⚾Skenes Scene & Wemby Wins🏀
Rookies are rocking, so collectors are collecting! How should you react to this week's hobby news?
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This is the free version of the “Happy Hobby Sports Cards” Newsletter, with the paid version coming again next week. They rotate each week.
⚾SHOULD I BUY A PAUL SKENES BASEBALL CARD?⚾
Our resident Pirates fan, Patrick Imhoff, also happens to be one of the shrewdest card collectors around — he shares his thoughts on Paul Skenes from a hobby perspective!
It’s a great question for a great pitching prospect, so let’s dig in for a verdict!
Paul Skenes has become the hottest pitching prospect to be called up to the major leagues since Stephen Strasburg made his debut in 2009. Skenes was drafted first by the Pittsburgh Pirates after a college career at the U.S. Air Force Academy and LSU, where he won a national championship.
Skenes made quick work of the minors, where he posted the following ridiculous stat line in Triple-A this year: 27 innings pitched, 0.99 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 45 strikeouts. He made his debut on May 11 against the Cubs, his only outing of the year so far, to mixed results. He ended the day with 7 strikeouts, 2 walks, 1 home run and an ERA of 6.75. He was pulled in the 5th inning as his pitch count rose. Frankly, he looked a little bit wild and nervous, but he showed he has the stuff to live up to the hype.
Which Paul Skenes Cards Are Available?
First off, he does not have an official rookie card yet from Topps. If lucky, we may see one in the 2024 Topps Update Series, unless they want to marker him for Series 1 next year. So, for now, the card to chase is his 1st Bowman Chrome refractor that was released in the 2023 Bowman Draft set. He had several parallels in that set as well, including the popular Mood Ring and Stained-Glass.
A quick search on eBay would tell you his 1st Bowman Refractor is selling for about $30-$35 now. For reference, it was going for under $10 back in January.
Should I Buy Skenes’ Card Now?
In my opinion, the answer to whether to buy or not depends on why you are buying it.
Are you a collector or an investor?
If you answered collector, then get one. For full transparency, I am a Pirates fan and I spent about $40 in January grabbing his 1st Bowman refractor, as well as the Mood Ring and Stained-Glass parallels. They look great in my collection of other Pirates and Pirates pitchers (see Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler, and I’m still looking for Anthony Solometo).
If your answer to the question was investor, let’s talk.
For investors, pitchers’ cards historically do not provide any type of return on investment. Over the past month, Skenes has been compared quite a bit to Stephen Strasburg and Mark Prior based on the hype. From a card collecting standpoint, I did some research on a few pitchers to compare him to. I chose the following: Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Hunter Greene, Spencer Strider, and Bryce Miller.
Verlander and Cole have had historically long and successful careers with rookie cards from the 2000s. The other three pitchers I listed are all young and hyped up as well, with at least two years of starting time to see how card values are holding up. Below are some stats and values on each of the players to help you decide (what is missing is eBay prices in the actual rookie year):
Justin Verlander, Houston, age 41: Career stats: 259-142 record, 3.24 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 3,365 strikeouts, AL ROY, 3 x Cy Young winner, 2 x World Series winner, AL MVP, 9 x All Star, 3 No-hitters, eBay price for his 2005 Topps gold rookie card is about $275.
Gerrit Cole, N.Y. Yankees, age 33: Career stats: 145-75 record, 3.17 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 2,152 strikeouts, Cy Young winner, 6x All Star, eBay price for his 2013 Topps Update gold rookie card is about $35.
Hunter Greene, Cincinnati, age 24: Career stats: 11-22 record, 4.38 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 374 strikeouts, eBay price for his 2022 Topps gold rookie card is under $10.
Spencer Strider, Atlanta, age 25: Career stats: 32-10 record, 3.47 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 496 strikeouts, All Star, eBay price for his 2022 Topps gold rookie card is about $30.
Bryce Miller, Seattle, age 25: Career stats: 11-10 record, 3.88 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 170 strikeouts, eBay price for his 2023 Topps gold rookie card is under $10.
From the five pitchers researched, I feel confident in saying that Verlander is the only pitcher who had a rookie card that has provided a positive return on investment. Most of this is due to cheap prices in 2005 as the hobby was not what it is today.
