Slugger Matt Olson was drafted in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics. After making his way through the club’s farm system, he made his MLB debut in 2016.
Only appearing in 11 games that first season, Olson established himself as a legit power hitter in 2017, smacking 24 home runs in only 59 games. His barrage of bombs only grew from there as he increased his single season home run total in 2018 and again in 2019.
After the reset year of 2020, Olson has been unarguably one of the best power hitters in the game. After mashing 39 home runs and 2021 and 34 more in 2022, he appears set to win the 2023 National League home run title as a member of the Atlanta Braves and was the first big leaguer to reach 100 RBI in 2023.
There’s no doubt he’s flown a bit under the radar, especially while playing in Oakland, but now his skills and statistics are undeniable. A two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner, Olson is still only 29 years old.
The old rule of thumb was that if a player hit 250 homers by his 30th birthday, he was on pace to reach the 500 career home run milestone that usually leads to Hall of Fame election. The Braves slugger appears to be a strong candidate to get there. “He’s a psychotic worker,” says Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer of Olson’s ladder to greatness.
In our newest Better Than a box, we offer up four great Olson options over a box of 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter. A long running staple in the Topps’ line, Ginter mixes sports, pop culture, history and more as it harkens back to the original 19th century cigarette issue. Hobby boxes typically run around $150.
Although you probably won’t find any Old Hoss Radbourn in 2023 Ginter, you will find autographs, relics, printing plates, minis, and other content.
As usual, we seek out four single cards you can own and hold for about the same price as a box.
The Rookie Card
For the Olson rookie card of choice, we do throw it back a bit ourselves with his 2017 Topps Heritage High Number. The ’17 Heritage set paid homage to the 1968 Topps design. Olson is pictured his A’s uniform with his bat over shoulder with a big smile across his face. This is a great way to start our collection for right around $60 although you can probably find a high quality ungraded example for around ten bucks.
The Autographed Card
It’s certainly no stretch to call Olson a star and when you can grab one of his earliest on-card autographs for around $60, it’s hard to say no. Olson was still a minor leaguer at the time his 2015 Bowman’s Best card was released but he’d be in the big leagues by the next season. Considering many of his more recent Braves autographed cards are selling for this much or more, we’re happy to add this one to our stash.
The Jersey Card
We stick with Olson in Oakland for the jersey card in our collection. We head over to 2021 Topps Museum Collection to find a really nice quad jersey Primary Pieces of the young star. This mid to higher and product offers a very elegant and classy design. The image shows the Atlanta native hitting one, apparently, out of the ball park. This truly is a beautiful steal of a deal for a very modest price.
The Serial Numbered Card
Our serial numbered card is another one that’s hard to beat: the Bowman Scout’s die-cut X-Fractor from 2014 Bowman Draft. A fairly low numbered, great looking card from the earliest days of Olson’s career is a great buy for the money but you might have to be a little patient to find one. It’s certainly worth paying just a few dollars more for a numbered parallel that fits our bill but the base card is a nice deal, too.
So there you have it. Four great cards of one of the most prominent and perennial power hitters in baseball…or you can take your chances on a box of Ginter and cross your fingers that you’ll find more than a $5 autograph.
As always, the choice is yours.
You can check out the current most watched eBay auctions for Matt Olson cards below.
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