The high-end sports card market’s torrid trajectory continued in March behind four publicly-reported sales of $1 million or more, including a record for three-time American League MVP Aaron Judge. One of two Judge cards to top $1 million last month, the 2013 Bowman Chrome Superfractor Autograph 1/1 — considered arguably Judge’s most important card created to date — sold for $5.2 million in a private sale brokered by marketplace Fanatics Collect. That same card had been Judge’s record-holder prior to March after selling for $324,000 in May 2022.
Another Judge card topped the seven-figure mark just eight days later when the 2025 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge Dual MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1 secured a final hammer price of $2.16 million. Though the card didn’t match the interest of the record-setting Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant Dual Logoman that sold for $12.93 million last year (or even Ohtani’s solo Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1, which sold for $3 million in December — more on this comparison below), it did become the second-most expensive baseball card created during the ultra-modern era (2017-present), according to card pricing tool Card Ladder.
Top sports card sales in March
2013 Bowman Chrome Aaron Judge Superfractor Autograph 1/1, BGS 9.5: $5.2m
2025 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani & Aaron Judge Dual MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1: $2.16m
1916 M101-S Sporting News Babe Ruth Blank Back, PSA 7: $1.4m
2024-25 Panini National Treasures Stephen Curry Logoman Autograph 1/1, PSA 10/DNA 10: $1.04m
2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Championship Ticket Autograph /100, BGS 9/Auto 10: $756,400
Source: Card Ladder (March 1 to March 31)
A pair of seven-figure sales for Judge may seem surprising, but his market was due for a significant reset. The record-setting Bowman Chrome Superfractor first sold publicly for $161,130 in July 2020 before flipping for a long-standing record $324,000 in 2022. Judge has won all three of his MVPs and hit more than 200 home runs since that sale, so a major adjustment was likely when the right card finally resurfaced. The card collecting community will now wait to see if a similar grail card for Ohtani, whose public record of $3 million has now been topped by Judge, surfaces and heads to auction with the potential to raise the high-end modern baseball market again.
Best-selling athletes in March: Flagg sticks around
Michael Jordan (33.5k)
Cooper Flagg (24.6k)
Victor Wembanyama (20.8k)
Kon Knueppel (17.5k)
Shohei Ohtani (16.1k)
Source: Market Movers
Flagg’s sales volume has slowed — card pricing tool Market Movers tracked a little less than 32,000 sales for Flagg in February — but is still solid compared to his peers (and could pick back up after becoming the youngest player in NBA history to have a 50-point game). His flagship 2025 Topps Base #201 and 2025 Topps Chrome Base #251 rookies have been major drivers with collectors able to buy raw copies for about $5 and $20 each, respectively. Last year’s No. 1 selection has shown enough to remain among the most coveted young players in the hobby through the end of the NBA season even as the Dallas Mavericks toil near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
Value increases: Ohtani’s market gets weird
Victor Wembanyama (+15%)
Paul Skenes (+6%)
Shohei Ohtani (+5.8%)
Dylan Harper (+4.7%)
Ken Griffey Jr. (+4.0%)
Source: Market Movers (minimum 5,000 sales)
Ohtani hovering near the top of the market isn’t strange. Some of the cards and the prices collectors have been willing to pay recently are, though. Ohtani’s 2023 Topps All Aces insert has been the talk of the hobby, with PSA 10 examples now regularly topping $1,000 after trending closer to just $100 this time last year, according to Market Movers. A die-cut design that mirrors a playing card makes it visually appealing, but hobbyists may be confusing its scarcity with similar cards from the last two years.
According to The Athletic contributor Corey Merriman’s analysis of Topps’ pack odds, there were about 77,350 copies of Ohtani’s 2023 All Aces insert printed. That number dropped to about 360 for 2025 and just 240 for 2026 as Topps decided to make All Aces tougher to pull and a higher-end insert. Common inserts don’t typically sell for $1,000-plus in any grade, but a great card design paired with the most popular player in the sport may break the rules.
Value decreases: Growing pains hit Flagg, Knueppel
Cooper Flagg (-12.3%)
VJ Edgecombe (-12.1%)
Jaxson Dart (-10.4%)
Kon Knueppel (-7.8%)
Tyler Shough (-6.3%)
Source: Market Movers (minimum 5,000 sales)
Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough make return appearances in this space, but that’s to be expected with the NFL in the offseason. The swing for Kon Knueppel is a little high after his collective market tracked by Market Movers was up about 39% in February, but is also explainable. In addition to the typical market correction, prices for raw (ungraded) cards can be volatile due to lower values and differences in condition, and that’s the majority of his market at this point. Slow turnaround times at a major grader like PSA means many of Knueppel’s key cards, which were released in late 2025, haven’t hit the secondary market yet. Of the 17.1k sales tracked by Market Movers for Knueppel over the last 30 days, more than 16.4k were ungraded.
Best selling individual cards: McGonigle surges following call-up
2025 Topps Cooper Flagg Base #201 (2.5k)
2025 Topps Kon Knueppel Base #204 (2.3k)
2025 Topps Chrome Cooper Flagg Base #251 (1.9k)
2025 Topps Chrome Kon Knueppel Base #253 (1.5k)
2025 Bowman Kevin McGonigle Chrome Prospects 1st #BCP-79 (997)
Source: Market Movers
Flagg and Knueppel keep their spots here from February, but Detroit Tigers rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle enters the mix after being named to the team’s Opening Day roster. McGonigle is The Athletic’s No. 2 overall prospect and was already on the shortlist of players who could be one of baseball’s next hobby darlings. A four-hit, two-RBI debut got casual fans and collectors alike buzzing, and suddenly McGonigle could be one of the next top prospects in line for an early extension.
