The Elusive First Ever Mbappe Auto Card
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So, over the weekend I was writing an article for another project (one that I’m really excited about, but literally can’t share anything on it for about another month), and I mentioned a modern card that has become a bit of a White Whale for me over time.
And it’s definitely not a card that you’d expect - hell, it might not even be a card that you know exists until now.
There can be vintage that’s hard to track down, but this is a Kylian Mbappe card from 2018. So you’d think it’d be easy…
It’s not.
In this article, we’re going to discuss the Futera Unique Gold Framed 1 of 1 Kylian Mbappe Autograph.
2018 World Football Unique Gold Framed 1 of 1 Autographs Kylian Mbappe: Why This Card?
Okay, so you probably didn’t expect a random Futera card to be my (modern card) White Whale.
But this card is a little different.
If you’re not fully engrossed in the soccer hobby…. Well, for starters, I’m very surprised that you’re signed up to this newsletter - you’d probably fucking hate reading it.
But anyway, one thing you need to know about Kylian Mbappe is that he isn’t just hype - He’s already one of the best players in the world; The young French superstar might even win the Ballon D’Or in 2021 if he has a good European Championship.
I know I wouldn’t bet against it.
Another thing you should know about Mbappe is that he pretty much never signs autographs.
In fact, there are no autographed Mbappe cards through either Panini or Topps.
If you can get your hands on anything signed by Mbappe - you’re doing pretty bloody well.
There are a few theories as to why. But honestly, If I was to take a guess, I think the play by Panini is to hold off on the Mbappe autographs for a few years and make them the feature chase cards of the 2022 World Cup Prizm sets.
Imagine all the kick-ass inserts
“Matchups” Haaland and Mbappe double auto
“Passing the Torch” Zidane and Mbappe double auto
Which, to their credit, would be an absolute goldmine and be the talk of the hobby.
However, until that day comes, there is already one - and I mean only one - Kylian Mbappe auto card out there in the wild.
The 2018 Futera Unique set has a series of Gold Plated 1/1 Autographed cards. The cards have a basic design with the player autograph being the main feature of the card. Here is an example of what one of the cards looks like (this is the Stuart Pearce card from the same checklist).
The checklist includes top players from a range of different eras, including a young Kyliam Mbappe!
Now, there’s a very good reason I’ve used an image of the Stuart Pearce card from the set and not the Mbappe card; I haven’t seen the Mbappe auto yet.
And to my knowledge, nobody has!
So there’s a fair chance that the first and only Kylian Mbappe autographed card is sitting in an unopened box somewhere.
While this card will never be seen as an iconic Mbappe item like the Panini Foot 2016-17 sticker but it’s a true one of one in a world of print runs that manufacture scarcity.
Finding the 1 of 1 Autographed Kylian Mbappe
Like I said before, to my knowledge the 1 of 1 Mbappe auto is still somewhere in the wild in a box that looks something like this.
Or, it’s tucked away in someone’s PC.
Now, considering the card isn’t graded and I haven’t seen a photo of it, all I can do is guess that it hasn’t been opened yet.
The set was limited to 240 cases, each case having 18 display boxes. Which, upon reading the Futera set information, gave me the impression that in each display box, there’s one of the following cards:
On-card signed Autograph
24ct gold-plated framed Autograph (this is what we want)
Game or training-used Memorabilia card.
So, doing some math
240 cases x 18 boxes per case = 4,320 total boxes in the set.
So, every box bought is a 1/4320 chance of getting the Mbappe auto.
Now, the fact that there’s been a bunch of these cards on eBay over the years without the Mbappe auto means that those tiny odds are getting less and less tiny by the day.
Super exciting.
How Much is This Auto Worth?
Here’s the thing…. I don’t know.
I’ve seen Kylian Mbappe autographed cards sell for over $500-$600, and that’s without much talk around after market autographs.
It’s also hard to estimate a price on a card with no real comps. Hell, there’s probably a lot of people reading this that didn’t even know this card existed.
Hard to get a good price when buyers don’t know it exists.
However, when the first Mbappe auto is announced it’ll be huge news in the hobby. So having the first card could be massive.
And it isn’t only the first autographed card - it’s likely going to beat the next Mbappe autograph by four or five years!
Regardless - it’s an awesome PC item.
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