Every spring, just around the start of baseball, Topps used to release a product aptly titled, Opening Day. When Fanatics got the license and bought Topps, they cut a few products and Opening Day was one of them. They’ve subsequently reinvented the product with last year’s release of Celebration.
Opening Day was a low end, fun-for-the-kids to rip product that offered little market value but tons of fun for collectors who just like to rip packs. While most of the cards weren’t worth much, there were some exceptions, especially with superstars like Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, and Shohei Ohtani.
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2015 Topps Opening Day Mike Trout Back Of Jersey PSA 10
2015 Topps Opening Day Mike Trout, Back of Jersey, graded PSA 10 | Card Ladder | https://tinyurl.com/252s5vk7
At this point 2015 might have been the pinnacle of Mike Trout’s reign of being the best baseball player in the world. He was coming off a season in which he went to his third All-Star game and earned his first of three MVP awards. Mike Trout’s 2015 Topps Opening Day Back of Jersey Image Variation is one of the top selling cards from that set. Graded a PSA 10, the 77th card of the set features a full image of Trout standing in the on deck circle, getting ready to bat.
This card fetched $5,328 dollars when the auction finished on April 2, 2022. The set only included 14 players with autographs, and they included an autograph every 383 packs. With 36 packs in a retail box, you’d need to more than 10 boxes to hit an autograph.
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2020 Topps Opening Day Shohei Ohtani Image Variation Autograph
2020 Topps Opening Day Shohei Ohtani Image Variation Autograph. | Card Ladder | https://tinyurl.com/5h3rj57v
What’s top baseball sales list without Ohtani? First here is his 2020 Opening Day Image Variation autographed card. Number 43 in the set, you can see from the photo that it’s a stoic Ohtani, seemingly walking to or from batting practice, with the batting cage net in the background.
The card is ungraded, and according to Card Ladder, this card last sold on November 20, 2025 as a best offer accepted for $5,317.45. Along with it being Ohtani, the scarcity of autos coming out of this product is part of driving it to the price. There were only 12 players in the autograph checklist that year.
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2017 Topps Opening Day Aaron Judge Rookie with Bat PSA 10
2017 Topps Aaron Judge Rookie Image Variation with Bat, graded a PSA 10 | PSA | https://tinyurl.com/pju272z7
All rise for the Judge. Aaron Judge is the last one on the list who has a high dollar Opening Day sale, according to Card Ladder. This card is the only rookie card on the list, and comes out of the 2017 Opening Day set. The card features a bust image of him looking right at the camera, with his bat in hand.
Image variations came one every 256 packs. Still a hard ratio to overcome, but much better than the autographs that year, which came one every 654 packs. This card, according to Card Ladder, sold for $4,875 as best offer accepted.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/collectibles as Judge, Ohtani, and Trout & The Top Opening Day Cards.
