It looks like he might be in the big leagues to stay but collectors looking for Cody Bellinger’s baseball cards had to have a little patience as his remarkable rookie season became one of the year’s best stories.
A surprisingly quick ascension by the Los Angeles Dodgers young first baseman/outfielder meant he wasn’t part of Topps’ flagship or any other MLB-focused set issued early in the season. Bellinger still has plenty of cards to chase from his ascent through the minor leagues, including numerous autographs.
The Bellinger File
The 21-year-old Bellinger had his contract selected from Triple-A Oklahoma City on April 25 after hitting .343 with a .429 on-base percentage, four doubles, five homers and 15 RBI in 18 games.
His impact was swift. He became the first Dodger in the modern era (since 1900) to hit five home runs in his first 11 big league games.
The Arizona native led the Majors in RBI during the first 15 days of his first full month in the big leagues.
2013 Elite Extra Edition
Bellinger’s first baseball card arrived in 2013 when he was barely 18. He signed several hundred autographs for Panini’s Elite Extra Edition baseball just after the June draft including some low numbered parallels.
2015 Bowman Chrome and Beyond
He played in only 46 games in Class A ball in 2014 and didn’t appear on any Topps-branded sets until the following year. The 2015 Bowman Chrome Cody Bellinger autograph cards are where you’ll find the biggest action. Prices for his primary autograph card and the numerous numbered parallels have been increasing. Like most star players, the BoChro autos represent Bellinger’s most sought after issue. Bellinger has no unsigned cards in the set.
Between April 15 and May 14, a total of 391 Bellinger ’15 Bowman Chrome cards sold on eBay for a combined $174,812. Adventerous prospectors have dropped a few thousand dollars on high-grade, low number refractor parallels but still cost far less.
Bellinger continued to appear in a few different products in 2016 and his sizzling rookie season of 2017 had Topps scrambling to get him into releases issued during the second half of the season. His first rookie autographs are in 2017 Topps Chrome but look for him in a multitude of sets from now on.
Here’s an active list of the most watched Cody Bellinger baseball cards on eBay now.