Caitlin Clark Honored with Rookie of the Year Panini Instant Collection Cards
The ballots are in: with 66 of 67 votes, the WNBA officially announced Caitlin Clark as the 2024 Rookie of the Year. To celebrate the milestone, Panini America released a special collection from their print-to-order product, Panini Instant, on October 4th at 2:00PM CST.
The Official Caitlin Clark Rookie of the Year Panini Instant Trading Card Collection features base card, parallel, and autograph versions of the original design. The parallels of the base and sticker autograph cards consisted of: "Jungle" out of twenty-five, "Jaguar" out of ten, "White Tiger" out of five, and a "Blue Viper" one-of-one.
Parallel | Base Price | Auto Price |
|---|---|---|
Base | $9.99 | $1,249.99 (/99) |
Jungle /25 | $249.99 | $2,999.99 |
Jaguar /10 | $499.99 | $7,499.99 |
White Tiger /5 | $999.99 | - |
Blue Viper 1/1 | $2,999.99 | Starting: $100,000 |
The base card will be available for order with an unlimited print run for five additional days, while the autographed and numbered base parallels sold out almost instantly on the Panini America website. Every parallel sold out in under three minutes with the exception of the one-of-one "Blue Viper" autograph which was listed as a "dutch auction," a method of setting a price, then incrementally reducing until a buyer pays the lowered value.
The "Blue Viper" one-of-one was listed at a starting price of $100,000 and was lowered every every five minutes by approximately $350. By 3:00PM CST, the card had sold for $97,212.54. The sale breaks the previous record set by the sale of the 2024 Panini Instant WNBA Draft Blue Viper Caitlin Clark Rookie Autograph one-of-on card for $84,000 with Buyer's Premium on Fanatics Collect.
After making an appearance in the NCAA Championship in April, the Iowa guard was the first overall 2024 WNBA Draft pick for the Indiana Fever. Among her many historic rookie accomplishments, Clark played as a started in all 40 regular season games for the Fever, setting a record for most assists in a single season (337), the most rookie points in a single season (769), and rookie three-point shots made (122, only six behind the current overall season record of 128 set by Sabrina Ionescu). Clark was a starter for Team WNBA in a win over Team USA at the WNBA All-Star Game, won Eastern Conference Player of the Month in August, Rookie of the Month four times (May, July, August, and September), and Eastern Conference Player of the Week three consecution times.
In March of this year, after setting the all-time NCAA scoring record, Panini America announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with Clark for memorabilia and trading cards. The deal is rumored to be worth more than $1 million in the first year alone.
Lauren is a writer, collector, Orlando Magic basketball fan, and artist. Her writing can also be found on Hobby News Daily. You can follow her at instagram.com/laurengoeshere.