Albies - Soriano
Kep13
Posts: 515 ✭✭✭
You can see that Albies graded cards are starting to bring in some decent coin lately. This got me thinking about Alfonso Soriano. He too was initially a great hitting/base stealing 2nd sacker. Granted, Albies probably won't steal the bags that Soriano did nor will he hit 40 HRs consistently, like Soriano did, but he appears poised to put up good numbers for many years. The question then becomes -- do his cards end up where Soriano's are now, 20 years down the road? Soriano hit over 400 HRs, yet his rookies in PSA 10 can be had for the price of a good burger/beer. Is Soriano just one of those players who people don't collect? Was Soriano's Bowman Chrome rookie in PSA 10 ever going for as much as Albies Bowman Chrome Prospect card does already?
And I guess another point, which is obvious to most -- it truly is hard to know when is the best time to sell a player's cards, if you are someone who is in the hobby to make money on a consistent basis...Albies could hit over 300 HRs as a 2nd basemen, but 10-15 years from now, his cards may sell for less than they do now...is it only the true stars of each generation whose cards continue to rise or at least stay even over time?
Comments
I would agree with your last statement, the true stars of each generation. I believe the problem with Soriano was that his Cubs career was, let's just say, dismal. The Cubs, and the fans would have been happy to get rid of him 3 years before his contract was over. Being a 40 year Cub fan, I can say that his and Heywards are the worst contracts I have seen them get into. I think that due to production runs over the last 30 years, even rookies of the "above average" player may start out hot but not have much value in the future. Everyone is out to make a quick buck selling stuff as soon as it comes out or when a player is really hot but you really have to look at the trend that the majority of those cards lose their value over the years. Now, I will say, I'm more of a vintage guy and don't do much with the new stuff other than flip it. Guys like Harper and Trout I don't think you can go wrong with as they are the stars of our generation.