The high-end sports card market’s torrid trajectory continued in March behind four publicly-reported sales of $1 million or more, together with a file for three-time American League MVP Aaron Judge. One of two Judge playing cards to top $1 million final month, the 2013 Bowman Chrome Superfractor Autograph 1/1 — thought-about arguably Judge’s most essential card created to this point — sold for $5.2 million in a private sale brokered by market Fanatics Collect. That identical card had been Judge’s record-holder previous to March after selling for $324,000 in May 2022.
Another Judge card topped the seven-figure mark simply eight days later when the 2025 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge Dual MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1 secured a closing hammer value of $2.16 million. Though the card didn’t match the interest of the record-setting Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Dual Logoman that bought for $12.93 million final 12 months (and even Ohtani’s solo Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1, which sold for $3 million in December — extra on this comparability beneath), it did turn out to be the second-most costly baseball card created throughout the ultra-modern period (2017-present), in line with card pricing instrument Card Ladder.
Top sports card gross sales in March
- 2013 Bowman Chrome Aaron Judge Superfractor Autograph 1/1, BGS 9.5: $5.2m
- 2025 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani & Aaron Judge Dual MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1: $2.16m
- 1916 M101-S Sporting News Babe Ruth Blank Back, PSA 7: $1.4m
- 2024-25 Panini National Treasures Stephen Curry Logoman Autograph 1/1, PSA 10/DNA 10: $1.04m
- 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Championship Ticket Autograph /100, BGS 9/Auto 10: $756,400
Source: Card Ladder (March 1 to March 31)
A pair of seven-figure gross sales for Judge could seem shocking, however his market was due for a big reset. The record-setting Bowman Chrome Superfractor first sold publicly for $161,130 in July 2020 earlier than flipping for a long-standing file $324,000 in 2022. Judge has gained all three of his MVPs and hit greater than 200 residence runs since that sale, so a serious adjustment was seemingly when the proper card lastly resurfaced. The card gathering neighborhood will now wait to see if an identical grail card for Ohtani, whose public file of $3 million has now been topped by Judge, surfaces and heads to public sale with the potential to lift the high-end fashionable baseball market once more.
Best-selling athletes in March: Flagg sticks round
- Michael Jordan (33.5k)
- Cooper Flagg (24.6k)
- Victor Wembanyama (20.8k)
- Kon Knueppel (17.5k)
- Shohei Ohtani (16.1k)
Source: Market Movers
Flagg’s gross sales quantity has slowed — card pricing instrument Market Movers tracked rather less than 32,000 gross sales for Flagg in February — however continues to be strong in comparison with his friends (and will decide again up after turning into the youngest player in NBA history to have a 50-point game). His flagship 2025 Topps Base #201 and 2025 Topps Chrome Base #251 rookies have been main drivers with collectors capable of purchase uncooked copies for about $5 and $20 every, respectively. Last 12 months’s No. 1 total choice has proven sufficient to stay amongst the most coveted younger gamers in the pastime by the finish of the NBA season whilst the Dallas Mavericks toil close to the backside of the Western Conference standings.
Value will increase: Ohtani’s market will get bizarre
- Victor Wembanyama (+15%)
- Paul Skenes (+6%)
- Shohei Ohtani (+5.8%)
- Dylan Harper (+4.7%)
- Ken Griffey Jr. (+4.0%)
Source: Market Movers (minimal 5,000 gross sales)
Ohtani hovering close to the top of the market isn’t unusual. Some of the playing cards and the costs collectors have been keen to pay just lately are, although. Ohtani’s 2023 Topps All Aces insert has been the speak of the pastime, with PSA 10 examples now repeatedly topping $1,000 after trending nearer to simply $100 this time final 12 months, in line with Market Movers. A die-cut design that mirrors a taking part in card makes it visually interesting, however hobbyists could also be confusing its scarcity with similar cards from the last two years.
According to The Athletic contributor Corey Merriman’s analysis of Topps’ pack odds, there have been about 77,350 copies of Ohtani’s 2023 All Aces insert printed. That quantity dropped to about 360 for 2025 and simply 240 for 2026 as Topps determined to make All Aces harder to drag and a higher-end insert. Common inserts don’t usually promote for $1,000-plus in any grade, however an awesome card design paired with the hottest participant in the sport might break the guidelines.
Value decreases: Growing pains hit Flagg, Knueppel
- Cooper Flagg (-12.3%)
- VJ Edgecombe (-12.1%)
- Jaxson Dart (-10.4%)
- Kon Knueppel (-7.8%)
- Tyler Shough (-6.3%)
Source: Market Movers (minimal 5,000 gross sales)
Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough make return appearances on this house, however that’s to be anticipated with the NFL in the offseason. The swing for Kon Knueppel is a bit of excessive after his collective market tracked by Market Movers was up about 39% in February, however can be explainable. In addition to the typical market correction, costs for uncooked (ungraded) playing cards might be risky due decrease values and variations in situation, and that’s the majority of his market at this level. Slow turnaround times at a major grader like PSA means lots of Knueppel’s key playing cards, which had been launched in late 2025, haven’t hit the secondary market but. Of the 17.1k gross sales tracked by Market Movers for Knueppel over the final 30 days, greater than 16.4k had been ungraded.
