It's the 2007 Japanese Collegiate All-Stars memorabilia card set featuring some of Japan's top talent back in the day. Most of the cards only set me back a few dollars with the exception of one card:
2008 UD USA Baseball Japanese Collegiate All-Stars Jersey #JN-16
Based on the title of this post, you can probably figure out that I spent way too much for a jersey card of a guy I've never heard of. But Saitoh was quite the pitching phenom eleven years ago and the last card I needed for my set. According to NPB Card Guy, he became very popular after a 15 inning performance against Masahiro Tanaka that ended in a tie. I'll go ahead and assume that's the key reason I ended up paying $27.92 for this card.
What's even more surprising is that there's currently one up for sale on COMC and the vendor has an asking price of $80.25. Any one interested? If so, you're better off heading over to eBay:
Seeing dealers ask insane prices for a memorabilia card of a guy with a career ERA of 4.32 in the NPB is mind boggling. Can't imagine anyone ever paying these prices. And it doesn't change the fact that it's one of my worst COMC purchases ever.
Sadly Saitoh wasn't the only head-scratching COMC purchase I've made over the years. Neither of us have the time for me to list all of them, but here are a few along with my purchase price and the current COMC price:
Ugh #1: 2009 Topps National Chicle Autographs #NCA-GJ $16.42
There were at least two other Jennings autographs that I purchased on COMC back in the early 2010's. None of them have held their value. This is the one that has depreciated the most. He's still ranks in the Top 10 in all-time Packers receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, but his signatures can be found for less than $5 on a regular basis.
Ugh #2: 2010 Bowman Platinum Autographed Relic Refractor #PAR-PS $12.50
I purchased this card on 2/9/12, right before the 2012 MLB season. He had just wrapped up his first all-star season, had his 2nd 20+ home run season, and had a career .307 batting average. Bay Area fans, including myself had high expectations for Panda. Obviously he hasn't lived up to those expectations and his card values have plummeted.
Ugh #3: 2009 Ultimate Collection #209 $12.50
When it comes to buying cards of rising stars, football is not my forte. I thought Jeremy Maclin was going to be a super star. Yeah. That didn't happen. But his career wasn't nearly as bad as Ugh #4 and Ugh #5.
Ugh #4: 2009 Donruss Elite #107 $10
Anyone else remember the Manning to Collie connection? Sadly Manning moved on to Denver and Collie's career was hindered by injuries and that's why you can now pick up autographed rookie cards of him for a buck.
Ugh #5: 2007 Playoff Red Signatures #174 $7.99
I'll wrap up this post about terrible COMC purchases with this Breaston. He's just another wide receiver who flamed out... and his card values went along with it.
This little experiment of going back and analyzing what I paid was interesting and eye opening. The good news is I tend to focus on hall of famers and great deals, so I'd say more than 75% of my COMC purchases have held their value.
I'm planning on doing a few more posts relating to my COMC purchase history. Although none of them will be as depressing as this one.
In the meantime...
C'mon. Don't be shy. It feels good to get this kind of stuff off of your chest.
Well that's it for today.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
Seeing dealers ask insane prices for a memorabilia card of a guy with a career ERA of 4.32 in the NPB is mind boggling. Can't imagine anyone ever paying these prices. And it doesn't change the fact that it's one of my worst COMC purchases ever.
Sadly Saitoh wasn't the only head-scratching COMC purchase I've made over the years. Neither of us have the time for me to list all of them, but here are a few along with my purchase price and the current COMC price:
Ugh #1: 2009 Topps National Chicle Autographs #NCA-GJ $16.42
There were at least two other Jennings autographs that I purchased on COMC back in the early 2010's. None of them have held their value. This is the one that has depreciated the most. He's still ranks in the Top 10 in all-time Packers receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, but his signatures can be found for less than $5 on a regular basis.
Ugh #2: 2010 Bowman Platinum Autographed Relic Refractor #PAR-PS $12.50
I purchased this card on 2/9/12, right before the 2012 MLB season. He had just wrapped up his first all-star season, had his 2nd 20+ home run season, and had a career .307 batting average. Bay Area fans, including myself had high expectations for Panda. Obviously he hasn't lived up to those expectations and his card values have plummeted.
