Zion Williamson was still on the stage, decked out in a white suit with a New Orleans Pelicans cap perched upon his head and being interviewed by ESPN, when his first trading card went on sale.
The card, part of the Panini Instant line that captures events instantly (see what we did there?), featured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Dra standing alongside NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, shaking hands during the traditional photo op. The card was set to be available on the company’s website for one week, and a lot longer on the secondary market like eBay and the Beckett.com Marketplace. The initial offering price from Panini: $9.99. And with that, the start of Zion’s licensed trading card career had tipped off.
According to Panini, Williamson’s first pack-pulled card will be available in 2019-20 Hoops – the traditional launch for new rookies, featuring photography from the annual NBA Rookie Photo Shoot. It’s expected that Williamson will help drive basketball product sales next year in a similar way LeBron James helped drive card sales when he entered the NBA out of high school in 2003.