The New Pope’s Trading Card Is Already Outselling LeBron’s

Newly elected Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV, who is so new at Pope-ing that he’s still got that new Pope smell, has become an instant sports memorabilia legend.

Topps, best known for putting professional athletes on glossy cards that are collected by children and adults hoping to one day cash in their value, released a commemorative Topps Now card for the new pontiff. It sold out in no time. It seems the world is currently obsessed with sports and gaming cards featuring middle-aged men.

Well, in some time, but still pretty quickly considering it’s a baseball card of a Pope. In just four days, the card sold a record-shattering 133,535 copies, making it the highest-selling non-sports card in Topps Now history.

That’s more than LeBron’s 40k-point milestone, which sold 86,072 copies, and more than Victor Wembanyama’s Rookie of the Year win card, which sold 113,777 copies.

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV now has his own official trading card. 🙏🇺🇸

Available now. pic.twitter.com/3ZOPjONVTl

— Topps (@Topps) May 8, 2025

The New Pope’s Trading Card Just Set Records

The Pope Leo XIV card was priced at $8.99, with bulk discounts for those trying to corner the divine sports card market. Of course, as is sports card tradition, there’s not just one version of the Pope trading card, but several additions of varying scarcity, with numbered editions in quantities as low as one.

The crown jewel is a 1 out of 1 SuperFractor. There’s also an image variation featuring symbolic white smoke that is limited to 267 copies, because Pope Leo is the 267th pope. One of those has already presold for $195, a number that is likely to rise in the years to come.

Other trading card companies are getting in on the action, too. Leaf has its own $9.99 Pope cards featuring background variants like deep dish pizza and hot dogs—as classy and tasteful as the Catholic Church.

Pope trading cards aren’t new. A Belgian chocolate company printed a Pope Leo XIII card way back in 1909, and the Phillies handed out Pope Francis “rookie” cards during his 2015 U.S. tour.

The current record-holder for the most expensive papal sports card is a 2009 Pope John Paul II autograph card, which sold for $1,800 on eBay in 2023. Imagine being the kid on the playground who traded a viable Pope sports card for, like, a Greg Oden rookie card.