‘Rarest card in the set’: Family trades in Druw Jones rookie card for $250,000

PHOENIX – Druw Jones was a wanted man.

A bounty had been placed on the Diamondbacks’ No. 2 overall prospect, and Dave and Adam’s Card World in New York came to collect.

After the Diamondbacks selected Jones in 2022, Jones signed the second-largest baseball contract in history out of high school, worth more than $8.1 million, and his 1/1 signed baseball card was valued at $250,000.

“This is the rarest card in the set as it is the only one,” said Adam Sidoti, co-owner of DNA Cards and Collectibles in Phoenix. “In comparison, a Mike Trout card of this kind would be worth a couple million dollars.”

The bounty was placed from Buffalo, New York, by Dave and Adam’s Card World, and the card was found by the Siler family in Troy, Ohio, on their way to a Cincinnati Reds game.

“My dad, grandfather, brother and I have a family tradition to take some baseball card packages to rip open on our way to the game,” said Mitch Siler, co-owner of the Best of Ohio Sports Cards shop in Troy. “Each of us bought four packages of the Bowman Chrome cards in hopes of finding the Jones card, and we purchased an additional dozen for our store. My grandfather had his pack sitting on the counter, and we grabbed it when we picked him up for the game.

“My grandfather opened the card and said, ‘Is Druw Jones any good?’, thinking he got a pretty decent card. As we looked over his shoulder in the front seat, it had the glint of a 1/1 card and we knew it was the card with the bounty on it.”

The Bowman Chrome cards feature foil cards compared to the card-stock paper ones, and Jones’s one-of-one card is wrapped in a gold vinyl. Bowman Chrome’s annual release usually focuses on international draft signees, sprinkled in with some of the top-ranked prospects from the MLB Draft. Some of the cards are signed by players and numbered 1-999, with different color variations based on the rarity of the card. Jones’s gold card was the rarest release in the package.

“Finding the Jones card is like getting struck by lightning or hitting the lottery,” Sidoti said. “It is that rare.”

Jones was also aware of the card’s rarity when he signed it and saw the 1/1 marking in the top left corner. When the Siler family announced they found the card on Instagram, Jones jokingly commented on the post, “Let me get it.”

If Jones was legitimately interested in purchasing his own card, it would cost him a little over 3% of the deal he signed with the Diamondbacks last July.

“We reached out to Jones to see if he was interested in purchasing the card,” Siler said. “He said he wasn’t, he just knew he had to say something. He told us congratulations and was interested to see what happens next with his card.”

While $250,000 is a steep price for the card of the player who has not yet reached the majors, Dave and Adam’s Card World said the card could potentially hold more value. If the Siler family chose to hold on to the card and Jones followed in the footsteps of his 10-time Gold Gloves-winning father, Andruw Jones, and made the Hall of Fame, Dave and Adam’s Card World would have paid $1 million for the card, according to its website.

“Bowman considered him the best prospect and their crown jewel,” said Darrin Domm, co-owner of DNA Cards and Collectibles in Phoenix. “If Jones makes the majors, the value of that card will increase drastically.”

Jones was selected out of Wesleyan High School in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, where he led his team to a 35-0 record and won the 2022 Georgia High School State Player of the Year award. In 14 games with the Diamondbacks’ Single-A affiliate Visalia Rawhide of the California League, Jones is batting .173 with 17 strikeouts. He was placed on the minor league 7-day injured list with a right quadriceps strain in April.

On Tuesday, Visalia Rawhide sent him to the Arizona Complex League Diamondbacks for a rehab assignment.

“Jones is really good, but he hasn’t solidified himself yet,” Domm said. “That’s the thing with these prospect cards, you’re hoping you find one that ends up being a really good MLB player.”

Dave and Adam’s Card World and the Diamondbacks are hoping the same.