Caitlin Clark rookie cards likely to break women's sports card record sale go to auction
Both cards are expected to eclipse the March sale of a different one-of-a-kind Clark card, her 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Signatures Gold Vinyl autograph rookie card, which went for $366,000 through Goldin Auctions. That sale set a record for the most expensive women's sports card ever.
A few key elements set the Rookie Royalty one-of-ones apart from the Prizm card, though. The autograph on the Flawless and Immaculate cards are directly on the card — this is far more desirable to collectors than autographed stickers that are placed on cards, which is what the Prizm card has. In addition, the Flawless and Immaculate cards also feature the WNBA 'Logowoman' patch from Indiana Fever jerseys. Even though they're from jerseys that weren't personally worn by Clark, league logo patches command a premium in cards. Clark also inscribed the Flawless card with '769 pts and counting.' This refers to how many points she scored during her 2024 campaign in which she won the WNBA rookie of the year award. The Immaculate card is inscribed with 'ROY 24' to signify Clark's rookie of the year honors.
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Kevin Lenane, Fanatics Collect's vice president of marketplace, said the consignor pulled the Clark card from a 2024 Panini Rookie Royalty box sold privately, rather than an online live box break stream, which is how the Immaculate card was found.
'The story is really about women's cards in the hobby. It's just remarkable, the path of this,' Lenane said. 'It's without a doubt, the No. 1 card she has. Given that this (gold) vinyl sticker Prizm sold for $366,000, I am positive it will sell for more. How much? I don't know. I would think it's pretty hefty. And so it'll just be a big moment for women in the hobby and women's cards featuring women in the hobby. The trajectory of that has really been just buoyed by Caitlin Clark, to be frank.'
Lenane said he's pretty conservative when giving estimates to potential consignors of cards, admitting he provided an estimate lower than the eventual $1.1 million price the 11-year-old boy landed for the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch autographed one-of-one card from the 2024 Topps Chrome Update set.
The fact he's so bullish about this Clark card points to this being the biggest Clark card ever consigned to Fanatics Collect. Goldin Auctions seemingly owned the Clark secondary card auction market, having sold the top 10 most expensive Clark cards on the secondary market, according to Market Movers — an online card sales database.
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The Flawless and Immaculate brands typically stand as two of Panini's top high-end products, meaning the cards from those sets command some of the highest price tags for collectors to buy on the secondary market. Flawless and Immaculate have traditionally been a stand-alone sets, but Panini inserted the brands and other high-end company labels like National Treasures and Noir within the Rookie Royalty boxes. That means there is also a similar one-of-a-kind National Treasures Clark Logowoman autographed card in Rookie Royalty, too. This wasn't the only part of the unusual set up.
Panini launched its Dutch auction for the boxes containing two cards starting at $30,000. Most boxes sold for around $4,000, though. Each box includes just two cards and is guaranteed to contain an on-card autograph of either Clark or Angel Reese and a Downtown or Kaboom insert of one of 12 players (including Clark and Reese).
Regardless of Panini's methods for the Rookie Royalty boxes, the Clark one-of-a-kind Flawless and Immaculate cards would be two of the most sought after cards in any set in any sport this year.
'From our side, it's just this amazing card,' Lenane said. 'We're auctioning it. I just think it's really interesting and kind of like a moment. In the WNBA, it's just the card everyone's looking for.'
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Clark returned to action Wednesday after missing the previous five games with a groin injury. She scored 10 points during the Fever's loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday. This was Clark's second extended absence this season after missing another five games in early June with a calf injury.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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