$5.11 million sold! Wembanyama's trading card hits historic high, setting NBA unsigned card record.

ESPN was informed by Fantacy Collectibles on May 27 that a 2023-24 Panini Prizm black shimmer 1/1 Wembanyama card changed hands in a private sale on its platform, fetching $5.11 million.

This is the highest recorded price ever for a Wembanyama trading card., ranking fourth on the basketball card sales list and eleventh among all sports cards.Moreover, it is the most expensive unsigned NBA trading card known to have been sold., and it is also the third sports card in 2026 to exceed $5 million in sale price.

The previous record for a Wembanyama card was $860,100: In February 2025, another 1/1 parallel from the same set sold at Goldin Auctions. It is worth noting that no officially licensed Wembanyama rookie autograph cards exist on the market. Wembanyama has an exclusive partnership with Fantacy Collectibles, which took over the exclusive NBA trading card distribution rights last October; during Wembanyama's rookie season, the NBA card exclusive license still belonged to Panini.

This card received a perfect 10 grade from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). It was pulled by a Northern California sports card shop during a live pack-breaking stream, which later stirred considerable controversy. A 2024 video showed the card's then-owner, shop proprietor Thomas Lindenthal, taking the card to PSA's parent company headquarters for grading. After achieving a perfect grade, he specifically thanked Kurt's Card Care Studio, a business focused on card cleaning, edge repair, and surface restoration to restore cards to their factory condition.

In the card collecting world, intentionally cleaning or altering cards is considered a violation, and PSA will refuse to grade any card that has been tampered with. Its grading rules explicitly forbid cleaning; if any issues such as trimming, restoration, recoloring, authenticity doubts, material alteration, cleaning residue, or trimming defects are found, the card is immediately rejected. Two specific designations—"N5 Material Alteration" and "N7 Cleaning Residue"—target the use of cleaning sprays, waxes, or other foreign substances on the card surface.

On the court, Wembanyama set multiple milestones this season: He became the first NBA player ever to be unanimously voted Defensive Player of the Year, was also a unanimous selection to the All-Defensive First Team, and finished third in MVP voting.