Super-rare Ohtani MVP award card sells for record $3 million

A Shohei Ohtani on-card autographed, one-of-one numbered card has sold for $3 million, including buyer’s premium, via Fanatics Collect.

The sale nearly tripled the record paid for a card featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar.

The 2025 Topps Chrome MVP Award Gold MLB Logoman Ohtani card — a partnership between MLB and Nike wherein the jerseys of award winners from the previous season wear gold MLB logos on their jerseys the following season to subsequently be inserted into cards — is the highest-selling card in Fanatics Collect’s history and the most paid for a modern baseball card since the $3.96 million Mike Trout autographed rookie Superfractor sale in 2020.

The previous record for an Ohtani card was the autographed, one-of-one numbered Ohtani card that featured the MLB logo from the pants he wore while hitting his 49th, 50th and 51st home runs and stealing his 50th and 51st bases of the 2024 season, which sold for $1.067 million at Heritage Auctions, including buyer’s premium, in March.

“Ohtani is just this international Babe Ruthian figure, which is really hard to top,” Fanatics vice president of marketplace Kevin Lenane said. “We try to listen to the collecting community and we heard this loud and clear: In high-end cards, if you’re going to have patches in these cards that are worth a lot of money, let’s have you be able to say, hey, this came from this game.”

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The $3 million Ohtani features the visible MLB authentication hologram on the reverse side of the card; Fanatics’ lot description notes that the patch was used during an April 29 Dodgers win over the Miami Marlins, a game in which Ohtani hit his seventh home run of the season.

“We’ve had a couple other really big cards this year: the Skenes, then the Caitlin Clark card,” Lenane said, referencing the 2024 Topps Chrome Update Paul Skenes MLB debut patch card that Dick’s Sporting Goods paid $1.11 million for in March and the 2024 Panini Instant Rookie Royalty WNBA Flawless Platinum Caitlin Clark Logowoman card that sold for $660,000 in July, both via Fanatics Collect.

“This is another really big moment,” he says. “Really good way to end the year.”

In the same auction, a card of Dallas Mavericks wunderkind Cooper Flagg also became the most expensive Flagg card to date.

An autographed, one-of-one numbered 2025 Topps Chrome Silver Pack ’80 Superfractor Cooper Flagg — styled like an 1980-81 Topps card — sold for $216,000 including buyer’s premium. It more than doubles the previous record paid for a Flagg card: $97,600 for an autographed, one-of-one numbered Superfractor from 2024-25 Bowman Chrome U, featuring the inscription “From the 207,” the area code of Flagg’s home state of Maine.

“[Flagg] just dumped 42 the other day” — the youngest player in NBA history with a 40-point game — “we just got the basketball license activated, he’s the guy on that first Topps basketball product, so, it’s exciting for us,” Lenane said.