Paige Bueckers was unquestionably the best rookie in the WNBA this season.
The league finally made that sentiment official when it presented the former No. 1 overall pick and current Dallas Wings star with the WNBA Rookie of the Year award Tuesday.
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Despite Bueckers’ historic performance — she was the only player to finish in the top 10 in points, assists and steals per game last season — card collectors, likely in a surprise to many, haven’t seemed as inspired as some expected.
Third-party data tool Market Movers has tracked fewer than 900 sales for Bueckers over the last 90 days, which ranks 78th among basketball players logged by the database. It’s not uncommon for WNBA players to lag behind the most popular NBA stars in terms of sales volume, though it’s not encouraging to see Bueckers trailing WNBA peers such as Nika Mühl, Kamilla Cardoso, Rickea Jackson and Angel Reese.
Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink have sat toward the top of the basketball market in terms of volume over the last three months, with Market Movers tracking more than 7,000 sales for Clark and more than 1,600 for Brink.
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One factor could be the lack of WNBA-licensed cards for Bueckers, who has yet to have a traditional flagship release featuring her in a Wings uniform.
The first flagship set with her Wings cards, 2025 Donruss WNBA Basketball, is tentatively scheduled to release in October following multiple delays, and how her market is reshaped in the aftermath will be a key indicator of hobby sentiment moving forward.
How her market is viewed — whether successful or unsuccessful — might need to be recalibrated, too. Collectors were quick to anoint Bueckers as the next Clark, but that just hasn’t happened. And maybe that was always wrong to begin with.
So far, Clark’s volume has far outpaced Bueckers and the high-end markets are largely incomparable.
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Ignoring their WNBA cards in order to level the playing field, there’s still a shockingly large delta between Clark and Bueckers when comparing their top high-end collegiate cards. The record for a Clark card featuring her Iowa uniform is the $78,000 paid for her 2022 Bowman University Chrome Superfractor Autograph 1/1 at Fanatics Collect in 2024.
Buecker’s version of that card, released in 2023 and featuring her in a UConn jersey, sold for $31,787 in April. That result remains a record for Bueckers at public auction, but could feel anemic compared to Clark’s result, which was the first major step in her market’s rapid ascension over the last year.
Another key comparison, acknowledging there are a limited number, could be a pair of Panini Instant WNBA Draft cards. Clark’s 2024 Panini Instant WNBA Draft Blue Viper Autograph 1/1 fetched $84,000 at Fanatics Collect in September 2024. Buecker’s closest example, her 2025 Panini Instant WNBA Draft Magma Autograph 1/1, sold for just $16,500 on eBay in July.
On the surface, the delta between the two can seem staggering, and potentially indicates Clark’s market hasn’t trickled down into other players the way some hoped it would. Another logical outcome could be that it has, and the WNBA market still has Clark at the top and everyone else jockeying below.
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That outcome isn’t uncommon with trading cards — LeBron James’ record sale of $5.2 million is far higher than Dwyane Wade’s record of $223,860. Is James a little more than 23 times better than Wade on the court? Of course not, even if their best rookie cards are separated by that much.
Card prices don’t always reflect on-court value, and the same can be said for Clark, Bueckers and the next WNBA star to come.
It could also be far too early to judge, with Bueckers’ market still in its infancy.
Clark’s rise has been so drastic it can be easy to forget her record jumped from below $100,000 to its current high of $660,000 in less than a year. Alongside her play on the court, that was largely driven by the release of dozens of ultra high-end cards worthy of the hammer price. Those cards don’t exist for Bueckers yet.
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Bueckers’ market hasn’t leapt into Clark’s stratosphere, but it truthfully shouldn’t need to in order to be viewed as successful. Prior to 2023, paying $30,000 or more for a trading card of a women’s basketball player was unheard of.
Now there have been multiple sales — JuJu Watkins has even topped $40,000 while still at USC — and it won’t be surprising to see the best of Bueckers’ WNBA cards top that time and time again when they finally arrive.
No, her market isn’t anywhere close to Clark’s right now, but that shouldn’t define its entire value. The WNBA’s most recent Rookie of the Year winner has delivered historical results on the court and in the hobby already, and her best is likely yet to come.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.
