Ohtani CARDS are Mostly UNDERVALUED

[Balticfox]

"Ohtani CARDS are Mostly UNDERVALUED"

I fully disagree!

1. I share the opinion of most MLB players. Sure Ohtani is very good. But he's not 10x or 50x as good as the average player which his salary indicates.

2. His cards are correspondingly overvalued. They're all just pieces of cardboard like any other from the set. Shohei Ohtani and Joe Shlobatnik cards are fundamentally near identical. Why some collectors choose to chase/covet just certain cards from a set and drive their prices to nosebleed levels is beyond me.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Wrong board, my dude. This is a pre-1945 board. Your topic belongs in the post-1980 section of the Postwar Cards area.

While we often disagree, here I'm in full agreement. Yet this thread remains in an entirely inappropriate forum.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

Whether he's the best or not, if Ohtani isn't in your top-5 hitters in all of baseball anywhere on the planet I don't know what to say.

MVP caliber hitter. CY caliber pitcher. Unless one wants to pick on Ohtani's ability to pitch 200-ish IP as a pitcher, both stand strong.

Guy is about to hit 40+ homers for the 3rd time in 4 years. He's going to join the 40-40 club. He's recovering from Tommy John surgery while doing it. wtf...

3.01 ERA, 1.08 WHIP over 481.2ip

It's easy to ignore his pitching based on injury, but based on results when healthy it isn't.

His biggest knock is he doesn't play the field and if he did, it would most likely be below average.

Long story short...I've never seen anyone like him in my lifetime with skills this elevated and I'm not sure anyone else here has, either.

He's not a rare player, he's not a generational player, he's only being compared to Ruth because who else are you going to compare a guy with his skill set to that played in 1900+? He's a very unique player.

All very nice but entirely irrelevant. The question is about the pricing of his card. And even were I to concede the point that a player's card prices should reflect that player's relative performance on the field (which is a debateable assumption), Ohtani is not 10x or 100x better than the average Dodger. Ask any of his former teammates.

[molenick]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

"Ohtani CARDS are Mostly UNDERVALUED"

2. His cards are correspondingly overvalued. They're all just pieces of cardboard like any other from the set. Shohei Ohtani and Joe Shlobatnik cards are fundamentally near identical. Why some collectors choose to chase/covet just certain cards from a set and drive their prices to nosebleed levels is beyond me.

I essentially agree with this, when you get right down to it, it makes no sense. Based on the raw material involved, almost all baseball cards have equal value, which is next to nothing.

But coveting certain cards is the basis of pricing for the entire hobby, not just Shohei Ohtani cards. Why does Babe Ruth cost more than Marv Throneberry? Why does T208 cost more than T207? Why does PSA 8 cost more than PSA 7? Why does the first card of a player cost more than the last card?

Hobby pricing is just supply and demand and right now there is high demand for Ohtani cards. Whether that demand will continue and thus maintain his card prices is unknown.

[By the way, don't stop too long to think about why we pay money for cardboard. If everyone does this, the entire hobby will collapse!]

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by molenick

But coveting certain cards is the basis of pricing for the entire hobby, not just Shohei Ohtani cards. Why does Babe Ruth cost more than Marv Throneberry? Why does T208 cost more than T207? Why does PSA 8 cost more than PSA 7? Why does the first card of a player cost more than the last card?

I put the extreme range down to silliness. That though is because I'm not among the fortunate few for whom money is no object. I have to weigh the relative "merits" of any purchase.

Originally Posted by molenick

Hobby pricing is just supply and demand and right now there is high demand for Ohtani cards. Whether that demand will continue and thus maintain his card prices is unknown.

[By the way, don't stop too long to think about why we pay money for cardboard. If everyone does this, the entire hobby will collapse!]

I long ago realized that my collecting is a compulsion, an addiction even. I keep telling myself that it's better (less pathetic) than being a smoker, alcoholic or drug addict but I may just be rationalizing and thus fooling myself.

[molenick]

I know...every now and then I ask myself why I would rather have this card than the money I spend on it that could go towards literally anything else in the world *...and then I buy the card anyway.

And, yes, obviously we all know why certain cards cost a lot of money...it is the wide disparity in pricing that sometimes makes you go "woah".

* not "anything" but you get my drift