Caitlin Clark is tops for card collectors

The WNBA season might be over for Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, but that doesn’t mean that her impact on women’s basketball lessens.

According to the data collected by PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), her cards were graded 18x more than the next women’s basketball players in 2024: a true representation of Clark’s popularity among the fans. Interestingly, spots number two and three are covered by NCAA players, while spots four and five are occupied by Clark’s fellow WNBA rookies. This is just another indication that we are on the brink (no pun intended) of something special when it comes to the popularity of women’s sports.

PSA’S TOP 5 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN 2024*

Caitlin Clark (Indiana Fever): 42k

Paige Bueckers (UConn Huskies): 3.7k

JuJu Watkins (USC Trojans): 2.3k

Angel Reese (Chicago Sky): 2.2k

Cameron Brink (Los Angeles Sparks): 1.1k

*Based on volumes of cards PSA graded from January 2024 to August 2024

To learn more of the significance of these numbers, we talked to PSA President Ryan Hoge.

How does Caitlin Clark stack against other women athletes’ cards that you know of? Historically, when it comes to value, and across all disciplines.

Caitlin Clark’s hobby jump in the past year alone is pretty unprecedented when looking at hobby history. The recent growth of women’s sports has helped catalyze a rise in collecting women athletes, whether it is new or longtime collectors. Sabrina Ionescu’s cards had some momentum to them when she first landed in the WNBA, but because NIL is relatively new, Caitlin Clark had this incredible hobby runway throughout her record-breaking college career, where she had fully-licensed cards in an Iowa uniform available on the market.

In terms of card values, Clark currently holds the record for highest and second-highest sale price for a women’s basketball card. Last week, Clark’s Panini Draft Night Blue Viper 1/1 Autograph card sold for $84,000 at auction, surpassing the previous WNBA card sale record of $78,000 for Clark’s 2022 Bowman University Chrome 1st Bowman 1/1 Superfractor Auto PSA 10, which sold in Jan. 2024. In established women’s sports categories, Serena Williams cards really began to grow in price and demand in 2020 and 2021; Williams’ cards have sold for more than $200,000 on the market. But we can’t really compare these or other disciplines with women’s basketball because it’s just entering its growth moment on the court and in the hobby.

When a high-growth category such as women’s basketball is emerging in the hobby, we begin to see more interest in both the emerging college stars and the pros on the grading side because people are looking for early gems and want top quality. Women’s basketball is the category that’s having a real growth moment and is set to take off, and the values will only continue to climb with the sport as we see stars like Clark and Angel Reese take center stage.

Why do you think the college players are more popular than almost all WNBA players?

Collectors today are savvy enough to know that if a major star in any sport emerges, getting in early is key to building a valuable collection. Like we saw with Bird, Magic, Jordan and others [in the NBA] in the 1980s, the WNBA and women’s college basketball is witnessing an influx of talent like we’ve never seen before. And it all starts with Caitlin Clark.

While Clark was breaking records at Iowa, people began to fully realize the talents of her peers in the women’s game, such as Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins. In turn, the past two women’s March Madness tournaments saw huge viewership numbers that have dramatically raised the profile of their sport.

At the same time, NIL allowed for college players to have fully-licensed cards on the market, allowing fans to get the earliest versions of players’ cards, potentially creating a new “rookie” category. While it remains to be seen whether their WNBA rookie cards will be in higher demand, right now the recent memory of their college careers is fresh in people’s minds, and our numbers reflect that.

Do you see the Caitlin Clark Effect at work here too, meaning did her popularity contribute to the increase in value of other players’ cards?

The visibility she’s brought to the hobby and the sport is without question the biggest catalyst. Clark has clearly been at the forefront of women’s basketball card submissions, and the “rising tide lifts all boats” analogy is certainly true here, as we’ve seen an increase across women’s basketball player card submissions overall. Top quality cards become a bigger priority in fast-growing markets, which is when we see spikes in cards submitted for grading. In August 2024, Clark’s monthly total of graded cards on PSA was up over 20,000 percent compared to when Clark’s first trading cards were released in May 2023.

What do you think the future of the card industry is and how will women athletes factor into it?

The explosion of women’s sports offers an incredible growth opportunity for the card industry. We are already seeing a massive influx of new collectors thanks to Clark, Reese, Bueckers and the other rising stars. As these stars brighten along with their league’s growth, it seems only natural for a women athletes card market to blossom. At PSA, we are authenticating and preserving these pieces of sports history, and what has become investment-grade assets for many. We’re also a key touchpoint that the majority of collectors interact with, and volume of card submissions are a good indicator of value and demand within a category. All signs are pointing to women’s basketball (and other sports) being ready to jump to the next level. We’ll likely continue to see growth across women’s sports cards as the category continues gaining traction in the mainstream.