Anyone ever jump into another sport blindly?

I've been an all-baseball guy pretty much the entire time I collected (bought a couple of basketball packs in my day but that's about it.)

Then comes Rajon Rondo. The guy who had 80% of the print run on his Exquisite RC Auto's is selling out and prices seem quite reasonable. Then he starts dominating in the Playoffs, but because there are so many out there, prices barely move. Before I know it I've snagged 4 Exquisite patch auto's and sit hear wondering if I should go for more. Meanwhile, I know that I don't know the basketball market all that well, and know it works differently than baseball, but the basic rules of supply and demand seem to point in the direction, and boy is he fun to watch.

Anyone else have have something similar?

I've actually wondered the same thing as I sit by letting George Hill Exquisite Auto RC Patches sell for $45ea.... is there something i'm missing? Also I find it hard to believe Rondo stuff hasn't gone crazy since his triple double in game 5... what more can he do to garner more national attention? I dont see him winning any MVPs as long as Durant and Lebron remain in the league...

*EDIT*
Just re-read.... I see your suggesting that the market hasn't moved because of how many are available, but I dont know if thats the case, as the market is usually flooded whenever a guy starts to garner nation media attention... I think Rondo lacks the superstar potential that guys like Lebron/Melo/Durant/Paul/Dwight have...
that being said $150 seems REAL cheap for Rondo, and if he can start hitting those shots consistently then hes certaintly hit Chris Paul/Deron Williams level

sportsfanatic92 said:

I've actually wondered the same thing as I sit by letting George Hill Exquisite Auto RC Patches sell for $45ea.... is there something i'm missing? Also I find it hard to believe Rondo stuff hasn't gone crazy since his triple double in game 5... what more can he do to garner more national attention? I dont see him winning any MVPs as long as Durant and Lebron remain in the league...

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The fact that there are so many available has killed any chances of a major increase, but speaking to the seller he's probably moved close to 100 copies recently (he had like 180 of the 225 or something crazy like that.) My belief is that once they are all gone they should jump, though again I don't know the basketball card market and it's clearly different than baseball.

Seems in basketball the biggest names sell like crazy and everyone else goes really cheap, but I think Rondo might be making that leap.

I just recently jumped blindly into baseball and it has been a fun ride kinda refreshed collecting for me a little bit

Topnotchsy said:

sportsfanatic92 said:

I've actually wondered the same thing as I sit by letting George Hill Exquisite Auto RC Patches sell for $45ea.... is there something i'm missing? Also I find it hard to believe Rondo stuff hasn't gone crazy since his triple double in game 5... what more can he do to garner more national attention? I dont see him winning any MVPs as long as Durant and Lebron remain in the league...

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The fact that there are so many available has killed any chances of a major increase, but speaking to the seller he's probably moved close to 100 copies recently (he had like 180 of the 225 or something crazy like that.) My belief is that once they are all gone they should jump, though again I don't know the basketball card market and it's clearly different than baseball.

Seems in basketball the biggest names sell like crazy and everyone else goes really cheap, but I think Rondo might be making that leap.

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Ya I get that and added on to what I wrote, I completely agree with you in that I think he has a legitimate chance to make the jump, I guess I didn't realize he's moved 100 copies, that is A LOT so maybe if they keep winning and his stash starts to diminsh prices will eventually be realized

J-Rod said:

I just recently jumped blindly into baseball and it has been a fun ride kinda refreshed collecting for me a little bit

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Sounds like the opposite of what I did. You've come at a pretty hopping time, the market has rebounded really nicely recently, after a couple of years of ouch (not just due to the general market, also because of dud releases and not too much in the way of hot prospects.)

i did some research a week or 2 back about maybe buying some hockey product of my favorite Bruins. decided to hold off for awhile.
ive always thought it might be fun to dabble in nascar but player collecting there seems like a total nightmare with every driver in every single set, subset and everything else.

The problem with Rondo Exquisites is that there is a print run of 225 on his, whereas for guys like Lebron it's 99. I can't think of a single player who has an Exquisite /225 that sells for much higher than Rondo's currently go for. Certain players have experienced momentary increases, but the peak long term value for /225's seems to not be too too high.

With that being said, I think you could definitely see some short term profit if the Celtics advance further in the playoffs. Good luck with them

RJ227 said:

The problem with Rondo Exquisites is that there is a print run of 225 on his, whereas for guys like Lebron it's 99. I can't think of a single player who has an Exquisite /225 that sells for much higher than Rondo's currently go for. Certain players have experienced momentary increases, but the peak long term value for /225's seems to not be too too high.

With that being said, I think you could definitely see some short term profit if the Celtics advance further in the playoffs. Good luck with them

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Rondo's before this guy sold off sold for quite a good deal higher than they are right now. Just because they were impossible to get.

beefycheddar said:

RJ227 said:

The problem with Rondo Exquisites is that there is a print run of 225 on his, whereas for guys like Lebron it's 99. I can't think of a single player who has an Exquisite /225 that sells for much higher than Rondo's currently go for. Certain players have experienced momentary increases, but the peak long term value for /225's seems to not be too too high.

With that being said, I think you could definitely see some short term profit if the Celtics advance further in the playoffs. Good luck with them

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Rondo's before this guy sold off sold for quite a good deal higher than they are right now. Just because they were impossible to get.

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Yeah, I'm curious as to why he's selling all of his cards. He's been drying up the Celtics Exquisite market ever since the days of Al Jefferson and Delonte West.

