2021 was an incredible year for sports cards. The market continued to grow and reached new heights throughout the year. Although prices came down and settled, the demand for sports cards is still much larger than it was even a year ago. We’re going to look at the top 10 fastest-growing sports cards of 2021.
These 10 cards did not slow down this year and posted some pretty astonishing growth numbers. In order to qualify for this list, cards had to hold a minimum value of $250.
The 2018 Allen & Ginter CryptoCurrency PSA 10 card has a population of 336 and last sold for $1,000 despite selling for just $15 in early 2020. The card hit a high price of $1,250 in October and is likely due to the explosion of NFTs and crypto this year.
NFTs dominated this year and in a way, it’s comical that the fastest growing sports card depicts cryptocurrency.
Since it first hit the market in 2019, this card has grown 4,551% in value.
The only ungraded card to make this list is a 1/1 Green On The Horizon Aaron Rodgers card that depicts an ice cream sundae in the background. This card last sold for $4,261 in June, but the real fun is had when looking at a sale from February of this year and early June:
On February 8th, this card sold for $122.50.
On June 8th, it sold for $5,100.
That’s over 1,500% growth in 4 months.
This Tom Brady Kaboom! has just 11 copies graded PSA 10 and last sold for $9,099. In December of last year, this card sold for $610. This represents a gain of over $8,000 in a year.
The card sold for $4,300 in July (after Brady won a Super Bowl with the Bucs) and hit a high of $9,999 in October as people realized Brady hasn’t lost a step and is on a path to a potential MVP and another Super Bowl run.
Despite having a 1,402 supply of PSA 10s, this Shohei Ohtani Bowman Chrome Batting rookie last sold for $750 despite selling as low as $20 a year earlier. This card hit a high price of $2,000 over the summer and has since come back down, but when you look at Year over Year growth, the card is up 1,328%.
Ohtani appears twice on this list because he’s both a quality pitcher and a quality hitter. As a pitcher this season, he had 9 wins on a 3.18 ERA and 156 strikeouts, and as a batter this season, he hit 46 Home Runs and had 100 RBIs.
In March of this year, a pop 18 BGS 8.5 SP Authentic Rookie Auto of 3x NBA Champion Dwyane Wade sold for just $56. A few weeks later, the card sold for $380 and was last sold in May for $985.
In January, one of the 16 copies of this PSA 10 LeBron James 2003 Topps Contemporary rookie card sold for $1,257. By April, the card sold for $28,100.
It has since come down to its latest sale of $14,480 in May, which is still a large appreciation in value. LeBron’s 2003 Topps Chrome rookie card grew noticeably in value and this alternative rookie flew under the radar. At a pop of just 16, the card has only been sold 4 times in the past 2 years.
This is Shohei Ohtani’s second rookie card on this list, this time depicting him as a pitcher. There are 602 copies of this card in a PSA 10 grade and a copy last sold for $523.44.
1 year ago, this card sold for just $50.
Despite hitting a high price of $1,126 in July and coming back down in value, it’s still grown 926% in value over the past year.
In January of this year, one of the 31 PSA 10 copies of Dennis Rodman’s 1992 Stadium Club Beam Team sold for $247.50 before hitting $3,000 in April.
11 days later, the card sold for $1,525, which still represents an 853% increase in value over the past year.
There are just 5 copies of this 2018 Tom Brady Kaboom Gold in a BGS 9.5 grade and one sold for $13,220 in February just days before Brady and the Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. In October, this card was sold for $120,000 in a private sale.
That’s a gain of over $100,000 in 8 months.
Numbered to just 75 copies with only 12 PSA 10 copies, this Wander Franco prospect card jumped in value from $425 earlier this year to its latest sale of $3,762 in October.
Franco is just 20 years old but he’s one of the best young stars in Major League Baseball and just signed a new $182 million deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.
