2011 Topps Update Mike Trout #US175 RC

The last flagship set of 2011

Topps Update is the third and final series of the company's flagship baseball set each year. It exists to catch what the first two series missed: rookies who were called up during the season, All-Star Game and season highlight cards, and players who changed teams. The 2011 edition went on sale October 5, 2011, with 330 cards numbered US1 through US330, including 55 rookies.

Hobby packs held eight cards, with 36 packs to a box and an autograph or relic card promised in each hobby box. Retail packs held 12 cards for a suggested $1.99. Trout's card, US175, was a base card like any other in the set, inserted at the ordinary rate.

The 2011 set also marked Topps' 60th anniversary with a run of 'Diamond' parallels. New that year were the Hope Diamond parallel, numbered to 60, and the unnumbered Cognac Diamond, alongside the Platinum Diamond and a one-of-one Canary Diamond. Those versions, plus Gold cards numbered to 2011, Black cards numbered to 60 and a one-of-one Platinum, give the Trout rookie a long ladder of rarer cousins.

A rookie card from a quiet debut

Mike Trout was born August 7, 1991, in Vineland, New Jersey, and the Angels drafted him 25th overall out of Millville Senior High School in 2009. By 2011 he had been ranked the No. 1 prospect in baseball, and on July 8 the Angels called him up to replace an injured Peter Bourjos in center field.

The debut was modest. He went 0-for-3 that night, collected his first hit the next game, and was sent back to Double-A Arkansas on August 1 after hitting .163 in 12 starts. He returned on August 19 and homered that night. In 40 games he hit .220 with five home runs. Meanwhile he was named Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year for hitting .326 in 91 minor league games.

Because he had appeared in the majors in 2011, Topps put him in the Update set that fall. It was the right call. In 2012, still a rookie by the rules, he hit .326 with 30 home runs and 49 stolen bases, led the American League with 129 runs, and won Rookie of the Year with all 28 first-place votes.

The market's barometer

Trout won the American League MVP in 2014, 2016 and 2019 and finished second four other times between 2012 and 2018. Over that run his base Topps rookie became the reference card for the whole modern baseball market: widely available, instantly recognizable, and graded in enormous numbers. More than 7,000 copies now sit in PSA 10 holders, and thousands more in lower grades.

Prices followed the player and the boom. PSA 10 copies twice topped $9,000 in 2020, including a $9,300 sale in August, a level more often associated with rookie cards of Hank Aaron or Roberto Clemente. Then injuries took hold. Trout averaged far fewer games after 2020, and the card fell with his playing time. By December 2025 a PSA 10 had sold for as little as $630, about 93 percent below the August 2020 sale.

In 2026 PSA 10 copies traded mostly between $750 and $1,200 at auction, with PSA 9 copies around $300 to $435. The card remains Trout's flagship rookie; what changed is how much collectors are willing to pay for a gem-mint copy of a card that exists in the thousands.

How to identify it, and how to spot a fake

The genuine card is numbered US175 on the back and carries the rookie card designation. On the front, the Topps logo in the upper right, Trout's name, the word OUTFIELD and the inset borders are printed with a silver gloss.

Counterfeits have circulated. A grading company's 2021 guide noted that on fakes the silver gloss is missing from the logo, name, position and borders. Under a jeweler's loupe the back of a counterfeit shows grainy dot pixels, the mark of a photocopy, while the genuine card prints clean.

Make sure you know which version you have. The Gold, Black, Platinum, Diamond and retail colored-border versions all share the US175 number, and they sell at very different prices from the base card. This entry tracks the plain base card graded PSA 10.

The numbers

2011 season (card year)

40 G, 135 PA, 123 AB, 20 R, 27 H, 6 2B, 5 HR, 16 RBI, 4 SB, .220/.281/.390

2011 minor leagues

91 G, .326/.414/.544, 11 HR, 38 RBI, 82 R, 33 SB. Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year

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

2013

157 G, 190 H, 27 HR, 97 RBI, 109 R (led AL), 110 BB (led AL), .323/.432/.557

2014 MVP season

157 G, 36 HR, 111 RBI (led AL), 115 R (led AL), .287/.377/.561

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

1. Aug 7, 1991

   Mike Trout is born in Vineland, New Jersey.

2. Jun 2009

   The Angels draft Trout 25th overall.

3. Jul 8, 2011

   Trout debuts with the Angels, replacing an injured Peter Bourjos.

4. Aug 19, 2011

   Recalled from Double-A, Trout homers in his first game back.

5. Oct 5, 2011

   2011 Topps Update is released, including Trout's rookie card, US175.

6. Nov 12, 2012

   Trout is the unanimous American League Rookie of the Year.

7. Nov 13, 2014

   Trout wins his first American League MVP award, unanimously.

8. Nov 17, 2016

   Trout wins his second American League MVP award.

9. Mar 20, 2019

   Trout signs a 12-year, $426 million contract.

10. Nov 2019

    Trout wins his third American League MVP award.

11. Aug 2020

    A PSA 10 copy sells for $9,300, the high-water mark of the card's run.

12. Jul 17, 2021

    A grading company publishes a guide to spotting counterfeit US175 cards.

13. Dec 2025

    A PSA 10 copy sells for $630, about 93 percent below the 2020 high.

14. Apr 20, 2026

    A PSA 10 copy sells for $1,200 at auction.

The world in 2011

• Jan 8, 2011

  Rep. Gabby Giffords is shot and six people are killed at a constituent meeting in Tucson.

• May 2, 2011

  President Obama announces that U.S. forces have killed Osama bin Laden.

• May 22, 2011

  A tornado kills 158 people in Joplin, Missouri.

• Jul 8, 2011

  Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the final flight of the shuttle program, the same day Trout debuts.

• Aug 28, 2011

  Hurricane Irene strikes the East Coast, leaving nine million homes without power.

• Sep 17, 2011

  Occupy Wall Street protesters march in New York.

• Oct 5, 2011

  Steve Jobs dies at 56, the same day 2011 Topps Update goes on sale.

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, 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout #US175 RC is number 93 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 (58 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Trout hit .163 in his first 12 starts and was sent back to Double-A before Topps Update went on sale.
• The card went on sale October 5, 2011, the day Steve Jobs died.
• Trout's major league debut, July 8, 2011, was the same day as the final space shuttle launch.
• More than 7,000 copies of the base card have been graded PSA 10.
• One of the set's anniversary parallels, the Canary Diamond, was made as a single copy for each card.
• A PSA 10 that sold for $9,300 in August 2020 was matched by one that sold for $630 in December 2025.