There’s a new Topps NOW card commemorating Shohei Ohtani becoming the latest member of baseball’s 40-homer, 40-stolen base club and Topps is once again dropping some potentially valuable cards in with random orders.
Ohtani’s walk-off grand slam Friday night gave him 40 homers for the year and made him the fastest player to reach 40-40.
The base card, available only until Sunday afternoon, is $11.99 but just as it did with the Team USA basketball gold medal card, Topps is dropping in what amounts to some free lottery tickets. Mixed in with some orders will be on-card autograph redemptions numbered to 5 as well as a 1/1 version.
There are also image variation short prints, Kanji super short prints and base card parallels numbered to 49, 25, 10, 5 and 1.
You can check them out here. Collectors who just want the single card with no chance at a bonus can find them on eBay for a cheaper price.
Earlier this month, Topps offered random autographed versions of its Team USA gold medal-winning NOW cards in orders, including a 1/1 Triple Autograph card of Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
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Leaf is looking for a new CEO. Kevin O’Neil has resigned after one year on the job at the Dallas area card maker.
“This decision was not easy, as I have genuinely enjoyed my time here this past year.” he wrote on X.
O’Neil succeeded Brian Gray, who has moved on to other ventures.
Throughout a long career, O’Neil has worked for several card makers but his longest tenure was at Topps, where he spent more than ten years.
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A record price for a Jordan Love rookie card. The 2020 Panini National Treasures NFL Shield 1/1 autograph sold for $144,000 in a Fanatics Collect auction.
That price smashed the old record for a Love rookie set by the sale of a Prizm Black Finite for over $30,000.
A 2000 Fleer Mystique Masterpiece Tom Brady rookie 1/1 graded BGS 9 was also among the big attractions. It netted $180,000.
One of the 25 2009 National Treasures Gold Stephen Curry Rookie Patch Autographs, this one graded PSA 8.5, went for $150,000 while the non-autographed 2023 Bowman Chrome Draft Superfractor Paul Skenes 1/1 graded PSA 10 sold for $63,000.
Complete results can be found here.
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An attempt to steal nearly $1,500 worth of sports cards from a local store led to a high-speed chase and three arrests in Northwest Indiana last week.
Police in Portage say they were called to a Meijer store late Wednesday morning where police were told that store officials had seen two women placing boxes of cards into a plastic container and leaving the store without paying for them.
Police were told three suspects had fled the scene in a black BMW. Patrol officers saw the vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed and pursued it. The BMW hit another vehicle during the chase and “went airborne before winding up in Imagination Glen Park,” according to the Northwest Indiana Times.
In a scene that appears to be straight out of the TV show COPS, the driver tried to run away but was taken into custody “after becoming stuck in a thorny bush,” according to police and The Times. Marcus Jones, 29, was arrested along with two women, 23-year-old Sarriah Buckner and 21-year-old Mya Lebron. All were from the South Bend area and are facing felony theft. Jones is also charged with resisting law enforcement and leaving the scene of an accident, The Times reported.
Lebron and Buckner are also charge with false informing, and Buckner with marijuana possession.
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