While their values may have dipped in 2021 following their pandemic fueled highs the year prior, there’s still lots of action on the sports card market heading into the holidays. Collectors were disappointed to learn that supply chain issues would cause many flagship releases to be delayed into January 2022, but the secondary market for singles has started to regain momentum following a minor dip. Here are the hottest and coldest cards as we near December 25th:
HOT:
Shohei Ohtani
The two way sensation was already a sought after name amongst collectors heading into the 2021 season. But his AL MVP award this year cemented his status as a “must have” in the baseball card community. Ohtani may not play in a big market like New York or Chicago, but he more than makes up for it with a large international following.
In the last calendar year, Ohtani’s base Bowman Chrome rookie card has seen its value increase over 1100%. Hopefully you got your copy before he took home his hardware this fall.
Alexander Ovechkin
Ovi is already a first ballot unanimous hall of famer when he decides to hang up his skates. In the meantime however, he’s chasing down Gretzky’s all time goal scoring record of 894. The scary part is, were it not for shortened seasons, and lockouts, Ovechkin likely would have already broken the Great One’s career mark.
You can argue with a wall if you want, but there’s no doubt that Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in NHL history and his 2005 Upper Deck Young Guns rookie card prices reflect that. As of this writing, his last ten sales of PSA 10 Young Guns have all exceeded the $10,000 plateau on Ebay signalling a 250% increase in price in the last 365 days.
Steph Curry
The NBA’s new all-time 3 point king has seen a renaissance in terms of action on his rookie and Auto/Patch cards of late. After a lull following the Warriors down years once KD departed for Brooklyn, his 2009 Bowman and Topps rookies are regularly fetching over $1000 on the secondary markets as ungraded raw cards. If you’re able to find a PSA 10 version of his Topps gold (numbered to /2009) you can essentially buy yourself a house.
COLD
Zion Williamson
Once one of the hottest rookie cards on the market, Zion’s stock has plummeted during the 2021-22 season as he continues to battle a variety of injuries. With rumours of his weight gain, and continual setbacks recovering from lower body injuries, his Prizm rookie card can now be had for about a quarter of what it was going for less than a year ago.
Williamson presents an interesting opportunity for collectors. If you’ve got faith that he’ll right the ship and get back to his 2020-21 form where he was posting 27ppg/7.2rpg/3.7ast averages, then you can buy the dip and scoop up some (comparatively) cheap cards. However the history of big men recovering from the kinds of injuries Zion has isn’t great, so you could just as easily wind up with a mountain of cardboard that’s only going to lose further value if he doesn’t fully recover.
Zach Wilson
Tell us if you’ve heard this one before: A New York based sports franchise reaches at the draft for their next “saviour” only to see their season go up in flames and have to repeat the process 2-3 years later.
The above statement could apply to the Jets, Giants, or even Knicks most years, but in this case it’s Gang-Green we’re talking about. The Jets need a lot of things in order to turn things around at the Meadowlands, and Wilson’s inability to stay healthy coupled with a 6/11 TD to INT ratio hasn’t inspired a lot of confidence amongst collectors. At the end of the day he plays for a New York team, so if Wilson has success, get ready for his values to sky rocket. But in this case the former BYU signal caller may be in over his head.
Kyle Lewis
Remember when Lewis beat out Luis Robert for Rookie of the Year last year? Seems so long ago…
Lewis has a few things going against him. He plays for a smaller market team in Seattle. The Mariners haven’t made the playoffs in 20 years meaning that they don’t get the kind of national attention perennial pennant contenders do. And he struggled to stay on the field in 2021 playing only 36 games total.
The speedy center fielder has seen his PSA 10 Topps Chrome rookie card lose over 85% of its value this year.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner