Strasburg 1/1 Red Auto Surfaces on EBay

When 2010 Bowman was released, there were three cards that people were chasing above any other. One was the Heyward Superfractor, one was the now infamous Strasburg superfractor, and the other was the Strasburg 1/1 red auto. As of last week, the red 1/1 auto had not surfaced, and people were beginning to wonder how long it would take for it to show up for sale.

Well, its up now with a STAGGERING price, but I guess that is warranted considering that the unsigned Superfractor went for the price of a Honda Accord. I think there are a few points to discuss here when considering a final price, and I am sure all of these points will add up in the mind of the person who ultimately buys this card.

1. The superfractors, despite their ugliness, are the pinnacle of 1/1s in any Bowman product (or Topps product for that matter). Therefore, I would expect someone to want the super more than the 1/1 auto, as stupid as that sounds, simply because it is a superfractor. As an auto collector over a card collector, I would always want the auto first, but the hobby obviously feels differently.

2. Strasburg will have a superfractor auto in 2010 Bowman chrome, which will be worth more than this card, and possibly even the other superfractor. Auto superfractors are higher on the totem pole than non-auto. Since there are rarely non-chrome cards with as much hype as the Strasburg autos in 2010 Bowman, I would expect that the high end prospectors will value the chrome ones more.

3. The price is just asking for more news coverage, but I dont think it will sell even close to that. It will sell above 10K as long as Strasburg does well in his start, but the value of the card will drop come the release of both Topps chrome and Bowman chrome in the next few months due to the Strasburg cards available in those products. For this reason, I would expect this card to either sell off eBay or something similar, mainly because of the ridiculous amount of fees that it will take to get it off the auction block.

Personally, I could not even fathom a reason to invest in a card like this, even if you are rich beyond your wildest dreams. There is just no way that cards like this will continue to be worth as much as you pay, and almost ALWAYS come back on the market for that reason. Its the same reason we were all laughing when the Joba Chamberlain superfractor sold for 7K+.

I guess there are still some crazy rich people out there though, as there is obviously a lot of takers for cards like this.