Spurs card craze surges as Wembanyama, rookies fuel Topps Chrome buzz

 Story by René Guzman, San Antonio Specific-Information

You do not usually see a former Spurs participant ripping open packs of Main League Baseball playing cards at a buying and selling playing cards store, a lot much less bemoaning how he needed to recoup a few of his most prized playing cards of himself after his younger son gave them to his buddies at college.

Then once more, retired NBA veteran George Hill is lots like most guys who break containers and blister packs at Sports Cards Plus, a family-owned retailer simply north of Fort Hills that is been within the collectible playing cards enterprise about so long as the 39-year-old Hill has dribbled a basketball.

Hill additionally collected playing cards when he was a child. And his child additionally acquired him again into the passion.

Sports activities playing cards have bridged and bonded generations virtually so long as sports activities themselves. And if you happen to’re a Spurs fan, there’s by no means been a greater time to get into the sport, particularly when the workforce that first drafted Hill into the NBA is making a lot noise in card accumulating.

There’s, in fact, Wembymania. Since Victor Wembanyama suited up for the Spurs two seasons in the past, the generational expertise has towered over the sports activities playing cards market with greater than 560,000 playing cards graded, according to GemRate. One rookie card alone sold for a staggering $860,000, whereas others such because the uncommon Wembanyama playing cards at Sports activities Playing cards Plus promote on the secondary marketplace for a number of thousand {dollars} every.

Wembymania card mania is actual. Sports activities Playing cards Plus provides prospects a number of uncommon and hard-to-find buying and selling playing cards of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, some promoting for a number of thousand {dollars} every. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Specific-Information)

In the meantime, Spurs rookie Dylan Harper and Spurs guard and reigning Rookie of the 12 months, Stephon Fort, lead the cardboard accumulating cost in the new 2025-26 Topps Chrome Basketball set, a premium model of Topps’ common sports activities playing cards that is one of the well-liked sequence within the passion.

Chrome Basketball dropped Thursday with a whopping 31 completely different Harper playing cards. As for Fort, he graces what Topps payments as “the crown jewel” of the brand new Chrome assortment: a 1-of-1 autographed Gold Logoman card, which encompasses a particular gold model of the NBA brand the participant wore on the again of his jersey. Logoman playing cards are a few of the most sought-after and helpful playing cards within the passion. The brand new set additionally has 4 such Fort playing cards with out the signature.

The autographed model of the brand new Topps Chrome Gold NBA Logoman Relic Card, such because the pictured card of Spurs guard and reigning Rookie of the 12 months, Stephon Fort, is taken into account the crown jewel of the gathering, restricted to only a single card. (Courtesy Topps)

Wembanyama nonetheless has a commanding presence within the new Chrome sequence with 19 completely different playing cards of the French phenom.

The brand new Topps Chrome Basketball set contains 19 completely different card designs of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Pictured is an autographed Superfractor, restricted to only one card. (Courtesy Topps)

The brand new Topps Chrome Basketball set contains 19 completely different card designs of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Pictured is an autographed Black Refractor card, certainly one of solely 10 within the set. (Courtesy Topps)

The brand new Topps Chrome Basketball set contains 19 completely different card designs of Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Pictured is an autographed Gold Refractor card, certainly one of solely 50 within the set. (Courtesy Topps)

Since launching Sports activities Playing cards Plus in 1992, proprietor Charlie DiPietro has seen the passion explode a number of occasions because of Spurs superstars. It occurred when David Robinson was a rookie, he stated, then once more with Tim Duncan.

Spurs rookie Dylan Harper will get loads of publicity within the new Topps Chrome Basketball set with 31 completely different playing cards. Pictured is an autographed Black Refractor card of Harper. (Courtesy Topps)

On the subject of Wembanyama’s affect on card accumulating, “I name it the third wave,” DiPietro stated. “And it is actually exploded, much more than Tim Duncan, greater than David Robinson. And I feel it is as a result of there’s already lots of people accumulating. And it is introduced much more new curiosity. So it is doing rather well.”

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These aren’t your bubble gum playing cards of previous. Sports activities playing cards as we speak are a $13 billion trade, providing myriad variations of autographed playing cards and different variants in packs and containers that may vary from a couple of bucks to 5 figures based mostly on card shortage and odds of pulling such grails.

The brand new Chrome Basketball playing cards alone go for wherever between $19.99 for a Hanger field of 15 playing cards at Goal and Walmart to $379.99 for a Pastime Field of 80 playing cards with one autograph at specialty shops.

Which is why Hill and the consultants behind his favourite card store urge new and returning collectors to concentrate on having enjoyable inside a price range. Chase that favourite participant or workforce for the love, not the quick buck. Mainly, take pleasure in that timeless childhood feeling that is on the coronary heart of the passion, whether or not it is with your personal little one or simply your interior little one.

“For those who’re going into it simply attempting to generate profits off of it, the cardboard gods will not bless you,” Hill stated. “However if you happen to’re going into it for causes (like) to have enjoyable and be taught it and embrace it, I feel good playing cards come your method.”

As Hill famous earlier, his son was the explanation he acquired again into the passion. A number of years in the past, his son’s college buddies requested him if his dad may signal their very own George Hill playing cards. That led to his son doling out his dad’s personal playing cards like they had been sweet.

