2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols #340 RC Auto

Autographs in the base set, and one that wasn't there

2001 Bowman Chrome was a chromium version of the year's Bowman set, sold at $3.99 for a four-card pack, 24 packs to a box. Most sources describe it as a 352-card set: 110 veterans, 110 rising young stars, 110 top rookies that were short-printed and issued only as Refractors, two versions of an Ichiro Suzuki rookie, and 20 autographed rookie Refractors numbered 331 to 350. (One card guide counts 351 player cards.) It was the first year Bowman Chrome put autographs in its base set.

Each of those 20 autographed rookies was hand-numbered to 500 copies, and as a group they fell about once in every 147 packs. With one massive exception, the players did not pan out. The exception was card #340, a 21-year-old Cardinals prospect named Albert Pujols.

Pujols's card was not actually in the packs. Collectors who hit it found an exchange card instead, the only autograph redemption in the set, which had to be mailed in for the signed card by June 30, 2003. The Ichiro rookie in the same product was also a mail-in redemption, so the two best rookie cards in 2001 Bowman Chrome both reached collectors by mail.

From Santo Domingo to the 402nd pick

Jose Alberto Pujols was born January 16, 1980, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and was raised largely by his grandmother. As a boy he practiced with limes for balls and a milk carton for a glove. In 1996 he, his father and his grandmother moved to Washington Heights in New York City; after he witnessed a shooting at a bodega, the family moved two months later to Independence, Missouri, to join relatives.

At Fort Osage High School he was twice named All-State, and as a senior he was intentionally walked 55 times. He graduated a semester early and in his only season at Maple Woods Community College he hit .461 with 22 home runs. Teams were unsure of his age, his position and his build. The St. Louis Cardinals finally took him in the 13th round of the 1999 draft, the 402nd pick overall.

In 2000, his first pro season, he hit .324 with 17 home runs for the single-A Peoria Chiefs and was voted the Midwest League's Most Valuable Player. In spring training of 2001, first baseman Mark McGwire told manager Tony La Russa that leaving Pujols off the big-league roster 'might be one of the worst moves you make in your career.' He made the team.

The rookie season

Pujols debuted on Opening Day, April 2, 2001, against the Colorado Rockies, becoming the first major league player born in the 1980s. He went on to play 161 games, batting .329 with 194 hits, 47 doubles, 37 home runs and 130 RBI, with a .403 on-base percentage and a .610 slugging percentage. He made the All-Star team, won a Silver Slugger, finished fourth in the MVP voting and was the unanimous National League Rookie of the Year. His 37 home runs were one shy of the rookie record at the time.

The Cardinals won 93 games and reached the playoffs as the wild card. In Game 2 of the Division Series on October 10, Pujols hit a game-winning two-run home run off Randy Johnson, though Arizona eliminated St. Louis in five games.

That season was played under extraordinary circumstances. After the September 11 attacks, baseball suspended games for a week and the regular season was pushed into October. Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs to break the single-season record, Seattle tied the record of 116 wins with Pujols's fellow Rookie of the Year Ichiro Suzuki, and Arizona beat the Yankees in seven games for the World Series.

Seven hundred home runs later

Pujols hit above .300 in each of his first ten seasons and won three National League MVP awards, in 2005, 2008 and 2009. He won the World Series with St. Louis in 2006 and 2011, the 2003 batting title, six Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves and the 2008 Roberto Clemente Award, and was an 11-time All-Star.

After the 2011 season he signed a $252 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. He returned to St. Louis for a final season in 2022, and on September 23 of that year at Dodger Stadium he hit his 699th and 700th home runs in consecutive at-bats, becoming the fourth player to reach 700. He retired with 703 home runs, 3,384 hits, 686 doubles and 2,218 RBI over 22 seasons, and made the retirement official on November 1, 2022.

He becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2028, and he is widely expected to be elected in his first year.

What to look for and what it has sold for

The card is a Refractor, with Pujols's on-card signature and a hand-written serial number out of 500. There is no unsigned version of #340 in the set; the 20 autographed rookies were left out of the X-Fractor and Gold Refractor parallel runs that the rest of the base set received. Because it was redeemed by mail, a sealed pack cannot produce one.

Population reports show six copies graded PSA 10, 119 graded PSA 9, 82 graded PSA 8, ten graded PSA 7 and a handful lower. BGS grades the card and the autograph separately; this entry is the BGS 8.5 copy with a 10 autograph, a combination that sold for $18,500 in September 2025 on a copy numbered 341 of 500. Graded copies carry certification numbers, so a single card's sales can be traced: one PSA 9 sold for $12,600 in July 2020 and $20,400 in November 2022, and another went from $5,899 in 2017 to $14,101 in 2024.

