Victor Wembanyama's Panini Prizm Rookie Card Setting Grading Records

Wembanyama's rookie card was the talk of The Hobby because it was the young superstar's first licensed rookie card. It also featured the infamous curtains in the background. A little more than one year later, it is one of the most-graded cards ever.

Oct 31, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts to a play against the Utah Jazz during the third quarter at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Wembanyama's base rookie card from 2023 Panini Prizm has been graded by Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) more than 37,600 times according to data from GemRate. It is the 24th-most graded PSA card of all time and the sixth-most graded basketball card.

It's less than 1,000 submissions away from claiming the fifth spot, which would pass Luka Doncic's 2018 Panini Prizm base rookie card.

The curtains made this card notorious. The supply is about to make it even more. / Photo Courtesy of eBay

Even more astounding is the card has a 60% Gem Rate with PSA. There are more than 22,600 Gem Mint 10s out there.

The card has also been graded more than 2,000 times by SGC but with a much lower Gem Mint rate. Of the 2,174 SGC submissions, 827 received Gem Mint grades for a rate of about 38%.

These types of numbers often draw comparison to the 1989 Upper Deck Star Rookie Ken Griffey Jr. card. Griffey's card, while iconic, is also seen as the epitome of the Junk Wax Era. While that card has been graded nearly 114,000 times (!), there are only 4,274 PSA Gem Mint 10s.

The Upper Deck Griffey card has been graded more than any card ever. It still has five times fewer PSA 10 versions than the Victory Wembanyama rookie card. / Photo Courtesy of PSA

Prices for the Wembanyama base rookie card in PSA 10 are in free fall and, given the supply, are likely to see further declines. In early August, card sales averaged about $110, according to Card Ladder. They are now selling for less than $80.

By comparison, Griffey's 1989 Upper Deck Star Rookie prices in PSA 10 have held steady at between $2,000 and $2,500.

The prices are a reminder of the impact of supply and, more importantly, about the glut of some ultra-modern cards. To counteract the supply, Panini has printed various parallels with differing quantities. To date, PSA has graded 63 different parallels of the base Wembanyama.