Special study 004 · 9 August 2026 · 17 min
Before the
second star.
Spain's beautiful EURO 2024 run, a 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and seven Topps NOW cards the market still treats like yesterday's news.
Exact official images · Topps01 / THE ANSWER
EURO 2024 was not the warm-up. It was the blueprint.
Spain won all seven matches, scored a tournament-record 15 goals and beat Italy, Germany, France and England along the way. They did it with brave football: Rodri controlling the centre, Nico Williams stretching the pitch and a 16-year-old Lamine Yamal bending a semi-final into history.
Two years later, Spain beat Argentina 1–0 after extra time to win a second World Cup. That ending does not retroactively make every 2024 card a great purchase. It does make the set more meaningful: the first real-time album of the team that completed a European and world double.
The story has already been rerated. Most of the base cards have not.
02 / SEVEN PERFECT MATCHES
No shoot-outs. No shortcuts. No defeats.
3–0
Croatia
1–0
Italy
1–0
Albania
4–1
Georgia
2–1 aet
Germany
2–1
France
2–1
England
Spain became the first team to win seven matches at one EURO finals and the first to beat four former world champions—Italy, Germany, France and England—in a single edition.
03 / THE FRANCE PAIR
Two goals. Two consecutive cards. A 39× supply gap.
Lamine Yamal
34,873 copiesThe tournament's defining image and Yamal's clearest EURO 2024 card. Its 34,873-copy run makes it important and popular—not scarce.
Dani Olmo
895 copiesThe forgotten half of the France story. It follows Yamal #54 in the checklist but has a print run 39 times smaller.
Yamal equalised with the left-footed shot later named Goal of the Tournament. Four minutes later, Olmo made it 2–1. Topps released cards #54 and #55 in the same 10–17 July window. The first concentrates the image, age record and global demand; the second preserves the result with dramatically less supply. They are not substitutes. Together, they form a diptych.
04 / THE SEVEN CARDS
One team.
Seven chapters.
Editorial order by historical strength and clarity of moment. Print run measures supply, but it does not decide the ranking by itself.
Lamine Yamal
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Base · #54 · raw · PR 34,873
Youngest goalscorer in EURO history at 16 years and 362 days, against France in the semi-final. The tournament's defining image and Yamal's clearest EURO 2024 card. Its 34,873-copy run makes it important and popular—not scarce.
Spain
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Winners Base · #59 · raw · PR 4,038
The complete team with the trophy after becoming the first side to win all seven matches at one EURO. The cleanest card for the whole-team thesis. If 2024 is remembered as the foundation of the 2026 world champions, this is the chapter cover.
Dani Olmo
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Base · #55 · raw · PR 895
The winning goal against France that completed Spain's semi-final comeback. The forgotten half of the France story. It follows Yamal #54 in the checklist but has a print run 39 times smaller.
Lamine Yamal
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Young Player Base · #62 · raw · PR 15,829
Young Player of the Tournament after one goal and four assists. Less cinematic than #54 but more complete as an award card. The 15,829-copy run again measures demand more than scarcity.
Mikel Oyarzabal
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Base · #65 · raw · PR 1,141
The 86th-minute goal that beat England and won Spain's record fourth European title. The decisive action of the final in only 1,141 copies. It lacks Yamal's global demand, but no other card can replace its exact story.
Rodri
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Player of the Tournament Base · #63 · raw · PR 1,560
Player of the Tournament and the controlling centre of a seven-win campaign. The card for how Spain played, not only what Spain won. A 1,560-copy run is compact, although demand is narrower than for Yamal.
Nico Williams
2024 UEFA EURO Topps NOW · Final POTM Base · #60 · raw · PR 2,180
Player of the Match in the final after scoring Spain's opening goal. The final's attacking face and the other half of Spain's teenage-winger revolution. Its 2,180 copies sit between team-card supply and the smaller award cards.
05 / THE FORGOTTEN MARKET
Cheap does not automatically mean undervalued. It does mean the market still treats the story casually.
