Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t blink at spending big for a piece of Aaron Judge cardboard.
The Knicks star and NBA champion, who is on a $220 million contract, bought Judge’s 1/1 Gold Dual Logoman Auto for $900,000 in a Fanatics Collects auction in late August. It’s one of the most coveted Judge cards out there, and the sale made it the fourth-highest card transaction ever for the Yankees slugger.
The card itself is built for grail status. It features two gold Logoman patches, an on-card autograph, and Judge’s “back-to-back” inscription, celebrating his MVP seasons in 2024 and 2025.
It also has a wild backstory that fits the hobby perfectly: the card came out of the 2026 Topps Chrome Baseball product as a redemption, was pulled on July 22 release day by a father of two who bought just one hobby box to rip with his children, and surfaced in the third pack. Fanatics Collects said the card was dropped off at the National a week later before heading to auction in August.
For Towns, this kind of move tracks. He’s not just a collector - he’s deep in the hobby, with his own breaking company, Big Bodega Breaks, and a reputation for chasing big cards and putting bounties out there, especially on WWE grails.
He also pulled the 2024 Topps Inception Yoshinobu Yamamoto MLB Logo Patch Auto 1/1 in a PSA 10 and sold it for $72,000 in November 2025. More recently, he showed off his 1/1 Topps Now card with Patrick Ewing celebrating the title.
Judge’s new sale had to climb into rare air to crack his top five. The Dual Gold Logoman pushed past the 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects Superfractor 1/1, which sold for $838,750 in May 2026 and had been Judge’s top non-autograph sale by more than $600,000. Above that, the leaderboard is stacked with seven-figure cards: the 2017 Topps Dynasty 1/1 Logoman Autograph in a BGS 9.5 sold for $1.95 million in April 2026, and the 2025 Topps Chrome Dual Gold Logoman 1/1 with Shohei Ohtani went for $2.16 million in March 2026.
At the top sits Judge’s 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospect Superfractor Auto 1/1 in a BGS 9.5, which sold for $5.2 million in March 2026. That one became the most expensive modern baseball card ever, passing Mike Trout’s 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospect Superfractor Auto 1/1, which sold for $3.94 million in 2020.
Judge’s 2026 season has been interrupted by a rib injury he suffered in late May. He has played 59 games, hit 17 home runs, driven in 38 runs, and posted a .907 OPS. His return from the injured list appears close, a timely development for the Yankees and for the collectors watching his market with the postseason approaching.
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Yankees Suddenly Have A Frustrating Void At A Spot They Once Owned
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Snchezs 2017 win looked like the high-water mark, and it has been hard for the Yankees to recreate that kind of offensive edge at catcher since. The franchise now finds itself watching a spot it once seemed to own slip into uncertainty, with current and future options carrying the burden of restoring that Silver Slugger standard even as the wider history of the award shows how rare sustained dominance at the position can be. [Read more 🡒]