NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani was the lead-off hitter Tuesday night for the “Holy Grails” auction at Harlem Parish, as one of his most coveted rookie cards sold for $336,000, the highest price ever paid for an Ohtani card.
It's also the highest sale for any modern baseball card in 2024.
The inaugural trading card auction held by Sotheby’s and Fanatics got off to a bang, as the hottest name in sports — fresh off his historic 50th home run and the founding of the 50-50 club — notched another record.
Ohtani’s autographed 1/1 2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Superfractor had already matched the previous record sale of $312,000, set by his autographed Bowman Chrome Red Refractor in 2021, more than an hour prior to the live auction.
The Superfractor had not surfaced publicly since October 2021, when it last sold for $62,730. The only other time it sold at auction was in 2019, when it went for a comparatively paltry $4,800.
The market for Ohtani’s cards has been heating up lately, as excitement over his unprecedented season reached a fever pitch in the wake of his milestone season. However, it wasn’t until Tuesday evening that one of his most coveted cards was made available for public auction for collectors to witness a truly earth-shattering sale.
Likely pulled from a $199.99 box of 2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition Baseball, the card was graded in December 2018, shortly after Ohtani wrapped up his Rookie of the Year campaign.
Even then, as the world looked on in awe of the two-way star, nobody could have imagined the heights to which he would have climbed just a few seasons later.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.