A one-of-a-kind card fuels a treasure hunt for the ages
The hunt for rare sports trading cards can feel like a search for buried treasure. There are “chases” and “bounties” and card values that rise and fall like waves. So it makes perfect sense that at the heart of one of the pastime’s most-hyped pursuits is a lanky, towering and mustachioed (Pittsburgh) Pirate.
The card in question is singular in nature. Produced by Topps, it features Paul Skenes, a 22-year-old pitcher whose remarkable rise led him from being drafted out of Louisiana State University to being a major league superstar in a span of 10 months. The rookie card is autographed, but what makes it unique is that it includes the “MLB Debut” patch from the uniform he wore in his first major league game.
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The card is the most sought-after type in collecting — a so-called one-of-one, with no possibility of being replicated — and it could fetch more than $1 million at auction.
But first someone has to find it.
Released Nov. 13, the card is hidden inside a rippable foil pack of Topps cards. It could be tucked on a shelf at a card shop in Kansas, sitting in the fumbling hands of an excited teenager in London, or wrapped up under a Christmas tree in Chicago.
“I’ve had more people asking me about this card specifically, and cards in general, than I have had in my entire life,” said Chad Weldon, CEO of Sports Card Junction, a trading shop north of Pittsburgh that his family has operated for 29 years.
It is not just collectors looking for the card either.
Two days after the card went into circulation, Skenes’ team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, made an incredible offer — a “bounty,” in sports card terms — to whatever lucky pack ripper ended up finding it. In exchange for the card, the team would give that person two seats behind home plate for every Pirates game over the next 30 years, a meet-and-greet with Skenes, a softball game with friends at the team’s stadium and more. Based on current ticket prices, and inflation, the package could be worth more than $1 million.
“We were sold out maybe two hours later,” Weldon, 32, said of the packs of cards that could potentially be hiding the treasure. If the shop was able to buy more boxes from Topps, he said, he could have sold hundreds more.
Then the deal got even sweeter.
Olivia Dunne, an LSU gymnast and social media megastar who is Skenes’ girlfriend, tacked on the chance to watch a Pirates game with her from her private suite. Late-night host Seth Meyers, whose father is a Pittsburgh native, offered four VIP tickets to his show just for the chance to lay eyes on the card.
“The more people talk about the card, even outside of collecting, makes it that much more valuable,” said Billy Lesnak of Steel City Collectibles, based in Pittsburgh. Not only are seasoned collectors coming into his store, but regular sports fans and pop-culture aficionados are, too.
“We can’t keep them on the shelf for more than a few hours,” Lesnak, 31, said.
Weldon said the instant publicity and social media reach created by the various offers has made the Skenes card different from other one-of-ones featuring stars like LeBron James and Sidney Crosby. “Those couldn’t catch fire as quickly,” he said. Skenes’ prominence in popular culture helps, too.
“This card is the perfect storm,” Weldon said.
Lesnak estimates that 1 in 3 Pittsburgh locals thinks the Pirates’ offer is generous enough to warrant turning over the card. The most probable outcome, though, is a sale at auction. “You’re talking a minimum of seven figures,” Lesnak said, “easily.”
On a recent afternoon at Bleecker Trading in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, Mary Arris, known as “MaryGambleGamble” on her card-hawking Instagram, was discussing that possibility.
“Honestly, this might be his most valuable card ever,” said Arris, 26, who went full time into card-trading this year after she “met an 11-year-old who makes six figures.”
Arris is a regular at Bleecker Trading, where several collectors agreed that the card, when found, would most likely go to auction. Ken Goldin, CEO of Goldin Auctions, pleaded for the person who finds the card to sell it through his company rather than turn it over to the Pirates, promising that the sale would put the collector’s kids through college, with enough left over to arrange their own meet-and-greet with Skenes.
It is anyone’s guess how long it will take for the card to be found. Conspiracy theories about card companies holding back hot cards like this to generate hype were debunked in an audit by KPMG this year, but plenty of packs sit unopened. Signed rookie cards for other stars are “still sitting out there after 10, 15, 20 years or longer,” Lesnak said.
For collectors around the world, though, the Skenes treasure has a funny way of seeming just within reach. Said Weldon, “People forget that you can literally have a life-changing moment opening a pack of cards.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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