PITCHERS: Official Thread of the Hobby’s Outcast Position

[johnlocke36]

Originally Posted by BigSlim16

Who are you referring to here?

ill post when im done buying his stuff

[LVDan]

One guy I haven’t seen much of in this thread and I’ve personally failed to get any nice stuff of is Tarik Skubal. Just a few off brand cheapie autos n parallels. I’m usually bettter about getting ahead with guys like this so I’m regretting not buying a few nice things in summer when the rarities were more attainable. Who’s holding the goods?

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by LVDan

One guy I haven’t seen much of in this thread and I’ve personally failed to get any nice stuff of is Tarik Skubal. Just a few off brand cheapie autos n parallels. I’m usually bettter about getting ahead with guys like this so I’m regretting not buying a few nice things in summer when the rarities were more attainable. Who’s holding the goods?

I looked up some stuff of his yesterday and he’s not cheap right now.

[LVDan]

Originally Posted by MiamiMarlinsFan

I looked up some stuff of his yesterday and he’s not cheap right now.

Yeah, I’ve done some cursory searches weekly since oct and have struggled to see much of note available worth buying

[UMich92]

Originally Posted by MiamiMarlinsFan

I looked up some stuff of his yesterday and he’s not cheap right now.

He finished the 2023 season quite strong and it seems to have resulted in a solid push to his prices. As a Tigers fan, I had picked up a few autos while he was rehabbing but I was probably too cautious.

[johnlocke36]

I actually like skubal a lot but if I was gonna buy his cards I’d have to ask why buy him over cole ragans as I think they are pretty close comps. Both play for terrible teams/markets had similar stats except Ragans is a year younger and throws. 100 instead of 96-97 so skubal would have to be priced considerably under Ragans for me to buy

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by UMich92

He finished the 2023 season quite strong and it seems to have resulted in a solid push to his prices. As a Tigers fan, I had picked up a few autos while he was rehabbing but I was probably too cautious.

Yeah, definitely. I just missed it at first because my fantasy team was eliminated from contention early in the year.

[base set]

Gerrit Cole started out in a small market. True he was a 1-1 iirc, a little different, but not even Justin Verlander could retire from the Tigers.

[johnlocke36]

Really wanted to pick up some high end skenes stuff rather than ripping any draft wax. But his true red just went for over 5500. Other then strasburg super I can’t recall to many pitcher autos ever selling for over 5k let alone a red. Imagine strider super would but the upside just isn’t there for pitchers. I remember just losing out in alcantrsra super at auction (this was peak cy young year) and that was well below 5k.

For comps sake have there been any pitchers in last 10 years where non super sold for over 5k? Closest I can find with quick look is gold Cole for around 1200 so imagine red cole > 5k

Strider true red listed now 10k OBO and gold sold less than 1k. So you’re basically looking at a strider/cole floors to maintain current prices. Would need like peak degrom to make any money

[cjraleigh]

Many, many Kershaw non-supers have sold for over $5k in the past 5 years, let alone 10.

Check out 130point...and not exclusively PWCC or Goldin either.

Edit: Did you mean RC/1st Bowman in the past 10 years, or any pitcher who played in the past 10?

[cjraleigh]

I appreciate the speculative angle/thrill with pitchers, but does anyone genuinely collect them regardless of value?

Lifelong fan of the position. The quirkiness, the mechanics, the psychology, the competitive fire is without compare. When a pitcher is dealing, it's magic.

[theredmenace]

The Skenes prices are insane considering the much cheaper Eury Perez is (1) a year younger, (2) has more professional innings than Skenes has amateur innings, (3) has less autographed cards in total than Skenes has in just 2023 draft (seriously). I think the hype around Skenes is real, but if you're just speculating there's much better options.

For $5k you could probably buy all 5 Eury Perez TC red autos and have enough left over to pick up all the Taj Bradleys too

[LVDan]

New pickups

[MoreToppsPlease]

Originally Posted by cjraleigh

I appreciate the speculative angle/thrill with pitchers, but does anyone genuinely collect them regardless of value?

Lifelong fan of the position. The quirkiness, the mechanics, the psychology, the competitive fire is without compare. When a pitcher is dealing, it's magic.

Very few of these many guys showing rookie cards would’ve bought any of them if there were little or no speculative value. These are/will be the same guys who think or pretend they’re collectors during all those flipper vs collector threads.

And let’s face it…how many of the cards displayed here are RCs?

[LVDan]

Originally Posted by MoreToppsPlease

Very few of these many guys showing rookie cards would’ve bought any of them if there were little or no speculative value. These are/will be the same guys who think or pretend they’re collectors during all those flipper vs collector threads.

And let’s face it…how many of the cards displayed here are RCs?

I think and pretend I’m a collector.
Not really.
I’ve never made my intentions anything less than clear.
My main focus is making the hobby more expensive for everyone, especially kids.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by MoreToppsPlease

Very few of these many guys showing rookie cards would’ve bought any of them if there were little or no speculative value. These are/will be the same guys who think or pretend they’re collectors during all those flipper vs collector threads.

