I Like My $15 Card Better Than Your $700 Card

There are a lot of collectors who are enamored with the newest Angels pitcher/hitter Shohei Ohtani, or the Japanese Babe Ruth.  He was both a good hitter and pitcher in the Japan Pacific League the last few years.  His crossing over to Major League Baseball was one of the biggest stories during this offseason.  Anytime a noted names moves across the Pacific Ocean card collectors seem to take note with their wallets.

Exhibit A.

$700 plus for an autograph from the 2018 Topps Heritage set.  Seems like a lot for a player who has not taken a single regular season at-bat, or thrown a single regular season pitch.  Ohtani has thrown innings and taken at-bats during Spring Training.  They have not gone so well.  He is hitting .100 at the moment and has struck out almost one-third of the time.  Ohtani has also pitched a little more than 2 innings and given up 9 runs.

Not exactly the type of player who would have a large card budget in my collection.  Even if he were a Cardinals player, or made an appearance on the Durham Bulls, I would pass him by without a thought at the moment.

I felt like there were better uses of my money in the Topps Heritage set this year.  Namely, there is an autograph of Cardinals prospect Jack Flaherty.  It's a nice looking card, but more importantly there is a pretty good chance that Flaherty is going to be a pretty nice pitcher......

even if his first time around in the Majors could have been a little bit better.  

He has a nice looking card in Heritage too......

and for around $15 this seems to be a little bit more sound of an investment.  Flaherty does have an ERA of almost 5 in Spring Training, but he also has 20 strike outs in just 13 innings.   Swings and misses are always a good thing with pitching prospects.  I am guessing that Flaherty ends up in Memphis to start the season, but at some point he will end up on the Cardinals.  Just a hunch, but I am guessing my $15 card might end up being a little bit better than your $700 card.