Tag Archives: Stephen Strasburg

FCB Weekly Hot List May 4th 2012 Edition

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The calendar just turned over to May, right?  For May it sure feels like this week’s sports news cycle has been dominated by the NFL.  As I was writing this list last week, the first round of the NFL draft had just concluded and we were about to embark on rounds 2-7.  The draft always causes some movement in early season NFL rookie cards.  Thanks to Leaf, there is a better option available earlier in the year than usual, making it even more interesting.  I mean, what collector isn’t enthused by the Jags trade up to get Justin Blackmon – Jaguars cards sell for crazy money?  right?  right?  please?  Sigh.  On the flip side I had a guy not pay for Nick Perry Leaf Metal Prismatic Auto /99 a couple weeks ago, he won it then for $4.25.  This card was relisted and sold last Sunday for just under $18 and because Nick was drafted by the Packers, the winner is me.  Oh and the David Decastro auto that didn’t get paid for, instead of $2.99, I got $12.75 – yeah, you know what it is, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow.

Unfortunately the draft was about the end of the positive NFL news for the week.  Sitting in a meeting at work Wednesday I saw the alert pop up on my iPhone that Oceanside police were investigating a shooting at Junior Seau’s house, likely a suicide.  I’ll leave the pondering about the effects of playing in the NFL on the brain to others, the bottom line is that Junior was several things – a San Diego icon, a Hall of Fame caliber linebacker and from all accounts a very decent human being.  The interview with his mom on TV was positively gut wrenching and sigh.

Lastly, suspensions were handed out for Jonathan Vilma among other players in “BountyGate” or “Mutiny on the Bounty” or “the Bounties were plentiful” or whatever else you’d like to call it.  Vilma’s out for the year, so is Sean Payton and there’s been a bounty (oh yes, I just did) of other penalties inflicted on the Saints.  A couple questions to ponder regarding this incident and any others of the sport.  Do you think the Saints really wanted to hurt people (insanely hard hits etc.) any more than another team?  So is it that much worse that there was some structure to it?  At what point in time should we stop calling it football and start issuing tutus instead of pants?  Is Roger Goodell in the news and involved in the game far too often as the commissioner?  Oh, I’m sure you can tell which way I lean on this sort of thing but I think at least a couple of those questions are worth considering none the less.

Any other week in May, the most impactful news item would have been the draft and where players went but whenever a player dies, especially one of notoriety like Junior, their autos skyrocket and with that, we begin.

1. Junior Seau Autographs

Seau

Comments: Well, to make the Hot List, your cards have to go up, no qualifiers on why.  Most of the reasons that guys make this list are for things like Perfect Games (Humber), breakout performances, huge weeks and far too often death.  It’s an unfortunate reality and from a purely economic perspective death means no more autos therefore causing a rush to market.  The card pictured above had buy it nows hit this week for $175 after selling last week for literally 1/10th of that.

2. A.J. Jenkins 2012 Leaf Metal Autos

Comments: Because I am a homer I had bought up some A.J. Jenkins Leaf Metal Purple Prismatic Autos and had them sitting on eBay, fishing.  Truth of the matter was I bought too early and up until Thursday night I thought I overpaid, all of a sudden the iPhone starts buzzing with offers.  That’s strange, although I loved A.J. I was sure he would be a mid-round pick until the 49ers went all “Momma Incredible” on him and snagged him at the end of the first round.  This clearly excited Niners collectors and other football fans as his Metal autos went from $2 to $8 quickly.

3. Chris Davis 2007 Elite Autos

Davis Elite

Comments: Honestly, if you haven’t gotten in on an All In Cards group break that is hosted over in the box break forums, you are really missing out.  Andrew does a fantastic job, gets you good prices and your cards quick and meanwhile you get to listen to Phish softly in the background.  But your trivia question today is “do you know what Andrew’s personal favorite product to break was?”  2007 Elite is the answer I’ve heard him give before but he wasn’t pulling these Chris Davis autographs out of the product, they were redemptions and insanely hot at one point while Chris was in the Rangers minor league system.  Since then, Chris has bounced between the minors and majors and been traded to the Orioles.  However, it appears that this year he may just stick in the bigs and thus far is batting .316 with 5 HRs and 13 RBIs.  His Elite Autos went from $10 to $30 this week and it appears that 2007 Elite will be the power in the Orioles lineup this year with Chris and Matt Wieters both representing.

