Topps Mercury: Victor Wembanyama Does Game-Used Right
Topps did all but roll out the red carpet with the upcoming Topps Mercury: Victor Wembanyama product. Each box has eight cards, all numbered to /99 or less, that look amazing. There are inserts, autos, and some dual autos that will have high bounties on them. It’s basically Exquisite, but focused on Wembanyama. All of the cards are great but the real star of the show is the game-used cards as Topps has upped their game.
The elephant in the room with game-used cards is that most cards are player or event-worn meaning the fabric has likely never seen the insides of an NBA arena. Topps is avoiding that debate and only using game-worn pieces for this product. But wait, that’s not all. They are going even further and including information about what games the jersey was used in.
Collectors have been asking for this for a while. It’s a welcome change that isn’t even really a change. Jersey Fusion has been including details about the game-used items recently and the idea dates back even further. Panini, Upper Deck, and Topps have all included game-dated game-worn cards at some point, but outside of rare special occasions abandoned the idea by the 2010s.
It’s a shame as some extraordinarily cool cards were made even better by including the game date. For example, both Pujols and Ichiro’s 2001 Panini Absolute cards contain a small piece of a game-used base. They are a bit boring until you look at the date on the card and realize that the pieces come from their MLB debuts.
𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: The first EVER LeBron James & Victor Wembanyama dual autograph card has officially arrived.
— Topps (@Topps) September 17, 2024
There are 6 of these cards in existence: a 1/1 Superfractor, and a Red version limited to 5 copies. pic.twitter.com/T11j18DkAE
That’s what Topps is bringing back here: the ability to include historically relevant pieces of the game that fans can own. The combo autos will get a lot of attention, but the fact that Topps is including pieces of the jersey Wembanyama wore when he debuted and when he scored his 1000th point. Topps plans to describe the games the jerseys were used for making it unlikely that collectors will miss the significance. If collectors respond well, maybe more mainstream releases will start seeing game-dated game-used cards make a return.
JOHN DUDLEY