The odds were long but a Southern California collector named Ryan was a big fan of Bowman Chrome so he kept rolling the dice. Those shiny new “RetroFractor” cards of long ago greats that Topps had put into Chrome this year were 1 of 1 and someone out there was willing to pay big for the best of the best.
Ryan’s online breaker of choice was Bulldog Sports Cards, located within driving distance in Fresno. On September 30, Ryan bought into his tenth break of Bowman Chrome, grabbing the Red Sox in hopes that maybe the Babe Ruth RetroFractor was destined for a pack inside Bulldog Sports Cards.
Call it a gimmick if you want but there would be plenty of buyers at hefty prices for the raddest Retros that would come out of packs and Ruth was the raddest of all.
Not one to stay up late, Ryan had already plopped into bed when his phone began to buzz late that night. The caller was Eric Fiedler, the breaker and owner of the shop.
The message was one elongated “Yooooooooo!”
Ryan knew he’d hit something good.
It was the indeed 1/1 Babe Ruth RetroFractor that had emerged from a pack and a bounty of $200,000 had been offered by Dave & Adam’s Card World.
The shop owner and lucky customer met for the first time the day afterward at the shop in Fresno.
Last week, DACW’s David Yarger flew across the country with a video crew after Ryan had made his decision on whether to accept the six-figure prize.
Not surprisingly, the answer was yes:
Another of the product’s top cards was pulled Wednesday. The Ethan Salas 1/1 SuperFractor autograph came out of an online break as well.
The break took place at KK Sports Cards in Clearwater, FL with collector Jason Grubb landing the big prize.
Salas is a 17-year-old catching phenom in the San Diego Padres organization. He’s the youngest player ever to be MLB Pipeline’s top five prospect list.
If sold, the card would likely bring a five-figure price.
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