Morning, Collectors.

I’ve long had a bucket list of sports events I wanted to hit in my lifetime, and I’ve been insanely lucky to cross many of them off over the years. This past Sunday I put a checkmark next to another one, a World Cup match.

I was at Sofi Stadium to see Iran play Belgium in a 0:0 tie. It wasn’t the most thrilling match, but the crowd was super into it and the Iranian goal keeper played like a man possessed, so I have no complaints.

There were no paper tickets for the match, but FIFA handed out branded badges that I suppose sort of proves you were in the building? Unfortunately it doesn’t denote which game or stadium you got it at.

Given how much time FIFA had to prepare and how much value there is for the World Cup around collectibles, I was surprised there wasn’t a greater emphasis on creating items for fans to cherish post-event (or toss up on eBay, of course).

A missed opportunity.

Despite FIFA whiffing on a collectibles strategy, the hobby has World Cup fever. According to eBay, searches for “soccer” topped 3,200 per hour on average in May, while searches for World Cup cards rose more than 780% and World Cup-related items climbed more than 840%. Player interest surged as well, with searches for Luis Diaz up more than 400%, while Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Christian Pulisic, and Landon Donovan all posted triple-digit growth.

With the NBA Draft now behind us, collectors are starting to assign real prices to the league’s next wave of prospects. No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa leads the class with a highest recorded solo card sale of $12,000, while Cameron Boozer ($10,500), Darryn Peterson ($12,995), and Darius Acuff Jr. ($5,456) have also produced significant sales this week. There’s nothing like draft time… every player has a shot to make the Hall of Fame, every team has a chance to win it all. It won’t be long before the first ball is tipped and we have a better sense for which players are truly worth collecting.

As usual, Topps got to work selling cards of the draftees before they even finished shaking Adam Silver’s hand. The first NBA cards of the 2026 draft class are already available through Topps NOW, including releases for Dybantsa, Boozer, Peterson, Caleb Wilson, and others. Available for just 48 hours, the cards include parallels, image variations, and autographs, with Dybantsa’s 1/1 “My 1st NBA Auto” card signed live on television during the draft. The release also introduces Topps’ new NBA rookie card logo, which will appear on future rookie cards.

Billionaire collector Ken Griffin has assembled a group of nine Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings and one sculpture valued at roughly $500M, now on display at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. The collection includes Basquiat’s 1982 skull painting, which sold for $110.5M at auction in 2017 before later being acquired privately by Griffin (so let’s just assume he spent more than that). Among the works is also Pez Dispenser, one of Basquiat’s most recognizable images (and best named), featuring a crowned dinosaur that has become a favorite among collectors and museums alike.

Not every collectible story is about investment returns, especially if you read Mail Day. JR Fickle recently picked up a Leaf Reggie Jackson autograph featuring the inscription “I must kill the queen,” a reference to The Naked Gun, for just over $100. It also led our writer down a rabbit hole, searching for scarce full-name signatures such as “Reginald Martinez Jackson”, and reminded me, the editor, that fun headlines like “I Must Kill the Queen” will probably outperform boring ones like “The Greatest Reggie Jackson Autograph Ever?”. (Which is why I’m testing that theory for the subject line today).