Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Druw Jones. (Twitter Photo/@Dbacks)
Druw Jones is a name that has taken over the sports card collecting community. For the casual baseball fan, prospects in the minors often do not garner much interest. The players in the minor league are wild cards that may or may not turn into anything. For the sports card collecting community, prospects are high-value targets. Cards of prospects who are years away from the majors are bought and sold for huge dollar amounts based on projections. Jones is one of those prospects and for the collecting community, he is the real deal.
Who Is Druw Jones?
Jones is the son of baseball legend and 10-time Gold Glove winner, Andruw Jones. The Atlanta Braves dominated the league in the 90s and early 2000s with Jones being a huge part of it. Druw is the prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. He is only 19 and currently plays in single-A. According to MLB.com, he is the 13th-ranked prospect. Many scouts believe his defense is on par with his father’s and his bat should also be a huge asset. A five-tool player that has legend DNA in him? Sounds like a recipe for success.
The Hype
Projections do not have him coming to the major league until 2026. Obviously, anything can happen but with him being only 19 and the Diamondbacks in a slight rebuild, there is no need to rush Jones to the majors. This hasn’t stopped the hype in the sports card community. Because his father was a major league star, people are projecting that he will be as well. This has inflated the value of his cards exponentially.
Cards Selling At Huge Amounts
Ungraded cards are going for hundreds of dollars. On eBay, an ungraded card autograph card was recently sold for over $500. There are countless others that have been sold in the past week and all are going for triple-digit prices. One recent sale saw a 9.5-graded card going for just over $2,300. Those are just the sold ones. Asking prices of graded Druw Jones cards is seeing ridiculous prices. Here is one listing that is asking $100,000 for a one of five autographed card. This is for a player that has never seen a pitch in the major leagues.
Hype Only Increasing For Druw Jones
The hype train shows no signs of stopping. Dave and Adam’s is a card store based in New York. With the release of the Bowman 2023 product, the company put out a bounty for one card. In the next 30 days, the company is looking for a 1-of-1 Autographed Superfractor of Arizona Diamondbacks top prospect Druw Jones. This is what they are offering according to their website.
- If the Druw Jones 1-of-1 Autographed Superfractor is pulled in the next 30 days after release day, Dave & Adam’s will pay that person $250,000 for the card. While $250K sounds great, there is also another option for whoever pulls this holy grail.
- If the Druw Jones 1-of-1 Autographed Superfractor is pulled in the next 30 days after release day, and the collector wants to hang on to it, Dave & Adam’s will guarantee $1 million to that collector if Druw Jones reaches the Hall of Fame as a position player.
You read that right. The card is guaranteed $250,000 right now to that company. However, the lucky person could also hang onto it and if Jones becomes a Hall of Famer, it is worth a cool million. It is worth noting that this must happen within 30 days of release but even if it takes longer to find, that card is going to be worth a lot.
Wild Prices
Jones isn’t the only card that is garnering high prices. The NBA is about to see the Victor Wembanyama hype begin. The difference is that Wembanyama will play in the NBA next year while Jones may not see a major league field for another three years. The hype is real around Druw Jones and for the sports card collecting community, it is the latest holy grail to chase.
