ANAHEIM – There it sat on an exhibitor’s table at the SoCal Baseball and Sports Collectors Expo at the Anaheim Marriott earlier this month.

Graded in 9.5 gem mint condition. Protected inside a clear plastic sleeve. Hermetically sealed within its own acrylic case. Delicately placed in the middle of a velvet-lined shadowbox beneath glass and the protective eyes of owner/collector/prospector John Rocha of Paso Robles.

It was Mike Trout’s 2009 Bowman Sterling Prospects autographed #MT baseball card, the most active card in the market according to The Hot List in the February issue of Beckett Baseball.

This 2 1/2 by 3 1/2-inch, glossy, silver-inlayed piece of cardstock was made after the Millville, N.J., ballplayer became the Angels’ 2009 first-round selection (25th overall) but before Mike Trout became Mike Trout: Angels All-Star outfielder and AL Rookie of the Year.

And landing a Trout card like Rocha’s is like having stock in Apple right before the company introduced the iPod.

With fans, collectors and speculators scrambling to commemorate or capitalize on an extraordinary talent, Trout cards have become the most valued, sought, bought, prospected, sold, flipped, hoarded, traveled, traded and coveted cards on the hobby market since his April 28 call-up.

Now, with spring training less than a month away, the big business of collecting Trout cards has become nothing short of a gamble.

For some collectors, possessing a Trout card or two or 754 is a mere demonstration of fan appreciation for a phenomenal player, perhaps even a nostalgic return to a classic midcentury American hobby inspired by throwback talent reminiscent of Mickey Mantle.

They’ll pay big money for Trout cards on the secondary market, be it online or at memorabilia shows or one of the brick-and-mortar card shops facing extinction. Or they’ll keep trying their luck at cracking countless packs with the hope of pulling a Trout.

“That’s how I got mine,” said Angels fan Charles Rollins, 18, of Gardena. “And I’m never selling it.”

But for those who look at card collecting like the stock market, the risk lies in whether 1) to sell now on the heels of Trout’s historic 2012 for fear he could be a one-hit-season wonder; or 2) to sell later for a greater payoff because you have faith he could one day be an MVP or even a Hall of Famer.

Rocha has owned four of these particular Trout cards: two he sold in 2010 for $88 apiece on eBay and two he had no problem parting with at this Jan. 11-13 memorabilia show for $400 – each.

“Yes, each,” repeated Rocha with a grin. “You never know when a player is going to get as hot as Trout and kick off a card frenzy where his card goes up five times in value. But I’m lucky it did because he’s paying for my card-collecting habit.”

A recent search for Trout cards on Amazon produced 2,126 listings; on eBay there were 2,503 active listings and 11,358 sold listings.

Prices ranged from about $5 for those in the 2012 Topps and Bowman retail base-set editions to the mid-hundreds and even thousands of dollars for Trout’s 2009 prospect and 2011 official MLB “RC”-designated rookie cards adorned with his autograph and inlayed with a postage stamp-sized portion of his game-worn jersey.

“We’ve sold more than a thousand Trout cards, hundreds with his autograph,” said Scott Allen, vice president of Lomita-based South Bay Baseball Cards, which had three Trout cards going from $199-$349 at the expo. “We sold more Trout cards this year than for all the other athletes combined.”

One of the 25 orange refractor versions of his first official card as a pro, 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects #BDPP89, went for $3,701.01 on eBay in November. One of the 25 red refractors of his 2011 Topps Finest #89 rookie card fetched $1,126 in October.

A 19-card lot of super rare, premium Trout cards, including a 2003 autographed card from his Little League days with the Steelman Photo Cubs, was posted on eBay this past week. The asking price from the Ocean View, N.J., seller: $38,000 or best offer.

“There’s even a one-of-a-kind Trout card going for $20,000 on the market,” said Lance Kirkland, co-owner of the OC Dugout (ocsportscards.com), which had a booth brimming with Trout cards and memorabilia at the Anaheim expo.

“It’s crazy. Nobody in sports, not even (Washington Nationals All-Star outfielder and 2012 NL Rookie of the Year) Bryce Harper, is selling like Trout has this year.”

Between 2009 and 2012, licensed major manufacturers issued 754 unique Trout cards, including the litany of limited-edition, sequentially numbered, parallel refractors, autographed and relic-inset cards and printing plates, to target seemingly every conceivable collector’s or potential collector’s whimsy, taste and price point.

In its February issue’s price guide, Beckett Baseball listed 142 varieties of Trout cards for their activity in the market. Prices ranged from $1-$2.50 for Trout’s easily available 2012 Topps #446, 2012 Bowman Platinum #16 and 2012 Bowman #34 base cards to the $1,800-$2,000 ballpark for any of the 50 gold refractor versions of Trout’s 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects #BDPP89.

Prices have dipped slightly since the final weeks of the 2012 regular season, when Trout battled eventual Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera for AL MVP and put the finishing touches on his masterpiece season of 30 home runs, 49 stolen bases, 129 runs scored, four home run-robbing catches and a .326 batting average.

“At the time, the investors were thinking that if Trout won MVP, the cards would go up even more and they could flip them right away,” said Tom Bartsch, the longtime editor of Sports Collectors Digest.

“People love the new young player, the exciting guy. We saw this with (Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen) Strasburg a couple years back and you can see that the cards have gone down in value by a percentage.”

Among the cards that appreciated the fastest and hardest in value were the 55 varieties of 2009 prospect cards released by Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects, Bowman Sterling, Donruss Elite Extra Edition and TriStar Prospects Plus. But those cards, particularly autographed ones, have remained steady in price.

“No player has created that kind of interest in such as short time,” said Jim Honabach, owner of the Chino-based Honabach and Sons Gallery of Autographs and an exhibitor at the Anaheim expo.

“What raised my eyebrows is that a couple months into the season, you could have bought a Trout baseball for $50. Now they’re going for $300. There are only a handful of guys who are living players whose baseball is $300.”

Brian Hutchings, owner of On Deck Sports Cards in Vineland, N.J., just across the city line of Trout’s hometown, Millville, began acquiring hundreds of Trout’s premium prospect cards just after the 2009 draft.

He sold the bulk of his Trout inventory mostly to locals for $30-$100 a card before 2011, feeling fortunate to turn quick money in a card game in which you’d be lucky to get a dime for a common card.

“Now, I’m just kicking myself because I see the Trout cards I sold for $30 going for $600 online,” said Hutchings, laughing. “That could have been my retirement plan. How could I have known he’d be this good?”

Contact the writer: masmith@ocregister.com