I say the MVP race is between Joe Mauer and… Joe Mauer!

If I am correct, tomarrow is the announcing of the AL MVP award. Today has been crazy… I have had some people try to argue with me that it will be Texeria. I doubt it… they are basically neck and neck except for a few different things:

1) Joe Mauer was the AL Player of the Year, same as Albert Pujols who most of us agree that he is the NL MVP

2. Joe Mauer holds the Batting Title, for 2 years straight I might add

3. Joe Mauer can be considered the best on his team, with Morneau in a close second. Texeria is in at least third behind A-Rod and Jeter, if not Matsui.

If the Vikings leave, maybe Mauer will rent the Dome as his personal Trophy closet… heck if there is enough room left, maybe it can be the Smithsonian of Joe Mauer Trophies… Ha just a thought

NL and AL Cy Young’s were announced, and it was Zach Grienke and Tim Lincecum. Now all of my readers know that I went to what was supposed to be the last 2 games at the Dome, which was a pitching battle between Grienke and… I forgot, but anyway… The crowd around me was saying “Cy Young vs. MVP!” and I snapped an ok shot for where we were seated… so thata would be a nice piece for me, next to the photo of myself and Mauer in his rookie year at TwinsFest.

Now, I want to introduce the Collector’s Corner. There are no set dates for this segment, it will come and go. Today let’s look at hype cards, overproduction, and the migration of the card hobby onto the internet.

Hype cards are very popular cards. Some like the Jeter (w/Mantle and Bush) error and the Red Sox (w/Guliani) error are great examples. These are cards that can be intentional or not intentional, and the fetch a LOT of money in the first days and weeks of the news being broken on the cards. After a while, the cards decrease in value and everyone wonders what happened. I see this all the time and I tell people that they are hype cards and they decrease value. That is good enough for them, but they never ask for a reason why. It’s simple. Look at music. One song could be hot, but over time it’s popularity decreases and decreases. Same with cards. Next time you look at your BSCM observe the Hot List and where it says “1 year ago” read all those… Another reason is quantity. The Jeter and Sox are actually not errors, but more so short printed base variations, slabbed with the name error. Being that they are a short print, and less quantity, everyone races to get them and sell them on eBay… After a year or so more people start to have one. I actually own one and am 1 variation away from having a complete base set (I went to Target and bought the one with the Mantle relic.

This leads me into my next topic, overproduction. The unspoken-of overproduction era that consumed the late ’70s through the late ’90s scarred the hobby for life. Cards are worthless and looking in an old comic from the mid-late ’90s, I found that Score inserted Clemens auto cards. There were 2,500 of them and they were inserted around every 200,000 packs. I actually don’t doubt it… too many packs… the cards are only good to people like me who waste their time doing TTMs… but in today’s terms of overproduction, we see it in rookie cards, numbered cards, jersey cards, and autograph cards. Even in set production. There are too many of them. This was mind boggling for me. I saw a guy offering a Tiger Woods (don’t remember the year or product, it was a golf one not Exquisite, Goudy or Goodwin) being sold at $150, when Albert Pujols and even Micheal Jordan jersey swatches don’t go for that. It’s because of overproduction. If I had a nickel for everytime I saw a Jordan 1/1 auto patch… or auto, jersey, patch, or  dual, I could buy them all… it’s ridiculous… and setting aside the whole “True RC” thing, base rookies are worthless, even of big players. I suppose true rc are worth a good sum but I am talking about like… David Price, Rick Porcello, Andrew Mcutchen… I am sure their Bowman first year prospect cards are worth a whole lot more than their first MLB cards…

Lastly, the hobby is growing and dieing all at the same time. It is moving onto the internet, opening a whole new world to the collector, but putting stores outta buisness and the good ole’ tradin with a friend comes to a new meaning. It isn’t sit in your bedroom tradin your favorite stars with a good buddy, it’s sittin at your computer tradin cards with someone you have never met. These trading supersites are everywhere. It has even consumed YouTube. The shops can’t compete with the internet. I was in South Dakota one time and we stopped in a little store to see if there were any shops in the area, and a guy told us “There were but they can’t compete with the internet.” I will agree there is a great price difference… Shops’ prices don’t come near the online shops stationed around the net. There are benefits to each, such as at a shop, you pay a little more but you get it same day… you get it as soon as you hand over the money. Online shops if you want it NEXT day you can but for a very costly shipping price. Online has more box variety, mixed with your trading supersites for more singles variety and the box price is usually cheaper. The nearest shop is about an hr away… I never get there much. Is it also ruining the chances for young collectors? I don’t think it is that much. Only in terms of if you live in a small town without a Wal-Mart and no shop, that hurts the chances. But that is really the only area I can think of that does that.

Thanks for reading the VERY long OP