First Shohei Ohtani card to sell for $1 million includes coveted piece of his pants
A Shohei Ohtani trading card sold for nearly $1.07 million through Heritage Auctions on Saturday night, making it the first Ohtani card to reach the seven-figure milestone.
The one-of-a-kind Topps Dynasty Black card was from a set produced last year to commemorate Ohtani's historic 50/50 season. It was autographed in gold pen by Ohtani and includes the MLB logo patch from the pants he wore on Sept. 19, when he became the first player to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single Major League season. Following that game, Topps, which has an exclusive deal with Ohtani, acquired the pants and batting gloves he wore during his historic performance and put pieces of them into cards.
Trading cards that feature the league logo patch from a player's uniform are highly coveted by collectors and command a premium on the secondary market. This card is no different, as its price far exceeds that of any other Ohtani card sold to date.
The previous record for an Ohtani card was achieved on Nov. 3, when an Orange Refractor (a parallel version of the standard card with just 25 printed) of his 2018 Bowman Chrome autographed rookie card with the rare grade of BGS 10 Pristine sold for $533,140. A different Topps Dynasty Black card featuring a piece of both the pants and batting gloves he wore in the game where he reached 50/50 sold for 'just' $173,240 on Feb. 22.
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Even though the Ohtani 50/50 MLB logo patch card is from a legendary moment in the sport's history, it still did not sell for as much as the Paul Skenes Debut Patch card, which was bought for $1.11 million by Dick's Sporting Goods in an auction that ended on March 21.
In October, the ball Ohtani hit for his 50th home run sold for a record $4.392 million to Taiwan-based investment firm UC Capital, which put it on public display.
The buyer of the Ohtani 50/50 MLB logo patch card has yet to be revealed.
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