Albert Pujols has been an incredible baseball player for most of the last two decades. With a birthday of January 16, it seemed fair to offer up a rookie card tribute for a 42 year old player sometimes referred to as “Prince Albert” or “The Machine.” Pujols is third in baseball in RBIs at 2,150, just behind Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. He is also now just one of four MLB players to have more than 3,000 hits and to have over 600 home runs — 3,301 hits and 679 homers to be exact!

Outside of just his raw stats, Pujols has collected 2 World Series Championships, 3 National League MVP awards, and 6 Silver Sluggers awards… and his .329 batting average in his 2001 rookie year helped him win Rookie of the Year. And up through 2016, the only year he did not have 30+ and 40+ homers was in 2013 when played in only 99 games). And despite not having a .300 batting average since 2010 (or .299 in 2011), Pujols still has a career .297 batting average and a .544 slugging rate.

Based on what we have seen so far in his career, and without any knowledge of any outside events, Pujols is likely assured a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. For his home run count, his 679 homers are just short of Alex Rodriguez (696, #4) and just above Willie Mays (660, #6). The Baseball Reference website also noted that Pujols is the only player in Baseball history to break over 400 home runs in his first 10 seasons.

All of this adds up to one mega rookie chase over time for Pujols. Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end collectibles as an alternative asset class that is in competition for the same capital as stocks and bonds. Baseball cards with prices of $10,000 can easily fall into that category. Just keep in mind that no investment in stocks or bonds ever comes with a guarantee of profits, so pieces of cardboard with baseball player pictures come with no assurances or guarantees either.

PWCC Marketplace has sold 6 different examples of the 2001 Bowman Chrome Refractor Albert Pujols Rookie Auto limited to the ” /500″ print runs at prices above $15,000 per card. Their highest sale was in June of 2021 for $25,400.00 for the card, and this was not even a perfect PSA 10 (was a PSA 9). Image below by PWCC Marketplace.

Heritage Auctions has a top price of $168,000 for a Pujols rookie. This was a PSA 10 Gem Mint example of the 2001 Bowman Chrome Refractor Autograph Albert Pujols #340 with a “/500 print run. Also in 2021, Heritage sold a 2001 SP Authentic Albert Pujols (SP Limited) #126 PSA Gem Mint 10 for $69,000.00 after the buyer’s premium. Image below by Heritage Auctions.

Golden.co (formerly Goldin Auctions) has seen multiple high-price Pujols items sell. These are only the top 5 examples of sales after buyer’s premium for his 2001 rookie cards:

• 2001 Bowman Chrome #340 Albert Pujols Signed Rookie Card (#415/500) BGS GEM MINT 9.5/BGS 10 — sold for $57,600.00
• 2001 UD SP Authentic Limited #126 Albert Pujols Rookie Card (#05/50) Jersey Number! SCG MT+ 9.5 — sold for $43,200.00
• 2001 Bowman Chrome #340 Albert Pujols Refractor Signed Rookie Card (#243/500) PSA GEM MT 10 — sold for $39,600.00
• 2001 SP Authentic “SP Limited Gold” #126 Albert Pujols Rookie Card (#13/50) PSA GEM MT 10 — sold for $28,800.00
• 2001 Bowman Chrome #340 Albert Pujols Signed Rookie Card (#5/500) BGS GEM MINT 9.5/BGS 10 Pujols Uniform # — sold for $28,800.00

eBay’s top sale within the last 90 days was a 2001 SP Authentic Future Watch Albert Pujols Rookie RC Card #126 graded PSA 10 (Gem Mint) with the serial number 0247/1250 (front) for $5,500.00. This card sold by seller “latourchad” and the card took in 39 bids before the final price. eBay also saw two examples of the 2001 Topps Chrome Late Addition #596 sell in December in PSA 10 Gem Mint condition, one for $1,825.00 (21 bids) on December 5 and another for $1,725.00 (42 bids) on Christmas Day.

The other issue in tracking Pujols card sales is that he has so many rookie card variations. The endless rookie chase has become quite normal in modern years, and there were many rookie variations even in 2001 after counting up the limited print cards.

Here is a partial list of Albert Pujols 2001 rookie cards (with PSA graded populations for non-serial numbers) that were up for grabs in a 2021 auction that need to be kept up with:

• 2001 Topps Chrome Traded Albert Pujols Rookie #T247
• 2001 Topps Chrome Late Addition #596 Albert Pujols Rookie has about 1,200 total PSA graded examples
• 2001 Topps Finest Autographs #AP Albert Pujols Rookie Card has only 252 PSA graded examples (164 at PSA 9 and 66 at PSA 10)
• 2001 Topps Traded Albert Pujols Rookie #T247 base has about 2,100 PSA graded examples (959 at PSA 9 and 231 at PSA 10)
• 2001 Topps Traded Albert Pujols Rookie #T247 GOLD has only 238 PSA graded examples (98 at PSA 9 and 19 at PSA 10)
• 2001 Topps Gallery #135 Rookie (1,061 total PSA graded examples, 502 at PSA 9 and 460 at PSA 10)
• 2001 Topps Chrome Traded Albert Pujols & Ichiro Suzuki Rookie #T99 (1,357 PSA graded examples, 47% at PSA 9)
• 2001 Topps Chrome Traded Albert Pujols & Ichiro Suzuki Rookie #T99 GOLD edition has only 129 graded by PSA
• 2001 Topps Chrome Traded Retrofractor Albert Pujols Rookie #T247
• 2001 Topps Reserve Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO #TRA3 (only 16 PSA total graded examples, 6 at PSA 10)
• 2001 BOWMAN CHROME Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO /500 #340
• 2001 Bowman’s Best Albert Pujols Rookie /2999 #174
• 2001 Bowman #264 base set Albert Pujols (about 1,800 PSA graded examples, w/ 645 at PSA 8, and 765 at PSA 9)
• 2001 SP Authentic Albert Pujols Rookie /1250 #126
• 2001 SP Authentic Chirography Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO #ALP
• 2001 SP Authentic #126 – PSA has 453 graded examples between the base (433) and SP Limited (just 20 graded)
• 2001 SPx Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO /1500 #206
• 2001 Donruss Crusade Class Of ’01 Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO /300
• 2001 Donruss Signature Albert Pujols Rookie AUTO /330 #151
• 2001 Donruss Elite Albert Pujols Rookie card #156 /1000
• 2001 Fleer Authority Albert Pujols Rookie /2001 #102
• 2001 Fleer Platinum Albert Pujols rookie has 7 variations counted
• 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Slideshow Albert Pujols RPA (Rookie Patch Auto) /100
• 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Albert Pujols Rookie #205 (only about 100 PSA graded examples among the base, Longevity and auto combined)
• 2001 Upper Deck Albert Pujols Rookie #295 has over 4,500 examples graded by PSA (43% at PSA 9 and and 27% at PSA 10)
• 2001 Upper Deck Reserve Albert Pujols Rookie /2500 #204 (base example has only 200 PSA graded examples)

That’s about all, but rest assured that there are other rookie cards and some limited edition cards out there just waiting for collectors to find them.