Game-Worn Baseball Cards
You’ve heard of game-worn materials being placed into sports cards, but have you ever seen a sports card that the player kept in their pocket during a game? That brings a whole other level to the term “game-worn.”
Well, that’s exactly what Bobby Witt Jr, shortstop for the Kansas City Royals, and Corbin Carroll, center fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks, did in their second game of the 2024 MLB season. The idea came from the “trading card grading and autograph/memorabilia authentication company Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA)” (The Athletic). Witt carried 7 cards in his pocket, while Carroll carried 6. After the games ended, the players autographed and wrote inscriptions onto the cards, all while being witnessed by PSA representatives. The cards were then graded and slabbed by PSA and obviously graded very poorly. Then again, the grades shouldn’t matter on these one-of-a-kind cards. This is a stark contrast in a hobby where people that grade cards are always hoping that their card receives a PSA Gem Mint 10 grade.
However, these cards will not be for sale. A card from each player will be given away to 2 people that submit a card to PSA using the Value Plus service or higher by June 30th, 2024. The rest of the cards will stay in Witt’s and Carroll’s personal collections.
Are the cards gimmicky? Are they cool? The general consensus from what I’ve seen on Hobby Twitter is that these cards are awesome. I personally think these cards tell a special story and will be a cool story in the collecting space in the future as these will never be sold, unless Witt and Carroll give them out to people or sell the cards themselves. If the cards that Witt and Carroll kept ever come to auction, I wonder how much they’d fetch. They are definitely a cool story and a cool concept that I hope PSA does again in other sports. Just imagine what the football cards would look like!
Premier League Cards Coming to Fanatics
Instead of making cards with Panini, the EPL (English Premier League), will start to make cards and stickers exclusively with Fanatics Collectibles / Topps starting in June 2025. Panini has had the rights to produce EPL trading cards and stickers for the past 6 years. Before then, Topps had the rights to EPL trading cards and stickers from 1994-2019 (cllct). Michael Rubin has famously, or infamously, been quoted saying he wants to “10x the hobby”, and securing the rights to produce EPL trading cards and stickers is certainly one way to do it. Some of the biggest soccer clubs and players reside within the EPL, and if Rubin really does want to “10x the hobby”, he’s going to have to expand out of domestic IPs and sports to do it. Michael Rubin just added another infinity stone to his infinity gauntlet with this acquisition.
Wembanyama Topps Now Card Sets New Record
Topps created Topps Now in 2016, a “living” card set that produces cards instantly of record-breaking events, cool moments, and other oddball pieces of news that capture the attention of sports card fans. Topps Now cards, for the most part, are always printed to order, which means print runs can range from just 1 card made, to as many cards as fans order.
A Topps Now card commemorating Victor Wembanyama’s Rookie of the Year award sold 113,777 copies. This makes it the best-selling Topps Now card of all time, beating the previous record holder, which was a Shohei Ohtani card that commemorated the record-breaking 10-year-long deal Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That card sold 107,541 copies in 24 hours.
With that much demand on a Topps Now Wembanyama card, does this make it the best unlicensed trading card to ever exist? Do sports card fans forget it’s not a licensed card? Or do they just not care? Sometimes first to market really matters, and it shows with this record-breaking card.
2024 Bowman Chrome Pete Rose Autograph Redemption Sale
With the release of 2024, Bowman Baseball came retrofractors and refractor autographs. One of the names in the checklist was Pete Rose, the 3 time World Series winner, who infamously was left out of ever being eligible for the Hall of Fame due to him being banned from the MLB for gambling on baseball games. This marks the first time Pete Rose has ever had an officially licensed MLB autograph card. Although Pete Rose does autograph a lot, this being his first-ever licensed MLB autograph card makes it special. A Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor autograph sold on eBay for $1,675 last week. “That’s $100 more than the price paid for an SGC 5 example of a 1963 Rose rookie card just five days earlier” (cllct).
Does this being Pete Rose’s first-ever licensed MLB autograph card warrant that kind of price? Or does Pete Rose signing basically anything in existence, with any inscription you want, water down this autograph card? I personally think the card being Pete Rose’s first-ever licensed MLB autograph card holds weight, but if Pete Rose continues to have autographs in future Topps and Bowman releases, then I can see the cards dropping in value. Personally, I think it’s still a really cool card, especially with all the backstory on Pete Rose.
1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Sticker Autographs
When Topps and Panini make sticker-autographed cards, it’s fine, but when a collector creates sticker-autographed rookie cards of Michael Jordan’s famous 1986 Fleer card, it’s a problem.
Yes, that’s correct, a collector created a sticker autographed version of Michael Jordan’s 1986 Fleer rookie card, multiple actually. The Jordan signatures are sticker autographs from other Jordan cards that were then placed onto his iconic 1986 Fleer rookie card. He then sent the cards to Beckett Authentication Services, who correctly slabbed those cards as “Authentic Aftermarket Sticker” cards. The cards were then auctioned on eBay, and the auctions ended last Monday. cllct broke down what the potential profits could be of this man’s collecting play of putting a sticker Jordan autograph onto a BGS 6.5 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card. According to cllct, “A Beckett graded 6.5 Jordan Fleer rookie card is worth around $4,000. Assuming he bought the sticker for $2,000, a sale of $11,500 means he nearly doubled his money.”
What do you guys think of this? In my opinion, if card manufacturers are already making sticker-autographed cards a normal thing, what’s wrong with a collector doing it? When card companies profit off the autographs of players it’s ok, but when a collector does it it’s wrong? Or should sticker autographs be a thing of the past altogether?
New PSA Slabs
PSA announced today, May 14, 2024, that the PSA holders would be getting an upgrade. The holders will stay exactly the same dimensionally but with some nice upgrades. The first is that it will now be made out of medical-grade plastic, which will make the holders 20% heavier. The holders will also no longer use sleeves, which will especially make T206 collectors happy, as they will never have to worry about their slabs looking like this.
Some collectors believe the sleeves that PSA use inside of the slab look horrible. What’s your opinion on that?
The holders will also now be more resistant to heat, UV light, and humidity.
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