When Brian Sleeth opened his mailbox in Florida last month, he could already feel something exciting was inside.
“The energy and the power that was coming from that package was amazing,” Sleeth said. “I called my mom on the way back to the house, and I said, ‘Mom, this package feels like there’s something in it. It just has an energy.'”
And Sleeth was right.
Inside was a one-of-a-kind Topps NOW Gold Superfractor trading card of Pope Leo XIV, who is the first U.S.-born pope, a native of Chicago and now a global spiritual figure.
“I opened up the pack of cards … and then right in the middle of it was the pope one-of-one card,” Sleeth said. “I felt a calmness knowing this happened. It was like I didn’t pick the card, but the card picked me.”
The card, which is now up for auction through Fanatics Collect, is graded CGC Mint 9 and will be on display at Fanatics Fest NYC later this month.
With about 10 days left, the current price tag for the card is $4,500.
Michael Osacky, president and founder of River North-based Baseball In the Attic — a vintage sports card and memorabilia appraisal company, said he expects to see the card go for $30,000 to $40,000. If it were signed though, he said it could garner closer to $100,000.
Osacky said the card’s near-perfect grade wouldn’t matter because collectors would be more focused on the rarity, what it personally means to them or what it could be flipped for.
“The pope is kind of an unknown; most people are not into pope cards” specifically, he said. “There’s millions, maybe even billions who follow the pope, but that’s not how this works. Just because someone has a huge following, that doesn’t convert into value. … [But] if this was autographed, it would be a big chase card.”
With a large cross-section to draw from, from White Sox fans to devout Catholics to speculators, Osacky said there will definitely be demand, but likely not on the level of amounts paid for cards of legendary sports players or rarer cards.
The pope card’s value would be nowhere near the price of a one-of-one Michael Jordan card that traded for nearly $3 million last year and well below the $12.6 million a mint 1952 Mickey Mantle card sold for in 2022 — or a 1982 Jordan rookie card that goes on the block Tuesday with a starting price of $2 million.
“It’s different, it’s sort of esoteric, and it’s gonna speak to someone,” Osacky said. “These cards are few and far between. There’s usually a moment.”
For Sleeth, a South Side native whose family lived near Midway Airport and who attended St. Rita of Cascia Parish, where the pope was once a substitute teacher, the card is more than a collector’s item, he said.
“This isn’t just a trading card,” Sleeth said. “It’s a cultural artifact. It’s faith, history, pop culture and rarity, all in one.”
The card arrived just weeks before another major milestone for Chicago Catholics — the citywide celebration of Pope Leo XIV’s election Saturday at Rate Field.
Sleeth and his family, many of whom still live in the Chicago area, watched the celebration from afar as thousands gathered at the South Side stadium to honor the Chicago-born pontiff.
“It’s just surreal,” Sleeth said, adding that he thought the pope’s prerecorded greeting at the celebration had “a great message,” but he’d like to hear more from Pope Leo.
The card’s significance for Sleeth is rooted in his childhood, he said. Sleeth recalled his grandmother giving him a novelty Marvel comic book about Pope John Paul II. The late pontiff had a major influence on Sleeth’s family, and the comic book launched his lifelong love for collectibles.
“That kind of got me into comic books … which caused me to become a collector of sports cards and comics,” Sleeth said. “That’s kind of how I got started with collectibles and pope-related merchandise.”
Now based in Florida, Sleeth works full time selling sports cards and comics online while caring for his parents, he said. Sleeth’s father has dementia, and his mother also requires full-time support.
Sleeth ordered 80 Pope Leo XIV cards when the Topps series was released, intending to hand them out to friends, family and his church, which Sleeth said was the most excited to receive the cards.
“The church was so happy to have something with the pope on it,” Sleeth said.
He never imagined he would receive the rare one-of-one Superfractor, but now that the card is heading to auction, he said he hopes it can provide a new chapter for his family.
“We don’t know the value of the card. … It’s a one-of-a-kind rarity,” Sleeth said. “What I hope is that this card will actually go for enough money where I can help my family, taking care of my father and mother in the way that we always wanted it to be.”
Though parting with the card was difficult, Sleeth said the meaning lies in his journey.
“It’s about going through life, from getting the pope comic book as a kid to selling cards, becoming a sports fan and what it caused to get me to this point in my life,” Sleeth said.