No card has had a journey quite like the Paul Skenes Rookie Debut Patch Autograph.
What started as an 11-year-old boy’s request for a hobby box of 2024 Topps Chrome Update Baseball for Christmas turned into a once-in-a-lifetime pull and the redemption for the most talked-about card in recent memory.
Since then, the Skenes RDPA has been on a roughly 7,000-mile cross-country trek over the last two months, leading to the card’s eventual sale in Fanatics Collect’s upcoming March Premier Auction.
Following its creation at Topps’ Dallas-area facility in mid-January, the card was hand-delivered by Fanatics vice president Kevin Lenane to the boy’s Los Angeles-area home before making a pit stop at PSA’s Santa Ana office for grading.
Lenane then carried the card to New York for marketing obligations before it eventually landed in New Orleans, where it walked the red carpet alongside Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin at the Fanatics Super Bowl party — it was even briefly reunited with Skenes for a photograph before heading back to the West Coast.
Now, the card will be the showcase item in Fanatics' March Premier Auction, which runs from Thursday until March 20.
For collectors, the sale of Skenes’ RDPA potentially provides an important series of data points, including the current health of the ultra high-end market, the hobby’s current risk tolerance for pitchers and even the status of the Rookie Debut Patch Autograph itself as possibly the most coveted rookie card for baseball’s best players.
For Fanatics Collect, the Skenes RPDA represents a chance for the marketplace to show it can handle the hobby’s most important consignments, and it can hold its own when compared to the industry’s other top auction houses, including Goldin and Heritage.
Marred by conspiracies from the start — collectors questioned everything from the card’s existence at all to the identity of the card owner — Fanatics Collect had to guarantee it could follow the family’s requests, most importantly the insistence their identities remain completely anonymous during the entire process.
This requirement meant Lenane would be the point of contact for the entire process, including traveling with the card on its multi-stop U.S. tour.
“It was certainly important to me. I obviously chose to handle it personally,” Lenane told cllct. “I think the collector also preferred that I handle it. [Fanatics Collect] spent a lot of time talking to them and getting them comfortable. Because they wanted to be anonymous, I was the sole point of contact, so I spent quite a bit of time with them. And they really didn’t want to see or meet anyone else, and I certainly wasn’t comfortable shipping it.”
Two months later, Fanatics Collect understands the Skenes card will be closely monitored by collectors, fans and media, both in and out of the hobby, for the next two weeks.
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The Pittsburgh Pirates’ offer, which included 30 years of season tickets, pushed the chase for the card in front of even baseball’s most casual fans.
An offer from Skenes’ longtime girlfriend and famed LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne to sit in her suite during a Pirates game only added to the card’s allure.
Those offers, though impressive, didn’t sway the 11-year-old collector, who is a Shohei Ohtani fan.
The hobby regularly experiences six- and seven-figure sales, but this card, regardless of its final price, has transcended the industry.
“I think this card quickly captured the hearts and minds of collectors and non-collectors,” Fanatics Collect CEO Nick Bell told cllct. “I’ve had more conversations with friends, family, people I’ve spoken to along the way, that have asked me questions about this card than any other card since I started working at Fanatics.”
Though Fanatics Collect delivered on the family’s requests up to this point, the final sale could be what sticks with collectors the most. The marketplace has opted not to put a pre-sale estimate on the card, though it’s expected to be a record-breaker.
To date, the record for any Skenes card is the $123,220 paid for the 2023 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Autographs Superfractor 1/1 at Goldin in September. That card was a profitable flip after previously selling for $80,520 just four months prior.
The card is also expected to become the most expensive Rookie Debut Patch Autograph to sell publicly and easily eclipse the $75,000 paid for Masyn Winn’s in February through Fanatics Collect’s Buy Now marketplace.
There’s little doubt the Skenes RPDA will top both of those numbers later this month.
A massive number could be critical for Fanatics Collect, however, as it navigates a high-end auction space that has never been more competitive.
“I think people are now seeing us as the obvious choice when they want to consign big cards,” Bell said.
“That’s been demonstrated in the numbers. If you look at the Card Ladder data, we’re a clear leader in this space now. And I think, we hope, that will continue to grow and how that will continue to grow is by us focusing on trust, integrity, ease of use, getting the basics right.
“And you know, achieving the sales prices that people want to achieve, and putting the right marketing around these high value cards.”
Since Fanatics acquired Topps in 2022, the marketing power behind the trading card industry has likely been the biggest and most visible change.
Fanatics Collect partnered with Sotheby’s in 2024 for a series of ultra high-end auctions to hopefully place many of the hobby’s best cards in front of a new set of collectors.
Fanatics has also flexed its marketing muscles with everything from ads in Times Square to placing cards on display at the MLB Flagship store in New York. A 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth PSA 8.5 that was once on display eventually fetched $1.62 million in a Fanatics Collect auction in November.
So far, those efforts have all added up to the prices Bell hopes collectors are excited about. According to Fanatics Collect, 36% of the items sold in its December 2024 Premier Auction set a record, 30% hit that mark in January’s Premier Auction and 28% set a record in February.
An independent analysis by cllct also shows Fanatics Collect has remained competitive at the top of the market since being rebranded last year. Once considered a top platform, the distressed PWCC Marketplace was acquired by Fanatics in 2023 and later renamed Fanatics Collect.
Fanatics has updated the business into nearly an entirely new company, and the marketplace has since sold more than 1,800 lots featuring sports cards, trading cards and sealed wax for $10,000 or more.
According to Card Ladder, Fanatics Collect has produced more $10,000 sales than both Goldin and Heritage since the launch of its rebrand July 16. That trend has stayed true since the start of 2025, too.
Heritage and Goldin have sold more cards above $50,000 and $100,000 across both time periods, with Goldin leading both categories.
Sales since Jan. 1, 2025:
Sales since July 16, 2024:
In addition to the Paul Skenes RDPA, Fanatics Collect’s March Premier Auction will feature other coveted cards including the Jackson Holliday Rookie Debut Patch Autograph, a 2023 Victor Wembanyama National Treasures 1/1 Rookie Logoman PSA 9 and a Juan Soto 2016 Bowman Chrome Prospects Autographs Orange Refractor /25 BGS 9.5/10.
Selling the Skenes RDPA for a stunning — not just record-breaking — price could certainly help elevate Fanatics Collect in the eyes of the hobby’s most high-end collectors in the long term.
For the moment, however, the sale has become a bit personal.
The card’s delivery to the family was heavily delayed following the California wildfires that devastated the region throughout the final three weeks of January.
The 11-year-old collector’s family had to be evacuated from the area twice, halting Lenane’s arrival with the Skenes card.
For the family, the sale will help put two kids through college.
The wildfires also impacted a number of Fanatics employees based in the area. Fanatics Collect’s proceeds from the sale will be donated to wildfire relief efforts.
“You know, [Fanatics Collectibles] is based in Los Angeles,” Bell said. “The fires were less than a couple of miles from our office here, and less than a mile from my home here. Sadly, a couple of folks on the team were heavily impacted, so this is more personal than a lot of cards for us, and I think the team is going above and beyond for that reason as well.
"I think everyone's really, really motivated to try and drive this in the best possible direction for everyone.”
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.