As a Michael Pineda collector, I'm prepared for pine tar jokes for the rest of my Pineda-collecting career. It's ok, it's all in good fun.
It's funny watching first-hand the price of cards drop, sustain, rise, and fall again. I started collecting Pineda when he came to the Yankees. Once he got hurt and missed two seasons, the prices of his cards plummeted. Then, he had a great spring training and won a spot in the Yankees rotation. His prices went up. He then was one of the best pitchers in the AL in April and he looked like he was primed for a huge year. And his prices went waaaay up. Then the pine tar thing happened. Then the DL happened. And then guess what happened?
Yep, his card prices shot back down.
So I picked up the beauty above for just over $5 shipped. A few weeks prior? It would have run me at least $20. If anything, it's taught me a valuable lesson. Strike (sell) while the iron is hot. Take advantage of the market and of guys who come out of no where to make a big splash. It happened with Puig. It's happening now with Jose Abreu.
And no, there was no pine tar on this swatch. Although that would have been kind of cool...
It's funny how card collecting works. They're cheap, then the prices soar, then they're down again. The only thing that stays consistent (to a certain extent) are the older cards because you already know how the player turned out (HOFer, scrub, etc).
ReplyDeleteI have a few John Smoltz patches and they're pretty sweet. What I like about yours is that it's actually bigger than an m&m! I may be exaggerating, but it seems like the ones they release are awfully small. Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth the $5-$15 to get one.
And no pine tar? Daaaaaaang.
When he got caught the second time it made me laugh pretty hard. My friends and I couldn't decide if he was stupid, or just didn't care. Either way that is a sweet card.
ReplyDeleteNow might be the time for me to grab a Pineda autograph.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this trend with Nova. When he was doing well, his autographs were between 15.00-25.00. I just won one for less than 5.00. Not too bad.
Yeah...his cards are still a little higher now than they were in the off-season, but no one seems to be buying them from what I can see.
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