Paul Skenes and his girlfriend, former LSU gymnast and social media star Livvy Dunne, had just returned from Italy, enjoying a combination of a vacation and some activities with the USO. (Skenes had just spent two nights on an aircraft carrier before coming home.) That’s when Lance Fischer, president and founder of trading card company Onyx, stopped by their house in Jupiter, Florida with a stack of freshly printed baseball cards to be signed and an idea he wasn’t sure Skenes would go for.
“Hey Paul, do you want to do something different and unique?” Fischer asked.
Skenes was listening.
“How about writing your name out (on the cards) in Kanji?”
Fischer then pulled out a paper with Skenes’ name written in Kanji for him to use as a guide.
Skenes looked the paper over and said, “Let’s do it.”
Skenes carefully copying the Kanji guide he was provided. (Photo: Onyx Authenticated)
Kanji is a system of Japanese writing using Chinese characters. With the influx of Japanese players into Major League Baseball, it’s become an increasingly popular autograph style on baseball cards — a trend that gained momentum with Shohei Ohtani’s arrival in 2018. He signed a small number of his rookie cards in Kanji (and a limited number in the years since then). Those cards instantly became highly coveted by collectors. As a result, they also became exceptionally valuable. In September, a 2018 Topps Finest rookie card Ohtani signed in Kanji sold at auction for $585,200, the second most ever paid for an Ohtani card.
Onyx has done Kanji before with Ohtani. It has also done Hangul autographs with Korean players. But for a U.S.-born player, this is a first.
“It’s something different. A company like Topps, you have to stay with them or stay ahead in terms of creative products,” Fischer said, referencing the exclusive MLB trading card license holder that dominates the baseball card market and has introduced innovations like the Debut Patch in recent years.
Skenes signed five cards in Kanji for Onyx. One was included in the 2025 Vintage Extended Baseball product that was released last week.
“Someone will hit it soon, and I hope it’s filmed,” Fischer said.
Three more of the cards will be in Onyx Rips and released right before The National Sports Collectors Convention in 2026. Those are all black parallels, numbered to five, and the first three are signed in Kanji.
The fifth card is slated for an auction that will be conducted during Spring Training on eBay Live.
Fischer said this experience was a moment he could not believe was happening. “(Skenes) might be the quickest signer I’ve ever seen (when doing his usual signature). He spent two minutes signing each card in Kanji.”
Fischer recommended to Skenes that he sign the cards in Kanji first to allow his regular signature to fit around the Kanji autograph.
“I don’t know how he did it, but he fit the Kanji right in the middle perfectly every time,” Fischer said. “There were no mistakes or anything.”
Three of the cards Skenes signed with his Kanji signature. (Photo: Onyx Authenticated)
It can be difficult for cards unlicensed by the league (meaning they can’t show any MLB or team logos or names) to stand out and even attract new customers. Doing something unique like this is one way to gain notice, particularly from the growing number of Japanese MLB fans and card collectors. But there was some hesitation when Fischer first shared the idea.
“Even my wife was saying beforehand that Paul might not do it because it can be seen as offensive,” Fischer said. “But none of the collectors got offended; they thought it was cool.
“After we got done, I posted it on Twitter. The Japanese collectors started commenting. We had over 400,000 views.”
Skenes doesn’t usually love doing inscriptions, but when Fischer pitched him this idea, he saw the value in it. And now it becomes a waiting game to see where the five cards end up and who gets to add them to their collections.
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