Elly De La Cruz Baseball Card Goes For Big Bucks

Major League Baseball's most exciting player not named Shohei Ohtani has officially been welcomed to the sports memorabilia world.

Just two days after the unbelievable performance by Cincinnati Reds third baseman Elly De La Cruz that included him stealing second... third... and HOME all in ONE inning, those same bases went up for sale in the form of baseball card relics.

CARDS ARE $500 EACH

After Cruz's performance helped the Reds defeat the Brewers, Topps obtained exclusive rights to second, third and home plate. The trading card company then decided to cut the bases up into 7 different versions of card form that will include three plate pieces each. The presale sold out nearly instantaneously with each of the 388 cards being sold at $499.99.

To put that in perspective, Topps made $193,000+ in less than 30 minutes. And the card isn't even autographed.

There's no question that Cruz is something special and has helped the Reds go from an abysmal team at the start of the season to now the NL Central leaders. In 30 games, the 21-year-old rookie is hitting .325 with 4 home runs, 16 RBI, 16 stolen bases and 28 runs. Oh, and he can also hit for the damn cycle.

OVERSATURATION OF THE CARD INDUSTRY

However, even though Cruz's three base steal is definitely brag worthy and awesome, considering he is the first player to steal three bases since 1961, there are some concerns about the card industry making memorabilia out of it.

The main issue comes with oversaturation. Why cut up the bases entirely? Why not try and just sell the base entirely? The answer is obviously clear because of money, with all the cards selling out at $500 a piece, but the concern is still there - including by prominent figures in the industry.

I recently spoke with Ken Goldin of the industry leading Goldin Auctions where he mentioned that the sports card business is worth big money these days - valued at over $600 million last year.

MIXED REACTIONS

As a card collector myself, I tend to agree with Goldin's take that we need to put things into perspective. Cruz's three base steals were clearly a rare feat - but is it it really worth $500? That of course is for the lucky few that were able to purchase them - with the resale now going on EBay for thousands of dollars in some instances.

No doubt the market sets prices and if people are willing to buy it then you can be sure Topps, Fanatics, Panini (while they can) will gleefully sell anything and everything to make a profit. But it can have a negative effect, as some on Twitter suggested:

Perhaps most interesting is this comment, which reminds me of the AMC, GameStop "meme stock" craze in 2021.

You can be sure that the memorabilia world is paying attention to Elly De La Cruz and just waiting for him to continue making magic - and their wallets, shine.