2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Clayton Kershaw RC Auto

A draft pick in chrome

Every fall, the Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects release puts the summer's newest draftees into packs for the first time. The 2006 edition came seven cards to a pack and 24 packs to a box, and its most important cards were not in the base set at all. They were an extension of the Chrome Draft Picks subset: on-card autographs of first-round picks, printed on Topps's shiny chromium stock and inserted at long odds.

Clayton Kershaw's card is #DP84. Unlike most of the players on the checklist, he does not have an unsigned chrome version of this card: the DP84 Chrome exists only as an autograph. That makes it his first Bowman autograph and, in the eyes of most collectors, his key card, even though his true rookie cards came two years later when he reached the majors.

The autograph also came in a rainbow of numbered refractor parallels. A guide to the set lists a Refractor numbered to 500 (about one per 156 hobby packs), an X-Fractor to 225, a Blue Refractor to 150, a Gold Refractor to 50, an Orange Refractor to 25, a Red Refractor to 5, a one-of-one SuperFractor, and four printing plates for each player. The unnumbered base autograph is the version this entry tracks.

The kid from Highland Park

Clayton Kershaw was born March 19, 1988, in Dallas and grew up in Highland Park, where he played center on the varsity football team alongside a future NFL quarterback, Matthew Stafford. As a senior in 2006 he went 13-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 64 innings. In one playoff game, shortened by the mercy rule, he threw a perfect game and struck out all 15 batters he faced. He was named the national high school player of the year.

The Dodgers took him seventh overall in the June 2006 draft. He turned down a scholarship to Texas A&M and signed for a reported $2.3 million. That first round was loaded: Evan Longoria went third, Tim Lincecum tenth and Max Scherzer eleventh. Longoria's own Chrome Draft autograph, #DP66, is the other big card in the set.

Kershaw's pro debut that summer, in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, already looked like a future ace: 2-0, a 1.95 ERA, and 54 strikeouts against five walks in 37 innings, with a fastball that reached 96 mph. He climbed to Class A and Double-A in 2007 and made his major league debut on May 25, 2008, at 20, striking out seven St. Louis Cardinals in six innings.

Eighteen years, one uniform

Kershaw spent his entire 18-year career with the Dodgers, tied for the most seasons in franchise history. He won the Cy Young Award in 2011, 2013 and 2014, and in 2014 he went 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA and was also named National League MVP, a rare honor for a pitcher. On June 18, 2014, he threw a no-hitter against Colorado with 15 strikeouts. He won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2012 for his community and charitable work.

On July 2, 2025, he became the 20th pitcher in major league history, and the fourth left-hander, to reach 3,000 strikeouts. On September 18, 2025, the Dodgers announced he would retire at the end of the season. At that point his career record of 222-96 led all active pitchers, and his ERA was the lowest of any pitcher with at least 100 starts since 1920.

He finished the regular season 11-2 with a 3.36 ERA and won his last regular-season start, on September 28, 2025, against Seattle. The Dodgers then beat Toronto in a seven-game World Series that ended on November 1, 2025, with a 5-4 win in 11 innings. Kershaw made one appearance in the series and went out with his third championship ring, after 2020 and 2024.

A slow climb for a sure thing

For a pitcher with Kershaw's resume, his cards were long surprisingly affordable. A 2025 collecting article noted that his card values only began to gain real momentum around 2017, well into his prime, and took another big jump during the 2021 pandemic boom in collectibles. One early high point came from the top of the rainbow: the SuperFractor, the only one of its kind, sold in 2012 for about $17,500.

For the BGS 9.5 copies with a 10 autograph tracked here, recorded online sales show the arc. Copies changed hands for $1,599 in October 2022 and $2,300 in April 2023, slipped to around $1,200 to $1,400 through 2024 and mid-2025, then climbed around his retirement announcement and the 2025 World Series to a range of roughly $1,750 to $2,450 between September 2025 and June 2026. A copy sold for $1,600 in September 2026.

Higher grades command more. A sales tracker showed PSA 10 copies selling for $3,849 in August 2026 and as much as $5,000 in August 2023.

How to tell what you have

The base DP84 autograph is unnumbered, while the refractor versions are serial-numbered to their print runs, from 500 down to the one-of-one SuperFractor. A card that looks like DP84 but has no signature is not this card, because the chrome version was issued only signed.

