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Are Wemby Autos Overprinted, And Will They Hold Value?

When it came out that Wemby autos were not going to be included in the Panini releases for 2023-24, we may have been forgiven for thinking that there would be fewer of his signed cards around.

But it hasn’t panned out that way. Fanatics has printed a metric ton of his autos. There is also another problem. All of them are unlicensed. That means there are serious questions about the long-term value of the Wemby rookie autos released by Topps this year.

So are Wemby Autos Overprinted, and Will They Hold Value? We have the answers.

How did Topps end up with the rights to Wemby autographs?

Despite Panini having exclusive rights to NBA cards, Fanatics have managed to corner the market on the autographed cards of the most prominent young star in the sport, Victor Wembanyama.

Back in 2023, the company snagged the rights out from under the noses of Panini. They did the same thing with CJ Stroud and Bryce Young in the NFL. That, of course, significantly lowered the value of the Panini NFL and NBA releases.

But it also put a significant premium on the first Wemby autos featuring him in a San Antonio Spurs jersey.

The Topps Chrome Wemby rookie auto

Fanatics leveraged their exclusive rights to Wemby autos very cleverly. They relaunched the storied Topps Chrome Basketball line to much fanfare. However, since it remains an unlicensed release, the company hoped there would be more enthusiasm towards the product.

Putting the first Wemby auto in that release was a great way to drum up publicity for a release they hope will be the flagship of their basketball releases for years to come.

The presence of Wemby autos also allowed Topps to charge much money for an unlicensed product. Right now, buying a box will set you back $475. That price is, at least to some extent, strengthened by the presence of the rookie autos from the French superstar.

The only severe other reason to pay a ton for this unlicensed product is the LeBron James autos. The rights to his signature were also recently obtained by Fanatics as an exclusive after he spent years on the exclusive roster of Upper Deck.

How much are Wemby rookie autos worth?

Wemby auto cards are somewhat overvalued. Everyone knows that now. But that has not stopped people from paying ridiculous prices for his cards. Here are some of the most significant amounts spent recently on eBay.

2023-2024 Topps Chrome Basketball On-Card Auto Victor Wembanyama Black #7/10  $22,100

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA 2023-24 Topps Chrome Silver AUTO AUTOGRAPH RC Spurs
$14,999

2023 Topps Chrome 1972 Victor Wembanyama #TAVW Auto Gold Ref PSA 10
$14,700

2023-2024 Topps Chrome On-Card Auto Victor Wembanyama Black #1/10
$13,000
2023-24 Topps Chrome Victor Wembanyama #CRA-VW Rookie Auto Orange 1/25 JSY# 1/1  $10,588

These are very high prices for any auto. The numbers are particularly striking when you remember that none of these cards are licensed.

The 2023-24 Topps Mercury: Victor Wembanyama release

Topps Mercury is an entire release based on Wemby. The boxes are costly. If you wanted one right now, it would cost you $9,999.95. What do you get in return for this massive investment?

  • 8 cards per box.
  • Look for 1 Autograph-Relic Card #’d to 99 or lower, 1 Chromium Autograph Card #’d to 99 or lower, 3 Chromium Base Parallel Cards #’d to 99 or lower, 1 Chromium Insert Card #’d to 99 or lower, and 2 Chromium Base Cards per box.

You get two Wemby autos per box. Of course, because Fanatics does not yet have NBA rights, these are unlicensed cards.

Since every box here contains Wemby autos, this will significantly increase the number of his high-end cards on the market. People did not consider that Topps Mercury would undermine the market when buying his cards from previous sets.

The set was not announced, making the amount of money people have been paying for some of the Wemby autos look even more outrageous than before.

An aside on the 2023-24 Topps Mercury: Victor Wembanyama Design

The designs for Topps Mercury look particularly impressive. They include some of the best-looking Wemby autos I have seen—scratch that—easily the nicest ones. That could be a problem for those who spent much money on 2023 Topps Chrome Basketball Wemby autos.

Say what you want about that release; it is not attractive. The designs are bad. If given the choice, I would rather have one of these Mercury autos, and likely so would many other collectors.

One Instagram user, spintronic, noticed some notable similarities between the Topps Mercury cards and some previous releases. Perhaps that is the reason the designs for this release are so attractive.

They were taken from the last great designs. He highlighted Panini Preferred, a long-discontinued Panini product with some wonderful cards. But also more recent releases. However, perhaps the most embarrassing thing is the origin of the Mercury logo. It looks like the original Walkman logo from the 1980s, just upside down.

It is hard to say if this was copied, if there was a general lack of homework, or if there was a distinct lack of originality. Either way,  

Topps Now Wemby autos

The primary source for Wemby autos, at least the most desirable ones, is 2023 Topps Chrome Basketball. There is no question about that. But as we have seen, Topps will be releasing more products with them, some utterly unannounced.

However, Topps Now has been another notable source of Wemby autos. There is a wide selection of Wemby cards on Topps Now, and many have featured autographed versions. One of them is the most popular Topps Now card ever released.

The beautiful one commemorating the Spur’s star selection as Rookie of the Year was printed 113,777 times. That beat out the card marking Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, of which 107,541 copies were ordered.

It would be best if you kept in mind what Topps Now ultimately is. It’s an excuse for Fanatics to print money. They can sell tens of thousands of cards overnight. For example, the company made over 2 million dollars on the Wemby Rookie of the Year issue alone. That means they have an incentive to keep pumping these out.

