TOP 5 HOTTEST SPORTS CARDS!!🔥📈
A sports card investment show analyzing the hottest and coldest trading cards, featuring Drake May's sharp decline due to poor NFL performance, Steph Curry's rare rookie cards skyrocketing in value, and Brock Purdy's cards surging as the 49ers lead the league. The episode covers five rising stars' cards (Dylan Raiola, Matviy Michkov, J.J. McCarthy, Michael Penix Jr., and Brock Purdy) while discussing market trends via the Market Movers tool.
Summary
This episode of 'TOP 5 HOTTEST SPORTS CARDS' from Cards HQ presents a comprehensive market analysis using the Market Movers tool, showing the SCI 500 index up 56% year-to-date despite a 1% decline over the past week. The show opens with a 'cold card' segment featuring Drake May, the New England Patriots quarterback whose rookie cards have crashed in value. May was last season's MVP runner-up who led New England to the Super Bowl, but his 2024 rookie cards have plummeted—his 2024 Absolute Kaboom PSA 10 dropped from $4,000 to $2,650, his Donruss rookie fell $800 in one month, and his Optic Holo collapsed 46% from $543 to $296. This decline correlates with May's disastrous start to the 2025 season, where he threw six interceptions in just three games compared to eight for the entire previous season.
The show then highlights Steph Curry's 2009 rookie cards as the investment card of the week, explaining that 2009 was a unique year when Topps rushed to market before losing the NBA license to Panini, resulting in extremely rare 2009 Topps Chrome cards with print runs of 500-999. Curry's Topps Chrome Refractor PSA 10 skyrocketed from $95,000 to $192,000 in one year (a 102% increase), his base Topps PSA 10 doubled from $10,000 to $20,000, and his Topps Chrome PSA 10 rose from $40,000 to $60,000. Even lower-grade PSA 9 cards showed dramatic gains.
The top five hot cards begin with Dylan Raiola, Oregon Ducks quarterback at #5, whose cards surged after he came off the bench and led Oregon to a 41-27 upset victory over 12th-ranked USC, completing 19 of 25 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns. His 2024 Prizm Draft Picks Red Ice PSA 10 rose from $30 to $45, his 2025 Mosaic Future Scripts jumped from $12 to $25-32, and his 2025 Prizm Draft Picks Black Color Blast nearly doubled from $70-80 to $129.
At #4 is Matviy Michkov, Philadelphia Flyers right winger, whose cards are rising as investors hope for a comeback season after a decline from 63 to 51 points last year. His 2024 Upper Deck Young Guns card jumped 36% from $16 to $32 in one month, the PSA 10 version rose from $159 to $188, and his Young Guns Outburst Silver climbed from $100 to $115.
J.J. McCarthy ranks #3 after being traded to the New York Giants as a backup quarterback. Despite inconsistent NFL performance (6 wins, 4 losses, 11 TDs, 12 INTs with Minnesota), his cards surged following the trade announcement. His 2024 Absolute Kaboom horizontal rose from $300 to $383, his Downtown PSA 10 nearly doubled from $320 to $600, his Optic Purple Shock tripled from $17.80 to $40-50, and his new 2025 Topps Chrome Ultraviolet sold for $160 versus $120 a month prior.
Michael Penix Jr. claims #2 after returning from a torn ACL and leading the Atlanta Falcons to a miraculous 35-14 victory over Green Bay at Lambeau, completing 18 of 25 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown. His 2024 Donruss Downtown PSA 10 exploded from $400 to $900 in one month, his Prism Disco PSA 10 nearly doubled from $29 to $56, his Prism Silver PSA 10 climbed from $152 to $274, and his Red, White and Blue variant jumped from $31 to $71.
Brock Purdy takes the #1 spot as the San Francisco 49ers quarterback leading the team to a 3-0 start with the best passer rating in the NFL (133.1), 789 passing yards, 9 touchdowns, 1 interception, plus 93 rushing yards and another touchdown. His 2022 Optic Rookie Downtown PSA 10 increased from $3,300 to $3,887, his base 2022 Prism rookie PSA 10 rose from $70 to $121, his Prism Silver PSA 10 climbed from $541 to $800-900, his Prism Green PSA 10 jumped from $144 to $212, and his 2025 Absolute Kaboom Horizontal PSA 10 rose from $1,090 to $1,488.
Key Insights
- Drake May's 2024 rookie cards crashed in value, with his Absolute Kaboom PSA 10 dropping from nearly $4,000 to $2,650 in just a few weeks, correlating directly with his poor start to the 2025 NFL season where he threw six interceptions in three games
- The 2009 Topps Chrome Steph Curry rookie cards became exceptionally rare because Topps rushed to market before losing the NBA license to Panini, resulting in print runs of only 500-999 copies, causing these cards to appreciate dramatically from $95,000 to $192,000 for the Refractor PSA 10 in just one year
- Dylan Raiola's cards surged after coming off the bench and leading Oregon to a 41-27 upset victory over 12th-ranked USC, with his 2025 Prizm Draft Picks Black Color Blast nearly doubling in price from $70-80 to $129 in one month
- J.J. McCarthy's cards skyrocketed immediately following the trade announcement to the New York Giants, with his 2024 Donruss Downtown PSA 10 nearly doubling from $320 to $600 despite his inconsistent NFL performance record of 6 wins and 4 losses
- Brock Purdy's cards are surging as he leads the 49ers to a 3-0 start with the NFL's best passer rating of 133.1, with his 2022 Optic Rookie Downtown PSA 10 increasing from $3,300 to $3,887 and his 2025 Absolute Kaboom climbing from $1,090 to $1,488
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] Today, our top five cards feature not one, not two , not three, but four quarterbacks. In addition, our "cold " card is also the quarterback. Can you guess who they are? Now we will tell you. Greetings sports card investors, and welcome to another edition of the top five cards from Arena Club here at Cards HQ. Today we have many topics to discuss. Football player cards are just going crazy. Cards from other sports are [0:30] also growing rapidly. We'll feature them all in our top five list today. And, of course, today's top five is sponsored by Whatnot. Whatnot hosts great live auctions every day and night, where bids on packs, boxes, breaks, single cards and…
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