What a Difference Six Homers Makes

One of my favorite parts of the start of baseball season is when some young rookie comes up and gets off to a hot start and I get to go into the basement to see if I have any of his rookie cards to sell.

When Rockies shortstop Trevor Story came up and hit home runs in each of his first two at bats, his name immediately sounded familiar.
I remembered I had his 2013 Bowman Chrome Farm's Finest Mini Blue Wave refractor. Which is limited to only 250.

The card is currently listed on eBay, and whereas before the season it was going for less than $5, I am hoping it will bring in at least $15 now.

Unfortunately I was not lucky enough to have his 2011 Bowman Chrome autograph rookie.
That card could have been had for $25-$35 on Opening Day.

Six home runs later, more than 100 of them have been sold this week, and they are now going for nearly $150.

Often times these cards come plummeting right back down to earth, but one of those other times, I regret every day.

It was mid-November, basketball season had just started and the Warriors were hot. I decided I wanted to get Chase a Steph Curry rookie for Hanukkah.

I checked eBay and noticed cards were going for $60-$75 when only a couple weeks earlier they were $40, and in the offseason going for $20-$30. Then Curry reached even greater heights, his popularity soared as the Warriors almost never lost and the cards shot up to $300.
Since then they have pulled back under $200, but I still haven't bought one, and I fear I may never get the chance.

The Most Exciting Mets Prospect Since Alex Ochoa

Maybe I damned Akeel Morris with faint praise with that headline as I didn't even have time to finish this post before Morris suffered one of the worst debuts in major league history.
I have been following Morris since early 2014 when I unwrapped my first Akeel Morris card in a pack of Bowman baseball cards.

Morris had been unimpressive in 2010 & 2011 and absolutely awful in 2012 going 0-6 with a 7.98 ERA while walking more than 5 batters per 9 innings. Dreadful stats.

But in 2013, something clicked. They gave up on using Morris as a starter and moved him to the bullpen, his walks fell (though 4.6 per 9 is still not great) and his strikeouts rose, to 12 per 9. His traditional stats were awesome too, a 1.00 ERA in 45 innings.

In 2014, he was even better 0.63 ERA, 3.47 BB/9 and more than 14 K/9. It was during this season, after I got the card, that I started to follow him and read more about him. He throws hard, hitting 95, and also has a great changeup.

After which the Mets added him to the 40-man roster so they wouldn't risk losing him in the Rule 5 draft.

But I was shocked when he started the season at single-A again. But once again he was dominant with a 1.69 ERA and striking out 13 men per 9.

That was good enough to get the call-up when the Mets needed someone and even though he was in single-A he was one of the few available healthy choices that wouldn't require them to bump someone from the 40-man to make room.

As soon as I saw the promotion I immediately went on eBay and bought 80 more cards for 12 bucks.

It was only for a couple days, what could go wrong?

Well everything that could go wrong did. A clearly nervous Morris couldn't locate his change-up and walked the first two batters. A potential double play was thwarted then a ridiculous bunt was misplayed, then a grounder snuck through the infield and then BOOM! a three run homer. Five runs, two outs in his major league debut. 67.50 ERA.

I still have hope my investment could possibly pay off. He still has good stuff. He still dominated the minor leagues and now he has a big league experience to build on.

Funny or Douchey?

Randomly inserted in 2012 Bowman boxes were 10 golden contracts, entitling the signee to a $500 signing bonus, a Yu Darvish autographed baseball and a chance at the grand prize, your own card in the 2013 Bowman set. The winner is a card shop owner from Las Vegas named Marcel Bilak.



Is Bilak's double thumbs up pose funny or douchey?



They are doing this again this year, except there are 25 contracts, no signing bonus and a 4%, instead of 10% chance of getting your own card. There's only one of these contracts on eBay, listed for $1500, but I think $300-$400 is a more realistic value.

I think if I got my own card I would try to grow my hair out and recreate this Oscar Gamble 1976 Topps card.



Or maybe I can piss off Mrs. Poop and recreate Glenn Hubbard's 1984 Fleer card



Maybe I could have Chase and Julian chase me like Steve Finley did in his 2002 Fleer Ultra



Probably the best thing would be to recreate the famous 1989 Bill Ripken Fleer, but instead of Fuck Face I could write Poop on the knob on the bat.