Best selling particular person playing cards: McGonigle surges following call-up
- 2025 Topps Cooper Flagg Base #201 (2.5k)
- 2025 Topps Kon Knueppel Base #204 (2.3k)
- 2025 Topps Chrome Cooper Flagg Base #251 (1.9k)
- 2025 Topps Chrome Kon Knueppel Base #253 (1.5k)
- 2025 Bowman Kevin McGonigle Chrome Prospects 1st #BCP-79 (997)
Source: Market Movers
Flagg and Knueppel preserve their spots right here from February, however Detroit Tigers rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle enters the combine after being named to the team’s Opening Day roster. McGonigle is The Athletic’s No. 2 overall prospect and was already on the shortlist of gamers that could possibly be considered one of baseball’s subsequent pastime darlings. A four-hit, two-RBI debut bought informal followers and collectors alike buzzing, and out of the blue McGonigle could possibly be considered one of the subsequent top prospects in line for an early extension.
Grading recap: Grading exercise hits file excessive
- PSA (2.17M complete playing cards, 700k sports playing cards)
- CGC (600k complete playing cards, 87k sports playing cards)
- BGS (106k complete playing cards, 30k sports playing cards)
- SGC (47k complete playing cards, 43k sports playing cards)
- TAG (47k complete playing cards, 3k sports playing cards)
Source: GemRate (March 1 to March 31)
The main buying and selling card authenticators graded a file 2.97 million objects in March, according to third-party tracker GemRate. PSA led all graders with 2.17 million objects, together with greater than 700,000 sports playing cards. Baseball was PSA’s hottest sport with greater than 250,000 playing cards. Beckett, which was acquired by PSA and SGC parent company Collectors in December, posted one other month of constructive progress with greater than 106,000 playing cards.
What sellers are saying
Top prospects had been amongst the hottest gamers in March, in line with eBay vendor Bobby Fanzo of Honey Hole Collectibles. Top-ranked prospect Konnor Griffin didn’t make Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster, however was called up Thursday with plans for a debut at home on Friday. Cardinals shortstop JJ Wetherholt homered on Opening Day while wearing one of Topps’ MLB Rookie Debut Patches and adopted up with a walk-off hit a day later.
“We had a ton of excitement generated around baseball products and a huge drive with Topps Pristine, Topps Cosmic Chrome and the new release of Bowman’s Best,” Fanzo mentioned. “Baseball prospects such as Konnor Griffin, who were fighting in Spring Training for a spot, along with JJ Wetherholt, brought a lot of hype. We also saw a continued spike of Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper and some of the other names showcased in the World Baseball Classic.”
A pair of mid- to high-end Topps Basketball merchandise had been amongst the units that didn’t get the consideration they deserved, in line with Bryan Thiessenhusen of Black Gold Sports Cards. Topps Three Basketball returned after a one-year hiatus as a pastime unique. Boxes initially retailed for $999.99 every with simply 4 playing cards. Topps Finest Basketball, which is amongst Topps’ hottest manufacturers, returned in late February with a recent lineup of short-printed inserts, together with The Man, Headliners and the all-new Aura and Pulse playing cards.
“Topps Three Basketball and Topps Finest Basketball were both overlooked in our opinion,” Thiessenhusen mentioned. “We believe both products have more upside than the market gave them last month, especially when positioned correctly in live break formats and in front of the right audience.” —Ben Burrows
Did Judge deliver down the worth of his twin Gold Logoman card with Ohtani?
A $2.16 million price ticket for any sports card making its first look on the open market shouldn’t be poo-pooed. The one who pulled the redemption card for the 2025 Topps Chrome twin MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1 card of Ohtani and Judge from a pack purchased in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio final summer season virtually definitely celebrated the seven-figure sale by a Fanatics Premier public sale final week.
But may the presence of Judge, simply considered one of the finest MLB gamers of this technology, truly lower the worth of an Ohtani card? In the brief time period, maybe.
The one-of-a-kind Ohtani solely model of this card bought for $3 million in December 2025 by a Fanatics Premier public sale. That card turned the highest public sale of an Ohtani card ever. Still, this Ohtani/Judge card stands as the most costly two-player baseball card ever.
In basketball, the most costly public card gross sales for legends like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James all got here from playing cards bearing themselves, but additionally one other participant. Jordan and Bryant shared the house on their most costly card. James sits side-by-side to Jordan on his most costly card.
The Ohtani/Judge card possessed the identical recipe as the twin playing cards amongst the Jordan/Bryant/James trio with uncommon game-used league Logoman patches together with signatures from each MLB stars. This is why putting an estimate on this Ohtani/Judge card diversified a lot earlier than it bought.
Chris McGill, co-founder of Card Ladder, named quite a lot of Logoman patch autographed and non-autographed playing cards up as potential value comparisons, ranging in values between $1.2 million (a Bryant/James 2009-10 Upper Deck Exquisite NBA twin Logoman autograph one-of-one card) and the $12.9 million Jordan/Bryant 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite twin NBA Logoman one-of-one autographed card. There had by no means been a baseball card fairly like this Ohtani/Judge model with each gamers sporting the particular gold MVP Logoman patches, which was why McGill expressed to The Athletic how curious he could be with the closing value of the Ohtani/Judge card.
After the public sale, McGill surmised that Ohtani is a singular athlete from the pastime’s perspective. So his solo playing cards are most likely the ceiling for MLB Logoman playing cards proper now, and multi-player playing cards truly may take away a few of the attraction, regardless of who the different participant is.
Before the $5.2 million sale of Judge’s 2013 Bowman Chrome autographed Superfractor, Card Ladder positioned the worth of the one-of-a-kind Judge 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft card round $1.3 million. The truth the card bought for round $4 million greater than that worth actually caught some consideration. And now Judge has his second public card sale north of $2 million in lower than a two-week span after having no playing cards promote for greater than $350,000 ever.
There’s little motive to imagine this Ohtani/Judge card gained’t improve in worth in time, very like the present gross sales of older autographed twin Logoman playing cards from Jordan, James and Bryant. Ohtani and Judge will likely be referred to as the superstars from this period when future generations look again on MLB historical past. —Larry Holder
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