Acuna is the 2023 National League MVP in unanimous fashion, garnering all 30 first place votes! This Acuna rookie card has the special. All Star game silver foil stamp. On the front of the card, found only in a limited edition of the 2018 Topps complete sets. This card is unlike any of the other pack pulled or factory set pulled Acuna #698 rookie card as it has the silver foil All Star Game stamp. This All Star version, in the long run, will prove to be a far rarer Topps Acuna rookie card than the bat down version. The print run of this All Star version (estimated to be less than 5,000 cards). Has an estimated print run that is at least 1/4 LESS than. The Bat Down 698 short printed Acuna rookie (estimated to be up to 20,000 cards). The All Star complete sets which is the only place this card can be found is pretty much non-existent any where… And if you do find a set, there is no guarantee that Acuna card will be gem mint condition as the Acuna/Torres cards were hand inserted into the end of the set, possibly leading to one or more damaged corners. To date (as of 11/11/2023), only 30 of these All Star Game stamped foil parallel Acuna rookies have received the GEM MINT BGS 9.5 overall grade (that’s only an increase of 5 BGS 9.5s since 4/16/2021). There are 586 BGS 9.5 or higher of the bat down cards without the All Star foil stamp… Meaning there are nearly 20 times more of the regular bat down gem mint graded cards than there are of this All Star stamped parallel version! Total bat down Acuna rookies submitted to date to BGS for grading is 961 cards, while only 37 All Star stamped cards have landed at Beckett for grading. The All Star foil stamped version card was printed in much much lower quantity than the Bat Down rookie!! Acuna, as a 25 year old in the 2023 MLB season, showed that he is fully back from his knee injury of 2021 (a season where he was on track for the NL MVP through 82 games before going down). Acuna is now in an exclusive statistical club all of his own, the 40/70 club as he slugged 41 hrs and stole 73 bases! In addition, he scored a MLB leading 149 runs and also led both leagues with 217 hits. 337, 44 points higher than his previous best of. 293 in his rookie season. The most amazing part of Acuna’s season is that he reduced his strikeouts dramatically, striking out only 84 times in a full season. Acuna reduced his Ks to At Bats ratio down to 13% (in his 2022 season, that ratio was at 27%). Basically, Acuna became a better hitter, kept his awesome power intact and reduce his strikeouts by over 50% compared to 2022. Nobody in recent memory has ever had this tremendous improvement. A recent article by a projection specialist (ZiPS) projects that Acuna should reach the 500 homerun mark by his age 34 season… Meaning he has an excellent chance to join the 600 hr club. Besides his amazing 2023 season, Acuna nearly pulled off the 40 hr / 40 stolen base feat in 2019 and he won the 2018 NL Rookie of the Year. In only his age 25 season in 2023, Acuna already has 161 homeruns and 180 stolen bases. 500 hr / 500 stolen bases seem very reachable, an exclusive club of one in MLB history… Another good comparison for Acuna would be Willie Mays (who had 660 hrs / 338 stolen bases). Acuna’s 2023 season (along with his 2018 rookie, 2019 breakout and 2021 first half seasons) shows that Acuna is ready to be the next “Mike Trout” in terms of being the best long term investment of baseball cards and collectibles. This card has been professionally graded a BGS 9.5 (which is GEM MINT), by Beckett Grading Services (BGS), one of the top two grading services in the sports card industry. Because Beckett and PSA are the top two 3rd party grading companies in the collectibles industry. Because if you want your card to appreciate in value, the condition of the card is very important. Having the card sealed in the case & it’s condition graded allows you to easily sell/trade the card online. A portion of the proceeds from this listing will be sent to the world relief organization World Help. This water well will provide clean/usable water for a community of up to 1000 people! Thanks in advance for your contribution towards this cause. One charity, World Help, drills and installs water wells that provide clean/usable water for villages of up to 1,000 people per location in Africa. You played a part in that! The other 5% will go to an orphanage call Nueva Esperanza Children’s Home in Tijuana, Mexico. This orphanage cares for 30+ children and is run completely from donations from people. I have visited the orphanage 4 times over the past 10 years and it’s a joy to see the children each time.