4. Bryan LaHair 2007 Bowman Sterling Autos

Comments: Speaking of big first basemen who have bounced around between the minors and majors, here’s another one for you.  Bryan LaHair – Bryan brings two things to mind for me.  First, as a guy who busted 4 cases of 2007 Bowman Sterling, I hated him.  He was the $.99 auto that plagued you (I actually checked, I sold a lot of 5 for $16.49 and a lot of 70 2008 Bowman Draft Rookies for $1.51).  Secondly, the guy must have gotten teased mercilessly (prior to being 6’5″ 240) with a last name like “Hey Bryan, I have a LaHair in my soup, did you make this?”  Anyway, Cubs fans are happy to have him because speaking of plagues – that’s what Carlos Pena felt like last season.  Bryan has had a stellar start to the season and the Sterling Autos I once hated that sold for $10 last week are now selling for $25 this week.

5. Brandon Weeden 2012 Leaf Metal Autos

Weeden Metal Auto

Comments: Only in the NFL Draft season will you hear so much consternation about a guy being 28, I mean, if you just listened without knowing his age you would think that he was 70+ pushing 90.  This is not the case and apparently Cleveland didn’t care.  That said, if you had Seneca Wallace, Colt McCoy, Brady Quinny the Pooh and visions of Derek Anderson dancing in your head, you may not care either.  After Ryan Tannehill was selected 8th, Cleveland grabbed Brandon Weeden in the first round too and if you haven’t noticed, first round QBs are kind of a big deal.  Brandon’s Prismatic Autos /99 doubled from $15 to $30 and in some cases a bit more.

6. Johnny Cueto 2008 Topps Chrome Autos

Cueto

Comments: Johnny’s off to a very hot start this season, not only is he 3-0 but he has a 1.39 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP, these are not cheap wins.  Johnny has had a pretty solid couple of years over the past 2 years but he is yet to put together any real eye popping stats – maybe this year is the year.  His 2008 Topps Chrome Autos moved from $5 to $13 this week.

7. Nick Perry 2012 Leaf Metal Draft Prismatic Autos

Perry Metal

Comments: As mentioned in the opening, Nick was drafted by the Green Bay Packers who have had great success with their previous USC linebacker pick (Clay anyone?) and decided to take a chance on another one.  The story is pretty simple from a Hot List perspective, had Nick been picked by the Carolina Panthers he wouldn’t be here (Kuechly isn’t) but the Packers are a huge draw both from the fan perspective and from the collectors perspective so whoever their first rounder was, was likely going to see a spike in prices and Nick’s Prismatic Autos increased about 80% week to week.

8. Edwin Encarnacion 2003 Bowman Chrome Draft Parallels

Encarnacio

Comments: Edwin has had a very respectable big league career to date.  Hit over 20 HRs several times, .262 career average, not bad at all.  Spectacular, no.  Respectable big league regular, you bet.  However, thus far in 2012 Edwin has been a lot more than a respectable regular with 9 HRs and 24 RBIs already for the Blue Jays – and you thought Jose Bautista was the big bopper (he’s in the Pujols category right now).  Edwins 2001 Topps Traded and 2003 Bowman Chrome Draft parallels went from selling for nothing to having low BINs hit this week.

9. Tyler Austin 2010 Elite Autos

 

Comments: Tyler is simply dominating the SAL this year, 21 XBH’s an OPS of over 1.2, it is just getting kind of silly.  Is it me or do the Yankees like catching prospects (or former catching prospects) – Montero, Sanchez, Austin Romine !!??!! and now Tyler Austin.  Austin’s autographs were available for pennies this offseason and now sell for a whole lot more than that, in fact, they were a 20 dollar bill last week and now you’ll need to stack an Alexander Hamilton on top of that Andrew Jackson to acquire an autograph of Tyler Austin.

10. Stephen Strasburg 2010 Bowman Chrome Autos

Strasburg BC Auto

Comments: Stephen Strasburg <3 Tommy John, or James Andrews…whatever the case, Strasburg is back and seems to be feeling as good as ever.  What’s he done thus far?  Oh, just lead the NL in ERA, lose no games and have a WHIP of under .90 – are you thinking that’s crazy?  Well, you are right it is and somehow already extremely high priced cards trend higher which was the case this week with Stephen’s 2010 Bowman Chrome Autos which went from $185 to $225.

Lightning Round

11. Jered Weaver 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft Autos

Weaver

Comments: That’s how much was moving this week, a no hitter doesn’t even land you in the top 10.  Plus Jered’s autos were already selling for $50 before the no hitter that pushed them to $70.

