Last summer, I was watching a YouTube video with a guy showing off his newly purchased certified, pack pulled, on-card autograph of Barry Bonds. The price? $40. The place? Beckett Marketplace.
As a guy who has been trying to add as many affordable Bonds signatures to my collection, $40 seemed too good to be true. So I immediately went over to the site when lo and behold, the card popped up at the exact same price the YouTuber stated.
It features a beautiful die-cut design that's once upon a time was very popular among collectors and I couldn't add it to my cart fast enough. About a week later, this card arrived:
2001 Pacific Gold Crown Die Cuts Autograph #31
Now $40 to some collectors may seem like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a single card, but to me it was an insane, once-in-a-lifetime bargain.
The one downside to this card is that Pacific failed to add a COA to the back of these autographs, so to a random collector this might look like a card that was signed in person or through the mail. However if you look carefully, you'll notice that in between the gold foil in the crown (on the front of the card) is green foil. The regular base cards feature red foil, not green, and were pretty tough to pull. Collectors would find one of the red foil cards in every other box of 2001 Pacific Baseball.
2001 Pacific Gold Crown Die Cuts Autograph #6
There were only six different green foil cards produced for this autograph set: Chipper Jones, Corey Patterson, Frank Thomas, Gary Sheffield, Jim Edmonds, and Barry Bonds. There aren't any published pack odds for these autographs, but I'm gonna guess that they were much harder to pull than the non-autographed versions.
After I received my autograph, I immediately headed back over to Beckett Marketplace and purchased a few more. Normally, I don't buy cards for investment purposes, but these were just too cheap to pass up.
What about you?
Have you purchased any cards for investment purposes only, because it was way too good of a deal to pass up? If so, anything recently?
Well that's all I have for you today. I hope you're having a good week.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
I purchased a Brody Koerner 1/1 2015 Elite Extra edition card for around 25 bucks and my wife about shot me. She didn’t understand how I could spend that much on a card. I’m distantly related to him, and it was one of the toughest cards to complete the rainbow, so I was ok with it.
ReplyDeleteI spent 20 for a Hank Aaron game-used bat card, probably at least 25 for one of those space flown wiring cards from American Heritage, and I would definitely spend 40 for the Bonds auto.
With that being said, I usually dig through dollar boxes and such at shows, but every now and then if I like a card enough, I can definitely justify spending that much money.
Awesome Bonds auto! $40 is a great price for one of the all-time greatest sluggers.
ReplyDeleteI used to buy cards for investment/resale but I refocused a few years ago and decided that I'd rather overpay a little for something I'll keep and enjoy. If there's a steal of a deal on COMC I might jump at it (bought a few cards that didn't fit my collection for this reason) but my eBay/Beckett Marketplace shopping is only for set needs and player PCs.
No, can't say that I have. I will say that that is a very nice Chipper.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking a lot about this recently, and I have purchased a card or two that I bought primarily because I've always wanted one, but with the secondary motivation that they could also be long-term investments. I plan to post about one or two of them later this year.
ReplyDeleteThat Bonds seems like an amazing bargain to me. Being the autograph collector that you are that must have felt pretty good. Great score Fuji!
That is a great Bonds card, 40 bucks is a steal.
ReplyDeleteI do sometimes buy stuff that I wouldn't normally collect solely based on "its too good a deal to pass up at that price" thinking. Actually about half of my set collecting projects probably started that way - pouncing on a bargain and then later coming to like the cards and deciding to go after more.
I'm not sure if that is buying for investment though. On the one hand I am very aware of the value of cards I buy and won't buy something if I think it is likely to go down in value because I may want to sell these things someday. On the other hand, I haven't sold a card in over 20 years so this is definitely not a business for me, I am basically just building a collection with each purchase.
I have to agree. $40 is a good price!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen those before. Great looking autograph card. I am not at all a Bonds fan, but I still want his auto someday. That one is probably one I would be happy with.
ReplyDeleteHis rookie year I bought a ton of Peyton Manning RCs. I thought for sure he was going to be great and I was going to make a bunch of money off of them. Well I was half correct. The problem is everyone thought the same thing as me so everything I bought I paid too much for. I think I at least broke even though when I sold them all off. I'm pretty sure the only one I have left is in my Ultra RC set from that year.
ReplyDeleteI also have about 25 Brian Griese RCs. That didn't turn out so well...
Hmm, wouldn't expect Beckett Marketplace to be a place for deals. Nice pickup...
ReplyDeleteI generally look at most of my card collection as an investment ,although not an immediate one. I've never bought a card to flip It though.Lately I've been thinking about picking up some cards of established or retired guys whos card prices generally stay In the same area.
ReplyDeletejeremya1um - congratulations on completing the koener rainbow. even though i spend $25 on cards pretty often, i gotta admit... i can see how a non-collector would think it's crazy to spend that kind of money on a piece of cardboard
ReplyDeletechris - i don't actively search for deals on comc or ebay... but if i stumble across one, i'll grab it too.
johnnys trading spot - beckett still has a bunch of chippers for $50
shoeboxlegends - i was pretty excited. looking forward to seeing these long term investments
sean - i think you and i approach collecting in a very similar way. i rarely will buy something that i think will be less down the line... unless it's unopened products like blasters
matt - thanks. it's tough to find a certified autograph of bonds for $40. it's almost impossible to find a certified, pack pulled autograph of bonds for $40.
parts of my past - i haven't seen this auto pop up on ebay lately... but you should be able to grab a certified on card autograph of bonds in the $60 to $80 range. and if you're really patient... you might be able to find a bargain for $50. i'm not an investor, but if i were you, i'd try to get one before he gets into cooperstown
adame - i bought a lot of 1998 too. Sure there are guys like leaf, griese, and edwards who didn't have the hof careers we had hoped for. But manning, woodson, ward, and moss turned out okay.
the lost collector - me either. i rarely even look for cards on there
big tone - if you do end up picking up those retired guys... hope you blog about it.
I might pick up star cards (more vintage than newer autos), but it's because I can add them to my collection for cheap. Buying as an investment means you plan on selling it before you're done with it all. I might thin out my collection at some point, but won't sell off until I'm incapable of enjoying them.
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