Dylan Harper is heading to the National Sports Collectors Convention with a very specific mission: find his own Topps Chrome rookie card.
The San Antonio Spurs guard will make his first appearance at the show on Friday, teaming up with eBay Live seller Blez for a basketball break at eBay Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Harper said the appeal goes beyond the chase.
"I feel like the biggest thing that I want to get out of it is connecting with community, connecting with the fans, and obviously, partnering with Blez and trying to go out there and pull my Chrome Topps rookie card," Harper told Bleacher Report. "I feel like if anyone pulls that, it's gonna be a great day."
The break is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. CT, according to eBay, and it will include every Topps basketball release from October 2025 forward. If a collector lands one of Harper’s rookie cards during the stream, that person will be brought on stage.
Harper has spent the week in Chicago with his father, Ron Harper Sr., and the two have been eating at places the elder Harper kept from his Bulls days.
Ron Harper Sr. has his own appearance lined up for Saturday. He’ll join Upper Deck president Jason Masherah, former Bulls coach Doug Collins, and YouTube collector Jesser on an eBay Live stream that will auction 10 Michael Jordan collectibles valued at between $8,000 and $15,000 apiece. Upper Deck’s larger Jordan auction includes 23 items total and runs on eBay from July 30 through August 9.
Ron Harper Sr. won five championships, including three with Jordan in Chicago and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The younger Harper’s interest in memorabilia goes back a long way. He said he has been into sports collectibles "probably forever," growing up around his father’s collection of Jordan and Magic Johnson items.
That hobby has turned into a serious market for Harper’s rookie cards. His card prices surged after the postseason, climbing more than 150% in three months and beating Jalen Brunson’s 110% rise.
In May, more than $2 million worth of Harper cards sold on eBay, which ranked him 16th among athletes. By June, he had climbed to 10th on Gem Rate’s list of top-selling players on the platform at nearly $3.8 million, just behind Lionel Messi.
Collectors have clearly moved early on Harper after his rookie season, betting on what comes next in San Antonio.
Harper is listed as NBA-42 on the 2026 Topps National Convention checklist, one of 11 rookies in a 50-card basketball set that also includes 32 veterans and seven legends. Autograph parallels were produced, and Topps swapped its wrapper redemption for a daily raffle at booth 555. Victor Wembanyama, who signed a Nike shoe deal, is NBA-02 on the same checklist.
San Antonio selected Harper second overall in 2025 out of Rutgers. In his rookie year, he averaged 11.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists across 69 games and earned All-Rookie First Team honors. In the Finals, he put up 18.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.0 assists off the bench.
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