The card market for a previous No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft has heated up throughout this season and reached an apex once the postseason commenced. It’s a tried and true formula for sports cards, where interest and values tend to increase come playoff time.
But this isn’t about Victor Wembanyama. Or Cade Cunningham. Or Anthony Edwards. LeBron James? Wrong again.
It’s the No. 1 pick from the 2007 draft: Greg Oden. Seriously.
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Oden’s 2008-09 Topps Chrome one–of-a-kind Superfractor card sold for $7,626 via Goldin Auctions last week. This same card sold for only $96 in May 2019. Oden’s previous highest card sale (the 2009-10 Topps Chrome one-of-one Superfractor) occurred in December 2023 for $2,050.
So was this just a random occurrence? Not really. Five of Oden’s six highest card sales ever have occurred since October 2025, according to trading card sales database Card Ladder, culminating with last week’s record.
What’s even more curious — as if tripling his highest card sale 12 years after the last of his 114 NBA regular season and playoff games played isn’t curious enough — is that the record sale happened on a card from his second season and not a rookie card.
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An argument could be made that collectors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for Topps Superfractor cards in general, almost regardless of the player, simply because of the extreme rarity. Another possible explanation is that collectors value the 2008-09 Topps Chrome Basketball set in particular, now regarded as one of the best sports card sets of the modern era, with its classic design and eye-catching photography, most notably the LeBron chalk toss card and Kobe Bryant’s card featuring LeBron guarding him. It’s similar to why a Jay Cutler card sold for $12,107 last year and a Josh Rosen card sold for $26,400 in Febraury.
Regardless, a trading card renaissance for Oden probably didn’t show on many hobby bingo cards this season. And since the identity of buyers on auction platforms isn’t made public, we have no way of knowing the true reasoning behind last week’s purchase.
In what seemed like an obvious choice, the Portland Trail Blazers took Oden with first pick in 2007 after he was pegged by pundits for that slot as a high schooler before his one and only season at Ohio State. But injuries marred most of his playing career and he never lived up to expectations.
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The bust spotlight amplified on Oden given Kevin Durant came off the board at No. 2 in 2007 and became one of the best players of their generation (Durant’s record card sale is $780,000). Oden only played in 105 regular season games in three seasons (2008-09, 2009-10 and 2013-14) while averaging 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
Below is a list of the top public sales for cards of each of the past 26 No. 1 picks in the NBA Draft, as Oden crept up from the near bottom of the list:
- LeBron James (2003): $10 million
- Anthony Davis (2012): $1.02 million
- Victor Wembanyama (2023): $860,100
- Zion Williamson (2019): $594,000
- Anthony Edwards (2020): $426,000
- Cooper Flagg (2025): $366,000
- Cade Cunningham (2021): $317,200
- Kyrie Irving (2011): $225,766.80
- Paolo Banchero (2022): $158,612.20
- Yao Ming (2002): $156,000
- Dwight Howard (2004): $111,020
- Derrick Rose (2008): $60,422
- Karl-Anthony Towns (2015): $40,800
- Zaccharie Risacher (2024): $32,400
- Ben Simmons (2016): $22,100
- Deandre Ayton (2018): $20,477
- Andrew Wiggins (2014): $18,000
- John Wall (2010): $9,000
- Blake Griffin (2009): $8,450
- Markelle Fultz (2017): $8,008.88
- Greg Oden (2007): $7,626
- Kenyon Martin (2000): $7,000
- Anthony Bennett (2013): $3,000
- Andrew Bogut (2005): $2,707
- Kwame Brown (2001): $2,036
- Andrea Bargnani (2006): $1,845
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