The extreme popularity of the Topps Now issues of Wemby cards means that the company will likely continue issuing them as often as possible. To sell as many of these as possible, they can get a Rookie of the Year auto in these releases.

And you know what that means: continued saturation of the markets with more Wemby autos. In the long run, that will lower the value of these cards.

Are Wemby Autos flooding the market?

YouTube video

The YouTube account huxbux did a great job breaking down the number of Wemby autos in the 2023 Topps Chrome Basketball release.

Chrome Base153
Chrome Refractor70
Chrome Gold50
Chrome Black Wave10
Chrome Red5
Chrome Superfractor1
1972 Base202
1972 Refractor82
1972 Base Gold51
1972 Superfractor1
Certified Rookie Base226
Certified Rookie Refractor51
Certified Rookie Gold10
Certified Rookie Black Wave5
Certified Rookie Red1
Chrome Geo Purple69
Chrome Geo Orange23
Chrome Geo Red5
Chrome Geo Black2
1972 Geo Purple75
1972 Geo Orange25
1972 Geo Red5
1972 Geo Black Infinity2
Certified Rookie Geo Purple85
Certified Rookie Geo Orange26
Certified Rookie Geo Red5
Certified Rookie Geo Black2
Future Stars Base Value507
Future Stars Base Mega134
Future Stars Base Hanger185
Future Stars Pink Basketball55
Future Stars Orange Basketball25
Future Stars Blue Basketball5

How many Wemby autos is that in total? Here is the breakdown per format and overall.

FormatTotal Auto
Hobby933
Breakers326
Blaster562
Mega139
Hanger210
Total Retail911
Total Hobby1259
Total Autos2170

How much would it cost to pull a Wemby auto? In other words, how much money would it cost per box on average to pull one of these autos?

FormatNumber of Boxes Per Wemby AutoCost PerBox Cost
Hobby54$15,717$290
Breakers41$13,275$325
Blaster671$20,130$30
Mega652$32,602$50
Hanger1356$20,339$15

The low chances of hitting a Wemby Auto in 2023 Topps Chrome Basketball

One thing that became immediately apparent when you looked at the cost per box for a Wemby auto is that it isn’t realistic to think you will hit one. The amount of product you would have to rip is not within reach of the standard sports card collector.

You would be paying the amount for a used car and still unsure if you will hit the Wemby auto. Of course, this is true for most high-end cards. They are selling you the illusion that you might hit something big.

If you wonder if a Wemby refractor might save your box, that probably won’t work either. Huxbux broke down the numbers for that, which are also not pretty.

FormatNumber of Boxes Per Wemby AutoCost PerBox Cost
Hobby32$9,183$290
Breakers190$61,750$325
Blaster217$6,514$30
Mega228$11,400$50
Hanger523$7,838$15

That is not going to save your boxes. Ultimately, you are paying to get a lot of unlicensed basketball cards of questionable long-term value.

The unlicensed factor

One of the most ingrained elements in every sports card collector’s psyche is a disdain for unlicensed products. For years, we all laughed at Panini baseball releases and Leaf products for that reason.

Fanatics has done its utmost to hype Topps Chrome and other releases with Wemby cards. It has certainly worked in the short term. As we have seen, some of these cards sell for an obscene amount of money.

But will it work in the long run? Will fans in the future look at all these unlicensed Wemby cards with a certain amount of disdain, the kind that will significantly lower their value?

It is indeed hard to say. However, there is reason to believe the need for a license will be an issue in the future. Right now, Fanatics is trying to hype unlicensed cards. Very shortly, when the government holds all the license rights to the big leagues in the United States, those interests will change.

It will spend its significant hyping capabilities in the other direction to besmirch any unlicensed released by Panini and other potential future rivals.

Therefore, we could look at a situation where licensed Panini non-auto Wemby cards are preferred to non-licensed autos.

Final word on whether Wemby Autos are overprinted and will they hold value?

To determine the long-term value of these Wemby autos, you must ask yourself three questions.

First, will he be one of the greatest basketball players ever? That is an important question. Because nothing else would justify these incredibly high prices, that is beyond the scope of this article, but it is worth considering.

He is an exceptional player. But is he THAT good? My guess is he is a Hall of Famer. But not a LeBron or Jordan-style icon. If so, will his many auto rookie cards be worth the current prices? Probably not.

But will the prices of these autos hold, considering that there are so many of them and that they are all unlicensed? That is a very different story and requires careful consideration if you are buying in. The prices will drop considerably even if Wemby continues his astounding rise into superstardom.

Finally, will Topps continue to produce more Wemby rookie autos? We are very close to tip-off of the 2024-25 season. So, it stands to reason that the Wemby rookie era is over. But rookie autos sell a lot more than second-year ones. It will be tempting for Topps to keep pumping out.

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim is the emeritus editor of Cardlines. He continues to write for several hobby outlets, including this one and Cardbase. He collects primarily vintage baseball and soccer and has a weird obsession with 1971 Topps.

In his spare time, Shaiel is sobbing into his bourbon when the Mets lose and playing Dungeons and Dragons. In a past life, Dr. Ben-Ephraim was a political science professor, journalist, and diplomat. But cards are more fun.
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