One of Panini America’s most high-end WNBA sets arrives Monday, packed with a number of cards that will likely challenge public sales records.
Built around autographed cards from Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, 2024 Rookie Royalty WNBA will sell via Dutch Auction with a starting price of $30,000.
From secondary-market values to the key chases included, here’s what to expect from Panini’s next ultra high-end drop.
What is 2024 Rookie Royalty WNBA?
Rookie Royalty WNBA is an all-new trading card set from Panini America that contains a variety of brands from traditional standalone sets. The set will heavily focus on second-year stars Clark and Reese.
Which brands will appear in Rookie Royalty?
Based on preview images and information provided directly by Panini, Rookie Royalty WNBA contains ultra high-end brands such as National Treasures, Flawless and Immaculate.
Other brands include Noir, One and One, Contenders and Donruss.
How much does a box cost and when does it come out?
Rookie Royalty WNBA will go on sale via Dutch Auction on Monday with a starting price of $30,000. The price will drop every five minutes before the product sells out.
The auction floor is $3,000 per box.
An unprecedented collection for a remarkable Rookie class. Introducing the Panini 2024 WNBA Rookie Royalty Collection. Available Monday June 30 at 11am CT here: ⁰https://t.co/8jMs06SaoQ#PaniniRookieRoyalty #WhoDoYouCollect pic.twitter.com/u15WO0Thb5
— Panini America (@PaniniAmerica) June 26, 2025
What is the configuration for Rookie Royalty WNBA?
Each box will contain two cards — an autograph of either Clark or Reese and another card that is either a Downtown or Kaboom insert.
At what price will the product actually sell out at?
The market will decide when Rookie Royalty WNBA eventually sells out, though educated guesses place a reasonable price closer to the auction floor than the ceiling.
There are a number of products that offer two cards or fewer. The new 2024 Topps Dynasty Baseball set, which includes just one card numbered to 10 or less per box, retails for $1,099.99.
One and One Basketball, which contains two total cards, has typically released around a $1,000 price point.
With a floor of $3,000, collectors will have to determine what a reasonable value will be for the main chases. The current record for one of Clark’s best inserts, the 2024 Select WNBA Black Color Blast, is the $12,499.99 paid for a PSA 10 example earlier this month.
Clark has had dozens of cards eclipse $10,000 or more and several top $100,000, though those cards have typically been high-grade examples of key 1/1 parallels and autographs.
Who are the biggest chases?
Clark and Reese are the key chases, though collectors will also likely covet Los Angeles Sparks forward Cameron Brink.
From a secondary-market value standpoint, Clark is the key draw with a significant delta between the tier below.
Panini’s product page for the set notes that other future WNBA stars will also be included. An official checklist was not available at the time of publication.
What are the best cards?
The most valuable cards in the set will likely be Rookie Patch Autographs of Clark, Reese and Brink from National Treasures, Flawless and Immaculate.
National Treasures RPAs have long been considered the most sought-after for many basketball and football collectors, though some have preferred Flawless due to the more regular inclusion of game-used memorabilia.
Typically considered super short-printed, Downtown and Kaboom inserts for that trio will also be highly coveted.
Of those two inserts, Kaboom has traditionally been considered more valuable on the secondary market. It’s also important to consider Downtown inserts will appear in Rookie Royalty as well as the upcoming Donruss WNBA set, which is scheduled to release in July.
The inclusion of Downtown in both sets could create a higher population than other key inserts and dilute the overall value.
The Kaboom insert has yet to make its debut in WNBA products, and it’s currently unclear whether it will also land in any traditional standalone releases.
Expect high-end RPAs to challenge records for each player featured and for Kaboom inserts to be among the set’s most popular chases.
Will these cards carry the same value as traditional releases?
Collectors tend to prefer standalone sets for the best brands rather than curated collections similar to Rookie Royalty WNBA.
The secondary market will likely take into consideration that, because boxes of Rookie Royalty WNBA guarantee certain types of cards, those examples could be far less rare than their counterparts in traditional releases.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.