Ugh #3: 2009 Ultimate Collection #209 $12.50
When it comes to buying cards of rising stars, football is not my forte. I thought Jeremy Maclin was going to be a super star. Yeah. That didn't happen. But his career wasn't nearly as bad as Ugh #4 and Ugh #5.
Ugh #4: 2009 Donruss Elite #107 $10
Anyone else remember the Manning to Collie connection? Sadly Manning moved on to Denver and Collie's career was hindered by injuries and that's why you can now pick up autographed rookie cards of him for a buck.
Ugh #5: 2007 Playoff Red Signatures #174 $7.99
I'll wrap up this post about terrible COMC purchases with this Breaston. He's just another wide receiver who flamed out... and his card values went along with it.
This little experiment of going back and analyzing what I paid was interesting and eye opening. The good news is I tend to focus on hall of famers and great deals, so I'd say more than 75% of my COMC purchases have held their value.
I'm planning on doing a few more posts relating to my COMC purchase history. Although none of them will be as depressing as this one.
In the meantime...
In regards to value, what are some of your worst sports card purchases?
C'mon. Don't be shy. It feels good to get this kind of stuff off of your chest.
Well that's it for today.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
24 comments:
I probably overpaid for pretty much everything in my Jon Singleton player collection.
I bought a Juan Soto Pink Refractor for a ridiculous price recently to complete my 2018 Topps Chrome Update Pink Refractor set. He'll have to be a pretty good player for a long time in order for that purchase price to hold up.
Like you said, there are just too many.
Oof. My main problem is buying, despite having lists of cards I have, the same card(s) again and again.
This is one reason I'm happy I don't spend a lot of money on current cards. I'm sure I've paid a buck on COMC for something I could've gotten on Sportlots for 18¢ but that's about it.
Hey $27 isn’t too bad for worst purchase ever Fuji! That purchase history is one thing I love about COMC.
I wonder if you can do this with Ebay? I tend to use my COMC account for smaller purchases, probably have not been burned badly there. Ebay is another story.
Although I've gotten some really good deals on the player lately, I definitely overspent on some Johnny Manziel cards during his rookie season.
He has a cool autograph though.
Looking at my COMC purchases, the most recent waste of money was a Jose Ramirez Topps Chrome RC I bought in August for $13.25. Had I waited six months, I could have bought one for...$3.25.
I don't chase rookies or the hottest thing, nor do I collect autographs or "hits," so that insulates me from a lot of overspending. I'm sure I've paid more than I should by a few dollars on many, many COMC cards, but nothing major.
When I go back to my parent's house and look at the cards I bought in the early 90s I often think to myself "If I had invested that 20 bucks in Apple stock instead of spending it on that 1985 Donruss Eric Davis rookie card I bought in 1990, I wonder how much that would be worth today?
Actually though the worst regrets I get are not with bad purchases I've made, but good purchases I've passed up. There is an actual science to this and we experience the feeling of having missed an opportunity (missing a bargain) stronger than the feeling of having done something we shouldn't have (paid too much for something).
I don't really buy a lot of high-dollar stuff, so my overspending usually comes in the form of buying a card from a card show quarter box and seeing the same card later on for a dime.
raz - wow. you built a complete pink refractor set? that's pretty awesome. i like soto. sure hope he pays off for you
john miller - one of the things i noticed is that a lot of my lower end purchases that i overpaid on were actually stuff for other people.
peter k. steinberg - lol. i've done that a few times myself.
nick vossbrink - yeah the more you spend, the more of a risk. if there's a bright side to this post, it's that these six cards were the six biggest comc regrets in terms of purchase price.
shoeboxlegends - i agree. there are way more comc purchases in my purchase history where card values have either held their own or gone up. one of the things i lucked out on were a bunch of psa 10 graded rookie cards i picked up in 2010 and 2011 that have soared in value.
snorting bull - i keep track of all of my eBay purchases as well. it's not listed in an excel spreadsheet, but i can do a quick search in my mailbox and find the price i spent on every purchase since the late 2000's.
