THE VALUE OF NBA TOP SHOT MISPRINT MOMENTS
Misprint and error cards are no strangers to the world of physical trading cards. It’s not far-fetched to say that at any given stage a card that is being created, developed, and sold a mistake could happen. However, these misprint mistakes are not something to fret over because they can become extremely valuable.
NBA Top Shot, although digital, is not exempt from producing misprint cards. Top Shot has had approximately 8 misprint cards, although there could be more not recorded at this time (May 2021). One of the misprint cards is the Marcus Smart Series 1 Common/2200 LE (Block). Not only is the jersey number off, but the stats aren’t Smart’s, they are actually Jaylen Brown’s. The top sale for this Moment is $11,999. Keep in mind this is a common card that went for essentially $12k. It was a beautiful block no doubt, but having two misprints could be the key for the valued moment. This same moment came in a rare pack where only the jersey number was a mistake and had a top sale of $4k, $8k less than its counterpart. The moment from the rare pack is still valuable, not valued as high as the common card with two mistakes.
So why are misprints valuable? It’s quite simple. Misprints are unique. It’s unlikely they’ll be duplicated, making a common card rare and a rare card even more so, which is a trader’s dream. The value is dictated by consumers, so everything about misprints is subjective. A wrong jersey number or a name being one letter off may not be seen by consumers as something to take note of or seek value in. Where Top Shot gets interesting when it comes to misprints, is that it is a digital highlight video, unlike physical cards. So the value comes not only from whichever player it’s showcasing, but also the play they are showing. A highly anticipated moment with a misprint could skyrocket in price.
Since Top Shot is digital, the misprints are easier to fix quickly than physical cards, which will allow Top Shot to produce fewer misprints. There is speculation that could come with too many misprints, since it is a quick fix...could Top Shot be making purposefully misprinted cards to raise the market value? Something like this could always be possible, but it’s most likely just an error through the production process.
