The Most Expensive Baseball Cards On StockX

Collectibles - April 21, 2021

The Most Expensive Baseball Cards In StockX History

Ian Semivan

Ian is a content creator at StockX with a focus on trading cards and collectibles.

The 2021 Major League Baseball season is off to a quick start, and with many star players living up to the high expectations placed upon them, baseball card prices are beginning to climb.

The 2021 Major League Baseball season is off to a quick start, and with many star players living up to the high expectations placed upon them, baseball card prices are beginning to climb.

The first three weeks of the 2021 season have already caused a lot of activity in the baseball card market. While players like Shohei Ohtani and Akil Baddoo are having breakout performances, it is the established stars who are making the most noise with the highest baseball card prices. It is these cards of current All-Star caliber players that make up a majority of the top five most expensive baseball cards sold on StockX.

5. Ronald Acuna Jr 2018 Topps Rookie Bat Down #698 PSA 10

The Ronald Acuna Jr 2018 Topps Rookie Bat Down #698 PSA 10

Ronald Acuna Jr’s red hot start to the 2021 season has caused some to anoint him Mike Trout’s successor as the best player in Major League Baseball. The early season stats speak for themselves. Acuna is already leading the National League in hits, batting average, slugging percentage, and home runs. Of course, his card value is not based solely on performance this year. During the last full MLB season in 2019, Acuna fell just three stolen bases shy of becoming only the fifth member of baseball’s 40/40 Club (40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season).

With his quick start, all of his cards have seen a jump in value, but it is the Ronald Acuna Jr 2018 Topps Rookie Bat Down #698 PSA 10 that is the most expensive Acuna baseball card on StockX to date. Most recently this card sold for $2,499. What makes this card so valuable is that it was a short print (SP) card rookie card in 2018 Topps Series 2 Baseball. The fact that it is an SP already makes it incredibly rare, but taking card grading into account only adds to the rarity. PSA has graded 1,401 total copies, and only 462 have received the gem-mint grade of PSA 10.

4. Fernando Tatis Jr 2019 Topps Gold / 2019 Rookie #410 PSA 10The Fernando Tatis Jr 2019 Topps Gold /2019 Rookie #410 PSA 10

Fernando Tatis Jr has entered his third year in the Major Leagues and the only things to slow him down have been injuries and a shortened 2020 campaign thanks to the pandemic. Unfortunately for Tatis, and fans of the game, he once again found himself on the disabled list after sustaining a shoulder injury on April 5th of this year. Fortunately, it was not serious and he was able to return on April 16th. Tatis has been off to a slow start in 2021 with only five hits and two home runs, but there is no doubt that when he gets going he is among the game’s best players. In his young career, Tatis hits a home run seven percent of the time he comes to bat.

All of Tatis’s baseball cards saw a spike in demand and price in July of 2020 when he won the National League Player of the Month award. The most expensive Tatis baseball card seen on StockX was of his 2019 Topps Gold Rookie #410. Aside from having gold coloring on the borders of the card, it also has a very limited print run. Only 2,019 copies of this card were printed, and out of those graded only 227 have received the mark of a PSA 10 gem-mint card. This card sold for $2,300 before the start of this year’s MLB season.

3. Rickey Henderson 1980 Topps Rookie #482 PSA 9

Most Expensive Baseball Card number three Rickey Henderson 1980 Topps Rookie #482 PSA 9

Rickey Henderson is the only player on this list who is not currently active. However, a huge trend in trading cards recently has been collecting all-time greats. There is no question that Rickey Henderson’s name belongs with some of the best that baseball has ever seen. Individually, he is a member of the 3,000 hit club, holds the record for career stolen bases, and won the American League MVP among several other awards during his career. Henderson is also a two-time World Series Champion.

The Rickey Henderson 1980 Topps #482 is iconic in the baseball card hobby and was even chosen as one of the subjects for Topps Project 2020. A PSA 9 mint version of this card sold on StockX for $2,500 in February of 2021. There are currently 2,013 PSA 9s in existence, and if you are lucky enough to be holding one of the 25 PSA 10s then you are currently holding a card worth around $180,000.

2. Juan Soto 2016 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph #JS PSA 9

Most Expensive Baseball Card number two Juan Soto 2016 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph #JS PSA 9

Juan Soto rose to national fame during the Washington Nationals 2019 World Series title run. Not only has the 22-year-old already won a World Series, and a National League Batting Title by posting the best batting average in 2020, but his routine of taunting pitchers while in the batter’s box quickly made him one of the most talked-about players in the league.

The Juan Soto Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph #JS is a particularly significant card for Soto. Bowman is part of the Topps Company, and Bowman baseball sets focus on prospects or players who have not yet made it to the Major Leagues. Many players get their first baseball cards ever in Bowman sets. When this happens, the cards come affixed with a special “1st Bowman” stamp in the upper left-hand corner of the card. This particular 1st Bowman card shows a skinny 17-year-old Juan Soto and also features his autograph. Only 140 PSA 9 mint versions of this card are currently in circulation, and the one on StockX sold for an impressive $3,600. This actually seems like a bargain as this Juan Soto autograph card has started selling for over $4,000 at auctions recently.

1. Mike Trout 2011 Topps Update Rookie #US175 PSA 10

Most Expensive Baseball Card number one Mike Trout 2011 Topps Update Rookie #US175 PSA 10

In the last decade, no player has been as dominant as Mike Trout. The Los Angeles Angels Center Fielder is a generational talent who has been compared with the likes of several MLB Hall of Famers, most notably Mickey Mantle (who’s 1952 rookie card recently sold for $5.2 million). Mike Trout has not even turned 30 and already he has three MVP awards, eight All-Star game appearances, and eight Silver Slugger awards to his name, and these are only a handful of his accolades. While the end of his career is nowhere in sight, there is no question he has already earned a spot in Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

For modern baseball cards, there are few that are more sought after than the Mike Trout 2011 Topps Update Rookie #US175, so it is no surprise that this is the most expensive baseball card on the list. As Mike Trout is still an active player, this card is subject to high volatility. However, on average this card PSA 10 has sold for $4,756 on StockX in 2021, with the highest sale reaching $6,949. This card currently has 5,284 PSA 10 gem-mint versions recorded in the PSA database. It is not the rarest card on this list, but the current value is backed by the popular belief that Mike Trout will define the current era of baseball for years to come, and be remembered as one of the best to ever play the game.