Collector Discovers Card After Purchasing a Pallet
Known hobby-wide as One Million Cubs — the guy who collects just Chicago Cubs cards — Beau Thompson might have earned himself a new moniker: Goodwill Trout Guy.
Thompson recently purchased a pallet of trading cards from Goodwill and unearthed the best card he’s ever stumbled upon: a Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Auto numbered to 150.
Prior to buying the pallet from a Goodwill store in Wisconsin, Thompson received a bit of grief from his wife. With around 150,000 cards on each pallet, this was the 21st pallet Thompson has purchased from Goodwill in the last three years.
“This last pallet, my wife and I were going over our schedules and I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve got to pick up a Goodwill pallet,’” Thompson said. “And she’s like, ‘Are you serious? Another one?’
“It’s at a point where I can’t pass them up, because even the duds are worth the money I spend on them.”
When Thompson started digging through his most recent pallet, he didn’t think there would be much of anything in a particular box when he stumbled upon some hockey cards from 2009. However, next in the box came a small pile of 2009 Bowman Chrome Baseball.
“I wasn’t thinking that Trout was in that set,” said Thompson, who lives in Middleton, Wisconsin, a suburb of Madison. “And you certainly don’t think there’s going to be a Mike Trout Chrome, let alone a Blue Refractor auto sitting in a random box that was at a Goodwill.
“I was cleaning up my room, putting some of these boxes away, and I opened the box up and saw hockey cards. I almost just put it on a shelf. I saw the Bowman in there. I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to look through the Bowman. Maybe there’s a Derek Jeter or an Albert Pujols or something that’s somewhat decent for a dollar box.’ There was an x-fractor of one of the World Baseball Classic players and I’m like, ‘Oh, so there’s at least one refractor in here. Maybe there’s a Jeter refractor.’ I’m going through the cards and all of a sudden I come across that Trout. It’s been reprinted, so my first thought was, ‘This card is not the real thing.’ You don’t think that card is going to be donated to Goodwill, let alone just sitting in a box. Thinking it’s a reprint, I flip it over and I’m looking for a reprint, and no. After a few seconds, it dawns on me: I’m actually looking through 2009 Bowman Chrome. This is actually the legit card. So then it’s like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe this.’”
Thompson snapped a photo of the card and posted his discovery on X (formerly Twitter). He also placed the five-figure card into a penny sleeve and top loader.
“I told my wife and she said, ‘I won’t give you crap about buying those pallets anymore,’” Thompson said.
Goodwill Comes Through
Goodwill has become a steady source for Thompson to add to his massive Cubs collection.
“I enjoy going through it just for the treasure hunt,” the 42-year-old Thompson said. “You never know what might pop up.”
Thompson — who in April reached his goal of collecting one million Cubs cards, with a little help from Topps — has had some luck over the years with finding good cards at Goodwill. In early 2021, Thompson pulled a 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout rookie card; he ended up selling it raw for $600.
Thompson said recently his pallets have produced some good cards, including early Tom Brady and Marvel promo cards.
“There was a box just filled with early ’80s rookies. The Topps Traded Ripken was in there,” Thompson said. “Some pallets are duds; they are a bunch of ’80s and ’90s. Every pallet is unique, and sometimes there’s literally garbage bags where someone dumped cards into a garbage bag. You can see cards where a dog’s chewed on them. I throw a lot of cards away, just because they’re damaged and pretty beat up.”
Since Thompson doesn’t shell out too much money when he buys pallets, he’s always willing to take a risk. He will then sell his non-Cubs cards on eBay under the handle One Million Cubs LLC.
Headed Next to PSA
The most recent pallet Thompson purchased was near the end of September, but he didn’t stumble upon the Trout card until two weeks later.
“It was sitting in an 800- or 900-count box. I have a room that I store all my inventory, it’s where I ship out of. I just had a bunch of boxes from that pallet that were in there, and usually when I bring them in I’ll kind of open them up to see what’s inside,” Thompson said. “If it looks like there might be some stuff in there, I’ll actually go through it. If it looks like stuff that is not really worth much, I’ll just set aside.”
The beautiful on-card autograph that is 15 years old looks like it could have been signed by Trout just days earlier.
There have been 27 Trout Blue Refractor autos that have been graded by PSA. Two have reached 10, while there are 15 graded 9.
Thompson is planning on sending the card to PSA to get graded. He believes it could garner a 9. In August of this year, a PSA 9 sold for $15,000.
Thompson has had multiple collectors inquire about purchasing the card. “I’m going to hang onto it until we get close with baseball again, once Trout gets healthy again, and then I’ll shop it around,” Thompson said.
