The 2010 Topps baseball card set featured some cards that have become quite rare and valuable in the decade since their release. Like most years, there were a handful of rookie cards, autographs, and short printed parallels that collectors eagerly sought but proved elusive to find in packs. Let’s take a closer look at some of the rarest gems from the 2010 Topps set that continue to excite the hobby.
Perhaps the single most coveted card from the 2010 offering is the Mike Trout rookie card. Trout would go on to become a perennial MVP candidate and is widely considered one of the best players of his generation. In 2010 he was still progressing through the minors and wasn’t a major prospect yet. As a result, his rookie card is plentiful in the set and doesn’t contain any special markings indicating its future value. Only in hindsight does one realize they hold a true treasure in the standard Trout rookie. PSA 10 gem mint examples now sell for thousands, a sizable return for a $3 pack back in the day.
Another huge chase card was Stephen Strasburg’s rookie, which featured the buzzworthy Nationals pitching prospect on the front. Strasburg was electric in his brief debut before needing Tommy John surgery, but the hype around him was immense. Unfortunately for collectors, Topps only included Strasburg in the standard base set and not any parallels or short prints. As a result, his rookie is quite common in collections today. Still, in high grades it remains an iconic piece of sportscard history.
When it comes to short printed parallel rookies, Jason Heyward really stands out from 2010 Topps. His prospect card was inserted at an extremely tight rate, possibly as low as 1 in 10 hobby boxes. The card has bright blue parallel coloring and foil lettering indicating its scarcity. Even ungraded, Heyward’s blue parallel rookie routinely fetches hundreds on the secondary market. In mint condition it crosses into four-figure territory—a true rarity from a year with plenty of great cards.
For particularly sharp-eyed collectors at the time, one gigantic hidden treasure lurked within 2010 Topps—Bryce Harper’s teenage prospect card. At just 17 years old in 2010, Harper was an absolute phenom turning heads in the minor leagues. However, Topps didn’t include him in the base rookie card checklist. Instead, Harper’s lone 2010 issue was relegated to the parallel-only “Topps Prospect” subset at an abysmally short print run. As a result, even most serious collectors at the time missed out on this stealth issue of the future MVP. A PSA 10 now sells for over $20,000, while raw examples sell for many multiples of original hobbies boxes. Harper’s card stands as one of the greatest rarities ever found by chance alone.
Autograph rookies were also intensely popular targets from 2010 Topps. Mike Trout, Stephen Strasburg, and Buster Posey all had reasonably obtainable on-card signed versions available via redemptions or true hits. Of these, Posey has aged the best as his is one of the more scarce presentations. Numbered between 1/999 and 1/25, Posey autos grade wonderfully and retain significant value at all levels of condition. Meanwhile, Strasburg and Trout, while iconic names, have more autos in circulation which has kept pristine examples from reaching the stratosphere in cost—at least for now.
Rounding out the true short prints of note in 2010 Topps were Clayton Kershaw’s red parallel and Matt Wieters’ “Timeless Teams” blue parallel. Both are mind-bendingly rare, inserting around 1 per case if that. In high grades they compete with the finest parallels from any era in terms of rarity and price tags accordingly. Wieters’ in particular has taken off in demand being one of the few mainstream prospects from the late 2000s still active today.
In the end, 2010 Topps proved loaded with prospects and rookies who went on to greatness. It also featured a collection of improbably rare chase cards that now sell for small fortunes. With another decade of appreciation likely ahead, the top keys from this classic set should continue their ascent amongst savvy collectors. For those who discover a pristine Trout, Harper, or atomic parallel from long ago packs, a life-changing payday may be on the horizon. The 2010s gave collectors gifts that keep on giving.
