[chipperhank44]

Modern autos are never safe bets, even in the best of cases if you choose to buy the card while a player is in their prime.

Consider Albert Pujols. Pujols was the Mike Trout of the 2000s. He has arguably the most iconic rookie auto in the hobby and has not been linked to PEDs. All this going for him.........but once he was traded to the Angels and his numbers began to dip we saw a sharp decline in the value his autographed cards, including his rookie autos. All because of what? He started aging. His prices are seeing a resurgence this year since his power is back, but values are still well below what people were paying in 2005-2011. Back in the hay day you couldn't find a RAW copy of his 2001 Chrome RC AU for less than $3,000, and they sold for as high as $7,000. These days you can get a BGS or PSA 9 for under $3,000 and a BGS 9.5 recently sold for under $6,000.