Journal of 11-year old Who Pulled Skenes 1/1 Patch Made Public
News of the most famous card of 2024 surfacing has flooded the hobby universe. The one-of-one Paul Skenes debut patch was pulled by a young collector on the west coast. Not much is known about him, but just today journal entries by the 11-year old collector from Los Angeles were made public.
Putting aside the business part of pulling the card, these journal entries highlight the wholesomeness in the hobby, and why the overall sentiment of the community is happy that it was pulled by a kid just wanting to rip some cards.
The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card just shared his journal entries…
— Topps (@Topps) January 24, 2025
It’s an absolute MUST-READ 🥹❤️ pic.twitter.com/PldkJMS06W
This one tugs at the heartstrings! A young collector, asking for a hobby box, knowing the price and showing appreciation when his parents came through on his request. We need more kids like this in the world and it illustrates what this hobby is really about. There's no talk about value, about how much money he will get. Just pure, unadulterated excitement.
I want to highlight a few lines that stood out to me aside from the ones already underlined in the post.
First I woke up at like 4:00 a.m. and woke my brother (whoops) we waited 'till 6:30 a.m. and, we woke up our parents.
What restraint to not wake the parents at 4:00 a.m., especially knowing what was under the tree for them!
My mom was very excited too but she never collects cards so she didn't know what it meant.
Whether you have kids or not, if you're married, you can relate. Jumping up and down (even as a grown man) when you pull a huge hit, and they're just looking at you trying to figure out what's so exciting about a man pulling another man's photo on cardboard.
Kodus too for the mom for being a good sport!
Then my brain pooped and I started bouncing all over the place...
I think anyone's brain would have pooped if they hit this card, right?!?
Pulling this card is a dream come true.
As I type these words I can't help but feel a little lump in my throat. As a parent who's trying to lead my kids into the hobby we can only hope to give them that feeling. I made an appearance on the Sports Cards Nonsense podcast this past summer, talking about raising your kids in the hobby. One of my topics was tempering expectations and making sure they know that not every box is going to have a downtown in it. But, in the same breathe, I confessed this innate feeling of wanting my kid to pull something great. I can only imagine what this father must be going through. What joy, what excitement. And while he might one day, right now this kid probably doesn't even understand the gravity of what he just unearthed, how this is a lifechanging event for him and his family. And that's ok, to keep a big portion of the hobby wholesome and innocent.
I'll reiterate, we need more humans like this in the world...go get 'em kid!
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz