Mega prospect Victor Wembanyama made his NBA debut last week, taking the court for the rejuvenated San Antonio Spurs for the first time. There was definitely some electricity in the shop in the lead up to the game and after seeing him in action for the first time.
We had scored a sizable quantity of the new 2023-24 Prizm Draft Picks Basketball hobby boxes. With the Thompson Twins, Amen and Ausar, adorning the boxes and packs, it took me a second to realize that the biggest prospect of the last 20 years was also featured in the product.
After I mentioned this fact to shop owner Jason, we almost immediately decided to crack of box for our YouTube channel, and that just started the craziness of the new Prizm product for us that day.
In the box Jason open for the shop, we found an autograph in every pack, which is represented in the selling and promotional materials but not stated anywhere in any way, shape or form, on the box itself. That was a pleasant surprise. In our final pack, we pulled a base Wemby Prizm card.
The sight of a first Victor Wembanyama Prizm rookie year card, in any form was really fun, and it got us probably a little more excited than we should have been. Although I rarely open products, I decided to crack a box because it just seems like so dang much fun, and I’m not going to lie, I’m buying into the Victor vibes a bit.
Out of my four pack box, I pulled four so-so autographs but I also pulled my first card of the Spurs young baller as I hit his Brilliance subset card. Nothing too spectacular but…another Wemby. That made us two for two on Victor in relatively light boxes. Without much hesitation, my first thought was, well, is there at least some form of Wemby in every box?
We were down to find out.
We made a quick pact to alternate opening each box in the rest of the case, or at least until we stopped finding what we were looking for, which is pretty obvious by this point in the conversation. Jason opened another box, and as it turns out, found a Wembanyama Hyper Prizm base card. I think we were the hyper ones at this point in the proceedings.
The excitement continued to grow as my theory was holding true. I opened another box and I found a Hyper Prizm of my own, this time on a Widescreen parallel.
So not to be outdone, Jason decided to open another box, as our Wemby hits seem to continue to get better with each box. And after we saw what he pulled, we decided to stop the show. He was into his fourth and final pack of his box and forever reason, the Victors seemed to be falling on the last card in the pack. As soon as you opened a pack, you saw that you had a Wembanyama. He opened the fourth pack in his box and the first thing we saw was 10/10. As we peeled the pack bit further, it turned out to be a gold Widescreen parallel of…Victor Wembanyama.
Jason was literally dancing for joy. Many of the gold parallels were easily selling for thousands of dollars with the first base sales of gold bringing upwards of $8,000. Jason listed this on our eBay page and was fielding offers in the $3,500 range, so it’s not a bad pull out of a $180-$200 box.
While there really isn’t a Wemby in every pack, this was what pack and box ripping is all about, not just the monetary value but the thrill of the hunt.
We shipped a number of boxes to customers and we openly wondered how they made out with the Prizm Draft Picks madness. It didn’t take long for us to hear back from one lucky guy. He sent us a message on eBay thanking us for his best hit to date. We asked him what Wemby he pulled and then he sent us a picture of this…
A Flawless Steph Curry autograph numbered to 10 copies…out of Prizm Draft. I don’t think anyone expected that! I would love to hear if any of our readers have heard of similar pulls from this new product.
On to some disappointing news for the week, our local team the Philadelphia Phillies took four Ls in the NLCS and will not advance to the World Series. I must admit, there was buzz in our store and even in our household, as we fell in love with the current Phils roster. We watched every game and we’re really pulling for them to advance. Maybe next year.
In far, far more serious and somber news that puts everything into perspective, we got word this week at one of our young customers, Alec, who the owner’s mom even watches from time to time, has cancer. We always love seeing Alec and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that he’s a little bit of a smart Alec, as he and I always go back-and-forth when he comes in the shop to hang out. Alec is a big Cowboys fan, a baseball fan and loves the same stuff most kids do- playing video games, eating Doritos and Skittles, and downing some Mountain Dew. He has a bright spirit, a huge personality and we are all pulling hard for him to make it through an unthinkable situation.
A page has been set up to help Alec and his family.
On a lighter note, it was a full football weekend for the Reid family. We want to support our nephew at his high school game Friday night. Michelle and I took Izzy to the Penn State vs. Indiana game Saturday at Beaver Stadium and Michelle and I went with her parents to the Steelers game in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
I hope everyone else enjoyed as much football as I did.
Related Stories:
Shop Talk: Pallets of Panini, Wild Wembanyama, More Older Football Boxes
Shop Talk: Work/Life Balance, No Wemby for Us, Young Dealer’s Act of Kindness
Notes: Card Show in a Dome; Iverson Crossover Jersey Sells; Wemby’s Inscription; Heritage Checklist
Shop Talk: Tatum Takes Over, New Branding, Kid Collectors Warm the Heart; Buying and Selling on the Side
Shop Talk: Beyond the Cardboard, Wishing for Wembanyama, “Dog Water”
Shop Talk: Chromey Club, Slow Sellers, Feasting on Fusion, Easter Basket Execution
Shop Talk: National Treasures Comes…and Goes; Autograph Collector Dislikes Players; Annoying ‘Rock Bottom’ Requests
Shop Talk: Selling 2020 in 2021; Big Ben; Holiday Shopping Etiquette
