January 12, 2026

By Fat Hat Collectibles

January 2026 Trading Card Market Update: 

Mr. Fat Hat Collectibles can not predict the future, unfortunately.  We can not tell you what the future market for Victor Wembanyama’s Sports trading cards will do.  However, … … …… …  … EVERYTHING about the value of the Wemby market is related on whether Victor plays healthy. 

We can not recall anything to compared to this Wemby market fluctuation.

Victor Wembanyama’s unprecedented explosion in market values as a new rookie NBA player, then his epic decline in Trading Card Value amid late season injury in 2025, followed by a strong recovery in early pre-season 2025,  and again a recent multi-week benching injury extending into January 2026, have all drastically and quickly moved Victor’s trading card value as never seen before by this trader.

These remarkable declines and spikes in value, had everything to do with Victor Wembanyama’s  physical health injuries and bench recovery time,.  They had absolutely nothing to do with his game time performance. 

What we know as a fact now: Victor Wembanyama is playing substantial minutes in each game of the current East Coast road trip in January of 2026. 

Victor Wembanyama looks physically healthy to me on the court.  But observation as a fan from the stands is not a reliable observation of a player’s real health condition. 

Playing basketball in the NBA is extremely difficult physically.  As a growing 22 year old player who is 7’4″ tall, it has added difficulties.  

Unfortunately, we recall the Sam Bowie story, a young man who was drafted ahead of Michael Jordan in 1984.  He had a career ending physical condition due to his physical stature and leg bone structure.  Ne never could overcome this obstacle.  His promising NBA career did not come to fruition. 

There are many other NBA prospects that had shortened careers which did not pan out, Greg Ottom,  Bill Walton and others.  Usually these career ending conditions were due to growth irregularities in tall players.   

Regarding Victor Wembanyama’s sports memorabilia market and his extremely promising basketball future, we can only say, BON SANTE’!