Visible evidence keeps several raw base cards near the original-price zone. Yamal #54 has demand and an observable graded market; team and award cards have far less depth. That is exactly what we would expect from a set remembered through one player before it is remembered as a team archive.
A live multi-quantity listing showed $14.99 with 107 sold and 154 still available. This is visible demand and supply, not an order-by-order completed-sale series.
A current ask only; it sits modestly above the original £8.99 price.Open exact evidence ↗One exact PSA 9 sold for $34.99 on 17 Apr 2026; a second exact PSA 9 sold for $35.00 on 4 Jul 2026.
A repeat graded observation. It cannot value the raw base card.Open exact evidence ↗One exact PSA 10 sold for $98.79 on 10 Jun 2026.
One graded result, not a stable price curve.Open exact evidence ↗A multi-quantity listing showed $11.49 and 14 sold before going out of stock. Individual executed dates and prices were not exposed.
Demand signal only; close to the original-price zone.Open exact evidence ↗An exact active listing showed $16.99 with five copies available.
Supply only. No repeat completed-sale series was found.Open exact evidence ↗No repeat, inspectable raw-base completed-sale series was captured in this review.
No fair-value or return claim.WATCH. We can show that several raw cards remain offered near their original-price zone and that exact-market depth beyond Yamal is thin. We cannot prove a uniform return for the set. The interesting thesis is a possible shift of attention toward the team after the 2026 World Cup—not a price chart that does not yet exist.
06 / THE SECOND STAR
2026 changed the caption under 2024.
When Spain lifted the World Cup in 2026, the EURO stopped being an isolated great tournament. It became the public beginning of an era. FIFA explicitly described the 2024 title as the foundation of the champions' style: control, courage and the counterattacking threat of Yamal and Nico Williams from the wings.
That favours a different basket from the one that usually attracts attention. Yamal #54 remains the canonical image. But Spain #59, Olmo #55, Oyarzabal #65, Rodri #63 and Nico #60 offer a fuller—and far lower-run—way to collect the origin of the team. The risk is liquidity: a magnificent story does not automatically create buyers.
2024EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS→2026WORLD CHAMPIONS07 / COLLECTOR VERDICT
Three honest ways to collect this story.
The image
Yamal #54 is the unquestioned moment card: France goal, age record and action image. The large run reduces scarcity, but improves accessibility and liquidity.
BEST SINGLE CARDThe team
Spain #59 summarizes the complete thesis in 4,038 copies. It is the cleanest choice for collectors who see 2024 as the origin of the 2026 world champions.
BEST TEAM STORYThe diptych
Yamal #54 and Olmo #55 preserve both semi-final goals in consecutive cards. It is a richer pair than chasing another parallel of the same player.
BEST COLLECTING IDEAWATCH does not mean BUY. These cards are illiquid, produce no cash flow and can lose value. Before paying a premium, verify exact identity, condition, all-in cost and recent completed sales in the same format.
What is Lamine Yamal's key EURO 2024 card?
Topps NOW #54 records his goal against France and his record as the youngest EURO goalscorer at 16 years and 362 days. Its final print run is 34,873.
What is the overlooked card from Spain versus France?
Dani Olmo #55 completes the semi-final story with the winning goal. Its 895-copy print run is 39 times smaller than Yamal #54, although Yamal has far greater collector demand.
Have Spain's EURO 2024 base cards risen sharply in price?
Visible supply for several base cards remains close to the original-price zone, but repeat exact completed-sale series are too thin to calculate a reliable return. ICX rates the cards WATCH, not BUY.
08 / SOURCES + LIMITS
Exact card, sporting fact and market evidence do different jobs.
Topps establishes image, identity and print run. UEFA and FIFA establish what happened on the pitch. eBay supports only the specific sale or supply observation described. Active asks, aggregate sold counts and graded-card prices are not converted into raw-base value.
Next evidence update: when two exact completed sales become inspectable for Spain #59, Olmo #55 or Oyarzabal #65—or when the post-World Cup market produces a repeatable signal.