True story: I gave Mrs. Poop that card for Mother's Day and told her I wanted to give her a gift that would always remind her of me, every time she looked at it.

Why I Was Rooting Against Matt Harvey

While Matt Harvey was hurling another gem, perfect through 4, through 5, through 6, I secretly found myself rooting against him, hoping someone would get a hit.
Two reasons for this, first of all, I got the sense the Mets weren't going to score a run and I didn't want to see him become the second Harvey to pitch 9 (or more) perfect innings and not get the win, or the perfect game, because his team didn't score.
But secondly, I didn't want to have to sell my Matt Harvey 2010 Bowman Chrome autographed rookie card. I shrewdly bought it during the offseason for $22, $24 with shipping. And now the card is selling for upwards of $100 on eBay. If he'd pitched a perfect game I would have had to list the card, and probably could have gotten $150 for it.



Financially that seems like a no-brainer, but emotionally I want to hang on to this Harvey card and pass it on to my kids. I am lucky to have two boys who will hopefully inherit my love of collecting baseball cards, and if they're unlucky, my love of the Mets too. What better way to lure them into the pain and misery of being a Mets fan than to give them a very nice card of the Mets best pitcher.
And if I were collecting baseball cards in order to turn a profit, I would be failing miserably (though I have been pretty close to cash flow neutral for the past 6-8 years because of a $1600 Roger Clemens rookie I sold) and probably would be better off giving up.
Instead, I collect for the fun of it, for the joy of opening packs, for the pleasure of buying low and selling high (or keeping as the case may be), and I finance my addiction by selling cards I don't really want. Not the ones I want to treasure forever. So I'm glad Harvey didn't pitch that perfect game, now I can keep his rookie card. For now.

The Best Baseball Card Ever

It's the Honus Wagner T-206 for our generation.
For sale on eBay right now is a 2010 Bowman Chrome Superfractor Stephen Strasburg.
With three days left the bidding is at $17,100. [It sold for $16,403, there must have been some bids retracted because buyers had to prove ability to pay]
Here's why this card is so valuable:
Bowman Chrome does several versions of each card, a regular card, a refractor (500), an Xfractor (225), blue refractor (150), gold refractor (50), orange refractor (25), red refractor (5) and superfractor (1)
Yes, there is only one of this card. It makes it an incredible white whale for very wealthy collectors.
I have no doubt that Strasburg is going to become an all-time legend and I suspect this card will be bought and sold many more times throughout his career for increasingly higher prices.



Note: I got one Superfractor in my life, 2005 Bowman Chrome Ryan Sweeney. I sold it for $247

Timing is Everything

When Moises Alou got hurt, Angel Pagan took advantage and got off to a blistering start in spring training.
Knowing I had his rookie cards in my basement, I checked out their activity on eBay.
I saw only two listings, each for one card, going for $5.
So I ran to the basement, pulled out my 7 Pagan 2002 Bowmans and listed 5 of them on eBay.
The price was immediately bid up to $17.50, but there have been no bids since.
That's due to an explosion in the number of listings.
Looks like I'll be able to replace my Pagans (if I want to) and turn a tidy profit.
In eBay, especially with baseball cards, timing is everything.
Last summer, with in 4 hours of him pitching a no-hitter Clay Buchholz's rookie was selling for over $70. By the time I could list mine, supply so outstripped demand that I gave up and pulled my auction.

Joba in the Box

Papa Poop and I were doing our monthly ritual of opening some baseball cards when we struck gold in a box of 2007 Bowman Chrome.
He got very excited when he pulled a Joba Chamberlain rookie autograph. The card came out late in the season right when Joba was hot, creating a flurry of activity for it, because at the time no other company had a Joba card.



But I did even better, pulling a red refractor Chris Carter. Bowman Chrome has several different versions of its cards. There is the regular card, a refractor (numbered to 500), an Xfractor (225), blue refractor (150), gold refractor (50), orange refractor (25), red refractor (5) and superfractor (1). So they only made 5 versions of the card I got. Red refractors are so rare Beckett doesn't even list a price on them. And who the hell is Chris Carter? At the time I didn't know but he is a slugging first baseman in the White Sox system who is considered a top prospect. Carter's regular card is worth $3, meaning his red refractor is worth at least 100 times that.



