KAWS.
IN PLAY.
Crossed eyes. Big colour.
Baseball, seen differently.
LOOK AGAIN.
The ballpark
gets a new language.
The first thing you notice is the colour. Then the player. Then the odd little conversation happening between them.
A pitching leg bends into a cartoon curve. A bat slices through a patch of purple. Jeter hangs above a pair of giant red crossed eyes. KAWS Creation rewards that second look.
In Topps’ collaboration with the artist Brian Donnelly, better known as KAWS, the familiar baseball photograph becomes a meeting point for two kinds of image-making. The player supplies the action. The surrounding shapes make you see it differently.
This is our ten-card selection from the 25-subject Creation checklist: ranked for visual impact, collecting appeal and the pairings we would enjoy living with. Prices and affiliate commissions do not decide the order.
THE PITCH / PAUL SKENES, KC-4
All that
stored energy.
Black jersey. Raised knee. Acid yellow. Skenes’ silhouette is already a tightly wound shape; the artwork seems to wind it a little further.
That is what makes the best cards here work. The graphic forms respond to the photograph. They bend with it, push against it, leave it somewhere to breathe.
And the ballpark never disappears entirely. Stadium details survive in the gaps. Dirt stays on a uniform. The player is still unmistakably there.
THE PULLED. TOP TEN
Build your
own gallery.
Standard unnumbered inserts · raw / ungraded
An editorial ranking. Choose the cards you want to keep.
The centrepiece
Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani gives the eye somewhere to land. His white uniform holds steady while red branches, purple curves and little crossed eyes crowd the edges. The bat cuts through the composition on a clean diagonal. Our first chase for the way a huge baseball subject and a very particular visual language hold the same small frame.
The colour pick
Elly De La Cruz
Turquoise, cream, green and magenta circle Elly’s red shirt. The dirt on the uniform and the hair in the air keep the photograph wonderfully physical amid all that cartoon colour. It feels like the instant after something has happened. Our favourite starting point if the artwork is what brought you here.
Air Jeter
Derek Jeter
Jeter seems suspended above two enormous red crossed-eye circles. Lime and pale teal divide the space into bold planes. It is one of the clearest compositions in the selection: a familiar fielding action made strange by what is underneath it. An easy visual partner for Judge, or a collection of one.
Pinstripes, interrupted
Aaron Judge
Judge’s follow-through stretches across burgundy, violet and pale teal. The fine rhythm of the pinstripes meets broad, unruly shapes; pieces of the stadium still peek through. Pair him with Jeter for two generations of Yankees in completely different kinds of motion.
All that stored energy
Paul Skenes
The black jersey, raised knee and bent leg pull Skenes into a compact silhouette. Acid yellow turns up the pressure; a blue X on a purple form balances the pose. This is the pitching card we would choose for the wall. Check the back for KC-4: some listings mistakenly use his base-card number, 44.
A little breathing room
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
The lifted glove and tilted head answer the pale-blue shape behind Yamamoto. Curving white bands leave room around the figure, with mustard and rose crossing the torso. Beside Ohtani, it makes a Dodgers pair with a different tempo: one long swing, one held breath.
Hold the centre
Juan Soto
Soto’s upright bat and wide stance stand their ground in a dense tangle of violet, turquoise, orange and green. The orange nameplate picks up the warmth in the artwork. A strong choice for collectors who like their cards busy, with a figure you can still read immediately.
The rookie note
Roman Anthony
Anthony’s raised finger and light running step float against lavender forms and a sweeping orange fragment. Mint green cools the red uniform accents, and an RC shield sits at the lower right. The rookie choice in our ten, for collectors building around a player as well as a design.
The quieter palette
Ronald Acuña Jr.
Look first at the released bat and open hand. Then at how the red jersey and yellow equipment cut through the slate, olive and dark branching forms. Acuña’s card lets the action supply the flash. The more subdued surroundings offer a useful change of mood in a multi-card display.
A graphic bullseye
Bobby Witt Jr.
A broad orange circle sits behind Witt’s poised batting stance, balanced by a pale-blue, hand-like form. His blue equipment repeats the card’s cooler accents. The shapes are easy to read from across a room—a good final card for a small display built around colour rather than checklist order.
PULLED. may earn a commission from purchases through these eBay links, at no extra cost to you. Links open searches; availability and exact matches can change. Confirm the player, year, KC number, parallel and condition.
A COLLECTION CAN BE TWO CARDS.
Ohtani + Yamamoto.
Judge + Jeter.
Or just the one you love.
The Dodgers pair gives you two different kinds of motion. The Yankees pair brings two generations into the same visual world. Elly works beautifully on his own. A complete checklist is one way to collect this set; a pair that feels right on your shelf is another.
THE MARKET / SNAPSHOT CHECKED OCTOBER 13, 2026
Enjoy the art.
Read the evidence.
We completed both 130point and eBay Sold searches for every card. The review retained 26 matching raw sold-listing observations after removing duplicate item IDs across the two sources. These are dated observations, not live quotes or proof of settlement.
| Card | Raw observations | NM+ sample median | Read before comparing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shohei OhtaniKC-1 | 4 | $2,712.00 | Three qualifying NM+ sales: $2,300, $3,000 and $2,712. The October 11 $2,800 listing shares the seller/image with the later $2,300 listing; retained as an observation but excluded as a possible relist. A sold listing does not establish settlement or a unique physical copy. |
| Elly De La CruzKC-5 | 4 | $500.00 | Three NM+ inputs ($250, $500 and $500) produce a $500 sample median. The latest NM+ sale at $250 is below that median. A separate $192.50 Excellent sale is retained outside the sample. Copied seller metadata was resolved against the actual card photographs. |
| Derek JeterKC-8 | 3 | NO GUIDE | The latest $405 sale was Excellent; the $399 sale was NM+. A third listing shows $100 in both sold searches but $1,200 on the original item page. Both observations are preserved and the conflicting amount is withheld from valuation. |
| Aaron JudgeKC-2 | 3 | NO GUIDE | The latest $735 sale was seller-stated Excellent. Two NM+ inputs ($440 and $510) are insufficient for a three-sale guide. The $500 crossed-out ask became a $440 accepted offer. |
| Paul SkenesKC-4 | 3 | NO GUIDE | Three matching sold-listing observations. The $525 accepted offer is dated October 13 by 130point but October 9 in eBay Sold; it is excluded from a guide. Two listings say #44, but inspected backs read KC-4. Conditions have not been screened for a three-sale guide. |
| Yoshinobu YamamotoKC-3 | 1 | NO GUIDE | One matching single-card sale at $1,299. A separate $461 sale bundled the base card with the Creation insert and is excluded from single-card pricing. |
| Juan SotoKC-6 | 3 | NO GUIDE | Two NM+ inputs ($152.50 and $280) do not make a guide. The latest $165.19 sale was Excellent. Photographed KC-6 backs resolve incorrect team/player metadata on two listings. |
| Roman AnthonyKC-7 | 1 | NO GUIDE | One matching sold listing, recorded at $1,000 by 130point. The raw condition has not been screened for a guide; one transaction is not a valuation. |
| Ronald Acuña Jr.KC-9 | 3 | NO GUIDE | Recorded sales include $350 and $143.50. A further exact KC-9 listing shows $0.99 in 130point and on its sold item page. Its identity and NM+ declaration were checked, but the unexplained extreme outlier is excluded from any guide. |
| Bobby Witt Jr.KC-14 | 1 | NO GUIDE | One matching sold listing: the $300 displayed ask became a $250 accepted offer in 130point. No three-sale condition-comparable guide. |
A sale is not always a comp.
Ohtani’s three qualifying NM+ inputs are $2,300, $3,000 and $2,712. Elly’s are $250, $500 and $500. Their medians describe those small samples. Elly’s latest input is half the median, a useful reminder to read the individual sales.
Excellent copies, unknown conditions, a possible Ohtani relist and a Yamamoto two-card bundle stay outside the NM+ comparisons. Seller-stated condition is not an independent grade.
Keep the awkward evidence.
A Jeter listing shows $100 in sold searches and $1,200 on its original page. We retain the contradiction and withhold the amount from valuation. An exact Acuña listing shows an unexplained $0.99 sale; it remains visible as an outlier, without becoming a bargain benchmark.
Accepted offers use amounts recovered through 130point, never crossed-out asks. Shipping, tax and import costs are extra. Every record links to its observations and downloadable source data.
KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CHASING.
Creation is the insert.
The ten records cover standard, unnumbered KAWS Creation cards without autographs or relics. Topps’ official checklist lists 25 subjects. Its odds sheet gives standard Creation a 1:12 pack frequency and FoilFractor a separate 1:2,160 frequency. These are odds for any card in each line, not a specific player.
The standard print run is unverified. The 60-card base set, Companion SP artwork, Creation parallels and KAWS autographs are separate things. A seller’s “SSP” or “case hit” headline is not a substitute for the checklist or the actual card back.
EXPLORE THE TEN DATABASE RECORDS ↗