15 Most Valuable 2024 Topps Update Baseball Cards
A couple of the things I like most about the 2024 Topps Update baseball card set are the Rookie Debut and Season Highlights subsets.
It’s a great way to commemorate the first games of some of the biggest up-and-coming stars, as well as look back on key moments from the season.
I also like the focus that Topps brings to the 2024 All-Star Game with multiple insert, autograph and memorabilia cards.
All of these features help it stand out from the 2024 Topps flagship baseball set…
The design continues to be one of my favorites in recent years as there is simply nothing else like it.
Overall, the 350-card checklist does a great job of capturing some of the best moments of the 2024 season while keeping a solid focus on multiple veterans and young stars.
And in this guide, we’ll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let’s jump right in!
2024 Topps Update Baseball Set Snapshot
SET DETAILS
350
GRADING ANALYSIS
0
TOTAL GRADED BY PSA
0
PSA 10 Population
0.0%
PSA 10 Grade Rate
MOST GRADED CARDS
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Ross Uitts – Owner
- #1
2024 Topps Update #US100 Paul Skenes Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $50Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Just over 16 months after he was selected #1 in the 2023 MLB Draft, Paul Skenes got his due as the NL’s next great ace.
Despite spending the first month of the ’24 campaign in the minors, the generational Pittsburgh Pirates hurler still outmaneuvered the rest of the NL rookie field to become the franchise’s first Rookie-of-the-Year since Jason Bay in 2004.
“It’s cool, and it’s an honor,” Skenes said.
Well before his May 11th home debut, the 22-year-old righty was widely regarded as a multi-time Cy Young winner and Hall-of-Fame resident-in-waiting.
It was a lot of pressure to put on a young kid entering his first full season of professional ball.
Pressure, smessure.
Skenes went 11-3 with an immaculate 1.96 ERA in 23 starts, striking out 170 in just 133.0 innings of work.
The third-place Cy Young finisher led all pitchers with workloads of 130 innings or more in ERA, strikeout rate (33.1%), K/9 (11.5), and WHIP (0.947), and held opposing hitters to an average under .200 (.198).
- #2
2024 Topps Update #US210 Jackson Merrill Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $35Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Before the 2024 season, the last San Diego Padres player to win NL Rookie-of-the-Year honors was Benito Santiago in 1987.
It represents the longest RoTY drought for any MLB club.
Former 2021 first-round pick Jackson Merrill had as good a chance as any to end one of the game’s lesser-known curses.
A dynamic center fielder with plus speed and an explosive bat, Merrill earned San Diego’s starting job outright in Spring Training.
He perhaps had the best first-year performance in club history, slashing .292/.326/.500 with 24 home runs, 31 doubles, six triples, 16 stolen bases, and 90 RBIs in 156 games.
With Juan Soto gone to the Bronx, Merrill’s emergence meant all the more to the Padres’ run to a playoff berth.
The 22-year-old earned an All-Star nod, a Silver Slugger, and a top-ten MVP finish for his extraordinary debut.
Somehow, it wasn’t enough to upend Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes for RoTY, extending the club’s award drought for at least another season.
- #3
2024 Topps Update #US240 Jackson Chourio Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $35Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)At first, Jackson Chourio’s rookie year didn’t look like it’d be all that special.
The 20-year-old Venezuelan looked lost to open year one of an eight-year, $82 million deal with Milwaukee.
He chased bad pitches and exuded impatience en route to a below replacement-level .575 OPS through June 1.
The Brewers remained on pace for another NL Central title, and there were grumblings that Chourio should be sent down to keep the thing rolling.
Regardless, manager Pat Murphy stuck with the kid.
It proved to be one of the best decisions he made all year.
Chourio heated up in the summer months and took off even higher after Christian Yelich went down with a season-ending back injury in late July.
The corner outfielder hit .305 with a .888 OPS from June through September.
Finishing third for NL RoTY, Chourio is the first player to post a 20/20 season (21 homers, 22 stolen bases) before his 21st birthday.