Grade drives the price. A PSA 10 sold for $40,590 in October 2019, and another brought $168,000 at auction in December 2020. From 2017 through 2025, PSA 9 copies sold between about $4,600 and $28,800, and PSA 8 copies between about $7,700 and $18,450.

In the years after the set's release, a relative of another autographed rookie in the set, Blue Jays prospect Ron Davenport (#347), who never played above Class AA, tried to corner the market on his card. For a while in the late 2000s and early 2010s it was the second most valuable card in the set.

The numbers

2001 season (card year)

161 G, 676 PA, 590 AB, 112 R, 194 H, 47 2B, 4 3B, 37 HR, 130 RBI, 69 BB, 93 SO, .329 BA, .403 OBP, .610 SLG, 1.013 OPS, 157 OPS+, 360 TB, 6.6 WAR

2001 honors

NL Rookie of the Year (unanimous), All-Star, Silver Slugger, 4th in NL MVP voting

2001 postseason

5 G, 18 AB, 2 H, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .111

2002 season

157 G, 185 H, 40 2B, 34 HR, 127 RBI, .314 BA, 2nd in NL MVP voting

MVP seasons

2005: .330, 41 HR, 117 RBI. 2008: .357, 37 HR, 116 RBI. 2009: .327, 47 HR, 135 RBI

Career (2001-2022)

22 seasons, 3,080 G, 3,384 H, 686 2B, 703 HR, 2,218 RBI, 1,914 R, .296/.374/.544, 101.3 WAR

With St. Louis (12 seasons)

2,156 H, 469 HR, 1,397 RBI, .326/.417/.614

Honors

3x NL MVP, 11x All-Star, 2x World Series champion, 6x Silver Slugger, 2x Gold Glove, 2003 NL batting title

Timeline

1. Jan 16, 1980

   Albert Pujols is born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

2. 1996

   Pujols's family moves to New York City, then to Independence, Missouri.

3. 1999

   The Cardinals draft Pujols in the 13th round, 402nd overall.

4. 2000

   Pujols hits .324 for the Peoria Chiefs and is named Midwest League MVP.

5. Apr 2, 2001

   Pujols debuts on Opening Day against Colorado, the first major leaguer born in the 1980s.

6. 2001

   2001 Bowman Chrome is issued; Pujols's autographed rookie #340, numbered to 500, packs out only as an exchange card.

7. Oct 10, 2001

   Pujols hits a game-winning homer off Randy Johnson in the Division Series.

8. Nov 2001

   Pujols is named the unanimous NL Rookie of the Year.

9. Jun 30, 2003

   Deadline to redeem the exchange cards for the signed card.

10. 2005

    Pujols wins his first NL MVP award; he adds two more in 2008 and 2009.

11. 2006

    Pujols wins his first World Series with St. Louis; the second comes in 2011.

12. Oct 21, 2019

    A PSA 10 copy of the card sells at auction for $40,590.

13. Dec 13, 2020

    A PSA 10 copy sells at auction for $168,000, the highest recorded price for the card.

14. Sep 23, 2022

    Pujols hits his 699th and 700th home runs at Dodger Stadium.

15. Nov 1, 2022

    Pujols makes his retirement official with 703 home runs.

16. Sep 28, 2025

    A BGS 8.5 copy with a 10 autograph, numbered 341 of 500, sells for $18,500.

The world in 2001

• Jan 20, 2001

  George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president.

• Sep 11, 2001

  The September 11 attacks kill almost 3,000 people; baseball suspends games for a week.

• Oct 5, 2001

  Barry Bonds hits his 71st and 72nd home runs, breaking the single-season record; he finishes with 73.

• Oct 7, 2001

  The United States invades Afghanistan.

• Oct 23, 2001

  Apple releases the first iPod.

• Nov 4, 2001

  Arizona beats the Yankees in Game 7 to win the World Series.

• Nov 15, 2001

  Microsoft releases the Xbox.

• Dec 2, 2001

  Enron files for bankruptcy, then the largest in U.S. history.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols #340 RC Auto is number 55 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (60 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Nobody pulled a Pujols #340 from a pack: it came out as an exchange card, the only autograph redemption in the set, good until June 30, 2003.
• Pujols was the 402nd player taken in the 1999 draft; a scout who urged another team to sign him quit when it did not.
• As a boy in Santo Domingo, Pujols practiced with limes for baseballs and a milk carton for a glove.
• On Opening Day 2001 he became the first major league player born in the 1980s.
• His 699th and 700th home runs came in consecutive at-bats in his final season, in 2022.
• For a time another autographed rookie in the same set, Ron Davenport, who never played above Class AA, was its second most valuable card after a relative tried to corner the market.
• At least three-quarters of the 500 copies have been graded by the three major grading services.