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Very early in Wax Heaven’s history, I wrote a satire about collector’s obsession with young prospects. It was a slight jab to the 40-something year old men who chase down High School kids for autographs and photos. You can read my preview of 2007 Bowman Little League here.
Thanks to a very publicized Sports Illustrated cover and story, Bryce Harper is perhaps the biggest name in The Hobby right now. On the cover, journalist Tom Verducci goes on to call Bryce, “Baseball’s Chosen One“. Considering just how awful a curse Sports Illustrated can be, one has to wonder what Bryce himself is thinking about this national media exposure.
Of course, this attention has helped Bryce’s baseball cards, including his most popular Upper Deck USA Baseball release. The card you see below is numbered to 50 copies, features a patch and jersey, plus a sticker autograph. It’s about to end on eBay and is nearing 40 bids and $700 dollars.
Did I mention the kid is just sixteen years old?
I went over this on my blog a bit, I know he looks good now, but he’s facing the best 16U pitching around, when these guys get to 18U the velocity is going to be up. I’m not saying that he’s not good or even great, I’m saying that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. $700 is insane for that card.
You should see his highlight video on youtube. He hit a 505 ft HR in Tropicana Field. Although with an aluminum bat, but they say hes still just as nasty with wood.
Madness.
Hensley Meulens thinks this is insane.
what a coincidence, I was looking him up on ebay today. I was surprised there were cards of a 16 year old. I mean, Im 16 and i cant even imagine having autographs and cards!
Closed at $898. Crazy. Up $100 in the last 10 seconds alone. There are many things I could do with $898, like pay the mortgage, feed the kids, etc..
Hitting a ball 505ft with an aluminum bat is not that big of a deal. Yup, its a long way, but a lot of 16-19 year olds can do it. Trust me, I know.
He may be a man amongst boys currently, but that changes quickly. Having said that, I hope he does well. I don’t want him to fail. I don’t have any of his cards as I don’t buy prospects and such. I have enough trouble with getting cards that hold some type of value of people that have made it to the show.
Even if this guys makes it, this card won’t sustain this type of value.
what’s even insane is the base card. $20-30 for one card based on a few auctions I glanced. Thank goodness I picked up the base set for about $15 delivered a few months ago because I wanted to collect the base but not pay up the wazoo for the overpriced boxed set.
the whole 16 year old SI cover boy worked out well for Sidney Crosby, Lebron James and Kevin Garnett.. I think they were all 16-17 when they hit the cover.
Does everyone remember Brian Taylor or Todd Van Poppel???? I think they were about the same age.
I think the key for a prospector is to just buy as much Bowman Chrome as possible, sell everything they pull and maybe get 1 or 2 of the hyped players in the set and MIGHT make some of their money back. As far as buying from the prospecting end goes, how are all those Alex Gordon superfans doing these days?
I would totally rather have a complete set of Dinosaurs Attack! cards than a high value prospect who may blow his body out before he turns 20. I would then take all the leftover money and buy groceries for a couple months…
Travis Lee comes to mind. His RCs were insane back in the day.
As far as that autograph goes… thinking back to my signature as a 16 year old, it looks NOTHING like it does now. It was more chicken scratch at the time, as is Harper’s. How will something like this hold up? Personally, I find it a little creepy. Autograph hunting is already a strange concept. (though I DO pursue them myself), but this is taking it a bit far, don’t you think?
Nice little league cards! Yeah, he is on the cover of SI this week. I hope I am as good as this kid when I’m 16. Good think I’m still 13, still got time to practice! =D =)
16 is too damn young for a dang baseball rookie card. As for Sports Illustrated I have two words: Jeff Francoeur. F$@# SI.
The problem with this is the exploitative nature of the companies making the money, No one should be banking off a 16yr old kid, its just sad what the hobby has come to.
When I saw this, I immediately thought of Colt Griffin, the Texas high school pitcher who could throw over 100-mph and was being touted as the next Nolan Ryan back in 2001. Search Google for “Colt Griffin” and you can find his story. Needless to say, he never made it in professional baseball and is currently retired.
For every Lebron there’s at least 20 others who crumble under this kind of pressure. I mean come on, the cover of SI at 16? Is there actually any more pressure he could possibly have now? The thing with Lebron as well, he came straight out of high school and into the big time, but how long does this kid have to prepare down in the minors before he can even start to try to live up to this hype?
he’s the “chosen one” and his signature looks like that? C’mon, gotta work on that, kid.
totally nuts. HOF autographs don’t even sell for that kind of money
Crazy.
moe.
Holy cow, that is crazy. I hope that is not an investment, and the person who bought the card has a lot of money to burn.
The kid is definitely getting his 15 minutes of fame:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/prodigy_at_16_hype_or_home_run
I agree with Newspaper that he needs to work on his signature, about the only thing lacking in his game if you listen to the hype.
hes in the product because he was on the USA team. thats why he has a card and auto
Okay, but I just wikipedia’d Bryce. HOLY ****! 570 foot homerun?! I’m 13 and I’m 5’9″, this kid was 10 and he was 5’10″! Well, at least I’m as tall. They say taller guys hit better. Well, I’m known to be a killer at bat and look how my height is going. Aluminum bat is easier to hit with, but 570 is still POWERFUL! Haha! He’s from LV, Nevada! Where I’m from! I hope he gives scouters some incentive to look at Vegas boys.
Kinda funny that on the same day the issue hyping this kid comes out, the CNNSI website has a feature noting that of the last 25 #1 draft picks only three have become superstars (Griffey, ARod, Chipper) and no pitcher has won more than 100 games.
Makes you kind of wonder what is going to happen to Strasburg…
I mean he was 12 and 5’10″!