Shohei Ohtani's 1/1 rookie card shatters records with $533,140 auction, marks highest public sale for Ohtani memorabilia
It's no surprise that Shohei Ohtani has brought unprecedented business to the baseball community after making a switch from Japan. The Dodgers superstar's unique prowess has made him an asset in his current workplace with every sort of memorabilia valued highly as a collectible item.
This has been the case with the Topps baseball cards featuring Shohei Ohtani. Usually the cards which attract the highest bidders at auctions are considered to be rare, need to be from their early days of their career, need to be autographed and should be in proper condition.
Recently in September, even before Shohei won the World Series with his new team, a Topps rookie card with a sapphire superfractor sold for a whopping $336,000. That was the previous record for any Ohtani card after he had achieved a 50-50 season for completing 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.
But the 30-year-old winning the World Series seemed to have bumped up the prices further as another card, an orange refractor autographed by the man himself was sold by the Goldin Auction House for a record amount of $533,140 this weekend.
As per Market Movers, a website that tracks card prices based on sales and resales online, even a normal rookie card had its valuation shoot up after Los Angeles completed its eighth franchise title. The card that was previously valued at $42 is currently at $72.
What makes Shohei Ohtani's baseball cards so unique?
One of the major selling points of Topps' Shohei Ohtani baseball cards is that it comes in two variations. Because of his two-way prowess, the company has been able to manufacture cards of him both as a pitcher and a hitter.
That is also another reason why the two-time MVP's cards have retained a strong market value despite him having two Tommy John surgeries. It is usually seen that the vaue of a particular player's card drops when they suffer long-term injuries. But despite nursing a major injury to his pitching arm this season, Ohtani recorded one of the best offensive seasons of all time.
Topps ended up making $7.8 million of worth of sales featuring the 650,000 copies of Ohtani's special 50-50 season card.