After discussion with Master Bates and Papa Poop we decided to put both of the cards for sale on eBay.

Cashing In

About 3 to 4 years ago I bought 8 Jose Reyes 2001 Bowman Chrome Rookie Cards. I had them all graded for condition. My total cost for the 8 cards plus grading was about $400. Now I am selling the three cards that got the worst grades (8.5), to lock in some gains now that Reyes cards are really hot. I still have 5 that are graded 9.0 (book value: $875, but that will go up to at least $1500) in the next few months.
I'm also selling some other items, if you want to check out and see how my auctions are going.

Betting on Pelfrey

This winter I decided to invest in some Mike Pelfrey cards.
I now own 42 Pelfrey cards valued at about $130, but hopefully if he has a good season for the Mets the cards could easily double in value.

Billy Ripken Redux

Because this year's crop of football rookies is so strong I decided to buy some Bowman football. And I was lucky enough to get a Leon Washington Signs of the Future card in which Washington appears to be giving the double middle finger. He says he's making an E.

After an initial hysteria where the card was selling on eBay for over $100, Bowman never issued a different version so the card is not all that limited. It now lists for $60 and sells for $15. But should he have a good career it could have a synergistic effect on this card's price.

Baseball Cards - 1992-2007

Over the past 15 years baseball card collecting has undergone a drastic transformation. Due to conversations with SCZA I've decided to post about some of my cards but first I'll need to bring you up to date.

It is not like collecting when you were younger. All the rookie cards from the 80s are worthless. Steroids and overproduction ruined them all. Don't ask me about Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire Olympic or Don Mattingly. It's worthless. Trust me.

In 1992 Topps revived an old brand called Bowman. Basically they loaded it up with rookies, guys who were years away from making the bigs. But when Mike Piazza, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera and Carlos Delgado became stars. The cards became valuable...and no other sets had those players rookie cards.

Bowman kept this tradition of putting in tons of rookies. Then in 1997 they introduced Bowman Chrome. A rarer more expensive version of Bowman.

About that time, the companies saturated the hobby with tons of products, and everything was an insert. Around 1999, we gave up on cards.

But Bowman still had the rookies, so every year I bought a few boxes of Bowman just to have.

Then a few years ago when I got out of college I got back into collecting. I bought some 2001 Bowman boxes to find this guy named Pooh Holes.

At the same time, for 2001, Bowman Chrome began shorting printing the best rookie cards, and having the players autograph them. And that was the only rookie card. It wasn't an insert, it was part of the regular set.

The 2001 Bowman Chrome Auto Albert Pujols is $3500. I do not have it. It is the most widely counterfeited card in the hobby today. Do not buy it if you see it at a show or in a store for $500.

Then another trend began. Grading cards for condition. You take your cards, send them to Beckett and they grade them on a scale of 1 to 10 on four areas of condition (corners, edges, centering, surface). Then they seal the card in a tamper proof case. Yes this system has problems but it's the only way to sell expensive cards. No one will spend more than a few hundred bucks on an ungraded card.

A few years ago I had my 1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens graded for condition. It came back as a 9.5/Gem Mint (Beckett never gives out 10/Pristine). I sold it on eBay for $1600.

So now every year I buy Bowman, trying to make the set and find some good rookies. I also buy some Bowman Chrome hoping to hit the rookie autograph jackpot. And I buy Bowman Draft picks which has Chrome and regular cards. They do that so they can beat the other companies to the draft picks. I was late to the game on draft picks and unfortunately didn't buy any for 2002, 2003 or 2004 all of which have some great cards.

Topps Sold

A couple of you sent me this link and I sent it to TallSkott. It's completely meaningless, nothing will change with Topps baseball cards. As a customer we don't care if the company is public or privately owned.

Topps Co. Inc., known for sports cards and Bazooka bubble gum, said Tuesday it accepted a $385.4 million takeover offer from a buyout group that includes Michael Eisner, the former chief executive of The Walt Disney Co.

The buyout group, which includes The Tornante Co. LLC, founded by Eisner, and the Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, has agreed to pay $9.75 for each Topps shares, which represents a premium of 9.4 percent over the stock's Monday closing pricing of $8.91 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

The deal has been approved by the Topps board.

Topps said in a statement that the deal still faces regulatory approval and a vote by Topps shareholders, but is expected to close in the third quarter.