Two of these playing cards had been Hill’s personal Logoman playing cards from his days with the Pacers. Hill later recovered the Logoman playing cards on-line. Now he chases all types of playing cards, pack by pack and field by field.

“I miss lots however generally you get huge hits,” he stated. “I do not actually purchase singles, I’m going for the chase. I like to tear the packs open and get one thing. I really feel like the cardboard means extra whenever you try this.”

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Pals at college are what acquired DiPietro into accumulating again within the late Nineteen Fifties when he was a child rising up on town’s deep West Facet.

DiPietro was 9 years previous when he began accumulating baseball playing cards, which he purchased with cash he acquired from accumulating soda bottles across the neighborhood with somewhat pink wagon. Within the early Nineteen Eighties, DiPietro began investing in sports activities playing cards as a enterprise, not only a passion.

In spite of everything, “my sons acquired involved in playing cards,” DiPietro stated, “and I stated, ‘Why not?'”

DiPietro has seen prospects who first got here in as youngsters carry their very own kids to the shop. “In a single case, I’ve a grandfather, the son and the grandson, all three of them, three generations right here at a time,” he stated.

That is often the case behind the cardboard shows. DiPietro’s son Jeff DiPietro and grandson Jordan Correa assist run the shop, with assists from a number of different kin.

Sports activities Playing cards Plus proprietor Charlie DiPietro, from left, stands together with his son Jeff and grandchildren Elizabeth and Jordan, who all work alongside him at his sports activities card and memorabilia retailer at 2251 Lockhill Selma Street. The elder DiPietro has been within the collectible playing cards enterprise for greater than 30 years. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Specific-Information)

“It’s fascinating as a result of it’s like little home windows of nostalgia,” Jeff DiPietro stated of sports activities playing cards’ cross-generational attraction. “It looks like when one seemingly closes for the older technology it opens for the youthful one. After which the older one opens the window once more, too.”

Jeff DiPietro began accumulating playing cards within the ’80s when he and his brother had been youngsters in Ohio enjoying stickball within the streets, whereas Correa acquired the buying and selling card bug within the early 2000s with Pokémon playing cards. On the time, neither noticed their playing cards as a future funding.

“We’d play the video games and if we misplaced our Pokémon in a battle we would rip up the cardboard,” Correa stated with amusing. “We did not suppose a lot of it on the time.”

That is not the case with collectors as we speak. Correa stated youngsters usually come into Sports activities Playing cards Plus simply as versed within the encyclopaedic data of the passion because the grown-ups. Some even spend the identical type of grown-up cash. But usually these younger collectors nonetheless swap playing cards with their buddies with that very same schoolyard abandon.

“It is positively a mixture of each: the youngsters that do not care after which the youngsters that do care,” Correa stated. “However both method, they do have a good suggestion of how the passion works.”

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So how must you enter this Byzantine world of card-stock treasures that embody “parallels,” which look the identical as base playing cards solely with completely different border colours in additional restricted numbers, and “relics,” which just like the Logoman playing cards are uncommon playing cards embedded with a bit of memorabilia equivalent to cloth from a participant’s jersey?

Once more, acquire inside your means. Keep in mind that Chrome is a premium model of Topps commonplace sports activities playing cards with smaller print runs and higher odds at parallels and different inserts. Chrome playing cards value extra however can be extra helpful, Charlie DiPietro stated.

As an example, a Worth Field of Topps’ common 2025/26 NBA playing cards has 82 playing cards for $24.99. A Chrome Worth Field has 28 playing cards for $49.99.

The brand new 2025-26 Topps Chrome Basketball buying and selling playing cards, one of the well-liked sequence within the card accumulating passion, come in numerous field codecs for numerous accumulating ranges and budgets. Costs vary from $19.99 for 15 playing cards to $379.99 for a Pastime Field of 80 playing cards with one autograph card. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Specific-Information)

“They’ve all these completely different ranges to make it so that individuals can determine what their affordability stage is,” DiPietro stated. “And as you go up in value of the field, it makes it simpler to get one thing helpful. However if you happen to’re simply in it for the enjoyable, you may go to the cheaper containers.”

Jeff DiPietro seconded one other certainly one of his dad’s truisms: “So long as they’re having enjoyable, if one thing is price some huge cash then you definitely win twice.”

Correa stated it is simple to get overwhelmed, so do your homework. Watch YouTube movies of field openings to get a greater sense of the playing cards which can be on the market, he stated, then get on the market and speak with different collectors for steering. Attain out to buy house owners in addition to on-line influencers for suggestions, too.

Jeff DiPietro confused it is best to determine some extent of no return and to by no means go it. He famous he had a pal who spent $5,000 on the lookout for a Wembanyama autographed card that might have value him about $1,000 on eBay.

Hill may relate. That day at Sports activities Playing cards Plus, he tore by 10 containers of Chrome Baseball playing cards within the hunt for a super-rare Debut Patch card, which encompasses a piece of the participant’s game-worn jersey from his first main league recreation.

Hill struck out on that depend however nonetheless had enjoyable enjoying.