Sanders baseball card of inauguration meme breaks sales record set by Fauci

A baseball card depicting the viral image of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) attending President Biden’s inauguration has set a new all-time sales record, breaking the previous one set by a card of Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert. 

Sanders’s Topps Now baseball card, included in the 2020 USA Election Topps Now card set from Inauguration Day, had 91,169 cards ordered and printed as of Friday, the company announced in a tweet.

This is nearly double the amount set by Fauci, whose card shows him throwing out the first pitch on Major League Baseball’s opening night on July 23. Topps announced days later that Fauci’s card sold 51,512 cards in the span of just 24 hours. 

RECORD. BREAKER.

The #ToppsNOW Bernie Sanders card clocks in at 91,169 cards printed, our highest to date!

Did you collect one?! Check out the rest of the Inauguration #ToppsNOW print runs here: https://t.co/Poj0MOlHO3 pic.twitter.com/cTNEPVOtaM

— Topps (@Topps) January 29, 2021

The image of Sanders, which shows him with his arms and legs crossed and bundled in a jacket and mittens, has since become one of the most viral moments from Inauguration Day, with social media users creating memes with the picture and inserting Sanders into scenes from iconic television shows and films. 

The nine-card Inauguration Day set also includes other moments from the ceremony, with Vice President Harris’s swearing-in the second top seller of the set with 17,016 cards ordered. Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s card had 14,716 copies sold, followed by Lady Gaga at 8,721. 

Sanders announced Wednesday that he raised $1.8 million for charitable organizations in Vermont in a matter of days from sales of now sold-out merchandise featuring his viral image. 

Getty Images, which entered a licensing agreement to allow the photo to be featured on the merchandise, will also be donating its proceeds from the license to Meals on Wheels America, according to the senator’s announcement.