A while back, I posted a challenge. Not for the readers of this blog (which has seemingly tripled since - I cannot thank ya'll enough), but moreso for myself.
I stumbled across an ebay auction for the entire rainbow of JP Arencibia's rookie autograph refractor lot - including the base chrome, refractor (/499), blue refractor (/199), black refractor (/100), sepia refractor (/99), gold refractor (/50) and red refractor (/25). I avoided adding the superfractor, a one-of-one, to the rainbow - as they are extremely difficult to obtain - a veritable "pull of a lifetime."
Back to the auction. The seller was asking $212.99 including shipping for all seven. It probably took the seller over a year to put them all together And that's quite an accomplishment, I'll admit - but working it out to $28/card seemed like far too much for me.
So I challenged myself to piece the rainbow together for less than $215. And today, in an non-discrete mailer, arrived the gold refractor, thus far the lowest numbered of the six that I have compiled. Leaving only the red refractor autograph.
But guess what?
I've only spent $49.80 with shipping for six of the seven autographs. In case you love mathematics, that's $8.30 per card.
Here's a breakdown:
If you look at the chart, some of the prices I paid seem a bit odd. They're not scaled exceptionally well to the scarcity of a given card. I started low, grabbing the base and the refractor (ebay and COMC). The goals were set before I got the blue refractor - of which I grabbed the first blue I saw pop up on ebay. The lesson there is to wait it out.
The blue is essentially numbered to 200, yet I paid more for it than the gold, which I waited out until last week, a variation limited to 50.
The sepia set me back the most @ $15 even. I had been watching it for weeks at $25, and the seller put it on sale one day. Right now, there's an auction on ebay for it, sitting at about $6 to ship. Thus, I repeat: wait it out.
The black was a ridiculous Black Friday bargain at COMC. So I got lucky with that one. Of course, one of those is also sitting in auction on ebay right now, comfortably at about $5. I may grab it for the hell of it, as it is by far my favorite.
...yet the red remains elusive. I know of three. One is sitting on COMC for a cool $75. No thanks, tough guy.
Another, a graded version, is on ebay, graded 9.5/10 for $169. Hey, seller, his 2012 OBP was .275.
The third is also on ebay. Ungraded and sitting at $125. I find this ridiculous. The card is limited to 25, which is rare. However, I netted this gem for just over $13, and it was limited to only ten copies.
Thus another lesson.
Wait it out.
Oh, and here's goldylocks, if that's all you're here for:
I stumbled across an ebay auction for the entire rainbow of JP Arencibia's rookie autograph refractor lot - including the base chrome, refractor (/499), blue refractor (/199), black refractor (/100), sepia refractor (/99), gold refractor (/50) and red refractor (/25). I avoided adding the superfractor, a one-of-one, to the rainbow - as they are extremely difficult to obtain - a veritable "pull of a lifetime."
Back to the auction. The seller was asking $212.99 including shipping for all seven. It probably took the seller over a year to put them all together And that's quite an accomplishment, I'll admit - but working it out to $28/card seemed like far too much for me.
So I challenged myself to piece the rainbow together for less than $215. And today, in an non-discrete mailer, arrived the gold refractor, thus far the lowest numbered of the six that I have compiled. Leaving only the red refractor autograph.
But guess what?
I've only spent $49.80 with shipping for six of the seven autographs. In case you love mathematics, that's $8.30 per card.
Here's a breakdown:
If you look at the chart, some of the prices I paid seem a bit odd. They're not scaled exceptionally well to the scarcity of a given card. I started low, grabbing the base and the refractor (ebay and COMC). The goals were set before I got the blue refractor - of which I grabbed the first blue I saw pop up on ebay. The lesson there is to wait it out.
The blue is essentially numbered to 200, yet I paid more for it than the gold, which I waited out until last week, a variation limited to 50.
The sepia set me back the most @ $15 even. I had been watching it for weeks at $25, and the seller put it on sale one day. Right now, there's an auction on ebay for it, sitting at about $6 to ship. Thus, I repeat: wait it out.
The black was a ridiculous Black Friday bargain at COMC. So I got lucky with that one. Of course, one of those is also sitting in auction on ebay right now, comfortably at about $5. I may grab it for the hell of it, as it is by far my favorite.
...yet the red remains elusive. I know of three. One is sitting on COMC for a cool $75. No thanks, tough guy.
Another, a graded version, is on ebay, graded 9.5/10 for $169. Hey, seller, his 2012 OBP was .275.
The third is also on ebay. Ungraded and sitting at $125. I find this ridiculous. The card is limited to 25, which is rare. However, I netted this gem for just over $13, and it was limited to only ten copies.
Thus another lesson.
Wait it out.
Oh, and here's goldylocks, if that's all you're here for:
Get the guinea pigs outta here, you've only spent just under $50 so far?! I gotta try and find a guy to try this project out on. That's awesome dude!
ReplyDeletePORN!
hahahaha
DeleteToo bad its J.P. I've heard small rumors swirling that he may be trade bait. However, I'm still trying to finish the Halladay 2008 UD Baseball Heroes rainbow. Down to the purple.
ReplyDelete