The Pineda Stock Market is down = more cards for me

I've documented the Michael Pineda stock market a few times, but here's the gist. The same can be said for any player, really. I just notice it with Pineda since I'm constantly monitoring his cards.

Coming off of his All-Star rookie season in 2011 and an off-season trade to the Yankees, his card prices shot up. Everything was expensive. Then he spent the next two years on the DL. He was forgotten and prices plummeted. Inserts, relics, autos, refactors. They were dirt cheap. I pounced.

He came back in 2014 and started off strong, and his cards took off. If I had half a brain I would have just sold then. Then he got hurt...again. Prices fell. But he was very good when he did pitch, so prices did level off a bit, trending upward with anticipation of a big 2015.

In 2015, he started off well, capped off by a 16 K effort of the Orioles. Guess what? Prices went up. Then guess what? He got hurt. He did come back to pitch but was very ineffective. His prices have leveled off a bit, but many sellers don't quite see the trend. They still see him as a star. Therefore, Pineda cards for sale fall into three categories:

1. Sellers who still think he's an ace and price him like one. (aka cards I don't buy)
2. Uninformed sellers who think they can place a Pineda card on auction and it'll climb. These are the cards I pursue aggressively and usually score deals for dirt cheap. In fact, I just won a 2009 Bowman RC auto for $3 shipped.
3. Smart sellers who price accordingly.

As mentioned, I mostly feast on #2. This tactic allowed me to score these two cards for well under what some of their counterparts are going for. The gold has a bit of patch toward the bottom of it as well.

At this point, I think Big Mike is what he is. A talented guy capable of pitching well, who sometimes will and sometimes won't. He'll get hurt a lot and likely never pitch mega innings because of his arm troubles. He's still young, and maybe he'll overcome it, but I have a feeling he'll always be a bit of an enigma.