A baseball card featuring Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes sold for $1.1 million on Thursday.
The sale price includes a buyer’s premium, as there were 64 bids on the card via the Fanatics Collect auction. The proceeds from the auction are going to the LA Fire Relief Fund to help those who were impacted by the wildfires that devastated Southern California earlier this year.
Topps says that only five baseball cards have sold for more than Skenes’ card, including a 2022 sale of a Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card for $12.6 million.
The buyer of the 1-of-1 card, which features Skenes’ autograph and a patch the NL Rookie of the Year wore on his uniform when he made his major league debut on May 11, 2024, was not identified.
Skenes’ card drew so much attention that the Pirates offered the person who eventually retrieved the card a bounty for it, including seats behind home plate at PNC Park for the next 30 years, an exclusive meet-and-greet with Skenes and two autographed jerseys and a chance to host a softball game at the ballpark.
Skenes’ girlfriend, LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne, also said the winner would get a chance to sit with her in a suite.
An 11-year-old from Los Angeles pulled the Skenes redemption card, and the family turned down the Pirates’ offer and gave the card to Fanatics Collect so it could be auctioned off.
Skenes, who is scheduled to make $875,000 this year, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts last season and will be Pittsburgh’s 2025 opening day starter when the Pirates take on the Marlins in Miami on March 27.