And let’s face it…how many of the cards displayed here are RCs?

You are…

[MoreToppsPlease]

Originally Posted by LVDan

I think and pretend I’m a collector.
Not really.
I’ve never made my intentions anything less than clear.
My main focus is making the hobby more expensive for everyone, especially kids.

Being so forthright sets an excellent example

Originally Posted by MiamiMarlinsFan

You are…

[LVDan]

I can’t imagine a bigger hypocrite than MMF. With his massive collection of all things Marlins. Nothing more speculative than Edddie Cabrera and Jazz. The card world is waiting with baited breath for their massive coming out party so they can overpay for their mid level RC cards. He’ll make tens of dollars when they come up, mostly at the expense of innocent children.
What a buffoon

[BigSlim16]

You’re telling me that I’m not going to be able to retire off the payouts from my Graham Ashcraft stash?


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[theredmenace]

Hell yeah I'm a collector

A collector of speculative cards

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by LVDan

I can’t imagine a bigger hypocrite than MMF. With his massive collection of all things Marlins. Nothing more speculative than Edddie Cabrera and Jazz. The card world is waiting with baited breath for their massive coming out party so they can overpay for their mid level RC cards. He’ll make tens of dollars when they come up, mostly at the expense of innocent children.
What a buffoon

[eye4talent]

Originally Posted by MoreToppsPlease

Very few of these many guys showing rookie cards would’ve bought any of them if there were little or no speculative value. These are/will be the same guys who think or pretend they’re collectors during all those flipper vs collector threads.

And let’s face it…how many of the cards displayed here are RCs?

As the OP of this thread, I’d like to make something clear: this is a safe space for fans of pitchers, a position that—as the title of the thread indicates—is not terribly appreciated by the hobby. As someone who made a killing on Soto, Acuna, Vlad, and Gleyber, I can confidently say that this is not the place for similar hopes.

Sure, we’d like to see all these guys turn into HOF-bound Cy Young candidates and for the values of their cards to rise, but we know these are mostly a bunch of future Jack Flaherty’s and Michael Wachas. Heck, as a Giants fan, I sure know how short-lived the magic of a Lincecum or MadBum can be.

Now, I’m curious to know: what self-righteous knobs think that a distinction needs to be made between collecting and making a few bucks? I like picking up cards, holding them for a while, and then releasing them back into the wild. Does that mean I’m not a collector? Not at all. I collected the cards, but then decided not to take them to my grave. Good for me. And good for the next guy.

And stop with the rookie card garbage. If you want to abide by someone else’s definition of a rookie card and confine yourself to mass-produced base cards, then that’s your thing. But if there’s a version of a card that’s a little different and a lot more rare, then that is an option for a different kind of rookie card collector.

Now, tell me: I acquired all the below cards of Hunter Greene, creating a so-called rainbow. I sure hope Greene emerges as a perennial Cy Young contender, but who knows if that’ll happen. Regardless, I’ll probably sell this rainbow someday. Am I a collector? Or a bottom-feeding flipper? (Hint: my joy of collecting comes from the journey.)

Bonus questions: Is there one rookie card, or are there 11 rookie cards in this photo? If it’s the former, would you consider this a rookie rainbow? And finally, why would people be willing to pay more for this 1/1 than for a Hunter Greene 1/1 from 2023? If it’s not a rookie card, why pay more?



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[eye4talent]

Originally Posted by BigSlim16

You’re telling me that I’m not going to be able to retire off the payouts from my Graham Ashcraft stash?


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Whoa, whoa, nobody ever said that.

Ashcraft stash = Malibu beach house.


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[johnlocke36]

Originally Posted by MoreToppsPlease

Very few of these many guys showing rookie cards would’ve bought any of them if there were little or no speculative value. These are/will be the same guys who think or pretend they’re collectors during all those flipper vs collector threads.

And let’s face it…how many of the cards displayed here are RCs?

I primarily PC pitchers that are recovering from TJ ( I also had TJ so I look to root for them). But then I also realized that I think the best pitcher investments are those recovering from TJ so my ideal scenario for certain players is build a nice stash relatively cheap, flip some and freeroll my PC with some profit left over.

There are also pitchers that have no speculative value that I would PC (I collect some relievers (like karinchak) for example) but I have no issues being patient and waiting till their cards are worthless before buying them.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

This has been one of the most fun threads since its inception. Mainly because it was a little oasis from a lot of the BS that other threads wallow in. But for some reason in the last few days we’ve been hit with:

“Anyone actually collect these things?”

“These things worth any money?”

“You’re all a bunch of flippers!”

What gives? Either way, I’m looking forward to this returning to a place where we can talk about pitchers, show cool cards, and not stress over whether someone is a “true collector” or not.