FLOAT 100 · Trading cards · No. 57

2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Mike Trout #BDPP89 RC Auto

A one-per-box autograph of an 18-year-old New Jersey outfielder, packed into a late-December prospect product, became the card that taught a generation of collectors to bet on players before they reached the majors.

Year: 2009
Maker: Bowman Chrome
By price in trading cards: 54 of 100

Realized at auction · 2022$19,200A realized sale: somebody paid it.

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Card: 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects, Chrome Prospect Autograph #BDPP89
Maker: Topps, under its Bowman brand
Released: Late December 2009
Subject: Mike Trout, drafted 25th overall by the Angels in June 2009 out of Millville (N.J.) Senior High School
Autograph: Signed on the card itself, not on a sticker; Trout is pictured in an Angels uniform
Status: A prospect card, not an official rookie card; his first major league cards came in 2011
Odds: Base Chrome prospect autographs (22 players) fell about 1 in 34 hobby packs; each 24-pack hobby box held one Chrome prospect autograph
Parallels: Refractor /500, X-Fractor /225, Blue /150, Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5, SuperFractor 1/1, plus printing plates
This entry: The unnumbered base autograph, graded BGS 9.5
Most valuable copy: The SuperFractor 1/1, BGS 9, sold for $3,936,000 at auction in August 2020

A prospect set that closed out 2009

Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is the end-of-year release built around the players taken in that summer's amateur draft. The 2009 edition arrived in late December with a 55-card base set, a 75-card prospect set, a new 35-card World Baseball Classic Stars insert and, as usual, a long run of Refractor parallels. Hobby packs held seven cards and boxes held 24 packs; retail packs sold for $3.

The autographs were the draw. The set's Chrome Prospect Autograph checklist ran to 22 players, and each hobby box was set up to yield one of them. The base version of those autographs, without a serial number, fell about one in every 34 hobby packs. Trout's card is number BDPP89.

Nothing on the box pointed at him. Gordon Beckham was pictured on the box and wrappers, though Beckham has no card in the set at all. Trout was one more first-round pick among many, and the product's prospect autographs were a lottery ticket by design.

The kid from Millville

Michael Nelson Trout was born August 7, 1991, in Vineland, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Millville. He played shortstop as a boy, wore No. 2 for his hero Derek Jeter, and at Millville Senior High School he pitched a no-hitter as a junior before moving to the outfield as a senior, when he hit 18 home runs, a New Jersey high school record.

He had committed to East Carolina University, but the Angels took him 25th overall in the June 2009 draft, using a compensation pick they received from the Yankees for the signing of Mark Teixeira. He signed on July 2, 2009, with a $1.215 million bonus and skipped college. That summer he hit .360 in 39 games for the Arizona League Angels, with 13 stolen bases.

His rise was fast. In 2010 he hit .362 in 82 games at Class A Cedar Rapids, and after the season he became the youngest winner of the Topps Minor League Player of the Year award, at 19 years and 2 months. Before 2011 he was ranked the No. 1 prospect in baseball on at least two major lists, and on July 8, 2011, the Angels called him up to replace an injured Peter Bourjos.

Why this card, and not another

Trout spent 2012 rewriting the record book. He hit .326 with 30 home runs, 49 stolen bases and an American League-leading 129 runs, became the first rookie to hit 30 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season, and won the Rookie of the Year award with all 28 first-place votes. He finished second for the MVP to Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, in a race that became a public argument between traditional statistics and newer measures like wins above replacement.

He then won the American League MVP in 2014, 2016 and 2019, finished second four other times, and in March 2019 signed a 12-year, $426 million contract with the Angels. As the player's legend grew, collectors went back to his earliest signed card. Because the 2009 Bowman Chrome autograph shows him in an Angels uniform, carries an on-card signature and has a full ladder of numbered parallels, it became the key card of his career, ahead of his official 2011 rookie cards.

The card's success also changed how the hobby treats prospects. Before Trout, Bowman's draft-year autographs were widely seen as speculative side pieces. After him, a player's first Bowman Chrome autograph became the card collectors chase first, often years before the player's official rookie card exists.

From one-per-box to the most valuable sports card

The rarest version is the SuperFractor, a single card numbered 1/1 and signed in blue ink. It sold in 2018 for $400,000 from a seller in Taiwan to collector 'Vegas Dave' Oancea, who also owned a Red Refractor Trout and had stockpiled other 2009 Bowman Draft Trouts. In July 2020 it was consigned to auction with a $1 million opening bid.

In May 2020 one of the five Red Refractor autographs, graded BGS 9.5, sold at auction for $922,500. Then on the night of August 22, 2020, the SuperFractor, graded BGS 9 with a 10 autograph grade, sold for $3,936,000. That beat the $3.12 million paid for the 'Jumbo' T206 Honus Wagner in 2016 and made it the most expensive sports card ever sold at the time. The record lasted only until January 2021, when a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded PSA 9 brought $5.2 million.

The base autograph rode the same wave. Copies graded PSA 10 sold for roughly $6,200 to $9,100 through 2018, climbed to $16,800 in July 2019, and reached $35,000 at auction in late August 2020, the same week as the SuperFractor record. A BGS 9.5 copy, the grade this entry tracks, brought $19,200 with premium at auction in April 2022. Prices then cooled: PSA 10 copies sold between $6,150 and $8,988 in the summer of 2025.

How to identify it

The card is numbered BDPP89 on the back and belongs to the Chrome Prospect Autograph subset of 2009 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects. The front shows Trout in an Angels uniform with his signature applied directly to the chromium surface. The base version carries no serial number; every Refractor parallel is serial-numbered, from /500 down to the 1/1 SuperFractor.

