HIGH-FLYING ANGEL SHOHEI OHTANI STILL SOARING ON THE CARD MARKET

In fantasy baseball, two major website hosts, Yahoo and CBS Sports, split Shohei Ohtani in two. You can draft him as a hitter or as a pitcher. If you draft “both” Ohtanis, it costs you two slots on your roster.

In ESPN fantasy games, Ohtani is whole: When you draft him, you get him as both a hitter and pitcher. The catch: You cannot use both “halves” of Ohtani in your lineup on the same day. So if you want him active on the days he’s pitching, you have to bench him as a hitter.

In the hobby, of course, Ohtani is one player — and he’s a player every baseball collector is watching. Not since Babe Ruth have we seen a major leaguer so accomplished at both hitting and pitching. In his breakout 2021 campaign, Ohtani slammed 46 home runs, stole 26 bases and drove in 100 runs. As a pitcher, he posted a 9-2 record and struck out 156 batters in

130 innings.

Even before that, Ohtani was a hot ticket in the hobby and eBay sales as the 2022 season kicked off show he’s maintaining that heat. Consider the sale in early April of a 2018 Topps Diamond Icons Red Ink card for $20,100 on 46 bids. Graded PSA 10, this autographed treasure was marked #2/5.

Earlier this year, two limited-run 2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire cards of Ohtani made noise. Both were graded PSA 10 and both were autographed. One of them, a Red Refractor marked

#4/10, soared to $36,817 on 43 bids. The other, an Orange Refractor marked #12/25, brought $16,322 on 43 bids.

PERFECT PERFORATIONS?

Question of the month: Can perforated cards actually be Gem-Mint in grade? PSA says yes, as you’ll note on our Top 10 chart and in our “On the Outside Looking In” item below.

• A Serena Williams card “unhinged” from a 1999 issue of “Sports Illustrated for Kids” had been graded PSA 10 and inspired 123 bids, pushing the card’s auction price on eBay to an astounding $95,100. (How many of us are now rummaging through boxes of

old magazines in the attic?)

• A 1994 Bumble Bee Seafoods football card of Dwayne Johnson — better known as pro wrestler and actor The Rock — has been selling for prices that we’ll describe (again) as astounding. In an eBay auction last month, a PSA 10 example of the card sold for $26,099 on 30 bids. The card pictures Johnson as a star defensive lineman for the University of Miami.

The trick with old cards on perforated sheets, experts say, is to avoid cutting them. The detached “nubs” on the card’s edges should be torn but intact.

RACK PACK RAVE-UP

The year 1969 is romanticized in American history, and why not? It was the year of the moon landing, the Beatles’ final studio recording (“Abbey Road”), Woodstock, the Amazin’ Mets, the underdog Jets, and well-documented civil and political unrest. Jump to 1979 and the headlines weren’t nearly as huge. Similarly, there's a big gap — in terms of both appeal and value — between 1969 and 1979 baseball cards.

• Topps’ 1969 set is a collector favorite. It’s boasts more than 40 Hall of

Famers on the checklist; among them are Mickey Mantle (his final player card) and Reggie Jackson (his first). It’s got Rollie Fingers’ rookie plus secondyear cards of Tom Seaver and Johnny Bench. It’s has enticing inserts, plus multiple cards that come with errors or in variations.

• Topps’ 1979 set? By comparison, call it “humble.” It’s not nearly as loaded with high-value cards, and the only rookie attraction is Ozzie Smith.

Yet we love the treasure trove of 143 unopened 1979 rack packs that sold on eBay in March. The lot included five full retail boxes (24 sealed rack packs in each) and an almost-full sixth box (one missing pack). Final auction price: $20,000 — around $140 per rack pack.

WIth 39 cards in each rack pack, the buyer acquired 5,557 cards. Obviously, the big pull would be “The Wizard of Oz,” Hall of Famer Smith.

His rookie card can sell for more than $100,000 in Gem-Mint 10 condition. Of course, a “10” isn’t a given, even with long-sealed cards in packs. Printing defects (like off-centering) can result in an 8 or 9 grade. In Ozzie’s case, it might mean the difference between a six-figure card and something around $3,000 for a 9-grade example.

All that said, there are other worthy attractions besides Ozzie in the 1979 Topps set. Among them is a quartet of big-name catchers. At the head of the pack is Bench, arguably the all-time best backstop in baseball history. His 1979 card, ungraded, can be had for $10 or so. But slabbed with a Gem-Mint grade, it’s a different story. One PSA 10 example sold for $800 in March.

Similarly, a 1979 Carlton Fisk card graded PSA 10 sold for $835 on 32 bids. Gem-Mint Fisk cards also have sold for upwards of $1,000 in the recent past. Gary Carter’s 1979 card can sell in the same vicinity if in Gem-Mint condition.

While Bench, Fisk, and Carter are all in the Hall of Fame, Thurman Munson is not. Yet the circumstance of his 1979 card gives it an even higher value: It was his last player card. The plane crash that took Munson’s life was on Aug. 2, 1979, and amazingly, Topps neglected to dedicate a tribute card to the Yankee captain in 1980. Over the past few years, multiple Munson PSA 10-graded cards on eBay have sold for prices between $1,300 and $1,800.

Beyond that “fab four” of catchers, Topps’s 1979 set includes more than 30 other Hall of Famers. Among them are pitchers Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer and sluggers George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Paul Molitor, Willie Stargell and Dave Winfield. The 1979 set is also the home of Eddie Murray’s secondyear card. Among all of these HOFers, Ryan’s card generates the most value; it can sell for upwards of $5,000 if graded 10. The others, if Gem-Mint, land in the range of $1,300 to $2,500.

Clearly, the sum of the parts of the 1979 set should account for the $20,000 spent by the winning bidder. And one defect-free Ozzie Smith card that draws a 10 grade could be worth five times the purchase price — if the buyer elects to rip open those rack packs.

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Just outside our Top 10 chart, multiple items account for a vintage slant. The group includes a killer outfield of

Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron, with Pete Rose in reserve. The Mays, Aaron and Rose cards are all rookies. But the Mantle, interestingly, is not. Rather, it’s his 1961 Topps card — a top-condition (PSA 9) example. As recently as 2019, 9-grade 1961 Mantles were selling on eBay for between $8,000-$10,000. So this realized auction price — nearly $33,000 — represents a fairly sudden spike.

Here’s our full list of “the next 10”:

• $32,922 on 85 bids: 1951 Bowman Willie Mays (PSA 6)

• $32,289 on 117 bids: 1961 Topps Mickey Mantle (PSA 9)

• $31,659 on 104 bids: 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Xfractor, #143/225, auto (BGS 9.5, auto 10)

• $31,601 on 61 bids: 1954 Topps Hank Aaron (BVG 8)

• $26,099 on 30 bids: 1994 Bumble Bee Seafoods Dwayne Johnson, perforated University of Miami card (PSA 10)

• $25,900 on 65 bids: 2006-07 Upper Deck Chronology Michael Jordan 20,000-Point Club, #13/25, auto (BGS 9.5, auto 10)

• $25,100 on 61 bids: 1963 Topps Pete Rose (BVG 9)

• $23,601 on 48 bids: 1961-62 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain (BVG 8)

• $23,330 on 68 bids: 2019 Bowman Chrome Wander Franco Refractor, #21/50, auto (BGS 9.5)

• $23,100 on 58 bids: 2021 Panini Contenders Trevor Lawrence Rookie Ticket Crack Ice, #/21, auto (BGS 9.5)