been graded.
Other top sales from the set include a $1,400 eBay sale of a Michael Phelps autographed card limited to 50, a $1,200 sale of a 1-of-1 Ryan Crouser card, a $875 sale of a Xander Schauffele red refractor autograph card, limited to five, and a $400 sale of a 1-of-1 John John Florence autographed card.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.