Young Astros pitcher is on a quest to find his own baseball card (and it’s amazing)

Sports cards are big business these days. The most obvious example is Paul Skenes' Rookie Debut Patch Autograph 1/1 that was pulled by a young fan in LA and ended up selling for $1.1 million at auction in early 2025. Those Rookie Debut Patch Autos, which are one-of-one signed rookie cards in Topps Chrome Update each year, have been particularly popular chases for collectors as they have quickly become considered to be the ultimate rookie card for any given player. In fact, the chase has become so popular that players themselves, including Houston Astros pitcher Colton Gordon, have gotten in on the action.

In recent comments to the media that doubled as both a fun human interest story as well as a bat signal of sorts to fellow collectors to help him out, Gordon revealed that he is still on a quest to acquire his own Rookie Debut Patch card, and it sounds like he is willing to pony up to get a deal done.

Colton Gordon's quest for his top rookie card is part of a growing trend

Gordon is far from being the only big leaguer who has gotten into the sports card craze. Top names, including Jacob Misiorowski, Bobby Witt Jr., Mike Trout, and Corbin Carroll, are all avid card collectors and not just of themselves. Most of the time, those tales are just amusing anecdotes that occasionally arise.

However, Gordon is taking a slightly different approach and using his platform to facilitate his hobby and his quest. Gordon previously took to Instagram to put out a call to action for collectors to keep an eye out for his Rookie Debut Patch and deal directly with him if it is pulled. One can certainly respect the hustle, even if it might be difficult for a private collector to be willing to not let the card get bid on in the open market.

To his credit, it sounds like Gordon is willing to make it worth whoever pulls the card's time. In addition to talking about wanting to make a fair trade for the card, Gordon sounds willing to exchange tickets to a game, a special game day experience, and/or signed gear to sweeten any deal. Given the offer and the fact that Gordon's card isn't exactly a loaded retirement account, it would be a bit surprising if he didn't eventually end up with the card.