Sports Card Power Rankings: Olympics lift Wemby, LeBron, Ant

Wemby's volume of sales continues to overwhelm; C.J. Stroud also heating up

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LeBron James' cards surged last week, moving him up in the cllct Power Rankings.

The 2024 Summer Olympics wrapped up Sunday in Paris, and three of the NBA’s top players saw their card markets surge following runs to medals.

Victor Wembanyama remains atop the cllct sports card power rankings, though stars such as LeBron James and Jackson Holliday have closed the gap — for now.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 players in sports cards, based on sales volume, price growth, performance and storylines over the last week.

1. Victor Wembanyama

Wembanyama and France came up short against Team USA in the gold-medal game, but his sales volume simply remains unmatched. Market Movers has tracked 7.4k sales for the Spurs star over the last seven days with a 16% volume increase.

In addition to the volume, his graded cards are up nearly 2% in price collectively over the last week across 2.6k sales.

As expected, Wemby's 2023 Prizm Base PSA 10 rookie has been the key target, with 247 sales over the last week. A 5% price bump over that same period has the card currently trending around $120.

  • Price growth: -0.8%
  • Total sales: 7.4k
  • Key card: 2023 Prizm Base PSA 10 (247 sales)

2. LeBron James

Team USA took down France to win gold Saturday, and James finished as the MVP of the tournament after averaging 14 points, eight assists and nearly seven rebounds per game.

The King's market has gotten a bit of a bump over the last week, and he slides up to No. 2 in the power rankings because much of it is linked to his key rookies rather than random ultra-modern cards.

Cards such as the 2020 Prizm Base PSA 10, featuring the Kobe Bryant tribute dunk, have done well, but a number of James’ key rookies have surged. James’ 2003 Topps Chrome Base BGS 9.5 is up 18% over the last week while five PSA 10 examples have sold for around $4,350.

  • Price growth: +2.2%
  • Total sales: 1.5k
  • Key card: 2003 Topps Chrome Base BGS 9.5 (8 sales)

3. C.J. Stroud

Stroud’s market continues to hover just under even — price growth is currently at -0.9% — but the volume remains outstanding. Stroud’s sales, tracked by Market Movers, have jumped in volume nearly 23% over the last seven days, and his 3.8k total remains (by far) the closest to Wembanyama among active players.

Collective numbers are always nice to consider, but really all that matters are the key cards, and while a number of Stroud’s rookies are negative over the last week, his 2023 Prizm Base PSA 10 is up 4% across nearly 80 sales. A number of negative cards isn’t ideal, but positive growth on the most popular rookie can’t be ignored.

  • Price growth: -0.9%
  • Total sales: 3.8k
  • Key card: 2023 Prizm Base PSA 10 (78 sales)

4. Jackson Holliday

Holliday has been fantastic for the Orioles since being recalled, and his card market continues to match his offensive output.

His cards are up nearly 2% collectively across 1.7k sales over the last week, while his graded market has jumped over 5% across nearly 400 sales.

Among his key cards, Holliday’s 2022 Bowman Draft Base PSA 10 has been his most popular seller with 68 sales over the last week. His 2022 Bowman Draft Chrome PSA 10 has sold 48 times with a 26% price increase.

  • Price growth: +1.7%
  • Total sales: 1.7k
  • Key card: 2022 Bowman Draft Chrome PSA 10 (48 sales)

5. Elly De La Cruz

Of the card markets on this list, none are down more than De La Cruz over the last week — though his graded cards are performing much better than his raw.

Market Movers has tracked 2.8k sales for De La Cruz over the last week, and those cards are down nearly 4% collectively. His graded cards have been trending about even over the last week, however, despite his most popular rookie, the 2024 Topps Base PSA 10, dropping 11% in price across 45 sales.

De La Cruz remains on the list because his volume is outstanding, but it will be interesting to see if his price growth evens out as the season comes to a close.

  • Price growth: -3.9%
  • Total sales: 2.8k
  • Key card: 2024 Topps Base PSA 10 (45 sales)

6. Paul Skenes

Skenes continues to be a trending player, but interest is trending in the wrong direction. His cards are down 1% collectively in price, while his sales volume is down 14%.

Looking at Skenes’ graded cards, eight of his 10 most popular sellers are down in price over the last week, and the hobby might be picking up some fatigue. Skenes is still undoubtedly one of the most popular players in baseball, but his market might continue to stall until award season rejuvenates it.

  • Price growth: -1.0%
  • Total sales: 1.1k
  • Key card: 2023 Bowman Draft Base PSA 10 (41 sales)

7. Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani might be running away with the NL MVP this season, but his card market doesn’t quite look like what it used to. He remains one of the most popular players in baseball, but he’s no longer completely dominating the sport.

Maybe collectors have lost some interest with him no longer dominating as both a pitcher and a hitter, or maybe there’s fatigue involved.

One thing to monitor for Ohtani moving forward is that only three of his 10 most-sold graded cards over the last week have seen positive price growth over the last seven days. It’s not exactly an extreme cause for concern, but it’s not a positive trend either. He’ll remain here based on sales volume alone, but collectors might want to see positive prices at some point, too.

  • Price growth: 0.0%
  • Total sales: 1.6k
  • Key card: 2018 Topps Update Base PSA 10

8. Anthony Edwards

Like Wembanyama and James, Edwards might have gotten a little bump from the Olympics — though he was still poised to be one of the top players among collectors heading into next season anyway.

Edwards didn’t exactly play a massive role during the gold-medal run, but he’ll almost certainly be one of the key stars in 2028.

For now, his cards, tracked by Market Movers, are up just under 1% collectively over the last week across 1.4k sales. His graded cards are performing slightly better, with a 1.5% price bump across 541 sales over that same period.

Among his most popular cards, Edwards’ 2020 Prizm Silver PSA 10 has seen strong price growth with a 5% increase over the last seven days across 12 sales. That card is now trending up over $1,100.

  • Price growth: +0.7%
  • Total sales: 1.4k
  • Key card: 2020 Prizm Base PSA 10 (26 sales)

9. Bryce Young

Football season is rapidly approaching, and it only makes sense the hobby continues to hyper focus on young QBs. After years of extreme popularity for Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa, collectors have shifted a large amount of interest into Stroud, Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson.

Stroud remains the clear favorite from the 2023 cycle, but Young and Richardson have a strong following, too. Young slips into cllct's Power Rankings this week based on extreme volume — Market Movers has tracked 1.4k sales for Young over the last week, though the collective price growth is at just -2.9%.

The 33% increase in sales volume over the last week is big, and he’ll stick around in these rankings if he can maintain the popularity.

  • Price growth: -2.9%
  • Total sales: 1.4k
  • Key card: 2023 Prizm Silver PSA 10 (21 sales)

10. Bobby Witt Jr.

Aaron Judge remains the heavy favorite to win AL MVP, but Witt Jr. is a sleeper who could make things interesting as the season wraps.

The Royals star has maintained both positive price growth (+1.5%) with high volume (1.1k sales) over the last week, so he slides back into this week’s rankings.

Seven of his 10 most sold graded cards have had positive price growth over the last week and his 2020 Bowman Paper Prospects PSA 10 has led the way with a 32% bump in price across 25 sales.

  • Price growth: +1.5%
  • Total sales: 1.1k
  • Key card: 2020 Bowman Paper Prospects PSA 10 (25 sales)

Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.