In more than one way, I'm very glad that the Ohtani craze didn't drive up the cost of this years' hobby boxes the way last years' Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger rookie auto craze caused certain products, like Topps Heritage, Gypsy Queen, and Chrome, to nearly double in price.
This year, Topps Chrome actually went down in price while sets like Gypsy Queen, Heritage, Allen & Ginter, Stadium Club, and even Bowman to some degree stayed at or near what the original hobby box prices were.
For these reasons, I'm really hoping that there's no new rookie craze causing prices to soar in 2019. I would love to break more Heritage next year than I did this year, but the original prices because of the first Ohtani autographs caused boxes to be over $25 more per box than 2017 Heritage, and that's just one example.
With all this being said, I have nothing against Shohei Ohtani. Without a doubt, he's one of the most impressive athletes this sport has seen in a long, long time. Seeing him play 3 weeks ago and hit those 2 home runs really put this into perspective. When healthy, he is dominant. End of story.
Out of all the 2018 baseball card packs I've opened, I actually have 3 more Ohtani cards, but I had to put those with the Topps Chrome base set and the Allen & Ginter base and World Talent set. As for the other 5, those cards mark the beginning of the Ohtani player collection which I will be showing today.
Not only did I have good luck with autographs in the 2018 Topps Chrome set, but I also did fairly well with refractors as well. Among other cards, I was able to hit a base refractor card of Ohtani along with the base card which is in my 2018 Topps Chrome binder. On Sportlots, these cards are going anywhere from $12.50-$20.00. A base refractor going for this price proves that even though he's been injured this year, the value of Shohei Ohtani cards has not dipped much at all.
Of all my Ohtani cards, the Future Stars from this years' Series 2 is by far my favorite design. I remember how glad I was to finally see these colorful Future Stars cards make it to Topps Flagship after being in solely Topps Chrome since their debut in 2015. In addition to other names like Andrew Benintendi and Alex Bregman, I pulled Ohtani's Future Stars out of a Series 2 blaster back on the 4th of July.
Shohei's Gypsy Queen card is yet another card that has an interesting and pretty fabulous design, and this is coming from someone who doesn't like the 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen set. With all that being said, I opened a couple packs of 2018 Gypsy Queen at The National this year. Among other rookies, inserts, and variations, I pulled an Ohtani rookie card which became my most recent Shohei Ohtani pull.
Even with the simplicity of the Series 2 base card, the shininess of the Topps Chrome refractor, the colorful Future Stars, and the well-designed Gypsy Queen base card, none of these 4 Ohtani cards are my favorites.
My favorite Shohei Ohtani card is also my most valuable, and my very first Ohtani card ever pulled. It may not be an autograph, but it's the next best thing I could've gotten.
Some of you have seen this card before. But for those of you who haven't, this is the image variation Shohei Ohtani rookie card from 2018 Topps Heritage, the first Ohtani card ever released by Topps and the first I ever pulled. I still remember the excitement I felt when this came out of a Topps Heritage box earlier this year. Currently costing a couple hundred dollars online, and even more when graded, this card may be one of the most collectible cards from 2018, making me question if I should pay to have it graded or not.
Even though this may be his rookie season, I'm excited for next year for Shohei Ohtani. Not only will his prices be down since he won't be a rookie, but he should be ready to pitch again then. As popular as he is now, don't expect the Ohtani craze to die down too much anytime soon.
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