Oh Snap! Am I a Flipper?

The San Francisco Giants have dominated local sports radio for weeks... but on my way to the post office this morning, they weren't talking about Buster Posey, Kevin Gausman, or Brandon Crawford.  They were talking about Shohei Ohtani.  And rightfully so, because he's making history and bringing positive attention to baseball.  And based on a sale I made this morning... his cards (at least some of them) are on fire.

About a month ago, I listed three of the four graded Ohtani rookie cards I purchased last summer.  Now this was a big decision for me, because up until now I have only sold two types of cards on eBay.

#1:  Cards I have multiple copies of.

#2:  Cards that aren't part of personal collections.

None of these three cards are duplicates and obviously Ohtani is part of my Japanese PC.  So... why would I cross the line and decide to sell these cards?

It's simple.  He's been hot and opportunities like this don't happen very often.

Here's a look at the card I sold this morning:

2018 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractor #150

And here's how much I paid for it:

Just over a year ago, I went out and purchased this card on COMC for $54.10.  This was a few weeks before the start of the delayed season and I wanted to add a few of his rookie cards to my collection.  At the time, I seriously debated spending this much money on graded rookie cards of a twenty-five year old player with a history of injuries.  Obviously, I pulled the trigger.

Last week, I sold this Ohtani for $155:

2018 Bowman's Best #1

Here's my purchase price:

Now if these cards were only selling for double or triple my purchase price, I would have held onto them.  However like I stated earlier... opportunities like this don't happen too often.

It's hard to determine what I'll actually end up putting into my pocket after factoring in eBay fees, income taxes, and additional shipping costs.  Whatever the profit is... it's only a small fraction of the money I've pour into the hobby over the years.

Plus... I don't want to give off the impression that it's all rainbows and butterflies.  For every Ohtani graded rookie card purchase, I've made purchases like these:

It's also a little sad to see my Ohtani collection shrink by two cards:

The last remaining Ohtani that I have up for sale is this card:

2018 Stadium Club #138

I really like this card, so I'm not in any rush to sell this card.  However... like the other two cards... if someone is willing to open up their wallet, I won't pass up an opportunity.

The one graded Ohtani I decided to keep is this rookie card:

2018 Topps #700

When I started listing these Ohtani cards, I knew I wanted to keep one.  I went with this one, because it features a nice action shot.

Plus if Ohtani rookie cards continue to soar in value, I want to make sure I have a least one graded card of his in my collection.  And if he does come back down to earth, then I'll be ready to step in and repurchase these cards for discounted prices... just like I did with guys like Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Kenji Johjima.

Speaking of these three guys, Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders recently sent me a care package that contained all three of these players, plus a few other Japanese baseball players:

2008 Upper Deck UD Game Jersey #UDJ-KJ

2004 UD Sweet Spot Sweet Threads #STS-KM

2009 Upper Deck Goudey Memorabilia #GM-DM

Dennis also sent me these two Oakland A's hits:

2004 UD Sweet Spot Sweet Threads #STS-TH

2006 Bowman Signs of the Future #SOF-TB

Back in May or April, I received a huge care package from Xavier Higgins who reads and comments on my blog.  He recently sent another package, which I have combined and sorted with his first package:

He sent me quite the variety... which covered several different areas of my collection.  One of those areas was my Japanese PC.  Here's a sweet Ichiro manufactured relic he gave me:

2021 Topps 70th Anniversary Manufactured Logo Patch #70LP-I

He actually sent a few other manufactured patches as well as a bunch of memorabilia cards that will eventually get featured in a post.  But for now, I'll wrap things up with 9 more Japanese cards he sent my way:

Thank you Dennis and Xavier for contributing more cards to my collection of Japanese athletes!

Here is today's question of the day...

Who is the first Japanese baseball player that pops into your head?

Do you have a favorite Japanese baseball player?

Have you ever sold a card that was part of your personal collection?

It's hard to say which Japanese player would pop into my head first, because I just flipped through all of my binders this morning... but I'm guess it would be Hideo Nomo.  As for my favorites... I'd say Ichiro and Kurt Suzuki.

Well that's it for today.  I hope all of you have a great week.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

By the way... I just spent $16.49 to have my COMC inventory shipped to me.  I thought about paying the regular flat rate price, but I didn't want to wait until November to receive my cards.

According to COMC, my estimated shipping date is next Friday:

We'll see how that goes.