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Paul Skenes Topps MLB Debut Rookie card attracting high bids at Fanatics
The #1/1 Topps Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch Rookie card pulled by an 11-year-old collector on Christmas day is headed to auction at Fanatics Collect.
The card is featured in Fanatics Collect’s March Premier Auction, which opens March 6 and runs through March 20. All proceeds that Fanatics Collect makes on the card will be donated to LA Fire Relief Funds.
UPDATE: On the first day of the auction, the rare card attracted 51 bids, with a high bid of $340,000.
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An 11-year-old card collector from Los Angeles called pulling the card from a hobby box of 2024 Topps Chrome Update a “dream come true.” The card, which was graded PSA 10, is expected to sell for six figures.
The collector and his family, which has asked to remain anonymous, turned down big offers from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Goldin and others to consign the card to Fanatics Collect, the sister of company of Topps under the Fanatics umbrella.
The young collector outlined his chase for the card and his excitement over the find in a journal entry posted on social media by Topps.
The collector says that as soon as the Topps Chrome Update set was released, he “started begging my mom for it for Christmas.” He went into “full beg mode,” he said, and was “super sad” when the price of the set kept rising and his mom told him he would have to choose something else for Christmas.
His parents wound up buying a hobby box for $320 and on Christmas morning, “the first present we opened was the hobby box.” In the fifth pack of cards he opened, he pulled a redemption card for the special Skenes #1/1 card.
The collector and has family turned down a big offer from the Pirates, who drafted Skenes No. 1 in the 2024 MLB Draft and inserted him into their starting rotation. Skenes went on to win NL Rookie of the Year after emerging as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball.
As soon as the set was released, the Pirates offered two Pirates season tickets behind home plate for the next 30 years to the collector who pulled the card. The Pirates also offered: a softball game for 30 at PNC Park; a spring training experience including a meet-and-greet with Skenes; two Skenes autographed jerseys; batting practice and warmup with the team; and other perks.
After the collector decided to auction the card at Fanatics, the Pirates still offered to bring him to Pittsburgh for “a special day at PNC Park this season.”
The 2024 Topps Update set features #1/1 MLB Debut Patch cards of the top rookies and second-year players in the game. Topps officials predicted the rookie cards could bring six- to seven-figure prices on the secondary market, possibly making it the most valuable set in history.
A 2024 Topps Chrome Rookie Auto Superfractor of Elly De La Cruz sold for $116,500 last year, while a 2024 Topps Chrome Update Superfractor of Skenes sold for $111,532 and a 2024 Topps Chrome Rookie Auto Superfractor of Jackson Holiday went for $68,500. All three sales were through Goldin.
Another 2024 Topps Chrome MLB Debut Patch card that of Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Junior Caminero, sold for $66,000 at Fanatics Collect.
Other top rookies on the MLB Debut Patch cards include: Holliday, who is on the cover packs and box, De La Cruz, Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill, Shota Imanaga, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Wyatt Langford, Colton Cowser, Jordan Lawlar, Evan Carter and Pete Crow-Armstrong, among others.
Prior to each player’s MLB debut, a small patch is attached to the sleeve of their jersey. After the game, the patch is taken off the jersey, autographed, and inserted into a card.
The MLB Debut Patch cards in the 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series features more than 150 players, all of whom debuted from June 1, 2023 through May 24, 2024.
In addition to the Paul Skenes card, the Fanatics Collect auction will feature other highly anticipated cards, including a Jackson Holliday #1/1 Topps Rookie MLB Debut Patch card as well as a 2023 Victor Wembanyama National Treasures #1/1 Rookie Logoman graded PSA 9.
