30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, August 28, 2017

Win Some. Lose More.

Back in early August, I was visiting my parents in Vegas.  One afternoon, my parents decided to take a nap, so I killed some time sifting through and organizing my graded cards.


Most of the stuff are cards you've seen before and/or stuff that's not really worth mentioning.  However one card really stood out to me when I came across it.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a 1997 Bowman Chrome PSA 10 Adrian Beltre sitting in the box.

I have no idea that I owned this card... let alone how I acquired it.

Luckily... you can download or look up your COMC purchase history.  And after about ten minutes of clicking through pages, I found this:


Back in the summer of 2011... I purchased this card for $5.38.

I never really understood why people sell graded cards for less than the grading fees themselves.  But whatever... I'll take it.

Some of you already know that this card has really started to rise in popularity as of late.  Raw copies have been selling for $10 to $30 on eBay, while PSA 10 versions sell for $150 to $200.


It's truly amazing what 3,000 hits, a comment about an umpire, and the relocation of an on-deck circle can do for your card values.

Unfortunately... for every Beltre hidden treasure story... I have fifty stories about guys like Mike Greenwell:

1987 Topps #259

The 21st challenge in Tony's 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge asks us to share a card of a rookie you thought you were "investing" in.  Mike Greenwell's 1987 Topps card was one of the first cards that came to mind.

Back in the late 80's, he was a rising star who earned two trips to the MLB All-Star Game in his first three full seasons as an MLBer.  In 1988, he was the runner up in AL MVP voting to Jose Canseco.

While he was blossoming into a huge star, I was blossoming into a full time collector who was investing almost everything I had into this hobby.  The good news is I was only in high school, so that wasn't much.

The bad news is... all of the Greenwell rookie cards I invested in back in the day are literally dime box fodder.

Maybe one day I'll sell the Beltre to help balance out the losses I suffered from my Greenwell investment.  Unfortunately I don't have a bunch of other hidden treasures to help cover the hundreds... possibly thousands of rookie card investments I made over the years.

Thankfully... I learned a long time ago to collect for personal enjoyment and leave the investing game to others.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

10 comments:

Laurens said...

A Bowman Chrome Beltre rookie is one I'd like to have - I don't think I ever thought about owning a single one at any point within the last five years and whoosh, the value of the card just skyrocketed.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Sweet find with the Beltre!

shoeboxlegends said...

Nice score Fuji!

Also, a tip that may save you time in the future, you can click the link on the Purchase History page of COMC to download your entire purchase history (towards the top). This will download it in cvs format, you can open it in notepad or any app of your choice and simply search for the card in question. Saves a lot of time flipping through page by page!

Swing And A Pop-up said...

Pretty much everything from 1987 Topps is dimebox fodder.

Hackenbush said...

It's like leafing through an old book and finding a couple of hundred dollar bills!

Jon said...

Great analogy!

Fuji said...

laurens - i don't have access to the information, but it'd be cool to see how much it's gone up since just last year.

john miller - thanks!

shoeboxlegends - lol. i'm computer illiterate

swing and a pop-up - i know. but it's a great way to add affordable rookie cards to your collection ;)

hackenbush - agree with jon. great analogy.

Man said...

I love that feeling of "finding" something you forgot about-like cash in you pocket. Great card of s future HOFER

Collecting Cutch said...

That's a sweet score finding that Beltre

Fuji said...

b man - yeah. it's a shame that i'll probably just hold onto it... when i really should flip it right now to help finance future purchases

collecting cutch - thanks! it definitely made my day