Is AARON JUDGE a Good Buy Right Now? Yes... and no

You've seen it all over the news right now, Aaron Judge just hit his 62nd homerun of the season, and understandably, a lot of people are excited. For reasons like this, I've been seeing a lot of activity on the market when it comes to Judge, so I think it's time we talk about his potential place in your collection. Should you buy into Aaron Judge, or avoid him like the plague?

So honestly, with him just hitting that 62nd homerun, the market is just absolutely crazy right now. It's been a while since I've seen crazy movement like this. Is that a good thing? Well, yes and no. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, and we'll get to that shortly. For me though, the energy is really fun. It brings back memories of when guys like McGwire were smashing records and TV networks were constantly bringing live updates in the middle of other shows so we could all watch history being made.

Anyways, does Judge have a chance of getting the Triple Crown? I'm not so sure. He's good for sure, but the season is getting pretty late, and I just don't know if he's got it in him at this point. 

Some real quick stats. Hall of famer? Not yet, and probably not likely if we're just being realistic. He's a .283 career hitter with 219 homeruns in his career. Currently he's into his 7th season and he's 30 years old. At this point, I would think he's got 1 big contract left in him, so maybe we'll see him for 7 or so years still, but we don't even know if the Yankees are going to hold onto him at this point, so there is really a lot in the air when it comes to Mr. Aaron Judge. I hope he sticks with the Yankees, but we just don't know right now. For me, that would be great because I just sent in a lot of cards to PSA with him in his Yankees jersey!

Down to business, should you buy Aaron Judge items right now?

We'll start with his cards and then move onto autographs in a moment.

In terms of cards, well, the market is kind of interesting right now. For a long time it was really saturated with graded Judge cards, but recently that has changed and suddenly you can't really find any online. They just up and vanished it seems, and they didn't vanish for cheap either.

At the same time though, PSA just started their $22 service, and so I'm expecting with recent events, a lot of people are shipping Judge cards in to get graded. So if you don't want to be buying Judge cards at an inflated value, I would wait about 6 months and come back to him. That's about the turnaround time expected right now from PSA, so give it some time and you'll see his card market fill up again and prices will likely then come down. Because right now, Aaron Judge cards are like 3x more expensive than they traditionally were. I was just seeing some Topps Chrome cards selling for about $300 when they used to only be $100. That's a huge price jump! In my opinion, you should probably just sit down, and wait this moment out patiently. 

Also don't forget, Judge is a modern player, which means he has A LOT of cards out there. It's not like the old days where only 1 or 2 rookie cards were made. He's got tons of rookies, and even more cards in other categories, so his market value really is probably lower than what's reflected at this exact moment online. For instance, Topps has really gotten into their whole Topps Now line of cards, but I mean honestly, they print so many of those. It's like they print a card for every single play a player makes. It's a lot. So again, just hold things out if you don't want to pay inflated prices. 

On eBay there are about 2,600 Judge cards posted for sale, but a lot of them have bad grades and are the cards that nobody really wants. That's why they're still there. 

Moving onto autographed items.

As you likely know, Aaron Judge is a Fanatics exclusive, and you likely know what that means. Even if they aren't doing it yet, eventually, they will start boosting Judge prices up to the moon. I know it sucks, but that's just the reality. 

Recently, my Fanatics Rep was telling me they don't plan on doing any more Judge signings for the rest of the year. Maybe that change if he pushes the homerun records this season still, but otherwise in terms of autographed items out there, we are stuck with what exists. 

Of course, if things continue moving so fast, there's a good chance Fanatics will want to jump on the opportunity and start pushing out product. So just keep your eyes open. It'll be expensive, don't go thinking it won't.

For me, I'd wait until his next signing for autographed items. Whatever items are on the market right now are so expensive, you'll probably save some money just waiting for his next signing and going about it that way. Of course, the signing will still be costly, definitely more so than the last time I did a signing with Judge in 2021. Back then, it was like $350 for an autographed ball, that number will definitely be going up.

On eBay right now, there are about 175 Fanatics certified items from Judge, so again, there are items out there, but they are costly. Baseballs used to be like $500, and now I'm charging $1,000 just because of product supply and demand and they are still flying off the shelves. It's insane. I wouldn't ever want to spend that much money on his items, that's for sure. 

Still, there are so few items out there that I actually bought a baseball mini helmet the other day, and I really hate those mini helmets. That should show you how desperate things are right now with the Judge market. I'm sure I'll be able to sell it to someone, but yeah, times are a bit crazy.

Again, this is why I'm pushing so much for you to wait things out. There are limited choices out there currently, and they are all way too expensive. Give it 6 months and see what happens. I'm pretty confident prices will come down and products will become more available. I know, you won't get that serotonin hit right now, but your bank account will thank you and me.