The most collectible athletes of 2024: Young stars rising, but Michael Jordan still reigns

This year has been yet another fascinating one for the sports collectibles industry. By all accounts and available metrics, interest in trading cards remains strong, even after the market correction that cut down the historic rise in values of the pandemic boom.

Meanwhile, the sports memorabilia market saw several stunning new records that could indicate further growth for the industry. Wayne Gretzky’s stick from the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals sold for $336,000, a record for an NHL stick (the previous mark was $138,600 for a stick from Gretzky’s final game, sold in 2022), Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball sold for $4.392 million (breaking the previous record of $3.005 million paid for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball in 1998), and Babe Ruth’s “called shot” jersey sold for $24.12 million, setting a new record for a piece of sports memorabilia (shattering the previous record of $10.1 million paid for Michael Jordan’s jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals in 2022).

Those three names were certainly some of the biggest for collectors in 2024, but there were others too. A mix of rising stars in a variety of sports and a few select legends who still maintain relevance in the market long after their playing days ended.

Michael Jordan remains a powerhouse in the card market

The five most searched athletes on eBay for November 2024 provide a good snapshot of who made a big impact this year:

1. Michael Jordan
2. Victor Wembanyama
3. Caitlin Clark
4. Paul Skenes
5. Shohei Ohtani

From January through October, only four athletes remained in eBay’s top 10 most searched every single month: Jordan, Wembanyama, Kobe Bryant, and C.J. Stroud.

On the Fanatics Collect marketplace (previously known as PWCC), the most popular athletes by sport for the year bear out similar names:

Baseball: Shohei Ohtani, Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter
Football: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Joe Burrow
Basketball: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James
Soccer: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo

Another important metric in determining popularity among collectors is who’s cards they deem worthy of getting graded. PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), by far the biggest card grader in the industry, shared their list of the athletes with the most cards graded in 2024:

1. Victor Wembanyama (407,000+ cards graded)
2. Michael Jordan (269,000+)
3. C.J. Stroud (223,000+)
4. Shohei Ohtani (211,000+)
5. Anthony Richardson (107,000+)
6. Kobe Bryant (91,000+)
7. LeBron James (89,000+)
8. Elly De La Cruz (83,000+)
9. Anthony Edwards (80,000+)
10. Ken Griffey Jr. (77,000+)

The fact that Jordan is still around the top of all these lists more than 20 years after he retired from basketball for the third and final time is a little bit absurd, but it shows the impact he’s made on generations of collectors remains indelible.

Another thing that jumps out from that PSA list in particular is just how many Wembanyama cards have been graded this year. He has clearly captured the hopes of a massive cross-section of collectors. While it makes sense that a top young player like Wembanyama would have considerably more cards graded this year than someone like Jordan, who’s cards have been on the market far longer and were being submitted for grading in large numbers well before 2024, that he nearly doubled the figures for Stroud and Ohtani shows just how much focus he’s getting from collectors.

Caitlin Clark and the growth of the women’s basketball card market

November wasn’t the only month in which Clark appeared in eBay’s five most searched athletes list — she became and fixture in that group over the back half of the year as she completed her WNBA Rookie of the Year campaign and smashed the record for most expensive women’s basketball card sold several times over.

The surge in collector interest for both Clark and WNBA cards as a wider category was highlighted by live-selling platform Whatnot, which noted that “WNBA-related shows surged by +1,500 percent this year, signaling a seismic shift in demand for women’s sports collectibles.” They also noted that demand for Clark cards rose by 2,400 percent this year, WNBA searches increased by 840 percent and interest in WNBA autographed cards, specifically, doubled. All of these numbers could have likely been even larger had the 2024 season’s WNBA card sets been released earlier in the year than they were (they didn’t begin to come out until mid-October, and the flagship set, Panini Prizm, won’t be available until the new year).

Those late released for WNBA sets also certainly impacted the number of Clark cards that were submitted for grading. Again, had her rookie cards come out sooner, she likely could have cracked that overall list of athletes with the most cards graded by PSA for the year, though she did rank sixth on its list of most graded basketball players and topped the list of the women athletes with the most cards graded.

Basketball players with the most cards graded by PSA in 2024:

1. Victor Wembanyama
2. Michael Jordan
3. Kobe Bryant
4. LeBron James
5. Anthony Edwards
6. Caitlin Clark
7. Brandon Miller
8. Stephen Curry
9. Luka Doncic
10. Shaquille O’Neal

Women athletes with the most cards graded by PSA in 2024: 

1. Caitlin Clark
2. Paige Bueckers
3. Angel Reese
4. JuJu Watkins
5. Cameron Brink
6. Alex Morgan
7. Hannah Hidalgo
8. Katie Ledecky
9. Sabrina Ionescu
10. Serena Williams

The presence of Bueckers, Watkins and Hidalgo — three basketball players who are still in the college ranks — shows that interest in the 2024 WNBA rookie class was just the beginning of things to come.

Trendwatch: The sports and cards that collectors embraced in 2024

On Whatnot, searches for golf collectibles rose 30 percent and interest in tennis cards went up 200 percent. In the UK, they saw a 75 percent increase in searches for UFC, already the most searched category in the territory from 2023, and a whopping 135 percent increase in WWE interest — a collectibles category that could be one to watch in 2025 as Netflix begins to stream its programming to its 283 million global subscribers. Naturally in the UK they also had significant interest in soccer stars, highlighted by large jumps in searches for Kobbie Mainoo, Lamine Yamal, and Cole Palmer.

For PSA, the biggest jumps in grading demand from 2023 were as follows:

• Women’s basketball: JuJu Watkins (+8,561 percent growth)
• Men’s basketball: Keyonte George (+23,997 percent) 
• Football: Puka Nacua (+15,555 percent) 
• Baseball: Paul Skenes (+34,573 percent)

And the overall sports with the biggest changes in PSA grading demand:

1. Basketball (+77 percent)
2. Hockey (+37 percent)
3. Football (+28 percent)
4. Soccer (+23 percent)
5. Baseball (+22 percent)
6. Boxing/Wrestling/MMA (+17 percent)

That giant basketball growth figure is largely driven by the aforementioned deluge of Wembanyama cards that were graded, but it’s interesting that hockey was No. 2. That was likely thanks to interest in Connor Bedard.

Fanatics told The Athletic that the two most popular products for the year on its Fanatics Live platform were its own 2024 Bowman Chrome Baseball and 2024 Topps Chrome Update Baseball, which featured the widely publicized (and still active) Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch chase. Meanwhile on Whatnot, searches for Panini’s coveted Kaboom insert cards doubled from 2023, even though they’ve been some of the hobby’s most popular modern cards for years now.

2024’s most collected athletes and what 2025 might hold for them

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant: Given their sustained popularity among collectors to this point, it’s hard to see that changing much in 2025.

Victor Wembanyama: Even though he’s in the early mix for MVP consideration following his stellar rookie campaign, his card values have come down a bit after the initial hype cycle that propelled him. With the San Antonio Spurs unlikely to make a significant postseason run this season, Wembanyama’s ability to drive his prices back up in the near-term will depend on his individual accomplishments (and ability to stay healthy). And with no other men’s basketball prospect getting enough buzz to supplant Wembanyama just yet, speculators’ attention should remain on him.

C.J. Stroud: Like Wembanyama, Stroud has seen a natural correction in values as the rookie hype starts to settle. The Houston Texans are again playoff bound and Stroud has been a big part of that, but his individual numbers haven’t been quite as impressive as his rookie campaign (his interceptions have more than doubled). As a new class of rookie quarterbacks led by the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels and Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix steal away collectors’ attention, it could spell a continued decline in values for Stroud unless he can make a Super Bowl push and get back in the spotlight.

Caitlin Clark: There are a couple factors that could continue to push Clark values to new highs — first, her Prizm rookie cards will come out in the new year and they will almost certainly be her most valuable, driving new record high prices. Second, the women’s basketball card market is still growing so quickly, and as more young players capture collectors’ attention, the stronger it will get as a whole. And finally, if Clark makes a run at her first MVP and the Indiana Fever show continued improvement under a new head coach, she’ll be able to continue a personal narrative that so many fans have become invested in.

Shohei Ohtani: Many Ohtani collectors thought 2024 would be a down year for his card values despite his record-breaking move to the Los Angeles Dodgers because he couldn’t pitch and was only going to be a designated hitter while he recovered from elbow surgery. Then he became the first MLB player ever to have a 50/50 season and won his first World Series and third MVP and all that went out the window. But even as he returns to double duty in 2025, can he do enough to excite collectors the way that 50/50 mark and first World Series win did? It could be tough, but at this point it seems silly to doubt Ohtani.

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(Top image: PSA)