- #4
2024 Topps Update #US288 Paul Skenes
PSA 10 Value $35Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%) - #5
2024 Topps Update #US50 Jackson Holliday Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $30Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Two of Major League history’s most anticipated debuts occurred in 2024.
One was Paul Skenes.
One was Jackson Holliday.
One went about as well as it could go.
The other…
…not so much.
Whereas Skenes dominated the National League en route to NL RoTY honors, Holliday flatlined not once but twice upon being called up.
The son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday was supposed to be in the Colton Cowser role in ’24: a high-impact rookie adding more pop to an already potent young roster.
Instead, Holliday slumped hard in two different stints with the team and failed to catch on.
He played just 60 games, slashing .189/.255/.311 with five home runs, 23 RBIs, and 69 strikeouts in 190 at-bats.
Orioles management continues to bank on Holliday as the organization’s future.
And there’s no reason not to trust the kid’s pedigree and considerable talents, rookie scuffles notwithstanding.
- #6
2024 Topps Update #US123 Shohei Ohtani
PSA 10 Value $30Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)We can boil down the greatness of Shohei Ohtani’s 2024 NL MVP season to a single day.
Sitting two homers and two stolen bases shy of the first-ever 50/50 season on September 19th, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar DH put together the most extraordinary single-game performance ever.
Ohtani ripped the Marlins apart in Miami, stealing two bases and crushing three home runs to create his own club.
He also drove ten runs, becoming the first Dodgers player with a 10-RBI game and the first hitter with three homers and two steals in a single conteSt. Held off the mound in the first year of his mega-contract with an elbow injury, Ohtani broke the brains of baseball nerds everywhere.
The unanimous MVP and first-time world champion led the NL in OPS (1.036), home runs (54), RBIs (130), WAR (9.2), runs scored (an MLB-best 134), and OPS+ (190).
Ohtani was also the only player in the Majors to top 400 total bases (411).
- #7
2024 Topps Update #US155 Jackson Chourio
PSA 10 Value $30Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%) - #8
2024 Topps Update #US149 Yoshinobu Yamamoto
PSA 10 Value $30Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Three-time Pacific League MVP and five-time NPB All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed on with the Los Angeles Dodgers for twelve years at $325 million before the 2024 season, the biggest contract for a pitcher in MLB history.
Rather than rushing things, Dodgers management played the long game.
Part of that was out of necessity after Yamamoto went down with a right rotator cuff strain for three months.
Part of that, however, was to get him acclimated to the Major League game.
Yamamoto reached the sixth inning just eight times in 22 starts, postseason included.
He averaged over seven innings per start in his final NPB season with Orix in 2023.
In the end, the Dodgers’ patience paid off.
Yamamoto came up huge with 6.1 innings of one-run, one-hit ball in a Game 2 World Series win.
Los Angeles closed the Yankees out in five, making Yamamoto the first player to win a Japan Series, a World Baseball Classic, a World Series, and an Olympic gold medal.
- #9
2024 Topps Update #US13 Ohtani and Yamamoto
PSA 10 Value $25Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)First the Dodgers brought in Shohei Ohtani.
Then they brought in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
And now they brought in Roki Sasaki.
At this point, it seems like if you’re a stud baseball player in Japan who has any intentions of heading overseas to play in the Majors, you’ve got a great shot of ending up in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform.
All three should provide the Dodgers with ample amount of stud pitching in 2025.
Of course, Ohtani can also hit.
Having any of these guys on the roster would be fantastic for any team.
Having all three of them is a luxury.
Given that Sasaki had not signed with the Dodgers yet when this “Far East Faves” combo card was issued, only Ohtani and Yamamoto are commemorated.
Let’s see if Topps comes up with a card to celebrate all three in its 2025 Update set.
- #10
2024 Topps Update #US97 Jackson Holliday
PSA 10 Value $25Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%) - #11
2024 Topps Update #US169 Jackson Merrill
PSA 10 Value $25Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%) - #12
2024 Topps Update #US350 Elly De La Cruz
PSA 10 Value $25Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)The good about budding Cincinnati Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz in 2024 was historically good.