Grading recap: Grading activity hits record high
PSA (2.17M total cards, 700k sports cards)
CGC (600k total cards, 87k sports cards)
BGS (106k total cards, 30k sports cards)
SGC (47k total cards, 43k sports cards)
TAG (47k total cards, 3k sports cards)
Source: GemRate (March 1 to March 31)
The major trading card authenticators graded a record 2.97 million items in March, according to third-party tracker GemRate. PSA led all graders with 2.17 million items, including more than 700,000 sports cards. Baseball was PSA’s most popular sport with more than 250,000 cards. Beckett, which was acquired by PSA and SGC parent company Collectors in December, posted another month of positive growth with more than 106,000 cards.
What sellers are saying
Top prospects were among the most popular players in March, according to eBay seller Bobby Fanzo of Honey Hole Collectibles. Top-ranked prospect Konnor Griffin didn’t make Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster, but was called up Thursday with plans for a debut at home on Friday. Cardinals shortstop JJ Wetherholt homered on Opening Day while wearing one of Topps’ MLB Rookie Debut Patches and followed up with a walk-off hit a day later.
“We had a ton of excitement generated around baseball products and a huge drive with Topps Pristine, Topps Cosmic Chrome and the new release of Bowman’s Best,” Fanzo said. “Baseball prospects such as Konnor Griffin, who were fighting in Spring Training for a spot, along with JJ Wetherholt, brought a lot of hype. We also saw a continued spike of Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper and some of the other names showcased in the World Baseball Classic.”
A pair of mid- to high-end Topps Basketball products were among the sets that didn’t get the attention they deserved, according to Bryan Thiessenhusen of Black Gold Sports Cards. Topps Three Basketball returned after a one-year hiatus as a hobby exclusive. Boxes originally retailed for $999.99 each with just four cards. Topps Finest Basketball, which is among Topps’ most popular brands, returned in late February with a fresh lineup of short-printed inserts, including The Man, Headliners and the all-new Aura and Pulse cards.
“Topps Three Basketball and Topps Finest Basketball were both overlooked in our opinion,” Thiessenhusen said. “We believe both products have more upside than the market gave them last month, especially when positioned correctly in live break formats and in front of the right audience.” —Ben Burrows
Did Judge bring down the value of his dual Gold Logoman card with Ohtani?
JUST IN: We sold the 1/1 Shohei Ohtani & Aaron Judge Gold Dual Logoman Autograph card for $2.16 MILLION at auction. pic.twitter.com/AIrs1OhKt0
— Fanatics Collect (@FanaticsCollect) March 20, 2026
A $2.16 million price tag for any sports card making its first appearance on the open market should not be poo-pooed. The person who pulled the redemption card for the 2025 Topps Chrome dual MVP Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1 card of Ohtani and Judge from a pack bought in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, last summer almost certainly celebrated the seven-figure sale through a Fanatics Premier auction last week.
But could the presence of Judge, easily one of the best MLB players of this generation, actually decrease the value of an Ohtani card? In the short term, perhaps.
The one-of-a-kind Ohtani only version of this card sold for $3 million in December 2025 through a Fanatics Premier auction. That card became the highest public sale of an Ohtani card ever. Still, this Ohtani/Judge card stands as the most expensive two-player baseball card ever.
In basketball, the most expensive public card sales for legends like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James all came from cards bearing themselves, but also another player. Jordan and Bryant shared the space on their most expensive card. James sits side-by-side to Jordan on his most expensive card.
The Ohtani/Judge card possessed the same recipe as the dual cards among the Jordan/Bryant/James trio with rare game-used league Logoman patches along with signatures from both MLB stars. This is why placing an estimate on this Ohtani/Judge card varied so much before it sold.
Chris McGill, co-founder of Card Ladder, named a variety of Logoman patch autographed and non-autographed cards up as potential price comparisons, ranging in values between $1.2 million (a Bryant/James 2009-10 Upper Deck Exquisite NBA dual Logoman autograph one-of-one card) and the $12.9 million Jordan/Bryant 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite dual NBA Logoman one-of-one autographed card. There had never been a baseball card quite like this Ohtani/Judge version with both players wearing the special gold MVP Logoman patches, which was why McGill expressed to The Athletic how curious he would be with the final price of the Ohtani/Judge card.
After the auction, McGill surmised that Ohtani is a singular athlete from the hobby’s point of view. So his solo cards are probably the ceiling for MLB Logoman cards right now, and multi-player cards actually might take away some of the appeal, no matter who the other player is.
Before the $5.2 million sale of Judge’s 2013 Bowman Chrome autographed Superfractor, Card Ladder placed the value of the one-of-a-kind Judge 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft card around $1.3 million. The fact the card sold for around $4 million more than that value really caught some attention. And now Judge has his second public card sale north of $2 million in less than a two-week span after having no cards sell for more than $350,000 ever.
There’s little reason to believe this Ohtani/Judge card won’t increase in value in time, much like the current sales of older autographed dual Logoman cards from Jordan, James and Bryant. Ohtani and Judge will be known as the superstars from this era when future generations look back on MLB history. —Larry Holder
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