angus - lol. even i overpaid for a manziel or two ;)
chris - jose ramirez is a stud. as soon as he wins his first mvp, that $13.25 is going to look like a deal
night owl - yeah... two of my favorite things to buy are autographs and "hits", but i try my best to stick to hall of famers. i don't kid myself. i know i won't get my money out of most of my purchases, but they don't crash like that japanese guy's jersey card either. i've just gotten into the whole chasing rookies scene, but maybe i need to rethink that decision.
sean - so so true. when i worked at my lcs back in the early 90's, i had the opportunity to buy jordan rookies for less than $200. can't believe i didn't grab at least one.
nick - lol. kinda makes me want to give up my interest in high dollar stuff and stick to quarter bins. ;)
You win some and lose some. I try to not harp on it. My worst will always be when, as a kid, I talked my mom into buying me a Reggie Jackson rookie at the LCS in the early 90s at the height of the card craze. I think it was a few hundred bucks. Took me a long time to pay it off with chores and allowance. The same card would probably be like $30-40 on eBay today.
I think I paid like $60 for an Eddie Murray RC in about 1995.
My biggest Sports related overspend was $360 on a Game Used Virdon Jersey. I have snce bought two more for extremely less money. I legitimized it by telling my self even if it cost 500 I would be saving money if Topps ended up with the thing and chopped it up into a Jersey cards with a bunch of parallels to chase.
The worst buy of my youth was a second-year Hakeem Olajuwon Fleer card that I saved up and bought at the LCS for full Beckett price + tax ($32.50). When I got it home and inspected it, I noticed it had fuzzy corners and was generally not in great shape.
Today you can get that card for $2-$3, and a PSA 9 is on COMC for $28.99.
I made an awful trade in 1989. I just HAD to have the “hard to come by” Upper Deck extended Jim Abbott, so I traded a very sharp looking 1970 Topps Super Glossy O.J Simpson straight up!!!
This was a decade before his fall from grace, football cards were still pretty blasé, and Abbott was a pretty big deal ... but uggh!
I got bit by the prospecting bug between 2007-08 and paid at least $50 for certified autograph cards of greats like Jason Heyward, Josh Vitters, Matt LaPorta.
Nothing jumps to mind, although I’m sure I’ve made many bad purchases. Probably some autographs of Yankees propspects who never made it. (Except Ty Hensley).
I'm sure that I've made some bad purchases over the years, thankfully though I don't seem to retain memories of what I paid for something after more than a few months.
That is a generous mom :)
Not sure if I’ve ever got cards for investment, but I have one or two purchases I regret.
I watched a few Marlins games in 2010, and I thought Leo Nunez was a stud, so I got a few of his cards on COMC. Didn’t spend more than a buck a card, but he turned into a bust.
At one point, I purchased a repack or something with a guaranteed Pete Rose graded game-used bat card in it. I’ve since heard stories from guys whom have played with him that makes me never want to get another Rose card again.
Speaking of repacks, I think every repack I have every purchased was a waste of money.
defgav - wow. gotta agree with jon. your mom is really generous. one of these days i'll finally add a reggie rookie card to my collection.
adame - when i read gavin's comment, two rookie cards popped into my head that were high back in the 90's: ozzie smith and eddie murray. oh rickey too. the good news for you is that $60 probably wasn't the peak price for murray. pretty sure it once sold for higher than that. as for that virdon, at least it was a game used jersey. i once spent $600+ for a team signed a's jersey that has a bunch of no names on it. btw... i just realized you have a blog. look forward to reading and commenting on your posts
baltmoss68 - oh man... things can get pretty ugly on this end if we start talking about bad trades ;)
laurens - ouch. i remember when i got a vitters auto #'d to five and thinking how cool it was.
the lost collector - it's a good thing when nothing comes to mind. it either means you're subconsciously blocking it out... or you're awesome at predicting prospects :)
jon - i wish i was so lucky. i keep track of all of my ebay and comc purchases.
jeremya1um - they have repacks with game used rose cards? why can't i find any of those? as for repacks themselves... you've gotta factor in the entertainment value. at least that's what i keep telling myself ;)
I PC'd Leontee Carroo in 2016 / 2017 enough said :(
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