The company also said it "intends to solicit superior proposals from third parties during the next 40 days."

Eisner stepped down in 2005 after more than two decades years as chief executive of Disney, the entertainment and media company that owns theme parks, movie studios and the ABC, Disney and ESPN television networks.

Topps was founded in 1938 and makes Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA and other trading cards. In addition to Bazooka bubble gum, it owns the candy brands Ring Pop and Push Pop.

"This will be a change in ownership, not a change in direction," Topps Chairman and CEO Arthur T. Shorin said in a statement.

Skyrocketing in Value

I think the going rate of my 2004 Bowman Futures Game Gear Game Worn Jersey John Maine card just doubled.

Hot Rookie Cards

As I've mentioned before, I love collecting baseball cards. My favorite part is going back years later when a player becomes good and checking to see if you have his cards.
I did this during the offseason when I heard about a rookie pitcher with the Twins who might be better than phenom Felix Hernandez.
That pitcher became Francisco Liriano who is now 11-2 with a 1.94 ERA and not only a Rookie of the Year front-runner (could still lose to Justin Verlander) but also a legitimate Cy Young candidate.

So I found 3 of his 2002 Bowman rookies and one gold version. They are worth $6 and $12 but going for twice that much on eBay.



Liriano's teammate Joe Mauer also has his rookie card in 2002 Bowman. These cards are worth $4 and $8.



And then there's Henry Owens. This is 2006 Bowman Chrome.

Lastings Milledge Rookies

Lastings Milledge made his rookie card debut in the 2004 Bowman set. Pictured below are the regular and gold versions. Right now the cards list for $2 and $5 for the gold. They will probably double now that he is in the majors. Last year, or the year before I went to a card show with the Mike formerly known as Coach. (We have two Mikes reading this blog and I fear a Pizza Parlor Derek/Georgia Derek confusion situation is arising.) Mike bought one, maybe two packs of 2004 Bowman and got the Lastings Milledge. He immediately said "that was a waste of money" but I warned him that Milledge was a top prospect. I can't confirm the veracity of this story because Mike refuses to check his closet for the card.

I Love Baseball Cards

I have always loved and enjoyed collecting baseball cards. So much of it appeals to me, putting them in order, collecting sets or players, trying to buy the rookie cards of up and coming young players. For a time in my teens we sold cards at shows, but that became onerous for my dad once I went off to college. Now I simply buy a few boxes each summer.
My preferred brand is Bowman (Home of the Rookie Card). But new major league rules prohibit companies from making cards of players who have yet to play in the bigs. That will effectively kill the panache of Bowman which previously made a set with like 165 unknown minor leaguers, hoping that a few of them would become big stars.
The joy for me was each year buying cards, putting them in order and putting them away. Then, several years later a player emerges and you go downstairs and voila you find that you have 5 Jonny Gomes rookies (or something to that effect).
In the coming months, I will be sharing more about my hobby and more about my collection specifically.

One Good Thing I Did

Although my advice has helped Master Bates' fantasy team into an 0-2 hole to start the season, I did some impressive drafting when I was pressed into duty. Chris Shelton and Brad Hawpe were both late round pickups. Unfortunately, we didn't start Shelton in week 1, and we didn't use Hawpe in either of the first two weeks. But hopefully with the emergence of first round pick Rickie Weeks, the Outsiders will be set with three good young players for many years to come.
Chris Shelton is awesome. 8 home runs in 12 games. That's better than Babe Ruth. The only guy as good as him is Albert Pujols. From now on, I will celebrate Easter. But instead of remembering what Jesus supposedly did, I will commemorate the day Albert Pujols hit three homers including a walk-off game winner.
Travis Hafner has 7 home runs. A few years ago I went to a card show with Mike, who picked Adam Dunn on my advice. For $1 each I bought two Travis Hafners and a Jake Peavy rookie. The Hafners are $8 each now. I also bought a 7 card lot of Hafner cards for about $15. I went back and looked at them now because one of the cards is worth $40 and the other is $25, but unfortunately neither is in great condition. One is way off-center and the other has a bad corner.
Anyway, I went shopping for Chris Shelton cards on eBay, and I found his 2004 Bowman Chrome rookie is selling for about $15, about 3 times it's book value.