Star Wars props are selling for millions. Pokemon just quietly became the biggest force in all of collectibles. And Fanatics figured out how to turn a kid into a trading card 90 seconds after he's drafted. Let's get into it.

This week:

⭐ The rarest Star Wars collectibles ever sold
🟡 Pokemon card market > $75 billion; Pikachu dethrones Michael Jordan
🏀 1990s basketball cards are surging, with some up over 500%
🏈 Fanatics just changed what an NFL rookie card even means
🔥 Heatseekers: Top upcoming releases

Check it out…

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May the Fourth be with you! Just in time for Star Wars Day next week, Collectibles.com updated their definitive ranking of the 10 rarest Star Wars collectibles ever sold, and the numbers are staggering.

At the top: Darth Vader's screen-used duelling lightsaber, which sold for $3.6 million at Propstore in September 2025. It’s the only hero lightsaber from those films that was ever offered at public auction.

Two Red Leader X-Wing miniatures sold for $3.14 million and $2.39 million.

The Rocket-Firing J-Slot Boba Fett prototype hit $1.34 million, the first Star Wars toy to break seven figures.

And just last month, a C-3PO light-up head sold for $1.06 million at Propstore, almost tripling its estimate.

And this week will bring a fresh wave of new Star Wars collectibles as well. LEGO's UCS Mandalorian N-1 Starfighter (1,809 pieces, $249.99) launched today for Insiders, with general release on May 4. Disney Store is also dropping new Star Wars Day collections including a $2,875 Grogu Gitamini Droid limited to one per buyer. May the 4th be with your wallet!

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That’s 5 sales in 4 months. 28 all time. And the performance?

14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%, net annualized returns on sold works held longer than one year (See all 28 at Masterworks.com).

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The Pokemon TCG market has crossed $75 billion in total value. Six years ago, it was under $10 billion. That chart is a straight-up hockey stick, and we aren’t talking about Jack Hughes.

This is the stat that really kind of puts it into perspective for us: PSA graded 1.5 million Pikachu cards in 2025 alone, nearly matching Michael Jordan's entire 35-year total of 1.6 million graded cards. It was the first year that TCGs surpassed sports cards at PSA, with Pokemon representing roughly 90% of all TCG submissions. One in every 15 cards graded was a Pikachu. Not “any pokemon.” That’s just Pikachus.

On eBay, Charizard led 2025 sales at $74.4 million, with Pikachu close behind at $72.9 million (according to cllct). Umbreon ($32M), Mew ($25.6M), and Gengar ($22.4M) rounded out the top five. PSA's head of pop culture told Polygon she believes we're at the "tip of the iceberg." With the 30th anniversary set dropping in September and a franchise approaching $147 billion in lifetime value, it's hard to argue.

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Last week, a Kobe Bryant PMG Green sold for $3.15 million. This week, Sports Illustrated published a deep dive into the 1990s basketball cards seeing the biggest price spikes, and the growth numbers are wild.

Leading the pack: a 1993 Topps Finest Alonzo Mourning Refractor PSA 9, up 572% ($67 to $455). The 1993 Finest set introduced refractor technology to basketball for the first time, and these early examples are notoriously condition-sensitive.

A Shawn Kemp 1996 Fleer Total O PSA 9 jumped 341%, a Michael Jordan 1996 Fleer Ultra Board Game PSA 8 rose 246%, and several more cards grew similar amounts.

The catalyst seems to be nostalgia meeting fundamentals. 1996 Fleer Metal retail boxes that started under $40 now list around $1,000 on eBay. Collectors might just be bypassing expensive modern hobby boxes to chase the cards they loved as kids.

Ninety seconds after a player is drafted, a photo is taken, printed onto a trading card, and signed on stage. The sale window lasts 72 hours. The print run is determined entirely by how many people buy in.

What?!

That's Fanatics' new Topps NOW system, which debuted at this year's NFL Draft. David Bailey, the No. 2 overall pick, held up his jersey and within 90 seconds was signing his first card on national television. Fanatics is running a two-track system: traditional releases like Topps Chrome with set timelines, and Topps NOW with demand-driven issuance at the moment of peak attention. Autograph variations include one-of-one inscriptions.

It raises a question the hobby hasn't fully answered: what defines a true rookie card? The first one issued, or the one that becomes the standard? Baseball already saw this debate with Shohei Ohtani. Now football gets its turn.

The world of collectibles is wide and deep, and there’s a constant stream of new releases. Here are some of the big ones that are coming up:

So, a Darth Vader lightsaber is worth $3.65 million because there will never be another one with verified screen use from those films. 1990s basketball cards are surging because the creative designs of that era can't be replicated. Pokemon's $75 billion market rests on 30 years of emotional attachment that started on playgrounds in 1999.

And then there's Fanatics, trying to do something entirely new: create permanent artifacts in real time, 90 seconds after they happen. Whether a Topps NOW draft card becomes a true "rookie card" or a collectible footnote, nobody knows yet. But the attempt to capture a moment the instant it occurs and freeze it in cardboard is about as ambitious as the hobby has ever gotten.

Some things are valuable because they survived. Others because they were captured at exactly the right time. This week had both.

See you next week!