How Paul Skenes Has Impacted the Market for Pitcher Cards

We all already know the impact Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes has had on baseball. From the moment he was called up in early May of the 2024 season, he was nothing but dominant en route to the National League Rookie of the Year award.

While the Pirates are generally thought of as a hobby killer, given their market size and lack of success over the past three decades, Skenes transcended that. His card prices also reflected that with his 1/1 Superfractor auto from 2023 Bowman Draft selling for an amazing $123,220 at Goldin Auctions back in September.

The only card more sought after than that would be his 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch Auto from 2024 Topps Chrome Update.

That card has garnered plenty of press over the past few months with some folks thinking he could fetch up to seven figures.

Even the Pirates themselves had a bounty set for it that included 30 years’ worth of season tickets. That card was finally discovered on January 21st, over two months after the product was released.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships

Not only are Pirates prospects a shaky investment, but so too are pitchers in general, as they do not generally garner the price tags that hitters receive. With Skenes’ success this season however, we have seen a shift in how the card market has reacted to them.

Kumar Rocker 2022 Bowman Draft 1st Bowman Base Auto PSA 10	Sold for $35.00 in August, 2023	Sold for $165.00 in December, 2024
Rhett Lowder 2023 Bowman Draft 1st Bowman Base Auto PSA 10	Down 3.58% over the last 12 months	Up 65.23% over the last 3 months
Noble Meyer 2023 Bowman Draft 1st Bowman Base Auto PSA 10	Down 71.67% over the last 12 months	Up 6.45% over the last 3 months

While Skenes’ market is through the roof, we do see other players being impacted over the past 3-4 months. Now there are potentially other factors than can contribute to a certain pitchers prices moving up or down, but it’s hard to argue how Skenes hasn’t made collectors think differently about the position.

What makes a lot of these sale even more intriguing is that they are occuring in the heart of the offseason, generally a low point in the baseball market.

Impacting the Past

It’s not just the more recent prospect arms who are getting a bump from the buzz generated by Paul Skenes this past season. Even names like Jacob deGrom and even Cole Ragans have seen a bump over the past 12 months. Ragans’ bump is partially contributed to his personal success in 2024, but collectors are always skeptical on one-year wonders, so there’s more at play here.

Cole Ragans 2016 Bowman Draft 1st Bowman Base Auto	Sold for $4.25 in May, 2023	Sold for $80.55 in January, 2025
Blake Snell 2016 Topps Chrome Rookie Base PSA 10	Sold for $13.45 in May, 2023	Sold for $39.00 in December, 2024
Jacob deGrom 2014 Topps Chrome Rookie Base PSA 10	Down 14.34% over the last 12 months	Up 36.06% over the last 3 months

It’s hard to deny the uptick in pricing for pitchers recently, especially given that the hobby hasn’t forgotten the Stephen Strasburg craze nearly 15 years ago and how that contributed to how that impacted collecting this particular position.

Time will tell how Paul Skenes cards react in the future given the multitude of factors that could potentially drop his prices, but there’s no denying how his production has contributed to helping shift collectors minds going forward.