Evan Longoria ignited the card-collecting social media world this week when he posted a baseball card he recently signed for Topps.
Sure, Longoria has plenty of signed cards — well over 1,000 different ones.
But this one stood out.
It included a bat knob piece from one of his bats and made it truly special because the bat knob featured Charizard, the popular Pokémon character.
With the Pokémon world in a current frenzy over trading cards combined with baseball card hype building, the mash-up created a perfect moment for collectors.
The card, which will be in 2025 Topps Tier One Baseball, immediately caught the eye of Alan Narz, owner of Big League Cards in Casselberry, Florida.
He didn't just like the card. Narz NEEDED it.
Narz immediately announced a $100,000 bounty for it.
“I think it belongs at Big League because our primary goal is to be the best sports and Pokémon store in the country,” Narz said. “All of a sudden the best sports and Pokémon card is right there. It’s just perfect. We have to have that card; whatever it takes.”
Narz, who has been in the card industry for decades, feels this is the first MLB-licensed card featuring a Pokémon character. Topps has produced Pokémon cards before, but that was simply under the Pokémon IP.
Bat Knob cards are popular with card collectors. They feature the bottom of a bat that has been cut off and embedded into a card. Topps has included dozens of players including legends like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson to modern-day stars.
There’s something about bat knob cards that are so appealing.
“When Topps puts that magic dust on a card, everything changes,” Narz said.
It certainly feels that way because after the card was posted, it was noted by an X user that an Evan Longoria full-sized game-used bat with the same Charizard image on the knob was available on eBay for under $1,000.
That caught the attention of Doug Caskey. He also had his eye on the Longoria card when it was posted.
Caskey, one of the co-founders of Mojobreak, has felt a connection to Longoria since the breaking business began in 2010.
The Longoria Superfractor out of 2006 Bowman Chrome was one of the most chased cards in modern-day collecting. Longoria was a top prospect and the Superfractor is one of the most desired cards.
The card has never surfaced publicly, which is a story in its own right, and at the time became a legend amongst collectors and breakers. Mojobreak spent a lot of time opening that product looking for the Superfractor.
Caskey is also from the Bay Area and a San Francisco Giants fan where Longoria spent five seasons.
“We’ve always been engrained with Longoria,” Caskey said. “We were always like ‘The Longoria hasn't been pulled!’ We talked about it a lot. It still hasn't been pulled!”
But instead of trying to match the bounty Big League Cards put on the bat knob card, Caskey bought the full-sized bat on eBay for $700.
“I didn't think it was going to get so many comments and likes (on X),” said Caskey of his post about buying the bat. “For [Mojobreak], we have a large Pokémon group, and we are from the Bay Area. That is a really cool piece.”
Would Caskey still like to find the card when 2025 Topps Tier One Baseball comes out later this year?
Of course! A collector can’t help it with that Topps dust sprinkled on it.
“It’s the hunt for the Tier One bat relic,” Caskey said. “There's nothing like it. That is not as fun as hunting this card down.”
