WNBA star guard Caitlin Clark surpasses Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese as the highest among women basketball players in this year’s Professional Sports Authenticator’s (PSA) most collected cards.
According to FOX Sports’ report, Clark had more than 77,000 cards graded by the PSA; she is also the most popular female athlete across all sports, surpassing the second-place Bueckers, which had 5,400 sold. Meanwhile, Angel Reese takes the third spot with 4,700 cards.
The Indiana Fever star sold 14x more cards than Bueckers and nearly 16x more than what Reese made.
Some of Caitlin Clark’s cards this year are the $234,850 2024 Panini Select WNBA sold by Goldin Auctions, the highest all-time WNBA player in a sold trading card, and a ROTY Blue Viper worth $97,212.54.
Women basketball athletes make up the top five in PSA’s ranking. Following Clark, Bueckers, and Reese are JuJu Watkins and Cameron Brink. Hannah Hidalgo takes the seventh, followed by Sabrina Ionescu.
In addition, basketball had the highest increase in trading cards sold by +77% percent. Watkins of the USC Trojans was the highest-rising athlete in women’s basketball, with a rating of +8,561 percent.
Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs was the highest-ranking athlete of 2024, gaining 407,000. Michael Jordan took the second place with 269,000. NFL’s C.J. Stroud clinches the third spot with $223,000.
This year’s PSA rankings highlighted the increasing interest in star rookies in the WNBA and the NBA. Caitlin Clark debuted in the former last season, significantly increasing the league’s viewership; StubHub revealed that Clark sold 90 more tickets this year than they had in 2023.
Caitlin Clark deserves to get TIME’s award for Fever GM
TIME’s proclamation of Caitlin Clark as the Athlete of the Year gained skepticism from Washington Mystics’ owner Sheila Johnson, who argued that the entire WNBA, not just Clark, should’ve been included in their cover, a stand garnering backlash from many.
Amber Cox, Indiana Fever’s GM, made candid remarks regarding Johnson’s statement. In an episode of Khristina Williams’ podcast, Cox believes that Clark is worthy of TIME’s award while acknowledging other players who also contributed to boosting the WNBA’s popularity.
“I think Caitlin Clark deserves that award,” Cox said after Williams asked her for her response about Johnson’s comments.
Indiana Fever COO and GM @AmberLCox on @CaitlinClark22 being named @TIME Athlete of the Year:
“We’ve never seen anything like Caitlin Clark.”
🔗: Full episode available now:https://t.co/km6U3sUZfx pic.twitter.com/iOgDe8TwGa
— In Case You Missed It with Khristina Williams (@ICYMIwithKW) December 20, 2024
“Through the years… There have been incredible players… Sports to me is generational. We’ve been at this not very long. Less than 30 years, comparatively, when you’re talking about other leagues.”
“The identity and how much brand recognition these players [mentioning Angel Reese and Cameron Brink now have in college absolutely helped the WNBA. But we’ve never seen anything like Caitlin Clark,” Cox added.
Caitlin Clark isn’t playing on the court but continues to achieve milestones. She’ll be back in the WNBA action in May.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