The 21-year-old swung and stole his way into the record books, becoming the first shortstop in MLB history with at least 25 home runs (25) and 65 stolen bases (an MLB-best 67) in a single season.
He is just the fourth player ever with at least 90 combined homers and swipes in a campaign, overtaking Jose Reyes (2007) with 92 and trailing only Ronald Acuna Jr. (114, 2023) and NL MVP Shohei Ohtani (108, 2004).
It was hard not to hold your breath watching De La Cruz play.
Yet, it was also hard for Reds fans not to hold their breath when the kid fielded a routine grounder.
De La Cruz paced the Majors with a brutal 29 errors.
Furthermore, he struck out an MLB-worst 218 times.
The great outweighed the bad, but there was plenty for the Reds faithful to grit their teeth about.
- #13
2024 Topps Update #US76 How You Been
PSA 10 Value $20Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)We talked about Ohtani earlier, so we’ll keep the focus on Trout for this player combo card where the two former teammates are reunited.
The Los Angeles Angels and Mike Trout have finally reached a tipping point.
Trout has been entrenched in center field at Angel Stadium since 2011.
He won a Rookie-of-the-Year, three AL MVPs (in six years), nine Silver Sluggers, and made eleven All-Star teams.
While doing so, Trout built his case as the most complete player of his generation.
The 2020s, however, haven’t been so kind to Trout.
While he remains one of the game’s premier players when he’s healthy, his body has shorted out.
The future Hall-of-Famer has played more than 82 games just once since 2019, and he still missed 43 games that season (2022).
With time ticking away and Trout coming off yet another season-ending injury, the Halos were forced to make a long-awaited move: shifting their franchise legend from center to right field.
“It’s reality,” Trout said.
“I know I have a certain amount of years on my deal and I knew when I signed my contract, I’d eventually move to a corner.” It’s incredible to think what Trout and Ohtani could have accomplished together if injuries and other circumstances were more favorable.
- #14
2024 Topps Update #US151 Wyatt Langford Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 10 Value $20Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%) - #15
2024 Topps Update #US160 Duo An Immediate Hit
PSA 10 Value $20Total PSA PopulationPSA 10 PopulationPSA 10 Grade Rate 0.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Two-time All-Star Yasmani Grandal has played on four different teams so far in his career, affording him the opportunity to be behind home plate for some incredible pitchers.
Clayton Kershaw, Dallas Keuchel, and Zack Greinke each have at least one Cy Young to their names.
And guys like Yu Darvish, Dylan Cease and others came extremely close to winning the honor at one point or another in their careers.
But none of those guys, outside of maybe Kershaw, has carried as much hype and expectation to his name as Paul Skenes now does.
Skenes has incredible stuff.
And he darn near won the Cy Young in his rookie 2024 season.
Time will tell where Skenes ends up in the record books, but let’s all hope he keeps on his current trajectory as he’s been fantastic for the game of baseball.
This player combo card says it all: Skenes and Grandal have brought an immediate positive impact on not only the Pittsburgh Pirates, but baseball itself.
Ross’s Take
The Topps Update brand has always been a great way to keep the spirit of the season alive long after.
But, let’s face it, most collectors look forward to it simply for the chance at pulling some big-name rookie cards of any player who might not have qualified as a rookie for the flagship base set.
Paul Skenes certainly fits the bill.
As do big names like Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill and Jackson Holliday, among others.
And should these guys pan out over the long run, this set could have room to run for years from now.
Beyond the rookie card and big-name veteran highlights in the checklist, there are also several different subsets, including: 2024 Season Highlights Rookie Debut Player Combos Of course, there is no shortage of fantastic parallels, autographs, inserts, and relic cards to chase to keep things interesting.
Overall, I think the set does a fine job at keeping the spirit and character of the 2024 Topps flagship set alive, just as any Update set should.
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