Fernando Tatis jr.'s 2019 base rookie represents the COVID boom
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Many childhood collectors ventured into their old cards when COVID-19 kept everyone indoors. It was the perfect blend of nostalgia, new-found free time, and disposable income that led to the greatest boom in the hobby of sports trading cards.
Cards that were previously worth a few hundred dollars at best were going for thousands, and modest retail blasters were being swept up in droves by flippers who were making hundreds selling on the secondary market. What seemed like overnight, retailers couldn't keep product on the shelf, with some restricting sales completely due to customer violence.
While many cards could be seen as representing the COVID boom (like the 1-of-1 Black Finite Prizm Mac Jones selling for $100,00, profiled in People magazine), the base 2019 Topps Series 2 Fernando Tatis rookie card is probably the most iconic. It was base, so opening any format, retail, or hobby, could get you one of these. And it shows just how far up the ladder, and how fast down the slide a card can go.
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Tatis jr. debuted on Opening Day in 2019 and hit the ground running. He hit .317 with 22 home runs and 53 RBI in just 84 games. At this point, Card Ladder has the first recorded sale of the PSA 10 on August 22, 2019, going for just $38.18.
He would have another great year during the 2020 shortened season, but he (and his card) really exploded off at the tail end of the 2020 season, just as the boom was taking off. On August 22, 2020, exactly one year after the first recorded sale on Card Ladder, the same card went for an astronomical $266.30
The card took an expected dip on October 31, 2020 and bottomed out at $140.69 during the offseason. But it didn't take long to shoot up again. Even before the regular season started in 2021, the card sold for an all-time high for $314.96 on March 20, 2021. People were going crazy for this piece. Famed YouTuber Jabs Family has commented on multiple videos about buying multiple copies for more than $200 a piece.
Thinking about the hobby now, and paying triple digits for a paper base card, even at a PSA 10, is unlikely, with a few exceptions like the 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout.
But as you can see from the chart, from that March 20, 2021 date it was just a cascade of free falling. While he tested positive for PEDs and was suspended for 80 games on August 12, 2022, that didn't seem to effect the trajectory of this card. It was already going down, and if you look at prices today, the card could be bought from anywhere between $10-$20 cheaper than in August 2022.
While it bottomed out at $10. 50 on August 6, 2025, according to Card Ladder, the last sale was more than double that at $26.99, with that sale happening on August 13, 2025. Doing the math, the last sale went for just 8.57 percent of the peak value of $314.96.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz