A $250 gamble on an online box break has turned into a potential seven-figure payday for an independent professional wrestler, and he says nearly every dollar is earmarked for his father. Arik Cannon, a 44-year-old wrestler originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, who now lives in River Falls, Wisconsin, pulled a one-of-a-kind Shohei Ohtani card worth millions, and as bidding closed in on $1.74 million Thursday, he was already planning where the money would go.
Cannon entered an online box break hosted by East West Bats in March, paying around $250 for a randomized spot in the event, according to The New York Times. A wheel spin landed him the Dynasty Black spot, and when box breakers revealed the redemption card, it turned out to be the only Shohei Ohtani Dynasty Black card produced within the entire print run of the 2025 Topps MLB MVP set, an incredibly valuable, one-of-a-kind MLB Logoman patch autographed card. Cannon, stunned, kept asking the breakers to confirm it was really his: “That’s mine, right? That’s my spot?”
The card carries an unusually specific piece of baseball history stitched right into it. The patch came off the jersey Ohtani wore during his 2025 NLCS Game 4 outing, a performance in which he hit three home runs as a designated hitter and struck out 10 batters as a pitcher in the same game. The report notes that card never actually landed in Cannon’s hands — the Fanatics Vault has housed it ever since he redeemed it, meaning the entire transaction, from pull to auction, has played out digitally.
A Father's Debt Comes First
Cannon said his mother died of cancer in August 2023, and that his father's financial situation has been difficult ever since. Asked what he planned to do with the windfall, Cannon didn't hesitate, telling the outlet, “So the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going pay off all his debt.” He added that he intends to save whatever is left over after settling his father's obligations.
It isn't the first time Cannon has used a lucky pull for someone else's benefit. He previously won a 2025 Topps Chrome Update MLB Debut patch autographed card of Dylan Crews, the Washington Nationals outfielder, and arranged for that card to be returned to Crews through someone close to the player. Cannon said the card would mean more to Crews and his family than it would to him. He has also mused about building a reinforced trading-card carrying case into his wrestling gimmick, a nod to the hobby that has unexpectedly reshaped his finances.
Bidding Climbs Toward Seven Figures
Fanatics Collect has been auctioning the Ohtani Dynasty Black card, with the sale scheduled to close Thursday night. As of Thursday morning, bidding had reached $1.74 million including the buyer's premium, per the same account. The final price and the identity of the winning bidder were not available as of that report.
Fanatics Collect vice president Kevin Lenane described the patch's origin as unusually compelling, pointing to Ohtani's three-homer, 10-strikeout NLCS outing as possibly the greatest baseball game ever played. That game has become something of a signature moment for Ohtani memorabilia: it's worth noting, however, that the patch on Ohtani's separate 2026 Topps Chrome Back-to-Back dual Gold Logoman card — a different, two-player card featuring both Ohtani and Aaron Judge — did not come from that same 2025 NLCS performance.
Ohtani Cards Keep Shattering Records
Cannon's card is landing in the middle of an extraordinary run for Ohtani memorabilia. His 2026 Topps Chrome Back-to-Back dual Gold Logoman dual patch autographed card, featuring both Ohtani and Judge, sold privately for $11 million, a figure The New York Times reported stands as the third-highest price ever paid for a sports card, according to ESPN. Before that sale, the previous high for an Ohtani card was $3.365 million, paid on July 14 for his 2018 Bowman Chrome Superfractor in a private deal brokered by Fanatics Collect.
The market for dual Ohtani-Judge cards has climbed steadily too. A 2025 Topps Chrome dual MVP gold Logoman card pairing the two sluggers sold through Fanatics Collect for $2.16 million, making it the fourth-most-expensive modern baseball card ever sold at auction, ESPN reported. A year earlier, that same style of card sold for $2.1 million in March, and a separate on-card autographed, one-of-one Ohtani card using a patch from the same program sold for $3 million in December.
ESPN's report noted that Cannon's sale marked roughly the fifth million-dollar sale of an Ohtani card since December, and the broader market showed no signs of slowing, with four publicly reported sales of at least $1 million recorded in March alone, as detailed by The Athletic. Lenane has said the hobby now has more collectors than ever, including players who collect their own memorabilia, a dynamic fueling demand even as prices climb into eight figures.
For Cannon, the numbers swirling around the broader Ohtani card economy are secondary to a simpler calculation: a father's debt, settled by a wheel spin that cost $250. Whatever the final gavel price turns out to be when the auction closes, the wrestler has already decided where the first checks are going.
