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PSA giving away Bobby Witt Jr., Corbin Carroll ‘game-worn’ rookie cards from MLB opening weekend
Some of the most popular—and most valuable—sports cards on the market today include a patch made from game-used or game-worn memorabilia.
But how popular and valuable is a card that is game-worn memorabilia?
Collectors are about to find out thanks to PSA’s first-ever “game-worn” trading cards.
PSA approached MLB stars Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll and had them play a game on opening weekend with some of their own rookie cards in the back pocket of their uniform pants. The two players then signed and inscribed the cards for PSA, which is giving them away to help promote is Value Plus service.
“On opening weekend, Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll took the field with rookie cards pocketed. The rest is grading room history,” PSA says on its website.
On March 29, Carroll, last year’s NL Rookie of the Year, had a stack of six rookie cards and a piece of gum in his back pocket, because “what pair better than cardboard and gum,” PSA says.
According to a PSA video, the cards now have “dirt and sweat over nine innings of baseball” … because Carroll “plays hard and knows how to handle a card.”
A few days later, Witt Jr. the 2022 AL Rookie of the Year, carried seven rookie cards in his pocket as he collected two doubles and “one seriously dirty jersey” that PSA says “made quite an impression on his game-worn submission.”
Both players signed and inscribed the cards before turning them over to PSA, which graded the cards and returned them to the players.
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The card-grading company kept cards from each collection, however, to give away to grading customers.
Bent and sweaty from being in the back pocket of the players during a major league game, the cards have an average grade of 2.64.
“They are low-numbered and poorly graded because these guys play hard,” PSA says in its video.
Collectors must submit cards to be graded using PSA’s Value Plus service by June 30 to be entered to win a card from the collection. Winners will be randomly selected by July 12.
