![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9ed1515c-f2b1-4635-8452-84277b739b80@3x-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n (Photo courtesy of Goldin Auctions)<\/p>\n
So was this just a random occurrence? Not really. Five of Oden\u2019s six highest card sales ever have occurred since October 2025, according to trading card sales database Card Ladder, culminating with last week\u2019s record.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s even more curious \u2014 as if tripling his highest card sale 12 years after the last of his 114 NBA regular season and playoff games played isn\u2019t curious enough \u2014 is that the record sale happened on a card from his second season and not a rookie card.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> and Kobe Bryant\u2019s card<\/a> featuring LeBron guarding him. It\u2019s similar to why a Jay Cutler card sold for $12,107<\/a> last year and a Josh Rosen card sold for $26,400<\/a> in Febraury.<\/p>\n Regardless, a trading card renaissance for Oden probably didn\u2019t show on many hobby bingo cards this season. And since the identity of buyers on auction platforms isn\u2019t made public, we have no way of knowing the true reasoning behind last week\u2019s purchase.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n LeBron James (2003): $10 million The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The card market for a previous No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft has heated up throughout this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,14305,6,12,471,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-715706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-memorabilia-collectibles","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116447368696131270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnthony Davis (2012): $1.02 million
\nVictor Wembanyama (2023): $860,100
\nZion Williamson (2019): $594,000
\nAnthony Edwards (2020): $426,000
\nCooper Flagg (2025): $366,000
\nCade Cunningham (2021): $317,200
\nKyrie Irving (2011): $225,766.80
\nPaolo Banchero (2022): $158,612.20
\nYao Ming (2002): $156,000
\nDwight Howard (2004): $111,020
\nDerrick Rose (2008): $60,422
\nKarl-Anthony Towns (2015): $40,800
\nZaccharie Risacher (2024): $32,400
\nBen Simmons (2016): $22,100
\nDeandre Ayton (2018): $20,477
\nAndrew Wiggins (2014): $18,000
\nJohn Wall (2010): $9,000
\nBlake Griffin (2009): $8,450
\nMarkelle Fultz (2017): $8,008.88
\nGreg Oden (2007): $7,626
\nKenyon Martin (2000): $7,000
\nAnthony Bennett (2013): $3,000
\nAndrew Bogut (2005): $2,707
\nKwame Brown (2001): $2,036
\nAndrea Bargnani (2006): $1,845<\/p>\n