Greene was hyped by Topps and even had a Short Print that was highly sought after and has since lost value. While none of us know the future (see Spencer Strider injury), if choosing to invest in Skenes, which career do you think he will most mimic from above?
Also, one huge factor regarding Skenes that is not covered is that he plays for Pittsburgh, a small market with a cheap owner (as described by every Pirates fan). Gerrit Cole started his career in Pittsburgh, too, and his number changed dramatically after he left (new team, maybe a little resin on the ball) and his card is still very inexpensive to purchase.
As a collector and fan of the game, get yourself a Paul Skenes card. However, if you are only looking to invest, I would not recommend it. Let us know what you think in the comments below and as always, have a #HappyHobby!
🏀HOBBY NEWS: Wemby Wins ROY Unanimously🏀
Something I found interesting about the no-duh announcement that Victor Wembanyama won the 2023-24 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award in unanimous fashion, was the other five players who won the award unanimously.
Let me first say – Wemby is a superstar in every sense of the word and if you can get any of his rookie cards, you’ll be happy you did. He’s personable, international, amazing on the court, unique in his abilities, admired by his counterparts, and he has one foot in Topps and one foot in Panini, which makes his collectability even more interesting. You can get autos with Topps, or true rookie cards with Spurs logos with Panini.
I recently wrote a writeup of the Best Victor Wembanyama Rookie Cards everyone wants to pick up.
Here’s the list of the other five players who were unanimously voted Rookie-of-the-Year Award winners:
One of those players put together a mammoth career (Robinson), one is in the middle of a mammoth career (Lillard), one is four-time All-Star with inconsistent results (Towns), and two had their careers derailed by injuries (Griffin and Sampson).
Let’s hope Wemby has a little more of The Admiral in him than of Stick (Sampson’s nickname).
🏈🏀Remembering the Best Rookie Cards from 1976 in Each Sport⚾🏒
In 1976, the country was celebrating its bicentennial, Jimmy Carter was moving into the White House, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” ruled the silver screen, “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” ruled the boob tube, and the Steel Curtain and the Big Red Machine were in effect. Here are your top sports rookie cards from that year!
Baseball:
Dennis Eckersley (HOF) – 98 – View on eBay!
Willie Randolph (multi-RC) – 592 – View on eBay!
Ron Guidry (multi-RC) – 599 – View on eBay!
Basketball:
David Thompson (No. 1 Pick, HOF) No. 110 – View on eBay!
Football:
Steve Bartkowski (No. 1 Pick) No. 35 – View on eBay!
Walter Payton (HOF) No. 148 – View on eBay!
Randy White (HOF) No. 158 – View on eBay!
Jack Lambert (HOF) No. 220 – View on eBay!
Robert Brazile (HOF) No. 424 – View on eBay!
Ron Jaworski No. 426 – View on eBay!
Ed “Too Tall” Jones No. 427 – View on eBay!
Brian Sipe No. 516 – View on eBay!
Hockey:
Bryan Trottier (HOF) 115 – View on eBay!
⚾HAPPY HOBBY UNIVERSE UPDATES⚾
This is where we share some of the interesting things that have happened with our Happy Hobby universe in the past couple weeks, from the YouTube channel, to the podcast, to the website, to the newsletter, to our social channels!
On our video for the Best Baseball Rookie Cards From Every Topps Set, viewer @brinks554 pointed out a handful of rookie cards he thought I should add to the list! So, I did!
1958 Topps Curt Flood – 464 – View on eBay!
1962 Topps Sam McDowell - 591 – View on eBay!
1964 Topps Mickey Lolich - 128 – View on eBay!
1965 Topps Luis Tiant - 145 – View on eBay!
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Great read, David and really nice write up on Skenes by Patrick.
As for Wemby, he has definitely attracted this collector, as I’ve been compelled to buy more basketball product this year than my usual.
Well done, fellas, enjoyed it!
Well done as always. We may need to find a way to give a shout out to West Point next week as we managed to mention Air Force Academy (Skenes) and Naval Academy (Robinson and Jimmy Carter) in this episode.