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The Luka Doncic Trade Adds to the Fire The newest member of the Lakers sports market hype is none other than Luka Doncic, who was traded to the Lakers on Feb. 2, 2025. According to OTIA Sports News, this move caused a massive spike in Doncic’s card prices — his rookie parallels jumped 48% in a single week. This included his 2018 Silver Prizm card in a PSA 10 jumping from around $1,800 to over $2,400 in that same timeframe. Collectors around the world even saw his first Lakers-uniform cards as potential blue-chip investments. The blockbuster trade pairs one of the NBA’s brightest stars with the most collectible franchise into a match made in heaven. Cards and Coffee has already seen the jump through all the sealed boxes’ prices rising over time. Player Performance Does More Than Just Build Hype Still, Karpus is quite quick to remind all collectors that card prices aren’t solely based on hype alone. “Just as the stock market is performance-based, so is the trading card market,” he said. “Elite players’ performances can have major implications, whether that is good or bad. This also includes any injuries or a public perception, as either of these can collapse the card’s value.” This observation alone aligns with that of Morrison Trading Post’s recent diagnosis of athlete performance trends. Short-term boosts in a card only continues with consistent excellence. An example of a player who had all the hype but was often injured was Zion Williamson, who was once touted with an abundance of hype, but has been unable to consistently stay healthy. Meanwhile, rising stars like Victor Wembanyama have seen their markets climb exponentially, as every year he exceeds expectations. Websites such as Market Movers are able to track these changes in real time for any audience to bear witness. Essentially, collectors are able to see how much a 40-point game impacts a card’s rise versus how much a 2-15 shooting performance downgrades the market for the specific player.
