Triple SSS Sports Cards is a Detroit based company that stands as one of the nation’s leading sports card dealers and has an inventory spanning all major sports. One iconic baseball rookie card handled by Triple SSS Sports Cards that has generated extreme collector interest is the Bowman Chrome Draft #BDPP89 Mike Trout.
This card is unusual in having been issued two years before Trout’s 2011 Major debut, at a time when the future slugging legend had just been acquired as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s 25th overall MLB draft pick. Just 18 years of age, Trout signed a stack of glossy “Chrome” cards that were inserted randomly into the Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects set.
As was the norm with these signed issues, there were several levels of the same card produced, each with a different color or surface coating. The Refractors had serial-numbers up to 500, the X-Fractors up to 225, the Blue-bordered Refractors up to 150, and the Gold, Orange, and Red were limited to 50, 25, and 5, respectively. In addition, a 1/1 Superfractor and a 1/1 Printing Plate were also issued.
An example of the value that the higher issues hold are the Orange Refractors, which number 25. In 2019, a pair of BGS 9.5 Orange Mike Trouts each sold for in excess of $180,000. In September 2020, a crescendo of collector interest in a player that many compare with Babe Ruth culminated in the 1/1 Superfractor selling at auction for nearly $4 million. This card was purchased in 2018 by a collector for $400,000, and in only two years rose to a price that exceeded the fabled 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner, which set the previous record in 2016 at $3.12 million.
This card is unusual in having been issued two years before Trout’s 2011 Major debut, at a time when the future slugging legend had just been acquired as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s 25th overall MLB draft pick. Just 18 years of age, Trout signed a stack of glossy “Chrome” cards that were inserted randomly into the Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects set.
As was the norm with these signed issues, there were several levels of the same card produced, each with a different color or surface coating. The Refractors had serial-numbers up to 500, the X-Fractors up to 225, the Blue-bordered Refractors up to 150, and the Gold, Orange, and Red were limited to 50, 25, and 5, respectively. In addition, a 1/1 Superfractor and a 1/1 Printing Plate were also issued.
An example of the value that the higher issues hold are the Orange Refractors, which number 25. In 2019, a pair of BGS 9.5 Orange Mike Trouts each sold for in excess of $180,000. In September 2020, a crescendo of collector interest in a player that many compare with Babe Ruth culminated in the 1/1 Superfractor selling at auction for nearly $4 million. This card was purchased in 2018 by a collector for $400,000, and in only two years rose to a price that exceeded the fabled 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner, which set the previous record in 2016 at $3.12 million.