Do not confuse it with the unsigned Chrome Prospects card from the same set, or with Trout's 2009 Bowman Sterling autograph, which uses a foil sticker signature. The 2009 Donruss Elite Extra Edition autograph, numbered to 495, is a separate issue from another maker.

This entry tracks a base autograph graded BGS 9.5. In the PSA census on the date of research, 35 base autographs had been graded PSA 10 and 92 graded PSA 9; grade is the single biggest driver of price among unnumbered copies.

The numbers

2009 (card year), Arizona League: 39 G, 187 PA, .360 BA, .418 OBP, .506 SLG, 1 HR, 25 RBI, 13 SB
2010, Class A Cedar Rapids: 82 G, .362 BA, .454 OBP, .526 SLG, 6 HR, 39 RBI, 45 SB
2011 MLB debut season: 40 G, 123 AB, 27 H, 5 HR, 16 RBI, 4 SB, .220/.281/.390
2012 rookie season: 139 G, 129 R (led AL), 182 H, 30 HR, 83 RBI, 49 SB (led AL), .326/.399/.564, 10.5 WAR. Rookie of the Year, MVP runner-up
2014 MVP season: 157 G, 36 HR, 111 RBI (led AL), 115 R (led AL), 338 TB (led AL), .287/.377/.561
2016 MVP season: 159 G, 29 HR, 100 RBI, 123 R, 30 SB, 116 BB, .315/.441/.550, 10.4 WAR
2019 MVP season: 134 G, 45 HR, 104 RBI, .291/.438/.645, 1.083 OPS
Career through 2026: 16 seasons, 1,790 G, 1,878 H, 426 HR, 1,072 RBI, 225 SB, .290/.405/.558, 91.7 WAR
Awards: AL MVP 2014, 2016, 2019; 2012 AL Rookie of the Year; 12-time All-Star

Timeline

Aug 7, 1991
Mike Trout is born in Vineland, New Jersey.
Jun 2009
The Angels draft Trout 25th overall out of Millville Senior High School.
Jul 2, 2009
Trout signs with the Angels for a $1.215 million bonus.
Dec 2009
2009 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is released, including the BDPP89 Chrome Prospect Autograph.
2010
Trout becomes the youngest winner of the Topps Minor League Player of the Year award.
Jul 8, 2011
Trout makes his major league debut for the Angels.
Nov 12, 2012
Trout is the unanimous American League Rookie of the Year.
Nov 13, 2014
Trout wins his first American League MVP award, unanimously.
Nov 17, 2016
Trout wins his second American League MVP award.
2018
The SuperFractor 1/1 sells for $400,000 to 'Vegas Dave' Oancea.
Mar 20, 2019
Trout signs a 12-year, $426 million contract with the Angels.
Nov 2019
Trout wins his third American League MVP award.
May 2020
A Red Refractor autograph, one of five, BGS 9.5, sells at auction for $922,500.
Aug 22, 2020
The SuperFractor sells at auction for $3,936,000, a record for any sports card at the time.
Aug 24, 2020
A PSA 10 base autograph sells at auction for $35,000.
Apr 17, 2022
A BGS 9.5 base autograph sells at auction for $19,200 with premium.

The world in 2009

Jan 15, 2009
US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River; all 155 aboard are rescued.
Jan 20, 2009
Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president.
Apr 24, 2009
The World Health Organization calls swine flu cases in Mexico and the U.S. a public health emergency of international concern.
Jun 12, 2009
Analog television broadcasts end in the United States.
Jun 25, 2009
Michael Jackson dies.
Aug 8, 2009
Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic justice of the Supreme Court.
Oct 9, 2009
President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nov 4, 2009
The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their 27th World Series.

Price record

$1,000$10,000$100,000$1,000,000$10,000,000

Date	Price	Kind
Feb 13, 2018	$6,227	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
Jul 22, 2019	$16,800	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
May 2020	$922,500	Sold at auctionRed Refractor autograph, one of five, BGS 9.5.
Aug 22, 2020	$3,936,000	Sold at auctionSuperFractor 1/1 autograph, BGS 9 with 10 autograph. Record for any sports card at the time.
Aug 24, 2020	$35,000	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
Mar 18, 2021	$20,100	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 9.
Apr 17, 2022	$19,200	Sold at auctionBase autograph, BGS 9.5 (subgrades 9.5, 9.5, 10, 9.5). Includes buyer's premium.
Jun 4, 2022	$22,080	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
Oct 17, 2023	$12,067	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
May 3, 2024	$5,600	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 9.
Aug 17, 2025	$6,877	Sold at auctionBase autograph, PSA 10.
Oct 1, 2026	$7,200	Asking price, not a saleBase autograph, BGS 9.5, fixed-price listing open to offers; autograph grade not stated.
Oct 1, 2026	$9,200	Asking price, not a saleBase autograph, BGS 9.5, fixed-price listing open to offers; autograph grade not stated.

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, 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Mike Trout #BDPP89 RC Auto is number 54 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 (57 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

Trout's card is not an official rookie card; it is a prospect autograph from the year he was drafted, two years before his major league debut.
The 2009 box and wrappers pictured Gordon Beckham, who has no card in the set.
The SuperFractor sold for $400,000 in 2018 and $3,936,000 about two years later.
Across the 22-player subset, a base Chrome prospect autograph fell about once in every 34 hobby packs, and a SuperFractor autograph about once in 31,900.
Trout set a New Jersey high school record with 18 home runs as a senior, after switching to the outfield.
At 19 years and 2 months, Trout was the youngest winner of the Topps Minor League Player of the Year award.
His 2020 record lasted less than five months, until a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $5.2 million in January 2021.

How this page is made

The figure: One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not: A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
The story: Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
Archive: Oct 5, 2026