Kid Who Pulled Paul Skenes $1 Million Card Speaks Out On His Big Find

The 11-year-old baseball fan whose life suddenly changed when he pulled a rare 1-of-1 Paul Skenes autographed rookie card has spoken for the first time to talk about the surreal moment.

Last month it was revealed that the California-based boy, whose family has not revealed their name, hit the baseball card lottery by pulling the highly sought after Topps card that could be worth up to $1 million or more. The fact that it went to a kid, rather than a professional collector, made the story that much better, as the boy told The Athletic in a new interview that he plans on saving the majority of the auctioned earnings for his college fund.

"It wasn’t even on my mind that I would pull it," the kid told the sports outlet. "I thought it would go to some big breaker. So I’m like, ‘Dad, I pulled the Paul Skenes.’ And he was like, ‘No you didn’t.’"

‘I WAS SHOCKED!’

"So then I put it under the light, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, I think this is real,’" dad told The Athletic. "And I was immediately just kind of stupefied, and then that went into excitement and then I was just kind of slackjawed." The father said that once he realized the enormity of the situation he reached out to a number of auction houses rather than take up various initially offers for the Skenes card, including from his own Pittsburgh Pirates team themselves, who offered whoever pulled the card 30 years of season tickets as well as a chance to hang with Olivia Dunne.

The family decided to pass on the team's offer and take their chances with the free market and auction the card off instead with Fanatics Collect. They insisted on remaining anonymous both to protect the child as well as wanting to remain humble as many Los Angeles families are still recovering from last month's horrific wildfires.  

"It’s been a really hard time in the community," the mother told The Athletic. "It’s not the time to be walking around and saying, ‘I got the golden ticket."

THEY PLAN ON SAVING THE MONEY FOR A COLLEGE FUND

It's rather amusing that she used the word golden ticket, as that is actually what I've been consistently calling it in my articles to try and show just how big of a deal this was. People literally spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to find this card, and an 11-year-old found it after his parents got him one Topps trading card box that cost around $330 for Christmas, which, by the way, was his only gift. 

During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers last week, Skenes said that having a kid as the winner of the card was the absolute best-scenario and was glad that it went to him and not some old, weirdo memorabilia collector.

As for the kid? He summed up exactly how he was feeling when he wrote in his diary later that night after realizing what had just happened by writing, "My brain pooped."

Well said, kid. Well said.

OUTKICK READERS - WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE WITH THE CARD? TWEET ME: @TheGunzShow