The New Year’s Eve release of 2021 Bowman’s Best Baseball has caused a bit of a stir thanks to the unexpected inclusion of some high level prospects in the base set.
Wander Franco, Julio Rodriguez, Austin Martin, Spencer Torkelson and several others joined veterans and 2021 rookies in the 100-card set. That, combined with their inclusion in what is a packaged product distributed through normal channels, has led Beckett to announce they’re labeling them as rookie cards. The company says it aligns with their longstanding policy on the matter.
While Topps and Panini may include the familiar rookie card logo for those players as they debut in MLB next year or beyond, in Beckett’s eyes, it’s the 2021 Bowman’s Best that will be the only true rookie cards for those players.
It was an unusual move by Topps and how collectors respond long term is hard to know, but some of those base prospects, especially Franco, are seeing considerable premiums in early sales.
PSA graded more than 770,000 cards in December, up six percent from November, according to Gem Rate. That’s an average of over 25,000 cards per day. On three days last month, the company’s team worked through over 40,000 cards.
Modern cards are still dominating the list of what PSA is processing. While gaming cards are still the most popular submission, the company graded over 229,000 basketball, 147,000+ baseball and 114,000+ football cards in December, mostly from products issued over the last couple of years.
Cards of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Ja Morant, Zion Williamson and Luis Robert continue to dominate the list of most submitted players with 2019-20 Prizm, Mosaic and Chronicles Basketball, 2020 Mosaic Football and 2020 Topps Baseball leading the list of the specific sets that were seen most often by graders.
Which athletes’ memorabilia were the biggest sellers in 2021 across all of Fanatics’ memorabilia sites? Here’s the list:
The fancy warmup jackets with gold trim worn by the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks on Opening Night of the 2021-22 season are now on the auction block.
In keeping with tradition, the league’s reigning champs wear similar jackets on the night when they receive their championship rings and raise their banner to the rafters.
Among the jackets on the block are those worn by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday. Bidding runs through January 6 on the NBA Auctions website. Game-issued (but not worn) shooting shirts from Opening Night are also being offered.
Fractional shares platform Collectable says it now has over 60,000 users. The company had over 170 IPO sports card and memorabilia offerings last year, exiting 14 of them thanks to outside offers, with an average gain for shareholders of over 60%.
You can add Classic Auctions to the list of hobby-related companies that are hiring. The Montreal-based auction house is looking for people with strong hockey and sports history knowledge who have copywriting and marketing skills.
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