Question for 500 HR club or HOF Collectors

crsportscards33

Do you wait until someone is in these clubs or do you assume?? At what point is it a safe bet? 450 Home Runs?? Just curious to see if there are collectors out there who make educated guesses or if they wait until it's concrete. Some names in question would be Clemens, McGriff, Thomas, etc... Thanks for your replies.

SDSportsFan

I usually try to make an educated guess and get the card ahead of the player's milestone. For instance, I picked up a 1986 Donruss Fred McGriff a couple of months ago, and I'm currently thinking about getting Jim Thome's RCs.

I basically look at the player's recent performance and age, and then determine if they have a legitimate shot. I try not to do it too early, since you never know when a serious injury or something else will occur and knock the player out of contention. I usually look at guys once they reach 450 HR's or 2,800 hits, and pitchers when they reach 275 wins or 2,700 K's. I guess I wait until a player's 2 years away from whatever milestone applies.

After saying all that, I still can't believe I've never picked up a 1989 UD Griffey I just didn't have much faith in his ability to come back from all his recent injuries

Steve

DirtyHarry

crsports - I ditto Steve. This would hold true whether you are just "collecting" or buying to resell some at a later date. As to the 3 specific players you mentioned, I would not anticipate their values declining any in the short term.