Mike Trout pulls card of himself that most collectors have been chasing for years

For those that haven't collected sports cards in a while, the hobby has become a wildy fun, but exceedingly expensive endeavour. After emerging from the junk wax era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, there is now a clear focus on high-end products, autographs, short-printed parallels/variations, and a different understanding of modern rookie cards. One of the guys whose cards have helped propel the hobby to these new and somewhat terrifying heights is Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout.

Things in sports cards were already trending in a more expensive direction before Trout came on to the scene. There was a huge resurgence in interest in collecting cards marked by LeBron James' arrival, as well as other basketball players like Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry being extremely collectable. Trout's ascension, too, created a huge demand for his cards (and the sets they came in), and one of the single most desired cards of his came in 2009 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. That is where his first "real" autographed cards appeared.

Bowman is a weird thing to explain to those who collected a long time ago, but the gist is that a player's first Bowman card (which is noted on the card) is generally considered a player's true rookie card. Well, Trout's first rookie autos from that set are crazy expensive, and Trout himself decided to try and open his own autograph for fun with his son, Beckham. The crazy thing is that Trout actually did it.

LA Angels' Mike Trout pulled insane card of himself during opening with his son

We freely acknowledge that Trout getting that excited pulling an autograph of himself (you will have to click the link above to watch the Instagram video) is kinda weird. Trout could literally just sign whatever at any point of his day and make it instantly much more valuable. However, his son rooting for him to pull dad's card was just amazing, and was a moment that gives one all the warm and fuzzy feelings.

Also, as a card collecting nerd myself, Trout gets several bonus points here. One, he was extremely careful opening the pack and handling the cards themselves. Notice how he quickly identified that he opened a monster and immediately went for a penny sleeve to protect it. As for Beckham, he gave dad props and then said to put the card in a toploader, which were right on hand. 10/10 opening all-around.

There are certainly some that think that the whole thing was staged and that Topps gave Trout a loaded box/pack. That could be entirely possible given Trout's strong relationship with Topps, but Trout did say that he picked up some of the boxes to open with his son and we'll take his word for it. For those wondering, those boxes go for thousands of dollars these days, and that auto Trout and Beckham pulled is still selling for $5,000+ even after Trout's 2024 season came to a premature end.

Conspiracy theories about the whole thing being staged aside, sign us up for Trout and son turning their attention to 2011 Topps Update next to try and pull one of the more iconic rookie cards to come out in the last 20 years. Don't worry, Beckham will have the toploaders ready.

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