Inside the $8,000 Victor Wembanyama Card Craze: Topps Mercury's High-Stakes Release
Victor Wembanyama is a basketball prodigy. The NBA Rookie of the Year is the exact type of player card manufacturers crave to have in products.
His autographed cards sell well, low-numbered parallels sell well and any cool card gets eyeballs on it.
With Wembanyama, a generational talent, the card companies will do everything they can to profit from his likeness.
In this case, it comes in the form of an $8,000 box of cards.
Yes, $8,000!
2023-24 Topps Mercury: Victor Wembanyama released on Wednesday with eight cards per box. Each card is numbered 99 copies or fewer. The box will also include game-worn relic cards with descriptions of where the items came from and at least two autographs.
Autographs, game-worn pieces and low-numbered parallels. It sounds like a product made for success, but there’s not a single NBA logo in sight.
Panini still has the NBA basketball license, but Topps has an exclusive deal for autographs with Wembanyama. Neither company has been able to produce the perfect card.
Yet, that hasn’t stopped them from trying — and asking for as many as possible.
Eventually, the market will dictate where the price of the Topps Mercury cards will settle, but it’s a tough price point to justify for everyday card collectors.
As the price of wax continues to go up for basic products like Topps flagship or Score football, the cost to get special cards feels out of reach.
This is where breakers come in and how products at this price point are made with breakers in mind. The breakers take on the initial cost but then spread the cost to other buying into the break.
In this case, with eight cards, a breaker can sell eight spots and then randomize those spots to get the best card. That’s still about $1,000 a spot for a chance to get a super low-numbered item or an autographed card.
On top of that, collectors go into it knowing arguably the biggest card in the product was already pulled. A game-worn Jordan brand 1-of-1 autographed card was pulled hours before the official release of the product by VIP Rips on Fanatics Live.
And just like that one of the most sought after cards from the @topps @wemby Mercury release has been pulled by VIPS Rips!
— 130 Point (@130Point) October 9, 2024
We present to you the game worn @jumpman23 logo 🤯#topps #wembanyama #wemby #mercury #1of1 #thehobby pic.twitter.com/ZmXfABirMj
That card will likely go for more than $1,000, the price of the spot, if it hits the secondary market.
Susan is an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade working in the sports card industry. You can follow her at twitter.com/yanxchick