Mike Trout baseball cards should be objects of desire for just about every collector … even us old-timers.
After all, this guy is probably the greatest all-around player most of us will witness in our lifetimes. He was a bona fide legend way before he ever reached the age of 30, and a lock for the Hall of Fame as soon as he clears ten years in the Big Leagues.
Problem for old-school hobbyists is that Trout toils here in the era of indecipherable baseball card issues with names like Chrome and Onyx and Inception and Optic and, um, Now.
Want fresh cardboard nostalgia delivered to your inbox each morning? Sign up for our Baseball Cards Daily newsletter … COMING SOON!
What’s it all mean? Heck if I know … may never know.
But I do know that there are some really good looking baseball cards out there among all the new stuff. Some of them are good looking because they look like the cards from my youth — those are the Heritage/Archives things that rehash old designs almost exactly.
Helps when he shares space with a legend from my era, like Carl Yastrzemski:
Others look good on their own merit.
So, knowing there are cherry new cards out there featuring the greatest talent in the game, I set out on a mission — to find ten Mike Trout cards that even old-school collectors can love.
The ground rules are … 1) each card has to be available for (hopefully much) less than $50, and 2) I can choose only one design rehash per brand.
Other than that, I’m picking these babies purely on how they make me feel, with no real notion about the sets they’re part of.
Got it? Ready?
Good.
Here, then are ten Mike Trout baseball cards even an old-timer can love.
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
2018 Topps Throwback Thursday Mike Trout (#3)
Technically, this card does reach back to take advantage of a classic Topps design, but it’s not from a baseball card set.
Rather, this beauty shows Trout as he might have looked in Bo Jackson mode on a 1968 Topps football card.
Therefore, on a technicality, this does not count as my one Topps design rehash.
Regardless …
It’s a clean look with that cheesy, clean-cut 1960 feel that almost makes you feel like you’re watching an episode of The Brady Bunch.
And, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the fire-hydrant build of Trout stomping down the gridiron, either.
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
2011 Bowman Mike Trout (#101)
If your first go-round in the hobby carried you into the mid-1990s, then you for sure think of Bowman whenever talk turns to rookie cards and jump-the-gun rookie cards.
After struggling for a few years to find an identity for the line it resurrected in 1989, Topps settled on making Bowman the place to go for a player’s first card.
By the time Trout was hitting collector’s wallets, Bowman had evolved to feature all sorts of parallel issues and inserts, and most featuring the Angels’ Rookie of the Year also feature big price tags these days.
This base issue can get pricey, too, but you can usually find nice raw copies for $100-150.
Right.
Yes.
That’s 2-3 times my self-imposed spending limit of fifty bucks, but this is the Mike Trout rookie card we’re talking about here. It’s also a solid, basic card, like something you might have pulled from a wax pack in 1985.
It stays.
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
2013 Topps Batting Average Leaders (Miguel Cabrera/Adrian Beltre) Mike Trout (#294)
There’s nothing special about this card except …
- You get three future Hall of Famers on one hunk of cardboard
- You get Miggy fresh off his Triple Crown season
- You get Trout in his Rookie of the Year form
- You get Beltre turning on the gas in his second season with the Rangers, ready to sprint toward Cooperstown
Oh yeah … you also get a throwback to those great old Topps League Leader cards of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
This one, in particular, is shades of that 1966 beauty featuring Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
2015 Topps Opening Day Franchise Flashbacks Mike Trout (#FF20)
This thing is hideous in an exquisite 1980s sort of way.
A Perma-Graphics credit card sort of way.
Or, for heaven’s sake, in a Hills Team MVPs boxed set sort of way.
It’s loud and crowded and features Trout with a sort of Boz-like hairdo.
It’s just awful.
It makes me feel like it’s 1986 again.
It’s just wonderful.
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)