[BeanTown]

Have to completely disagree with the statement minor league cards will never be mainstream. I heard the samething with postcards a decade ago and before that it was 19th century and T206 cards. Maybe nitche is the new mainstream.

Minor league cards are the players first professional card. They sign a contract and get paid a paycheck to play in the Minors. Branding is important and thats why many minor league sets can be obtained, at the stadium.

I like having the players first Pro card. Most minor league cards have a population of under 10k. Keeping on topic here about Trout. The 2010 Perfect Game set as it has a low population and you dont have to worry about an additional print run to happen later, as it has Perfect Game logo. The Trout DAV Set has three different colors as I recall, and if you do a quick search you can see they are readily more available than the PG set.

When collectors/investors were buying up all the Topps and 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey rookies, I was gobbling up the 1988 Best San Beradino Platinum Griffeys which came in a sealed team bag and had a population of 1300. Look at the Ricky Henderson 1977 Chong minor league card. Low pop and good luck finding one. Cal Ripken has a two really rare minor league cards in the 1980 Charlotte Os. The orange version (police give away) is under 50 pop and the blue version (radio station give away) is around 300 pop. How many rookie Topps did they make of Cal Ripken? Try to guess it within a million. My favorite is Derek Jeter. How many people have his Little Sun HS card? They came in team sets of a production run of 3000. Each set has a limited eddition number on it, and each case contained a team set that had an autograph in it!

I view the Mike Trout minor league card in the same company above. Only upside. I own a couple, as I buy the factory unopen sealed bags with the hologram still on the bag. The only other way to buy is like what the OP posted which is graded. But I hate paying SMR price.

One last thought is there are many rare minor league cards that have only gone up over time. Babe Ruth Baltimore News comes to mind along with Joe Dimaggio Zeenuts. Seems stuff people don't collect at the time they were distributed, are the items that increase the most, as time go by.

Minor league can be complicated to understand whats rare and whats not. But once you know it, then happy hunting as there are many treasures out there to be found and bought. The biggest risk in buying active players is, the player gets hurt and his career doesnt last as long, and doesnt make the HOF. Worse yet, he gets in trouble for doing something he shouldn't. Its all best guess. I think Trout is a great buy at this point while you still can get him at an affordable price.