Hunt continues for rare Paul Skenes rookie card, coveted by team and fans
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — The hunt is still on for the one-of-a-kind Topps Paul Skenes Rookie Debut Patch Autograph card, with the potential to trade the card for 30 years of Pirates season ticket behind home plate.
At Baseball Card Castle in Cranberry, a new shipment brings a new day in the quest to find the card.
"This is day eight of an odyssey that's been unlike any other card journey that we've had," said owner Jeff Patton.
Patton said the momentum is building and customers are ready to keep taking hacks.
"I heard they're gonna offer big money if you get the right card," Joe Balcik of Monroeville said.
"I'm hoping to win this. I think I might," Georgia Krastek from McCandless said.
Balcik explained his card-picking method: "I just took some from the top, some from the middle, some from the bottom."
Krastek is a die-hard fan who went to 23 games this year and is on the hunt.
"I tried all year to get Paul Skenes' autograph, but I never did," she said.
After the Pirates announced the deal, there's been a barrage of interest.
"Instead of regular collectors being involved, it's also grandmas and grandpas stopping in and saying, 'I want to get my grandson in on this, or I want to get my granddaughter in on this,'" Patton said.
And with potential decades-long season tickets, why not?
"I would go," Krastek said. "And I bet my grandsons would visit me more often too."
For now, customers keep dreaming.
"I think it'll be — it'll be so nice," Krastek said.
Patton will keep working on trying to fill the demand.
"The list keeps on filling up. We're starting on tomorrow's list now," he said. "So, we're promising product tomorrow, and we'll get it somehow."