12. Bryce Harper 2011 Bowman Chrome Refractor Autos

Harper Ref Auto

Comments: Oh yeah, this guy made his debut this week and he’s already hitting in the bigs.  Refractor Autos went to $400 up from $300 – who made the post saying he was going to be demoted again?

13. Jonathan Quick 2007-08 UD Ultimate

Quick

Comments: Hurry!  Grab some Jonathan!  Go fast!  Quick, that’s  his last name and he’s playing a huge role as goalie in the Kings playoff victories thus far, Ultimate Autos are up about 25% to $105.

 


 

FCB Weekly Hot List – March 8th 2011 Edition

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When in the desert people will drink sand.  It is an often stated phrase but at some times of the year in the card industry it rings oh so true.  I was reminded of this when I saw these sales for Robert Griffin III “cards.”  As far as you and I are concerned, Robert Griffin doesn’t have any real cards out yet – the only thing that has sold on eBay are these horrific “I made them with my laser printer and put them in a phony slab cards.”  But there is an important thing to note about the prior sentence, I said sold, as in someone sold and someone paid.  That my friends, means that sand is being exchanged and in fact, the market is heating up, so it must be desert sand.

I say all this only to bring ip something I’ve been thinking about for the last twelve months.  Across all sports, the quarterback is an extremely unique position – although he and a pitcher share the same quality, in that they have a enormous control over their team’s destiny for that game, they diverge when it comes to the hobby.  It truly doesn’t matter what NFL team the QB plays for, sure a Green Bay helps but any team will do.  If a quarterback is performing well, there’s almost no ceiling for the cards – recall Hot Listers this year like Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tim Tebow, Alex Smith, Joe Webb, Matt Flynn, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning – oops, not so much on the last one.  QBs are prime targets for both media and hobby hype and that’s interesting because we must flash back all the way to 1998 to recall when two QB prospects have been more hyped than Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin.  In 1998 there was no clear cut #1 – it was a constant debate between Peyton and Ryan “Nissan” Leaf and the Colts must still offer up prayers of Thanksgiving, daily, for their pick.  At the time, both Peyton and Ryan’s rookie cards sold like hot cakes and Peyton’s 1998 Contenders still go in excess of $2k and you can expect the same kind of craziness over Andrew Luck and RG III’s rookies.  A poll I put up this week in the football forum found that many collectors believe that RG III’s Leaf Autos will sell in excess of $150 as they release this week, we shall see.  The Leaf release will provide some excitement in an otherwise slow week for the hobby!

 

1. 2011 Topps Marquee Museum Collection Autos

Gibson

Comments: Topps Marquee provided “big hits” like Jumbo Patches of guys like Angel Pagan and autos of relatively unknown young stars, who are yet to make their mark in the baseball world.  I’m fairly certain that I was rather critical of the product on this blog, at one point in time or another.  However, it did provide something really cool, albeit in small quantities.  Museum Collection Autos which are super thick, #’d out of ten and just generally in beast mode.  Many of these cards were redemptions and have been hitting the market just recently.  The checklist is enormous but it doesn’t seem to matter who you have, these are bringing coin – an Ian Kennedy sold for $142.50, an Angel Pagan for over $50 and if you want one of the big names you’ll have to decide between that card and a President’s Auto from the 1800′s, I’m not kidding.

2. Ilya Kovalchuk 2001-02 UD Young Guns

Kovalchuk

Comments: This former #1 draft pick recorded his second hat trick in just over 3 weeks.  Ilya’s  scored a lot of points in his career but scoring in bunches like he has recently raised his name onto more hockey radars – as a result his Young Guns card which features one of the most radiant photos I have ever seen doubled in the past week.  It’s an interesting phenomenon that I have noticed when I’ve tracked hockey cards on this blog – in football you look for prices of Exquisite and National Treasures Autos and in Baseball you look for Chrome Refractor Auto but in Hockey you go look for the “plain” Young Guns cards that everyone loves.

3. Starling Marte 2011 Bowman Chrome Refractor Autos

Marte

Comments: I wonder how many out there like me have run lots of “Starling au*” searches and had their screens filled up with Mr. Marte instead of the man named Bubba.  Well, so far this spring training Starling is showing that he is worth of his own attention, starting 8 for 8 with a home run.  It’s kind of funny too, Starling was mentioned in a tweet by a scout and bam, buy it nows are hit and here he is, on the Hot List.  Starlings Chrome Refractor Autos bounced up from $13 to $20 and we’ll see over the course of the season if he can further distinguish himself from Bubba.

