Collectors Corner is an exclusive feature we will be doing every week to give baseball card collectors an inside look on what’s going on with the Mets prospects.
This week we take a look at two prominent Mets prospects — Wilmer Flores and Kevin Plawecki.
It’s time to start stockpiling both Flores and Plawecki cards. I tend to recommend player cards to invest in, rather than pitchers, because it is less likely for a player to suffer a career altering injury that can relinquish your investment worthless. There is always risk involved, but if you want to minimize risk, target hitters.
Kevin Plawecki rookie cards are in the 2012 card sets, and still be found very cheap on eBay right now. Most of his upper level cards can still be had for less than $100. The average price of his cards are under $50, and that would also include graded cards. The way Plawecki is lighting up the SAL, this would be the time to get his cards on the cheap and hold on to them. If he continues to perform like this, his cards are going to balloon in value.
Wilmer Flores rookie cards are in the 2008 card sets, and carry a slightly higher price tag than those of Plawecki. If you have any Flores cards, you want to hang on to them since he is so close to the major leagues. Most of Flores’ rookie cards are found about the $100 range, but you can still get his base Bowman Chrome Rookie Autographed Card for under $50.
Flores’s autographs typically go in the $10-20 range except for the low-numbered parallels, but the trick can be finding them. With his only autographs coming from 2008 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects and 2008 Elite Extra Edition, the supply is running a bit thin (one or two have been hitting eBay each week). However, it should be noted that there has been no movement in his autograph prices over the last couple of years as his prospect status has been improving. He remains a good bargain in autographs and game-used (he has jersey and patch swatches from his 2009 and 2012 Futures Game jerseys), but it might take a major breakout season in the majors to see much of a boost to his hobby value.
Plawecki is a similar case at a very different point in his career. He has lots of autographs from 2012 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects, 2012 Bowman Sterling, 2012 EEE (redemption only), and a few Leaf products saturating the market, so prices are very low right now (less than $10 for base versions and not much more for many numbered parallels, with only his Bowman Draft colored refractor autos selling for much of a premium). He’s a good buy at these prices, but there could be some early temporary price spikes based on recent performance. He’s got a ways to go before he reaches the majors, so some ups and downs are to be expected. I would stay away from anything over $20 except for a few key autos or cornerstone pieces.
Prospect autographs are tough to project, especially with the quantities that are released from the time they are drafted (and in many cases well before that). In the entire history of Bowman autographs (which admittedly is only about 15 years), the only Mets prospects to sustain base autograph prices over $25 have been David Wright, Ike Davis, and Matt Harvey (I’m not sure of how Jose Reyes’s 2003 autos did back in his early years, but Reyes hasn’t had a very strong autograph market since I’ve been watching it). Davis has since crashed and Harvey only just spiked, leaving David Wright as the only solid long-term Mets autograph. Still, I would agree that this is a good time to buy for Plawecki and Flores.