WNBA Madness

[oldjudge]

Yesterday, a 1/1 Caitlin Clark panini rookie card, one of several different 1/1 panini rookie cards sold for $660,000. Clark is a very good player now and has the potential to be an all time great. However, she has only played a little over one season, has been hurt much of this year, and was far from the best player in the league when she did play. Aside from Clark cards I don't think anyone else's cards have gotten into the mid-five figure range and I don't believe that anything from A'ja Wilson, arguably the greatest player ever, have even reached five figures. Is this completely crazy or am I missing something?

[aro13]

I'm with you Jay. Although I would disagree about Wilson being the best ever. Breanna Stewart or Diana Taurasi deserve that title in my opinion.

I would guess if Taurasi or Stewart or Wilson had a 1/1 card from their rookie season it would easily fetch 6 digits. They don't have anything comparable. Their highest priced cards would be their PSA 10 RC's which wouldn't come close to 5 digits.

[ValKehl]

One could make a case for Sue Bird being the best ever.

[bnorth]

Pretty much the same as baseball. When 1/1s first came out in the 90s the future HOFers/super star players from the 80s 1/1 cards sold in the hundreds. The rookies that turned out to be nothing special sold in the thousands.

[BioCRN]

She's long captured the imagination, television ratings, and fandom of people since she was in college.

It may or may not last, but I still see people under the age of 30 get excited to pull a Bo Jackson autograph/parallel even though he never realized his potential.

Some people have "it" and some people manage to hold onto it after the hype. Though CC is just getting started and still has her hype I've passively read a lot of stuff that expect(ed) her to be good, but not necessarily a generational talent.

[samosa4u]

Beyond ridiculous! People already think that she is going to be the GOAT of the WNBA. What if she keeps getting injured? What if she never wins a championship? How much will this card be worth then ??

[oldjudge]

It would be really tough to make the argument for Bird since she has never won an MVP. I used to think that Stewie and A'ja Wilson were equivalent but Wilson in the last year or two has, in my mind, passed Stewie. Taurasi was great but never was above average defensively. Wilson is as much an offensive force as D ever was and is one of the top defensive players, if not the top defensive player, in the league. This all comes from a UCONN fan who would love to argue for D or Stewie or Bird.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

It would be really tough to make the argument for Bird since she has never won an MVP. I used to think that Stewie and A'ja Wilson were equivalent but Wilson in the last year or two has, in my mind, passed Stewie. Taurasi was great but never was above average defensively. Wilson is as much an offensive force as D ever was and is one of the top defensive players, if not the top defensive player, in the league. This all comes from a UCONN fan who would love to argue for D or Stewie or Bird.

She never finished second either, and averaged just 11.7 points. IMO no way she ranks ahead of Taurasi, Stewart, Wilson, Moore, Catchings, or Parker.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Regardless of how her career turns out, she is already a singularly transcendent figure, with the incredible college career she had, and probably having brought the biggest number of new fans and eyes to the WNBA of anyone in the league's history.

Whether or not she ends up one of the greatest ever, I don't think $660k for a card of hers is any more ludicrous than $13 million for a '52 Mantle.

[aro13]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

It would be really tough to make the argument for Bird since she has never won an MVP. I used to think that Stewie and A'ja Wilson were equivalent but Wilson in the last year or two has, in my mind, passed Stewie. Taurasi was great but never was above average defensively. Wilson is as much an offensive force as D ever was and is one of the top defensive players, if not the top defensive player, in the league. This all comes from a UCONN fan who would love to argue for D or Stewie or Bird.

All fair points. The thing with Stewart is she is a four time National College Champion (three time final four MVP?) who lost 5 games in her whole career and only 1 in the last three seasons. Even if Wilson is slightly better now she is going to really have to blow away Stewart for the rest of her career to justify the college difference.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Yesterday, a 1/1 Caitlin Clark panini rookie card, one of several different 1/1 panini rookie cards sold for $660,000. Clark is a very good player now and has the potential to be an all time great. However, she has only played a little over one season, has been hurt much of this year, and was far from the best player in the league when she did play. Aside from Clark cards I don't think anyone else's cards have gotten into the mid-five figure range and I don't believe that anything from A'ja Wilson, arguably the greatest player ever, have even reached five figures. Is this completely crazy or am I missing something?

-
Didn't CC break 8 or 9 rookie records and a couple of WNBA records including assists? Not to mention attendance records wherever she went.
I would argue she had a better season by far over any other player. She is the 1st WNBA player to have any mainstream appeal, nobody cares about that Brittney Griner dude or most of the other players in the league.
Incredible how the WNBA screwed up managing her mass appeal at every turn and allowed the thugs to beat up on her because of their fragile egos. And the crap Sheryl Swoopes said about her was shameful. Officiating is horrible too.
Maybe they can figure it out moving forward, maybe not.

Clark cards have caught fire much like a meme stock, 660K is a ton of money. Personally, I'll take a 14CJ Jackson and leave the other stuff to the speculators.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It's the logo 3s, more than anything. She shoots from places no one has consistently shot from before, and that's what fires up the fans. And she's relatable, a pretty ordinary looking gal, a bit of an edge but one that I thinks works to her popularity rather than offending.

[Misunderestimated]

The highest end of the market for basketball (NBA & WNBA) is largely about (manufactured) scarcity and potential. Didn't some Luka Doncic one of one card set the basketball card price record a few years ago ? He's really good and the sky was the limit on his potential (it still may be).
Clark is like that --> only more so. She's got potential to be the one of the best ever and has elevated women's basketball's popularity like no one before.

I guess the difference between her cards and the Mantle card referenced below is the potential both upside and downside depending on how her career shakes out.
One of the things I find most interesting about her celebration/phenomenon is that she plays for Indiana a basketball heaven but not exactly a large market. I guess that doesn't matter like it used to.