Baseball card shatters record for most expensive ever sold

EUGENE, Ore. — History was made over the weekend in the world of sports memorabilia: a baseball card shattering the record for the most expensive card ever sold.

How did it happen?

We sat down with the man fresh off the record-setting profit.

His name is Dave Oancea, but to many he's simply known as “Vegas Dave,” a legendary gambler known for cashing in on seemingly improbable wagers.

Vegas Dave’s first love was trading cards.

“I was hustling at a very young age. I sold all my cards at 15, 16, bought a car and went to high school.”

Back in 2018, Dave made headlines by purchasing a 2009 Mike Trout autographed rookie card for a whopping $400K.

The critics thought he was crazy.

“Lots of people laughed at me. They still laughed at me until Saturday. I just executed upon my vision.”

So what makes this card so valuable?

Mike Trout is arguably the biggest star in baseball today, and the card—part of the 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects collection—is among the rarest of finds.

“There was only one in the world made. This is the only one, so supply and demand; it’s whatever someone is willing to pay for it. And right now, for me, it was a perfect time.”

Dave knew that last weekend’s auction could be a record-breaker.

The previous record for the most expensive card sold was $3.12 million for a 1909 Honus Wagner T-206 card—the holy grail of trading cards.

On Saturday, instead of keeping an eye on the auction, Dave was watching the NBC playoffs.

“They were like, ‘we have an offer for $3.5 million cash, let’s do it,’ and I said no. I want $3.9M, which is what I said I wanted, or ship the card back Monday. I figured in my head, if someone’s gonna drop $3.5 million, another $400K is chump change.”

The card was sold to an anonymous buyer for more than $3,936,000.

To those critics that laughed at Dave two years ago, he had a message for them on social media, saying "cheers haters."

“It’s the best form of marketing for me. People always say bad things about me online; it just pushes traffic to my page."

So what’s next for the man who loves to break records?

Dave says he’s shifting to real estate, buying oceanfront property in Mexico where there’s no power or water—a decision that, once again, people say he's crazy for, just like they said when he purchased the Mike Trout card.

“When I do find something, I go all in with millions, all chips in.”

The Mike Trout card also broke the record for the most expensive modern-day athlete card. That record was previously held by a LeBron James card that sold for $1.8 million in July.