The card market isn’t seeing the insane heights it saw in the early days of the pandemic, but it is still much higher than most of us remember when we were kids. Cards in all sports are insane right now. For example, a 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie, considered by many as one of the best cards ever, sold for $282,000 in 2007. A little more than 10 years later, it sold in the same condition for $2.88 million.
The Wayne Gretzky rookie card is the most expensive hockey card ever is the Wayne Gretzky rookie card in a gem mint (meaning its condition is flawless), which sold in May of 2021 for $3.76 million. That was an outlier, as most hockey cards are worth much less than baseball, football, and basketball cards.
However, a new card might smash the record for modern cards. When looking at cards created in the 21st century, a Connor McDavid rookie with a patch and auto from Upper Deck’s The Cup collection sold for more than $135,000.
The latest Jack Hughes card announced this week by Topps is going to blow that card out of the water.
Jack Hughes writes "GO USA" on a 1-of-1 trading card after his epic Golden Goal 🔥🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/PBwPQamJGW
— Topps (@Topps) February 22, 2026
Jack Hughes trading card could be the best modern hockey card in history
Topps is releasing a series of cards to celebrate Hughes’s Golden Goal from Sunday. It’s the first time the American men won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics since the Miracle on Ice. There will be hundreds of ways this is monetized. There will be posters, t-shirts, trading cards, bobble heads, and more.
However, there will only be one of these cards. The 1/1 Hughes card with the inscription “Golden Goal! Go USA!” is the only one in existence.
In the card industry, scarcity is king. We’re already getting predictions that this card could be worth as much as $500,000.
This entire collection is only available for a limited time, as Topps has already gotten more than 100,000 orders for the card. They go for $11.99 for a "pack" that contains the Hughes card. However, there are multiple variations, and one lucky shopper will get the 1/1 autograph card.
It's great for Hughes and the New Jersey Devils that he is getting this kind of attention. We want people talking about Hughes as a collector's item. This helps the Devils, especially since they don't have to sign him until after the next Olympics in 2030.