A unique Victor Wembanyama rookie card recently sold for $5.11 million in a private sale, making it the most expensive NBA card ever sold that isn’t signed.
Fanatics Collect facilitated the sale of a rare Victor Wembanyama rookie card. It’s a 2023-24 Panini Prizm Black parallel, and it’s been professionally graded a perfect 10 by PSA, making it a highly desirable card for basketball collectors.
The recent $5.11 million sale makes the San Antonio Spurs player’s rookie card one of the most valuable NBA cards ever sold publicly. The Athletic reports it’s the fourth-highest price ever paid for an NBA card, trailing only sales of legendary cards featuring players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.
Incredibly, Victor Wembanyama’s rare Prizm Black rookie card just sold for a staggering $5.11 million! This shatters his previous record of $860,000 and makes it the fourth-highest price ever paid for an NBA card. The sale happened as the San Antonio Spurs are currently tied 2-2 in their playoff series.
— The Collectibles Guru (@gurucollects) May 26, 2026
Wembanyama Rookie card shatters previous record
This sale broke the previous record for a Victor Wembanyama trading card, which was $860,100. That record was set in February 2025 when a unique 2023-24 Panini Prizm Nebula Choice card, graded a 9 by PSA, was sold.
Victor Wembanyama’s rookie cards are particularly rare because there aren’t any official cards with his autograph. This is due to a licensing conflict: Panini held the NBA license for trading cards during his first season, but Wembanyama had a separate deal making Fanatics the only company authorized to produce his autographs.
This has increased the value of his regular rookie cards for serious collectors, particularly the rare, uniquely numbered cards found in popular brands like Panini Prizm.
The buyer, who wished to remain unnamed for security reasons, explained to The Athletic that he thinks the card is Victor Wembanyama’s most valuable. He said Wembanyama’s potential for future success was a key factor in his decision to spend so much money on it.
This sale follows previous debate surrounding the card within the sports card collecting world. A collector named Cavelle McDonald found the card in a purchase from NorCal Sports Cards, and it was professionally graded by PSA, receiving a perfect score of 10.
A video taken inside PSA’s California office sparked discussion after Thomas Lindenthal, owner of NorCal Sports Cards, positively mentioned Kurt’s Card Care, a company specializing in card cleaning and restoration. Some people who watched the video thought this suggested the card might have been cleaned or altered before it was graded.
McDonald denied that, stating, “Kurt’s Card Care has nothing to do with me or the card.”
PSA doesn’t grade cards they believe have been tampered with, and the person who recently purchased one of these cards says they weren’t aware of the issue beforehand. Even if they had known, they state it wouldn’t have stopped them from buying it.
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2026-05-26 18:19