Sports Card Investing - Targeting NBA Playoffs and Offseason
This week we’re going to target NBA players for the playoffs and offseason. I’m going to use SportsCardInvestor.com’s Market Movers data to check out the recent price action in these players. You can sign up for your own Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code ROTOGRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription. You will want to sign up for Market Movers specifically in order to access the great tools and data, and if you sign up for the annual Market Movers subscription, you will save you 20% on the entire year instead of just the first month.
We will generally target Panini brands for football and basketball as they own exclusive NFL and NBA rights for sports cards. Just like DFS, be sure to manage your bankroll and don’t spend more than what your budget allows. Make sure you pay attention to the grading when looking at targets. Grading makes a huge difference in price, so price targets will be based on grading. An ungraded card is referred to as “Raw”. When targeting a Raw card, try to find one with the best centering, corners and edges (and surface if you can tell) as that is a card that might be worth sending in for grading. We’ll use SportsCardInvestor’s Market Movers data to evaluate current-market price targets based on what people have been paying most recently. Go above/below that market rate based on your convictions and confidence levels by player.
NBA Targets For The Playoffs And Offseason
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Zion Williamson – The first player we need to look at is Zion. We can see from his chart that his prices have been on a downward trend. I think that is all about to change with the NBA restart. The Pelicans have a very soft schedule which gives them a solid chance of taking over the 8th seed if the Grizzlies struggle. Even if they don’t pass the Grizzlies I still think Zion is in line for a nice bump. The reports are saying that Zion has dropped 25 pounds and is looking very lean. I can’t wait to see some of the crazy highlights he’s about to put up.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | Zion Williamson 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 10 | Target $250 |
| | Zion Williamson 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 9 | Target $100 |
 | Zion Williamson 2019 Optic Basketball Base BGS 9.5 | Target $150 |
Ja Morant – We can’t talk about Zion without also mentioning Ja Morant. Ja’s prices have stayed relatively flat over the last 3 months. I expect his prices to jump as well with the restart and his likely Rookie of the Year award. I don’t think Ja’s prices would deep very much even if the Grizzlies falter and miss out on the playoffs. If you buy now and they do dip slightly then I would recommend holding for the long term as a 2nd year bump would likely happen like it did for Luka and Trae.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | Ja Morant 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 10 | Target $225 |
| | Ja Morant 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 9 | Target $70 |
 | Ja Morant 2019 Optic Basketball Base BGS 9.5 | Target $100 |
Sekou Doumbouya – Sekou is a guy that I like for the long term. He put up some solid games when he started in place of the injured Blake Griffin and his cards sky rocketed. He then hit a wall and played pretty poorly in February which led to his prices falling back down to earth. Sekou is still only turned 19 in December and has shown a fairly advanced offensive game for someone so young and raw. He’s already a far better shooter than Giannis was early on in his career. I doubt he ever gets to the super stardom of Giannis but I’m willing to take a small percentage risk on some of his cards based on the flashes he has shown.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | Sekou Doumbouya 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 10 | Target $60 |
| | Sekou Doumbouya 2019 Optic Basketball Base PSA 9 | Target $25 |
 | Sekou Doumbouya 2019 Optic Basketball Base RAW | Target $5 |
Reminder, as always, to sign up for a Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code ROTOGRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription.