Another card to collect: 2021 Bowman Sapphire Aaron Sabato

Former North Carolina Tar Heel Aaron Sabato is one of the featured prospects in the new 2021 Bowman Sapphire Edition. Here is a guide on the product and how to get the card.

With the release of 2021 Bowman Sapphire Edition, this gave collectors another opportunity to grab some of the most sought after prospects. Sabato was a featured prospect in 2021 Bowman First Edition, but this high-end product takes the standard chrome and added a sleek, blue finish.

The product featured numbered parallels with colors like green to125, aqua to 99, orange to 75, yellow to 50, purple to 20, red to 15, and padparadscha that are one of ones. The autos in this set follow the same color to number ratio as well.

The exclusive product was made available June 22 to Topps Montgomery Club members— a paid membership of $200 a year and first-time memberships of $300— first before being sold publicly the next day.

This year however due to “overwhelming demand,” the product was raffled to the public with winners contacted via email to purchase the product. Yes, people entered a raffle just for the opportunity to buy boxes of 2021 Bowman Sapphire. The offer sent in the email— two boxes, each box contained eight packs with four cards, for approximately $150 per box.

For the baseball card enthusiasts this is nothing new because cards were increasingly harder to come by with retail stores taking them off shelves and online prices doubled sometimes tripled since the pandemic.

While this product never saw the retail chains, and may have graced the presence of a few card shops, the opportunity to buy was always present.

As of writing, the cost of a normal 2021 Bowman Sapphire Sabato card are in the $10-$20 range on eBay.

The hobby boxes skyrocketed from $150, which is what Topps sold them at, to $250 on secondary card markets.

Overall, if there was anyone who wanted to buy the base chrome card, it would be now. While $10 and up for an unproven prospect is a gamble, the upside on Sabato is high.  If he impacts the Minnesota Twins the way he did at UNC then the cost will be minuscule compared to later.

The chance of pulling a card of the former Tar Heel, base, parallel or auto are low because of the 150 players in the checklist. It is simple, either buy a $250 box that does not guarantee the card, but may contain other top prospects like Blaze Jordan and Austin Martin. The alternative get the Sabato card for $10-$20, possibly more in the future.

Remember, for all thing UNC sports run over to Keeping It Heel!