The Pittsburgh Pirates want Paul Skenes’ Rookie Debut Patch ... and the team is offering impressive loot in exchange for the card.
Hoping to bring the card to PNC Park for all Pirates fans to enjoy, the team announced a massive trade offer Friday.
The offer to the card holder includes season tickets behind home plate for the next 30 years, a softball game at PNC Park with coaching from Pirates alumni, autographed jerseys, a batting practice experience, a meet-and-greet with Skenes and more.
Would you take this deal? pic.twitter.com/AyxhZtnjHL
— cllct (@cllctMedia) November 15, 2024
It’s currently unclear where exactly the seats behind home plate will be located, and that detail expects to play a major part in any potential negotiation. Front-row seats behind home plate for 30 seasons could top $2 million in value, while a pair of seats 20 rows up behind home plate might be closer to $240,000.
A request for additional details on the seat locations by cllct wasn’t immediately returned by the Pirates.
Skenes' longtime girlfriend, LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne, added to the bounty, offering the winner a seat in her suite during a future Pirates game.
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While Skenes did receive a record $9.2 million signing bonus when he was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, Skenes earned a base salary of just $740,000 from the Pirates in 2024. That number climbs to $800,000 in 2025.
Depending on the location of the seats, it is possible the package will be worth more than Skenes’ salary this year and next.
To date, the highest public sale for a Skenes card is the $123,220 paid for a Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1/1 at Goldin Auctions in September.
Skenes’ 1/1 patch autograph — one of the 251 Rookie Debut Patches included in last week’s release of 2024 Topps Chrome Update — is considered one of the top, if not the top chase card this season, alongside similar cards for stars such as Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Holliday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Featuring a 1/1 patch that is created for and worn only during the player’s MLB debut, Rookie Debut Patch cards are considered some of the best rookie cards in the hobby.
The Rookie Debut Patch program first debuted in 2023 Topps Chrome Update Baseball and has already expanded with a similar concept for Major League Soccer.
According to Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin, the program is expected to eventually grow to include both the NBA and NFL when the company adds exclusive licensing for the leagues.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.