Going prospecting

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Recently, I had an idea that for some reason I hadn't considered before, probably because I have never really cared about collecting cards.  It's also probably because recently a Mike Trout signed rookie card went for over $900,000 in an auction.  That's a lot of zeros.  I like owning items in my collection that have lots of zeros.  I did a little online sleuthing and realized that right now the sports card market is booming and that there some shrewd investors buying into the market to make some money.  It then dawned on me that reading two articles now made me an expert.  Actually no it didn't, but I do know who the best baseball prospects are and which ones have the highest ceilings to become superstars, so I decided to go prospecting for cardboard gold.  The first up was Jo Adell.  This guy sometimes gets Mike Trout comparisons, so I figured why not start with him?
Note the top right, where this particular card is numbered 16/20.  Logically, there being a lower total number of cards in existence would make the card more valuable long term as people lose the other 19.  I did realize after reading my third article that maybe Leaf didn't actually hold the highest value of all the sports cards manufacturers, and that was why I was able to obtain this card more cheaply than I was anticipating.  Oh well!  It is still a clean, low numbered card from a player I did not have an autograph from yet.

The bigger name to come in the mail yesterday is one I'm mentioning second because it wasn't an autograph card.  This blog is supposed to be about autographs, but I still wanted to post a picture of this card since this guy is already a legitimate player in baseball and is still young.  I found a Juan Soto rookie card that had been slabbed and graded a gem mint 10 by PSA.  I suspect that if young Mr. Soto continues on his current career trajectory, this card will continue to rise in value.  There are dozens of rookie cards for so many players nowadays that it honestly gets kind of overwhelming.

Thank you for reading.

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