4. Deron Williams 2011 Auto Rookies

Comments: Illinois players in the NFL and NBA are bad for me personally – I rationalize all the reasons they are going to be wonderful and buy in.  Often times I wind up holding the bag with my Dee Brown rookie cards but I tell you what, Deron Williams does me proud.  The kid who struck me as “chubby” the first time I saw him went for 57 last week and in spite of the fact that the Nets are all kinds of bad, Deron is all sorts of good and his Rookie Autos really started rising after his stellar performance.

5. Kyrie Irving 2011 Panini National Convention Promos

Irving

Comments: Speaking of all sorts of good, in a year that’s been admittedly so-so for NBA rookies (while being unreal for 2nd year players) Kyrie stands out as a really good player on a really bad team.  The interesting thing is that a lot of scoring point guards are guys who just shoot the ball after they get past half court, see Iverson, Allen.  Kyrie on the other hand is doing this while shooting over 40% from 3 point land and 48% from the field.  Given the fact that the 2nd and 3rd leading scorers on the Cavs are Antwan Jamison and Anderson Varejao (is fear not struck into your heart now?) this is pretty impressive.  I’ve bemoaned Panini’s lack of NBA rookie cards enough this year (wait did I just bring that up again) so I’ll just suffice it to say that I sure wish I’d picked up a bunch of these free Panini Promo Packs at the Nationals because the Irving hit $80 this week, up from the mid $60s last week.

6. Stephen Strasburg 2010 Bowman Chrome Refractor Autos

Strasburg

Comments: 2012 Bowman was nominated for this list and it wasn’t because of a Nationals rookie, that’s a first because the last two years Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper have MADE that product.  Now, interestingly enough both the Strasburg and Harper cards on this list come from Bowman Chrome because Topps doesn’t miss a chance to insert either of them into a product but I digress.  As the season grows closer, the expectations for Strasburg after Tommy John surgery rise higher and higher.  This is paralleled by the prices of his cards – Bowman Chrome Refractor Autos surged to $225 this week, a price they have not seen in some time.

7. Bryce Harper 2011 Bowman Chrome Autos

Harper

Comments: I guess Bryce pulled a muscle today – it’s funny because we all know that and it’s indicative of what kind of information age we live in.  That exact same information age is driving these Harper Autos up across the board as people continue to read that he’ll “have every chance to win the RF job in Spring Training” this surge drove Bryce Autos past the $300 mark this week.

The Cold List, The Not So Hot List, The Not List

1. Seller Bulletbillfan on Ebay

Comments: I’m sure Mr. Bullet is a great guy but this sale isn’t so great.  If you watched the Box Busters that had Brian Gray with the guys from Beckett, you’d know that an Andrew Luck metal card only appears once in every couple of cases – this means that even the base card is probably limited to under 200 copies and this means that selling one for $33 is a dunce move.  See that table there at Bullet’s house – yeah, there’s lots of money left on it.

2. Manny Ramirez 1992 Bowman

Comments: I saw a PSA 9 1992 Manny Ramirez Bowman sell for $4.50 this week – a sad state for what used to be a huge card and honestly, that sale was probably higher than it was before he signed the contract.  The Not So Hot aspect of this is how fast Manny has fallen.  In 2008 he had 17 HRs, 53 RBIs and an OPS of 1.252 for the Dodgers in yes, just 53 games and now Manny’s in the news because it’s a novelty that a former slugger signed a one year contract with the As when most of us thought he was done.  I was a huge Manny fan for many years, this is sad.

3. Lucas Giolito Perfect Game Cards

Comments: Yes, last week’s #1 is on this week’s cold list.  Lucas got injured this week and all of a sudden those $65 prices that were being realized tailed off to $30 or less in a hurry.  So it is not that Lucas’ cards sell for nothing now, it is the precipitous drop that happened just shortly after his appearance on the list.  It’s an example of how quickly this hobby can turn with modern information flow and the ever fluctuating market known as eBay.

 

FCB Weekly Hot List – February 18th Edition

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FCB Weekly Hot List

1. Cesar Puello 2010 Bowman Sterling

Puello

Comments: I honestly feel a little dumb for not seeing this one coming.  He’s the #3 prospect on the Mets and this is his only auto and could be had for less than $5.  Well, those days are gone, just in case you were wondering and it’ll run you $15 to pick up a copy of Orange Julius Cesar’s Auto.  Triple in one week, that qualifies you for the #1 spot.

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