Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card bought at auction for $1.11 million by Dick’s Sporting Goods

The famed Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch autographed card sold for $1.11 million early Friday morning, ending with 64 bids in Fanatics Accumulate’s March Premier public sale. On Friday afternoon, Dick’s Sporting Items introduced that it was the customer of the cardboard and can put it on public show in its Pittsburgh retailer.

The 11-year-old boy from Los Angeles who initially landed the one-of-a-kind Skenes card from a pack of 2024 Topps Chrome Replace baseball playing cards on Christmas morning secured extra money off the sale of the cardboard than Skenes will make from his 2025 base wage. The boy will get $925,000 from the sale of the cardboard. In the meantime, the Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star pitcher and 2024 Nationwide League Rookie of Yr will solely make $875,000 this season, through Spotrac.

Fanatics Accumulate pledged to donate their portion of the sale to the Los Angeles Fireplace Division and Purple Cross to assist within the restoration from the forest fires from earlier this 12 months within the southern California space.

The Skenes MLB Debut Patch card with a gem mint 10 grade for each card and autograph high quality from PSA (Skilled Sports activities Authenticator) carries a price ticket of practically 10 occasions greater than the costliest sale of considered one of his different playing cards. The earlier excessive mark was set by the pitcher’s one-of-a-kind 2023 Bowman Draft Chrome Prospect autographed Superfractor card (PSA 7 card grade, 10 auto grade), which offered for $123,200 by way of Goldin Auctions final September. However that card didn’t embody the patch Skenes wore on his jersey sleeve throughout his first Main League begin on Could 11, 2024.

Because the starting of 2024, there have been 10 gross sales of particular person playing cards for a minimum of $1 million documented by Card Ladder’s database, which tracks buying and selling card gross sales throughout a number of platforms. Solely two playing cards because the starting of this 12 months have offered publicly for greater than the place the public sale for the Skenes card ended Thursday evening:

• $1.37 million: 1916 M101-4 Sporting Information Babe Ruth clean again rookie PSA 7 grade (Heritage)
• $1.2 million: 2003-04 Higher Deck Beautiful Assortment LeBron James rookie patch autograph numbered 18 of 23; Beckett 8.5 card grade, 10 auto grade (Goldin)

Featured in the identical public sale because the Skenes MLB Debut Patch, was highly-touted Baltimore Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday’s MLB Debut Patch card, which is now the second highest promoting card within the two years of the collection. The ungraded Holliday card offered for $198,000, which handed the $150,000 bounty issued by card vendor Dave and Adam’s for the 2023 Anthony Volpe MLB Debut Patch card, the earlier excessive sale for a Debut Patch card.

“Dick’s is passionate about bringing fans closer to the game,” stated Ed Stack, Government Chairman of Dick’s Sporting Items in a press launch. “Acquiring the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card enables us to celebrate his incredible talent while giving our athletes a unique opportunity to experience a piece of baseball history up close. We’re thrilled to bring this special card home and display it in our Pittsburgh House of Sport store where it can inspire the next generation of athletes and collectors.”

In keeping with Dick’s, “The card will be displayed in a new collectors’ space at the Ross Park House of Sport, which will feature a trading cards and memorabilia experience. These specialty shops will be rolled out to select House of Sport stores nationwide, including Pittsburgh, in Spring 2025.”

Skenes is likely one of the accumulating pastime’s darlings heading into the 2025 MLB season — an uncommon distinction for a pitcher in an area that normally locations higher worth on hitters. He was one of the searched athletes throughout all sports activities on eBay towards the top of 2024 and he had the second most playing cards graded by PSA in the course of the offseason, behind solely Shohei Ohtani.

Skenes’ employer and girlfriend might have aided in driving up curiosity for this explicit card, although.

pic.twitter.com/jwUDnJcKjk

— Topps (@Topps) March 21, 2025

The Pirates made probably the most public pitch of all of them for the Skenes card on the onset of the discharge of 2024 Topps Chrome Replace, providing two season tickets behind residence plate at PNC Park for 30 years and a bunch of different distinctive experiences and objects. Livvy Dunne, Skenes’ girlfriend, social media influencer and LSU gymnast, supplied the cardboard holder an opportunity to take a seat along with her in a collection on the stadium throughout a sport if the individual took the Pirates’ deal.

The boy who landed the cardboard and his household, who’re from the Los Angeles space however selected to not make their identities public given all of the scrutiny the cardboard has drawn, opted to promote it by way of Fanatics Accumulate as an alternative.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our protection. Whenever you click on or make purchases by way of our hyperlinks, we might earn a fee.

(Photographs: Fanatics)