New York Knicks All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns recently flipped a one-of-one Yoshinobu Yamamoto card for an eye-popping $72,000, according to ESPN. The signed MLB logo patch card, which Towns pulled from a 2024 Topps Inception box in October, led to a 54-bid auction on Fanatics Collect before ultimately landing at the final sale price.
The sale showcases not only the red-hot Yamamoto market, but also Towns’ serious participation in the sports card hobby.
Editor’s Note: Looking to Sell Sports Cards? Here’s How to Do It Quickly & Easily
Karl-Anthony Towns: NBA Star Turned Card Breaker
While most people know Towns for what he does on the hardwood — the 2015-16 Rookie of the Year winner is also a five-time All-Star — the 7-footer has quietly built a presence in the sports card community.
Towns has an Instagram account entirely dedicated to card-opening adventures across multiple sports (@bigbodegascards). In the collectibles world, people who stream their pack openings are called “breakers,” and Towns has embraced the role. He displays each box’s cost on screen, then tracks his gains or losses in real-time by subtracting current market values as cards emerge.
It’s pretty nifty, and you can see an example in the video below.
The 2024 Topps Inception Yoshinobu Yamamoto Card That Started It All
The card that fetched $72,000 came from 2024 Topps Inception, a premium hobby product retailing around $200 per box. Each box contains just seven cards, with one guaranteed auto or auto relic card.
This Yamamoto card featured an Autographed Patch with a game-used MLB logo patch. These logo patches are intentionally produced as one-of-ones, making them instant chase cards for anyone who doesn’t have them.
Topps Inception showcases art-driven design and milestone-centric checklists. The Autographed Patch cards have odds of about 1:12 packs for base versions, but MLB Logo versions are much rarer (about 1:1,888 packs), making Towns’ pull pretty insane.
Yamamoto’s Card Market Explodes After World Series MVP Performance
The timing of Towns’ sale couldn’t have been better. That sale was the highest price ever paid for a Yoshinobu Yamamoto card, but only for a short period of time. Just a few days later, a 2024 Topps Dynasty Yoshinobu Yamamoto Autographed MLB Logo Patch 1/1 sold for a record-high $173,989 via auction at Alt.
I doubt Towns is upset about losing that record shortly after setting it. But this just goes to show how crazy the Yamamoto card market is right now. His legendary 2025 postseason performance has certainly helped accelerate things.
The Dodgers ace dominated the World Series with a 1.02 ERA while registering three wins in 17.2 innings. This performance included a complete game in Game 2 and another six innings in Game 6 before tossing 2.2 scoreless relief innings in Game 7. The right-hander is just the 14th pitcher in MLB history to win three games in one Fall Classic on his way to winning Series MVP honors (along with yet another championship).
Yamamoto’s Journey From NPB Superstar to MLB Ace
Before making landfall in the States, Yamamoto made his mark in NPB by doing something unprecedented between 2021 and 2023. He won three consecutive Pacific League MVP awards, three Eiji Sawamura Awards (Japan’s Cy Young equivalent), and three pitching Triple Crowns. He also helped the Orix Buffaloes win the 2022 Japan Series.
Combine that with his first two big-league seasons, and it’s been quite a decade for him.
His 2024 MLB rookie season showed promise with a 7-2 record and 3.00 ERA through 90 innings pitched. He also won two more games and posted a 3.86 ERA in 18.2 postseason innings that October. But 2025 was when Yamamoto truly became an ace, posting a 12-8 record with a 2.49 ERA across 173.2 innings while striking out 201 hitters and finishing third in NL Cy Young voting.
He earned his first All-Star selection and nearly threw a September no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles, taking a perfect game into the ninth before Jackson Holliday broke it up with a two-out homer. Then came the postseason magic, and I’m mostly talking about his Game 7 relief appearance just one day after starting Game 6, which left pretty much everyone in shock. But as they say, anything is on the table in a Game 7. Yamamoto took that to heart.
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