Karl-Anthony Towns sells Yoshinobu Yamamoto rookie card for $72,000 on record-breaking night
The most expensive baseball card sales ever for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto occurred Thursday night. What makes one of the two card sales particularly unique is the seller: New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.
A Towns-owned 2024 Topps Inception MLB Logoman (the league logo patch from one of Yamamoto’s worn uniforms) one-of-a-kind rookie autographed card with a Gem-Mint 10 card and autograph grade through PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) sold for $72,000 via a Fanatics Collect auction. This record sale didn’t last long as Yamamoto’s 2024 Topps Dynasty MLB Logoman one-of-one rookie autographed card sold for $173,989 via an Alt auction.
Although both cards feature similar patches, the Dynasty card includes a “game-used” one versus the Inception card’s “player-worn” — which usually means something the player put on during a photoshoot or autograph session — Logoman. The Dynasty card also has its Yamamoto autograph directly on the card, as opposed to the Inception card’s autographed sticker that was affixed to it, which is seen as less desirable by collectors and thus less valuable.
The price tags jumped well over the previous most expensive Yamamoto card sale. His 2024 Topps Chrome LogoFractor one-of-one Superfractor autographed rookie card with a PSA 9 grade sold for $40,260 in December 2024 via Goldin.
The 1/1 Yamamoto rookie card sold by Towns. (Image courtesy of PSA)
Towns has had a growing presence in the trading card community over recent months. He’s been involved in live events with Topps where he opens packs, including the launch of licensed Topps NBA Basketball cards last month. He also opens packs and boxes on his social media channels, including an Instagram account he launched dedicated to the hobby called Big Bodegas Cards.
“This luck is the greatest! … Are you serious? Oh my God!” Towns said during his stream when he first pulled the card.
Towns has an ongoing video series where he examines whether he’s able to pull equal value out of the boxes of sports cards he buys. According to the video, he paid $300 for the box of 2024 Topps Inception Baseball in which he found the Yamamoto card. In the video, he speculated whether it would be a $10,000-plus card. The auction results clearly proved it was well beyond that mark and quite the return on his initial investment.
Yamamoto’s most coveted and valuable rookie card remains unclaimed, though.
His Topps MLB Debut Patch autographed one-of-one card still resides with the company, as no one has submitted the redemption code to claim it. Topps produces a redemption card bearing a special code that goes into a pack instead of the Debut Patch card itself in an effort to keep the unique and valuable cards in top condition. The company said the Yamamoto Debut Patch redemption card was randomly placed in a pack of 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series, which was released nearly a full year ago. It likely remains in an unopened pack.
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