The Pittsburgh Pirates are offering two season tickets for the next 30 years in exchange for a Paul Skenes one of one, autographed, rookie card that includes the patch the pitcher wore on his MLB debut.
According to trading card and collectible company Topps, the card was released on November 13 in a pack of 2024 Topps Chrome Update series. If somebody finds it, and wants to exchange it with the Pirates, they’d find their season tickets in one of the most coveted areas of PNC Park — behind the home plate.
If that wasn’t all, the trade also includes a softball game for 30 people at PNC Park, with coaching provided from former Pirates players.
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Additionally, there’d be a private tour of Pirates City, and a meet-and-greet with Skenes himself. The swap also includes two Skenes-signed jerseys. Skenes has a famous girlfriend, Olivia Dunne, and she said on X the winner could join her for a Pirates game.
“Let’s raise the stakes,” said Dunne, an LSU Tigers gymnast and social media superstar with 10 million followers. “The person who finds the card can sit with me at a Pirates game in my suite.”
On incorporating the patch a rookie wore on their debut, into a trading card, Topps Senior Director of Creative, Jeff Zachowski, said in a statement: “When designing the patch, we wanted to convey something bold and eye-catching that hinted at the player’s ascent to the big leagues.
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“In tandem, we had to think about how these patches would make their way from each rookie player’s sleeve and into the hands of collectors in the form of an autographed trading card. We knew we wanted a clean, modern design that felt fully integrated with the patch. The Rookie Debut Patch is the key innovation here, so the design team’s job was to showcase it.”
Topps scours Getty Images for the right photograph to use in conjunction with the patch. It’s an advantage if the patch can be seen in the picture.
Other players to have their patch immortalized on a one-of-a-kind Topps card this year include Jackson Merrill of the San Diego Padres, Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Jackson Holliday of the Baltimore Orjoles. Elly de la Cruz from the Cincinnati Reds – as well as Wyatt Langord from Texas Rangers and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers – have similar cards, too.
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