Today is our 3rd installment of KING KONG CARDS, where I track one specific rookie card with MONSTER profit potential. Shall we examine today’s majestic beast? Yes we shall!

What if I told you there is a 26 year old baseball playing unicorn who runs home to first faster than Trea Turner... throws a 4 seamer a skosh harder than Gerrit Cole… and has higher exit velocities than Mike Trout, Juan Soto, and Bryce Harper.

Sounds like a modern day Babe Ruth… or at least a Japanese version that runs much, much faster. I’m of course, talking about global superstar “Sho-time” Shohei Ohtani.

I know, I know. I can hear you shout typing in the comments already:

“Duh, Freddy. Of course we know who Shohei Ohtani is. He’s the first player since Babe Ruth in 1919 to pitch 50 innings and hit 15 home runs in a single season. But he’s already been injured multiple times. Can we count on him?”

Unfortunately I don’t own a time machine, and I’m not nearly intelligent enough to build my own.

But if you’ve seen the offseason photos, you can tell Swole-hei is doing everything in his power to improve his durability.

Reminds me of another unicorn with durability concerns…

Can Shohei be the Zion of baseball? Outside of injuries, there is no reason he can’t be transcendent. All sports card collecting and investing is a gamble so why not take a flyer on a player one general manager opined…

Shohei’s non auto rookie cards are extremely affordable given his prodigious promise and his impressive Major League production… albeit in a small sample size. All his rookie cards are poised for a major spike if he’s healthy. There are plenty of solid options including his 2018 Topps Update US 1, 2018 Topps Chrome Update HMT1, and the numerous parallels and variations that exist.

But one card truly sticks out….

The 2017 Bowman Chrome Mega Box Refractor!

It’s his first Bowman and first English card and predates all of his traditional 2018 Major League rookie cards by a full year. It also has the benefit of relative scarcity compared to his Major League rookies as it was only available in 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes sold exclusively at Target.

Given the limited distribution and the initial Ohtani hobby explosion at the beginning of 2018, there won’t be a sizable influx of gem mint cards to goose the respective PSA, BGS, and SGC pop reports. To give you an idea of the comparative scarcity let’s compare the 2017 Bowman Mega Box with arguably his most popular base rookie card from the popular 2018 Topps Update #US1.

Taking a quick peek at those all important combined pop reports you’ll see that there are only 2200 graded 2017 Mega Box Ohtani’s compared with over 3100 of the 2018 Topps Update US1 rookie. With the card being a year older and with more limited distribution, I see this population gap widening in the future.

This card is an absolute steal with high grade BGS 9.5’s and PSA 10’s currently going for $130 – $240.  I was even able to snag a BGS 10 Pristine for $240 a few weeks ago.

While gem mint grades of the Topps Update US 1 are going for around $100 on eBay right now.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the Topps Update US 1, and I’m an even bigger fan of the Topps Chrome Update HMT1. I think both are solid investments…

… but I expect the 2017 Mega Box value gulf to expand when baseball returns and Shohei resumes wreaking havoc from both the mound and batter’s box.

One quick note for new investors and collectors, Ohtani’s last name is spelled wrong on the card and was never corrected so don’t let an unscrupulous seller try to extract a premium for an “error card”.

FREDDY FORECAST: I predict gem mint 2017 Mega Box Shohei Ohtani’s will be selling for $350-$400 by the end of the next baseball season… whenever that is. Please be soon.

There you have it. Another KING KONG CARDS in the books. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Shohei, and any other cards you think have MONSTER profit potential.

If you prefer watching instead of reading your sports card content, please check out the Freddy Find YouTube Channel or click here to watch on the website.

As always, I’m Freddy… and you’re welcome.