Welcome to Sports Cards Insider – FREE Version. Today we have a deep dive into two basketball cards coming up on Collectable:
- A 2018-19 Panini Flawless Trae Young Rookie Autographs Card (Green) that IPOs Tuesday, June 8th, 2021 at 8 PM EST
- A 2018-19 Panini Contenders Michael Porter Jr. Championship Ticket that IPOs Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 at 8 PM EST
Insiders get one dedicated email for each asset with more analysis, comps, and full valuations. We also give the AA Verdict for each card: a straight up Yes or No.
Table of Contents
Trae Young Rookie Autograph Card
About the asset
This is a 2018-19 Panini Flawless Trae Young Rookie Autographs Card – Green variation graded BGS 9 (no autograph grade). It is 1 of 5 produced and is the only one so far graded by BGS. There has also been 1 graded a PSA 8. As with most of these modern NBA cards, there are a bunch of variations:
- Base Autograph – /25
- Ruby – /15
- Gold – /10
- Green – /5
- Platinum – /1
But not just that, within the same Panini Flawless set there are also Flawless Patch Autos, Horizonal Patch Autos, Logoman Auto, Rookie Patches, Signature Prime Materials, Star Swatch Signatures, Vertical Patch Autos, Championship Tags Autos – and many of those have Gold, Green, Platinum etc etc variations. And that’s not even considering all the different Panini sets (Chronicles, Contenders, Court Kings, Dominion, Immaculate, National Treasures, etc) that all have rookie autograph cards as well. Basically, there are a LOT of different types of Trae Young rookie autograph cards and this is just one of them.
For this asset, Insiders also learned:
- Projected growth trend
- Full valuation
- Asset class volatility
- Our verdict on the asset as an investment
About the drop
This asset will drop on Collectable at 8 PM EST on June 8th for $24,000. The consignor is retaining $10,000 in equity, leaving just $14,000 in available shares. Collectable have been scheduling their assets for trading around 60 days after the IPO funds and from that point it trades every weekday.
Add IPO to calendar
About Trae Young
Young is one of the brighter young stars in the game, a 3rd year point guard for the Atlanta Hawks who is already one of the better offensive players in the game. Ever since his collegiate days at Oklahoma, his stature and shooting ability have drawn comparisons to Steph Curry, but he’s more of a pure point guard than Steph – he’s finished 2nd in assists each of the last two seasons. He was an All-Star last season and this season led the Hawks to their first playoff spot in four years.
Because they were drafted in the same draft and literally traded for each other (and somehow only went 3rd and 5th in the draft despite being by far the best players so far drafted in 2018), Young will always and forever be compared to the other young superstar point guard, Luka Doncic. While Doncic has been the more complete overall player thus far, Young’s team is the one still competing in this year’s playoffs. Doncic’s cards and memorabilia have also far surpassed Young’s and Young’s national profile has lagged well behind. That being said, this current playoff run has boosted his star and there’s no shame in being 2nd to Doncic.
As you can see, Doncic far outstrips Young, but Trae has come close in this year’s playoffs – his profile is definitely on the upswing. Over the past year, he compares well to the more experienced Donovan Mitchell (who had a card IPO yesterday) and crushes the #1 overall pick from 2018 (Ayton) and the other player I’m writing about today (Porter Jr.).
Wyatt also wrote about Trae Young recently here.
Recent sales history and Valuation
[Detailed Valuation for Insiders Only]
Growth Potential and Future Catalysts
The Hawks are still in the playoffs and upset the #1 seed 76ers in Game 1 of their series. They are still slight underdogs in the series and are 11:1 underdogs to make the finals and about a 30:1 underdog to win the NBA title. The more success they have the more Young’s star will rise in the short-term. He is a good bet to continue to rise in stature long term regardless.
Verdict
[Full Evaluation for Insiders Only]
Michael Porter Jr. Championship Ticket
About the asset
This is a 2018-19 Panini Contenders Michael Porter Jr. Championship Ticket Autographed Rookie Card graded BGS 9 with an autograph grade of 10. It is a 1/1 variant, in a way, but to label it that way is somewhat misleading. There are an insane number of other 1/1 variants in the series (15 in total) – just look:
and a couple more, and a list of all the other autograph variants in just the contenders series:
For this asset, Insiders also learned:
- Projected growth trend
- Full valuation
- Asset class volatility
- Our verdict on the asset as an investment
About the drop
This asset will drop on Collectable at 8 PM EST on June 9th for $29,950. The consignor is retaining $12,500 in equity, leaving just $17,450 in available shares. Collectable have been scheduling their assets for trading around 60 days after the IPO funds and from that point it trades every weekday.
Add IPO to calendar
About Michael Porter Jr.
Porter was taken in the same 2018 draft as Young (and Doncic) and was widely considered to be a top-5 talent before injury concerns dropped him to the Nuggets at 14th. He missed his entire rookie season due to injury and came off the bench last year before breaking out this year and turning into a solid contributor, averaging 19 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
He’s still the 3rd best player on his team (behind presumed NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the injured Jamal Murray), doesn’t have a long track record of success and is definitely on a tier below All-Star right now. As the graph above showed, his cultural footprint is well behind Young and other established NBA stars.
Recent sales history and Valuation
[Detailed Valuation for Insiders Only]
Growth Potential and Future Catalysts
The Nuggets are still alive in the NBA playoffs but just lost game 1 of the series with the Suns and are now a 3:1 underdog to advance and are about 40:1 to win the championship. Even if they do, Porter is overshadowed considerably by Nikola Jokic and it would take an epic set of performances by him to breakout into the national consciousness.
