Ty Cobb
Rare Shohei Ohtani 50/50 card, vintage baseball gems highlight Spring auction at Heritage
Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s biggest current star, will take center stage when his World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers open the 2025 season in the Tokyo Series in his native Japan March 18-19.
Ohtani, who has also become one of the biggest stars of the sports card hobby, also headlines Heritage Auction’s Spring Sports Card Catalog Auction.
The auction, which closes March 29, includes 14 lots of Ohtani cards. Among the highlights are the #1/1 2024 Topps 50/50 Shohei Ohtani Dynasty Black Autographed Relic card (PSA Mint 9, PSA/DNA Auto 9) that commemorates Ohtani’s historic 50/50 season last year.
“Shohei Ohtani is the biggest star in the game, an icon in the United States and in Japan, and what he did last year was previously thought to be impossible,” said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage. “Keep in mind, only 47 players have had 30 homers and 30 steals in a season, and when you go to 40 and 40, that number shrinks to six. But 50/50 is a one-man club—he’s it. It’s fitting that a group of one is commemorated on a 1-of-1 card, and this is that card.”
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The auction features hundreds of other baseball gems, including a Circa 1860 Brooklyn Atlantics Farach & Lalumia Studio CDV card (SGC VG 3). The best of just two known examples, it is possibly the only team baseball card printed before the Civil War. It features the Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn, a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players, the sport's first organized league, and an organization considered the game’s first champion and dynasty from 1859-61.
Other baseball gems include:
• A 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson Rookie No. 79 (PSA 8).
• A 1916 Tango Eggs Ty Cobb (PSA Good 2), the only example in the PSA population. One of the rarest of the early 20th-century trading cards, the 1916 Tango Egg set was unknown until a small hoard was unearthed in 1991.
• A 1909-11 T206 Hindu Red Ty Cobb (Red Portrait) (PSA VG-EX 4) that is tied for the highest grade among just six known examples.
• A signed 1954-1976 Topps Hank Aaron Basic Autographed Set (24 cards). The collection—one of 53 lots in the auction featuring Aaron—ranks as the No. 1 Current and All-Time Finest on the PSA Registry set. The lot will sell in a competition-style auction format that will determine whether the set sells as a complete unit or as individual cards.
• A 1971 Topps Baseball Near-Set (721/752) (PSA 8). Each card carries a PSA 8 grade and features such legends Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Brooks Robinson, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton, Rod Carew, Johnny Bench, and many more.
• A 1971 Topps Baseball (Third Series) Wax Box with 24 unopened packs. One of the most condition-sensitive issues in modern collecting, each pack potentially holds cards in Mint to Gem Mint condition from a set that includes such stars as Ted Williams, Brooks Robinson, Rollie Fingers, Juan Marichal, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Bob Gibson.
