Paul Skenes Topps Debut Patch Headed For Auction—See How The 11-Year-Old Found It


In the end, it doesn’t seem that 30 years of Pirates season tickets was enough for one lucky 11-year-old in Los Angeles.
Topps announced earlier this week that the young collector, who still has not been identified, had found the Paul Skenes 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch autograph, which carried with it a huge bounty from the Pittsburgh Pirates, including the season tickets and many other goodies.
But auction site Fanatics Collect (which is owned by Fanatics, which also owns Topps) announced on Friday afternoon that the collector has decided to instead put the card up for auction in March. The card recently graded a perfect 10 from PSA.
Fanatics Collect also announced that all of its proceeds from the auction will be donated to help wildfire relief in the Los Angeles area, where the young collector hails from.
Fanatics Collect generally charges a 20% commission fee in addition to the auction price. For example, when it auctioned off the Junior Caminero Debut Patch recently, the winning bid was $55,000, but the buyer actually paid $66,000, including the $11,000 commission (20% of the $55,000).
So if, for example, the Skenes patch were to sell for $1 million, the actual final price could be $1.2 million, of which $1 million would go to the collector’s family, and $200,000 would be donated to wildwife relief.
In addition to the auction announcement on Friday, Topps also released hand-written pages from the young collector’s journal documenting his experience finding the card.
He says his parents bought him a hobby box for $320 on Black Friday, and he found the card in just the fifth pack he opened on Christmas morning.
“Hey dad,” he recalls saying, “I pulled the Paul Skenes redemption card.”
“No you didn’t,” his dad responded.
“Then I showed him the card,” the collector writes, “Me, my brother and my dad were like OMG! … pulling this card is a dream come true.”