Hit Seekers Shop on the Hunt for De La Cruz 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series RDPA
Hit Seekers Sports Cards’ mission is straightforward: Find and buy the 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series Elly De La Cruz Rookie Debut Patch Auto.
The hunt will start on release day, November 13, for the Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, card shop, located just six miles from Cincinnati.
De La Cruz is one of over 250 players who will have their 1/1 Rookie Debut Patch Auto (RDPA) in this year’s product. As a budding young star, the Cincinnati Reds shortstop is one of the major chase cards.
Hit Seekers Sports Cards owner Greg Rouse will do almost anything to permanently ensure that the De La Cruz card lands in his shop.
“I think it presents a fantastic chase for collectors,” Rouse said. “I don’t think anybody can even speculate on the monetary value of a card like that. I would lock and key shadow box that thing and hang it on the wall in the shop.”
The De La Cruz RDPA card is an important piece of The Hobby for sports fans who bleed red. The card is also important to Hit Seekers, avid baseball fans. Two years ago, Hit Seekers took a leap of faith and entered into a relationship with the Reds, building a store inside Great American Ball Park.
“Elly represents so much to Cincinnati baseball, not just his performance. Elly gives this city hope,” Rouse said. “We haven’t won anything or even been relevant for quite a while.”
Hit Seekers’ director of marketing, Jeff Fitzgerald estimates the shop ordered two to three times the amount of Topps Chrome Update Series this year compared to last year. The Elly Effect is real.
“We have a number of cases of product to try and find it,” Fitzgerald said. “We think it would be really cool to pull it, being the modern card shop in the Cincinnati area. It’s a holy grail for us. But I think it’s a holy grail for a lot of baseball collectors this year. There will probably be some big bounties out there, so people will be excited to chase it. If the home team got it, it would make it special.”
Elly Cards Always Popular
Ever since De La Cruz made his MLB debut on June 6, 2023—while wearing that coveted patch—he’s minted his name in gold on the diamond and in The Hobby.
Hit Seekers is perpetually trying to keep up with the demand for De La Cruz cards. On the first Thursday of October, with the MLB season in the books, Rouse counted 14 De La Cruz slabs in one of his display cases. Rouse was confident every one of those cards wouldn’t last through the weekend.
“We pretty much buy everything that walks in and turn around and resell it,” Rouse said. “A lot of it we have graded. People love to get their hands on the rookie slabs in a PSA 10, so we’re always working to meet that demand.”
Collectors who stop by Hit Seekers are mainly looking for what they deem De La Cruz’s true rookie card, his 2024 Topps Series 1. De La Cruz’s 1st Bowman card from the 2022 Bowman product is popular, but the RC badge tickles collectors’ fancy.
Release Day Plans
Rouse is finalizing his hobby shop’s plans for the 2024 Topps Chrome Update Series release day on November 13.
Hit Seekers is considering running a promotion for boxes and packs ripped in-store. Lower-numbered cards pulled on-site could also receive free PSA grading offers.
“I expect most of the traffic to be on the stream,” Fitzgerald said. “We will be ripping on Fanatics Live: half case breaks, case breaks, and mixers all dag. I think there will be a lot of hype locally for it. Traffic in the shop will be heavier than normal, but I think most traffic will be through Fanatics Live.”
With the goal of making a big push at landing the De La Cruz RDPA, Hit Seekers will be placing a bounty on the card.
“We are finalizing what the bounty will be, and we’re going to do that pretty soon,” Rouse said. “Obviously, there are going to be financial limitations. But we are on a quest for that card, and as well as we can and as wisely as we can, we’re going to make that very well known.”
If Rouse and Co. can get their hands on the De La Cruz card, it will be given a special forever home.
“It would live here in the shop,” Rouse said. “For all the collectors that come in here and the hobbyists and anybody that wants to see it, it would live here.”
