OT - High Dollar NEW AUTO CARDS - Why ?
 

I don't own any, and never will.... but my brother has been buying some of these.

What drives people to spend such high dollars on newer AUTO cards. Short printed inserts with AUTO, cards with multiple signatures, etc.

I am referring to cards like Trout, Cabrera, Pujols, Manning, Elway, Montana, Lebron James, etc.

Can these cards hold their purchased "value" over time. Will they increase in value ?


Personally, I dont see them being sold 10 years from now for the same price they are sold today. I see them being sold for much less.

thoughts ?

Depends on the athlete and the demand. Some athletes like Tom Brady or Tim Duncan very rarely sign for card companies at all, so the cards with autos out there are pretty high in value and probably will continue to stay that way unless they start signing. Others like Peyton Manning sign tons of cards so his auto cards are depressed even though he's a big star. The short print cards will get value because there are some player set collectors that absolutely must get every card for a player. I agree with all of the parallels when a short print doesn't really seem like short print because it's just the same card but in a different color or something like that.

I don't see the staple cards like the Bowman Pujols and Trout signed rookies going down at all. They've only gone up. Modern collectors, as long as they're around, will always chase those cards. I can see the Trout card, when all is said and done, being looked at like the 1952 Mantle.

People chase them for the same reason they did the 89 UD Griffey. They're iconic cards of iconic players. Lesser cards will fluctuate, but the Griffey still goes for a pretty high price for a base set card released during the height of junk wax.

A couple of guys I work with collect those kind of cards, and I think the big name players will hold there value. Trout, lebron, jordan, manning, etc. Ask anyone who bought Lebron's exquisite rc back in 06, 07 how they did and I'm sure they made a lot of money.

I'm always surprised at what the cards of guys who haven't proven themselves yet sell for. Kris Bryant and Harper come to mind. I wouldn't be surprised if someone spends 10-30k on one of those superfractors only to have a $500 card a few years later.

There's always the risk of any current player getting busted for PEDs. That certainly would kill value, even for a Mike Trout.

I am often surprised by the low prices for huge names too. For example, the premiere Miggy signed rookie, 2000 Topps Traded, goes for much less than the Pujols or Trouts. But in my opinion, Miggy is the far superior player and will likely have the best career when everything is over.

Modern autos are never safe bets, even in the best of cases if you choose to buy the card while a player is in their prime.

Consider Albert Pujols. Pujols was the Mike Trout of the 2000s. He has arguably the most iconic rookie auto in the hobby and has not been linked to PEDs. All this going for him.........but once he was traded to the Angels and his numbers began to dip we saw a sharp decline in the value his autographed cards, including his rookie autos. All because of what? He started aging. His prices are seeing a resurgence this year since his power is back, but values are still well below what people were paying in 2005-2011. Back in the hay day you couldn't find a RAW copy of his 2001 Chrome RC AU for less than $3,000, and they sold for as high as $7,000. These days you can get a BGS or PSA 9 for under $3,000 and a BGS 9.5 recently sold for under $6,000.