One-of-a-kind autographed Paul Skenes rookie card off to auction - ESPN

PITTBURGH — Paul Skenes has been in the major leagues for less than a year.

A piece of the Pittsburgh Pirates ace — well, OK, a piece of the jersey that Skenes donned during his first start last May — could be ready to join some elite company.

A one-of-a-kind autographed baseball card featuring a patch of the No. 30 jersey Skenes donned during his big league debut is heading to auction on Thursday. The card's journey over the past few months has generated the kind of buzz typically reserved for iconic collectibles featuring Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.

The Skenes card has the added advantage those cards did not: It happened to come along in an age when social media can amplify everything.

«The coverage on this just in my opinion is so much bigger,» Fanatics Collect CEO Nick Bell said. «I really can't remember one similar to it to be frank. It's pretty exceptional.»

Fanatics Collect, which is running the two-week auction that closes on March 20, isn't estimating (at least publicly anyway) what the card might fetch, though Bell expects «a very significant sale.»

A combination of the 22-year-old Skenes' burgeoning stardom, the considerable reach of his girlfriend, LSU gymnast/influencer Livvy Dunne and a head-turning offer the Pirates made in hopes of securing the card — including season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park for 30 years — has made it the rare collectible that has generated interest from collectors and noncollectors alike.

«The amount of interest we've got in this card right now is kind of pretty unprecedented, honestly,» Bell said.