After loaning the headlines to Miami Marlins 57-homer beast Giancarlo Stanton for the past few months, Aaron Judge has moved back into the MLB spotlight, finishing his rookie season with force, setting a record with 50 first-year jacks and continuing to break records — and this one isn’t even on the field.
The Topps NOW card commemorating his 49th and 50th home runs of the season, which was available to fans for 24 hours through Wednesday afternoon, sold 16,138 pieces, the most ever for Topps NOW, the joint venture between Topps and MLB that provides the best images to fans on a daily basis.
Some baseball minds have predicted Judge to surpass the immortal popularity of Derek Jeter, which seems farfetched for any Yankees player, but his card selling mojo says he is the real deal.
Back in May, driven by Jeter’s number retirement ceremony on Mother’s Day at Yankees Stadium, Topps NOW sold more than 15,000 baseball cards within a 24-hour period, breaking the previous regular-season mark set last year when Ichiro Suzuki notched his 3,000th MLB career hit.
That card sold 11,550 copies in just 24 hours. Combined, the two Topps NOW Jeter retirement ceremony cards sold 13,542 copies with 7,791 (Card No. 147) and 5,751 (Card No. 148) copies, respectively.
Judge’s Home Run Derby championship card is third all-time (8,997).
The 16K plus cards moves the all-time total of Topps Now cards sold to nearly 1,000,000, a mark which should be eclipsed before the end of the 2017 season. Judge’s likeness has now been featured on eight of the top 11 Topps NOW cards this year, and on 26 cards total for the season, far more than any other player in 2017.
The legend continues to build for the Yankees rookie slugging sensation.
