The Most Profitable Shohei Ohtani Cards to Grade (Including One $30K Card)
Looking at Ohtani cards to buy and grade, starting from cheapest to most expensive.
Shohei Ohtani cards are some of the most profitable cards you can buy and grade right now. There’s lots of supply which makes volume buying easy, and his value has mostly only risen for the last couple of years. That last part is very important because in our experience, positive price momentum is one of the strongest signals that a card will be profitable to grade. You can read more about that here.
This post focuses specifically on rookie cards, structured roughly from cheapest to most expensive. The last card on the list is worth over $30K as a PSA 10, so there’s a wide range here. Note there are many profitable Ohtani cards not included in this list. If I included every profitable Ohtani rookie card right now, this would be a very long post.
All calculations are based on Expected Value. The full EV methodology is described in this post:
And finally, here are a couple helpful PSA grading resources:
*All market values are as of 2/22/2026.
1. Topps Paper Cards
Notes: Be careful with the paper cards, especially because they are almost 10 years old. Specifically you should look for corner wear, edge chipping, and surface scratching. Note that there are lots of profitable Topps Paper Ohtani cards, so much so that this entire article could have been dedicated to them. Anyone who’s serious about implementing the strategy of buying these cards and grading them should dig into these further.
2018 Topps Shohei Ohtani #US285
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $110
PSA 10 Value | $390
PSA 9 Value | $150
Gem Rate | 62.5%
Profitability
Expected Value | $206
Expected Profit | $96
Expected ROI | 87.3%
2018 Topps Shohei Ohtani #700
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $105
PSA 10 Value | $500
PSA 9 Value | $165
Gem Rate | 48.3%
Profitability
Expected Value | $229
Expected Profit | $124
Expected ROI | 118.4%
2. Topps Chrome Cards
Notes: In general, these grade really well. The most common defect you’ll find is surface scratches, so look out for this. But don’t overthink it, there’s a reason the two cards listed below have above 80% gem rates.
2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani #HMT32
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $280
PSA 10 Value | $635
PSA 9 Value | $275
Gem Rate | 84.5%
Profitability
Expected Value | $435
Expected Profit | $155
Expected ROI | 55.3%
2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani #150
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $350
PSA 10 Value | $735
PSA 9 Value | $330
Gem Rate | 87.5%
Profitability
Expected Value | $526
Expected Profit | $176
Expected ROI | 50.4%
3. Bowman Chrome Cards
Notes: This section will just look at the Bowman Chrome base rookie card. The most common “defect” is that the back edges often have a weird manufacturer cut (you’ll know when you see it). This is fine. We’ve submitted many like this and gotten mostly 10s. Also pay close attention to front top/bottom centering.
2018 Bowman Chrome Shohei Ohtani #1
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $1,200
PSA 10 Value | $4,150
PSA 9 Value | $1,350
Gem Rate | 55.9%
Profitability
Expected Value | $2,405
Expected Profit | $1,205
Expected ROI | 100.4%
4. Other Interesting Cards
Each of these will get a specific note, written after the EV analysis.
2018 Topps Chrome 1983 Shohei Ohtani #83T-6
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $295
PSA 10 Value | $1,050
PSA 9 Value | $300
Gem Rate | 33.2%
Profitability
Expected Value | $428
Expected Profit | $133
Expected ROI | 45.2%
Notes: This is a cool card but we rarely buy these. They are almost always too off center on the front. With that said, maybe we’re just too picky about centering.
2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani #150 Refractor
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $1,140
PSA 10 Value | $2,450
PSA 9 Value | $1,250
Gem Rate | 69.1%
Profitability
Expected Value | $1,724
Expected Profit | $584
Expected ROI | 51.3%
Notes: This is a great one to target if you have a bigger budget. Beyond just this card, there are many Topps Chrome Refractor variants and most of them are profitable. These include Sepia Refractors, Pink Refractors, X-Fractors, and more. If this is a price range you like to grade in, every one of these variants should be on your radar.
2013 BBM 1st Version Shohei Ohtani JP #183
Values & Gem Rate
Raw Value | $10,000
PSA 10 Value | $30,000
PSA 9 Value | $11,500
Gem Rate | 48.1%
Profitability
Expected Value | $16,935
Expected Profit | $6,935
Expected ROI | 69.4%
Notes: This is out of my budget range for a single card, but it’s a cool card with a huge Expected Profit so I decided to include it. This is Ohtani’s 1st rookie card from the NPB (the Japanese baseball league) before he came to the MLB. If you can manage to find a gradable copy of this one around $10K, you could make quite a nice profit.