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.
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.
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.
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.
These are very high prices for any auto. The numbers are particularly striking when you remember that none of these cards are licensed.
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?
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.
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,
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.
The YouTube account huxbux did a great job breaking down the number of Wemby autos in the 2023 Topps Chrome Basketball release.
Chrome Base | 153 |
Chrome Refractor | 70 |
Chrome Gold | 50 |
Chrome Black Wave | 10 |
Chrome Red | 5 |
Chrome Superfractor | 1 |
1972 Base | 202 |
1972 Refractor | 82 |
1972 Base Gold | 51 |
1972 Superfractor | 1 |
Certified Rookie Base | 226 |
Certified Rookie Refractor | 51 |
Certified Rookie Gold | 10 |
Certified Rookie Black Wave | 5 |
Certified Rookie Red | 1 |
Chrome Geo Purple | 69 |
Chrome Geo Orange | 23 |
Chrome Geo Red | 5 |
Chrome Geo Black | 2 |
1972 Geo Purple | 75 |
1972 Geo Orange | 25 |
1972 Geo Red | 5 |
1972 Geo Black Infinity | 2 |
Certified Rookie Geo Purple | 85 |
Certified Rookie Geo Orange | 26 |
Certified Rookie Geo Red | 5 |
Certified Rookie Geo Black | 2 |
Future Stars Base Value | 507 |
Future Stars Base Mega | 134 |
Future Stars Base Hanger | 185 |
Future Stars Pink Basketball | 55 |
Future Stars Orange Basketball | 25 |
Future Stars Blue Basketball | 5 |
How many Wemby autos is that in total? Here is the breakdown per format and overall.
Format | Total Auto |
Hobby | 933 |
Breakers | 326 |
Blaster | 562 |
Mega | 139 |
Hanger | 210 |
Total Retail | 911 |
Total Hobby | 1259 |
Total Autos | 2170 |
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?
Format | Number of Boxes Per Wemby Auto | Cost Per | Box Cost |
Hobby | 54 | $15,717 | $290 |
Breakers | 41 | $13,275 | $325 |
Blaster | 671 | $20,130 | $30 |
Mega | 652 | $32,602 | $50 |
Hanger | 1356 | $20,339 | $15 |
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.
Format | Number of Boxes Per Wemby Auto | Cost Per | Box Cost |
Hobby | 32 | $9,183 | $290 |
Breakers | 190 | $61,750 | $325 |
Blaster | 217 | $6,514 | $30 |
Mega | 228 | $11,400 | $50 |
Hanger | 523 | $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.
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.
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.
Is this Caitlin Clark's best rookie card? (Plus Topps Update SSPs!)
Sealed blaster box of 2022 MLB Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary.
Sealed Blaster Box of 2022 Topps MLB Baseball Update Series.
Sealed blaster box of 2023 Topps Stadium Club.
Sealed box of 2019 Topps MLB Baseball Series 2 Hobby Box. 1 autograph or relic card guaranteed. Great rookie class.
Sealed Box of 2021 Panini Prizm Baseball Cello. 12 packs per box, 18 cards per pack.
© Copyright 2024 - All rights reserved Cardlines.com / Media Techs LLC - Sports Card News, Reviews, Releases and BREAKS - #thehobby.
Important: When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.