Nolan Schanuel's debut comes with very few baseball cards

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Update (Aug. 22): A total of 9,785 copies were sold for this card.

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Card No. 725 is a first for this new MLB player -- and almost his only cardboard regardless of place in the game.

Nolan Schanuel made his debut on Friday night with the Los Angeles Angels going 1-for-4 and that got him his first 2023 Topps Now card as seen here and he followed that up with two more hits in his first double-header as an MLB player yesterday.

What makes Schanuel unique? He was the 11th pick in this year's draft back on July 9 -- just 42 days ago -- and he signed and played 21 games in Rookie/Single-A/Double-A ball before getting the call to the big team. That's not totally unheard of as nine players have actually skipped MiLB completely before their MLB debut since 1986 ... but that is still lightning-fast and, more importantly here, very few players these days make an MLB debut having so little cardboard. After all, we live in a world of, well, "Now" as well as prospect sets such as USA Baseball and Perfect Game that can have players on cards and in packs with certified autographs, memorabilia cards and more as young teenagers years before they're anywhere near a pro contract.

As for Schanuel? Keep reading ... he doesn't have much at all when it comes to baseball cards.

The print run on this Topps Now card isn't yet known (likely to be revealed on Monday), but it will stand alone other than its parallels -- Blue (/49), Purple (/25), Red (/10), Orange (/5) and 1/1 Gold randomly inserted into orders for those who grabbed a base card yesterday -- and it will join a small crop of other cards for the Angels' 21-year-old first baseman fresh out of Florida Atlantic where he hit .386 with 46 homers and 176 RBI in 172 career games. (That's a lot of ping!)

His quick run through MiLB limits his shots at appearing team sets -- they could still happen but one card out there on eBay is not legit -- but beyond that he only has 25 other different cards found in just two past releases. He's got 20 cards in the 2019 Leaf Perfect Game National Showcase set as a prep star and then five cards in 2021 Onyx Vintage Extended thanks to an NIL deal -- that's it. Of these, 19 are certified autograph cards -- 15 from Leaf and four from Onyx -- and those are almost all low-volume parallel cards. Everything save for one auto is under 50 copies -- most are dramatically below that mark -- and he only has two base cards, one in each set. Only his blue-ink Onyx auto is widely available at announced 400 copies made. That's it ... no other prospect cards, no USA Baseball ... no Bowman stuff at all as it was just too fast for even that to happen.

The Angels are off today and take the field against the Reds tomorrow night -- you know, that team loaded with young, surprising talent this season and That Elly De La Cruz Guy -- and Schanuel will be there, too, hitting .250 (3-for-12) with four runs in his first three games ... and all with just a single official MLB card. We should see his Rookie Cards in 2024.

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