The Shohei Ohtani baseball card market is thriving

Shohei Ohtani is the first major league baseball player to ever hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. Shortly after he joined the 50-50 club back in September, a 2018 rookie card of his sold for a record $336,000, making it his most expensive card to date. 

Even before the Dodgers clinched their World Series victory on Wednesday, prices for his cards had already been rising because of his historic season. 

Ohtani, a once-in-a-generation talent who’s known for both his pitching and hitting skills, has bolstered the Dodgers’ roster, boosted Los Angeles’ tourism industry and supercharged the baseball card market. 

Another Shohei Ohtani rookie card recently hit a triple. In late August, a 2018 autographed rookie card of his with a gold refractor sold for more than $14,000 through Heritage Auctions. A few days ago, a nearly identical card sold for $38,000, about three times the price. 

“It’s extraordinary,” said Jason Simonds, consignment director at Heritage Auctions. 

Generally, a card is worth more if it’s scarce, it’s a rookie, it’s autographed and it’s in great condition. 

Card Ladder, a site that tracks the value of sports cards, has indexes that represent a player’s card market. Think of it as the S&P 500 of sports cards. Since 2017, Ohtani’s card index has experienced a growth rate of nearly 770%. 

Even some common rookie cards have increased by 50% or higher within the past few months, said Rich Mueller, editor of Sports Collectors Daily. 

For example, one unsigned 2018 Shohei Ohtani rookie card from the card manufacturer Topps was valued at about $42 on Oct. 18. After the World Series, that same card is now worth $72, according to data from Market Movers, a website that tracks card prices based on data from resale sites like eBay.

“He was on top of the collecting world already,” said John Nixon, a 46-year-old baseball card collector from Asheville, North Carolina. “He was already the dude.” 

Topps created an Ohtani card commemorating his 50-50 season and was able to sell more than 650,000 copies.  Each card may have been just $12, but that translates into more than $7.8 million worth of sales for the company. 

“All these card manufacturers are milking this for every penny that they can,” Simonds said. 

And because of Ohtani’s unique skill, manufacturers are able to make two variations of his card: one featuring him as a pitcher and the other featuring him as a hitter, Simonds pointed out. 

As you might expect, Simonds noted that the card market is very closely tied to a player’s performance and popularity. Baseball is more of a team sport compared to other sports, so a World Series victory can bolster a player’s card prices, Simonds said. “But really, the individual player performance is what matters most,” he explained. 

Ryan Sutter, a 40-year old baseball card collector from Altamonte Springs, Florida, said he began collecting when he was six years old. He temporarily stopped collecting around 2013, but that changed in 2019, soon after Ohtani began his MLB career with the Angels and ended up winning Rookie of the Year. 

“Shohei Ohtani was literally what kind of brought me back to cards,” Sutter said. “He  just seemed like he was going to be a generational guy, and I was like, ‘I can't miss out on this.’” 

He has now amassed about 3,000 to 4,000 Ohtani cards, and spent about $15,000 to $20,000 on them over the past five years. 

In 2023, Sutter bought a set of cards from Topps and pulled an autographed Ohtani card that only has 25 copies. Finding that card  “was a dream” because that’s a card he had been targeting. 

That card can fetch between $1,400 to $1,800, Sutter said. Grading companies, like Professional Sports Authenticator, will also assign cards a value based on their condition, which can pump up their price. Sutter said he thinks if it’s a PSA 10, the highest rating you can receive, that card can go for $5,000. 

“That one's definitely my most valuable,” Sutter said. 

Card collector John Nixon said he has about 100 Ohtani cards and spent about $380 in total on them. 

“He seems to just have a joy of the game. That’s what draws me to a lot of the players I like to collect,” Nixon said. 

Like Sutter, he started collecting cards as a kid, but took a temporary break. He got back into the hobby amid the pandemic, a period when many people began collecting cards again since they were cooped up inside their homes. 

Other current successful baseball players don’t command prices as high as he does, Simonds said. 

Rookie cards in particular tend to be more valuable because they’re the first licensed cards of a player in a professional league's uniform, Nixon said. Ohtani is no exception. 

A rookie card that’s been autographed? That tends to be more valuable. An autographed rookie card that he signed in Japanese? Even better, because those are extremely rare, Sutter said. 

There are other factors that can influence price, such as a card’s serial number. But, essentially, the rarer the card, the higher the price tag – just like any other commodity. 

While Ohtani cards are valuable now, player careers and – by extension – the market for their cards can be unpredictable. Cards for promising players have gone down in value if they’ve been injured and are unable to play. 

“If something happened to him, the hobby would be devastated. Like God forbid,” Sutter said. 

It’s uncertain how much more Ohtani’s card prices could continue to rise. 

“Everybody wants in on the action, even if it may be almost too late at this point, because the question is, how much more can you really achieve?” Mueller said. “But he’s still probably got a long career ahead of him.” 

Sutter said he thinks his cards could go up even further in price if he beats more records, accrues more accolades. He could win MVP more times or nab the Cy Young award, which annually honors the best pitchers in each league.

“He's probably going to do something crazy, because he might be the best baseball player that has ever lived,” Sutter said.