This entry is a copy graded 9.5 by Beckett, its Gem Mint grade, with a separate grade of 10 for the autograph itself. Sellers list these as BGS 9.5/10, and the autograph grade matters: copies whose signature grade is not stated, or is lower, are a different market.

Do not confuse it with Kershaw's other early cards. His earliest licensed card is in the 2005 Upper Deck USA Junior National Team box set, which also included autographs numbered by ink color: black to 495, blue to 360 and red to 100. His true rookie cards date from 2008, when he reached the majors, and the DP84 autograph sells at a premium to them.

The numbers

2006 senior season, Highland Park HS

13-0, 0.77 ERA, 139 SO in 64 IP

2006 pro debut, Gulf Coast League Dodgers (Rookie)

10 G, 8 GS, 2-0, 1.95 ERA, 37.0 IP, 28 H, 8 ER, 5 BB, 54 SO

2007 minors

Great Lakes (A): 7-5, 2.77 ERA, 97.1 IP, 134 SO; Jacksonville (AA): 1-2, 3.65 ERA, 24.2 IP, 29 SO

2008 MLB rookie season

22 G, 5-5, 4.26 ERA, 107.2 IP, 100 SO

2014 (Cy Young and NL MVP)

21-3, 1.77 ERA, 198.1 IP, 239 SO

Career (2008-2025)

18 seasons, 455 G, 223-96, 2.53 ERA, 2,855.1 IP, 3,052 SO, 1.018 WHIP, 154 ERA+

Honors

3 Cy Young Awards (2011, 2013, 2014), 2014 NL MVP, 11 All-Star selections, 5 ERA titles, Gold Glove, 2012 Roberto Clemente Award, World Series titles in 2020, 2024 and 2025

Timeline

1. Mar 19, 1988

   Clayton Kershaw is born in Dallas.

2. 2006

   As a Highland Park senior he goes 13-0 with a 0.77 ERA, including a 15-strikeout perfect game.

3. Jun 2006

   The Dodgers draft him seventh overall; he signs for a reported $2.3 million.

4. 2006

   He posts a 1.95 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 37 innings in the Gulf Coast League.

5. 2006

   Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is released with his Chrome autograph, #DP84.

6. May 25, 2008

   Major league debut against St. Louis: six innings, seven strikeouts.

7. 2011

   Wins his first Cy Young Award.

8. 2012

   The one-of-one SuperFractor of DP84 sells for about $17,500; Kershaw wins the Roberto Clemente Award.

9. Jun 18, 2014

   Throws a 15-strikeout no-hitter against Colorado; he wins the Cy Young and NL MVP that year.

10. 2020

    Wins his first World Series title.

11. 2024

    Wins a second World Series with the Dodgers.

12. Jul 2, 2025

    Becomes the 20th pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts.

13. Sep 18, 2025

    The Dodgers announce he will retire at season's end.

14. Sep 28, 2025

    Wins his final regular-season start, against Seattle.

15. Nov 1, 2025

    The Dodgers win Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto; Kershaw retires a champion.

16. Jun 25, 2026

    A BGS 9.5 copy with a 10 autograph sells for $2,450.

The world in 2006

• Jan 19, 2006

  NASA launches the New Horizons spacecraft toward Pluto.

• Jun 9, 2006

  Pixar releases Cars.

• Sep 4, 2006

  Television host Steve Irwin is killed by a stingray while filming.

• Oct 10, 2006

  Google agrees to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion.

• Oct 27, 2006

  The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series.

• Nov 7, 2006

  Democrats win control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.

• Nov 19, 2006

  Nintendo's Wii goes on sale in the United States.

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, 2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Clayton Kershaw RC Auto is number 92 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 (62 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• There is no unsigned version of Kershaw's 2006 Bowman Chrome Draft card; every copy is autographed.
• In one 2006 high school playoff game Kershaw struck out all 15 batters he faced for a perfect game.
• On his high school football team he played center alongside future NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford.
• The one-of-one SuperFractor of this card sold in 2012 for about $17,500.
• The 2006 first round was loaded: Evan Longoria went 3rd, Kershaw 7th, Tim Lincecum 10th and Max Scherzer 11th.
• He played all 18 of his major league seasons for the Dodgers and retired right after winning the 2025 World Series.