He seemed like he was ready to sell last summer since they were all on display at the Natty.

I did it this year w/ Gerald Henderson. I'm a big DUKE fan and I loved watching Henderson play @ DUKE during his career. He didn't really play much this year and his stuff is super cheap.

-J

I think with basketball it has alot to do with scoring. I've been into the 3 sports (BB/FB/BsktB) for quite sometime & it seems like the player always has to score to get any type of attention in bsktb, plus he's gotta be the "top-dawg" on his team (which will be tough for Rondo to do because of the wealth of "star-power" the Celtics have on hand). I got in early on Monta Ellis several year's back & when he broke into that category of "top-dawg" on his team whom scores alot, it paid off VERY nicely for me.

Not really.

Although I have jumped into football more significantly over the last couple years, I wouldn't call it blindly since I began collecting the team I enjoy watching.

Once a year - whenever football season starts up - I get an itch for pigskin cards. I spend $30 to $40 at the shop on football wax, and immediately regret it, every single year. I doubt that's what anyone would consider jumping in blindly, though.

I dabble in all three sports, with more baseball than football and more football than basketball. Right now, there are two problems with Rondo. First, he can't shoot, so he'll probably never average much more than the 14 ppg he did this year. Second, despite his play in this series, he is still the fourth best player on his team. People recognize he is a complimentary player, whereas the other 3 are hall of famers. Maybe when they all retire and he takes over and is a true franchise player you'll see an increase, but I doubt it'll happen before then.

KandKCards said:

I dabble in all three sports, with more baseball than football and more football than basketball. Right now, there are two problems with Rondo. First, he can't shoot, so he'll probably never average much more than the 14 ppg he did this year. Second, despite his play in this series, he is still the fourth best player on his team. People recognize he is a complimentary player, whereas the other 3 are hall of famers. Maybe when they all retire and he takes over and is a true franchise player you'll see an increase, but I doubt it'll happen before then.

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In the eyes of the general public he is the 4th best player on the team, but in reality there is no way he is just a complimentary player on this team.

KandKCards said:

Second, despite his play in this series, he is still the fourth best player on his team. People recognize he is a complimentary player, whereas the other 3 are hall of famers. Maybe when they all retire and he takes over and is a true franchise player you'll see an increase, but I doubt it'll happen before then.

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This is the big thing with Rondo, hes not the main guy on the team or even #2 so he doesn't get the hobby or media attention that he may deserve.

The other big thing (like mentioned) is that his exquisite is /225 and not /99 like Lebron, Bosh, Melo, Wade, Paul, Deron Williams, Durant, Howard and so on and so on.

A /225 Exquisite Basketball rookie has never really broken the $200-$250 mark that i can remember. The highest a /225 ever went is i believe in about 2005 when the /225 Boris Diaw took off and hit close to $2 bills.

G $MONEY$ said:

KandKCards said:

Second, despite his play in this series, he is still the fourth best player on his team. People recognize he is a complimentary player, whereas the other 3 are hall of famers. Maybe when they all retire and he takes over and is a true franchise player you'll see an increase, but I doubt it'll happen before then.

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This is the big thing with Rondo, hes not the main guy on the team or even #2 so he doesn't get the hobby or media attention that he may deserve.

The other big thing (like mentioned) is that his exquisite is /225 and not /99 like Lebron, Bosh, Melo, Wade, Paul, Deron Williams, Durant, Howard and so on and so on.

A /225 Exquisite Basketball rookie has never really broken the $200-$250 mark that i can remember. The highest a /225 ever went is i believe in about 2005 when the /225 Boris Diaw took off and hit close to $2 bills.

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Thanks for the info guys. I'm learning as I go.

IMO he'll be the #1 guy on that team within the next couple of years, which is something I had in mind when I bought the card. Watching now he's already the #1 guy on the court for that team.

As for the /225 /99 issue, I think that has a lot to do with the quality of guys who have been /99 and the quality of guys who have been /99. If any of the players you mentioned were /225, while they would not get what they get as /99, they'd get many times $200-$250.

I guess time will tell but I firmly believe if there were 2-3 Rondo's on eBay during this run instead of 50-60, they'd be getting twice what they are (considering the seller has sold over 60 in the last week or so.)

Topnotchsy said:

As for the /225 /99 issue, I think that has a lot to do with the quality of guys who have been /99 and the quality of guys who have been /99. If any of the players you mentioned were /225, while they would not get what they get as /99, they'd get many times $200-$250.

I guess time will tell but I firmly believe if there were 2-3 Rondo's on eBay during this run instead of 50-60, they'd be getting twice what they are (considering the seller has sold over 60 in the last week or so.)

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This is true about the /99-/225 debate. Upper Deck has always made the Highest draft picks/most hyped up rookies as the /99's and there has never really been a true superstar that had a /225 Exquisite RC. Shawn Livingston was a very high draft pick in 2004 (4th overall) and they made him a /225 rookie and he debuted pretty high (around the $150-$200 range), but his prices fell after he didn't produce and all his injuries.

I am really curious to know why secote is starting to sell out. He has been buying up every Celtic rookie like crazy since back in about 2003/04. I know he had/has huge Celtic rookie collections of guys like Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Gerald Green etc. Only thing i can think of is that he really needs the money bad? Because he has been in this hobby long enough to know that he could have really maximized his Rondo profits (hes making money on them as he bought many of them for $60-$80 range) by releasing them slowly (like a few a week) instead of flooding the market with 60 of them in a week :shock: