Three years on: how the 2023 class actually turned out
This piece originally assigned star-based investment ratings to several players' cards. Those ratings had no basis — not market data, not any agency's assessment, just impressions expressed as scores. They have been removed and replaced with what actually happened.
Victor Wembanyama
First overall pick in 2023. In the 2025-26 season he became the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in NBA history and made the All-Defensive First Team, averaging 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.1 blocks.
That record means his rookie cards are no longer priced on potential but on results already delivered — a different risk structure entirely.
Chet Holmgren
Second overall pick in 2022. He also made the 2025-26 All-Defensive First Team and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, averaging 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks on 55.7% shooting and 36.2% from three. His Thunder side finished 64-18, the best regular-season record in the league.
Scoot Henderson
Third overall pick in 2023. His third season began badly: a hamstring issue cost him the entire preseason and at least the opening month.
This is the risk rookie cards understate most. An injury interrupts more than a season — it interrupts the attention that card prices are built on.
What the licence change means for this class
On 1 October 2025 the NBA trading card licence passed from Panini to Fanatics Collectibles, which owns Topps. The Panini rookie cards of this 2023 class — Prizm, Select, Donruss Optic and the rest — are therefore a closed set, with no further licensed product coming.
On the word investment
Card prices follow player performance, scarcity and market sentiment, and nobody can assign a reliable rating in advance. What is listed above is what has already happened, not a recommendation to buy. If you are buying to collect, this information helps. If you are buying for return, treat it as a high-risk asset.