Discover Why I Can't Stop Buying His SPORTS MEMORABILIA & My Strategy Behind It

There has been one baseball player’s sports cards and autographs I have been buying lately.  This player will come as no surprise to you.  I thought in today’s video I would talk about the items but more importantly why I have been buying him.  My hope is that this will get you thinking about other players in a different way.

Again, always do your own research and buy what is best for you, not just because some guy on YouTube or Instagram is buying them.

First off, let’s get who the player is out of the way.  That player is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.  No surprise here.   He is having an incredible year, most likely the 2021 AL MVP.  I don’t need to tell you that.

Before I get into the items, let’s talk about what I think is the more important part of today’s video, the WHY.

Outside of him obviously playing well, there are a few other factors that I always like to consider before buying items to add to my website.  Let’s touch on 3 things I like to look for.

#1 Name recognition

If you walked down the street and asked a casual baseball fan if they know who this player is, what type of answer would you get?  A definite yes, or a I’m not so sure? 

With Vlad Jr I don’t think the answer is 100% just yet, certainly not a Mike Trout.  However, I think that works a bit to your advantage right now because I believe items are still very underpriced.

With that being said, I do think Vlad Jr’s name recognition is increasing.  I like the fact that his dad is Vladimir Guerrero Sr, a Hall of Famer.  That gives him 2 ways of promoting his name, through traditional media such as live games and SportsCenter, but also anytime his dad gets interviewed or highlights are shown of him.   When that happens, they will almost certainly mention his son.

#2 He plays in Canada

Last I checked there is only 1 MLB team left in Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays.  By default, this makes them Canada’s team. 

Yes, baseball in Canada will never be the country’s #1 sport, that falls to hockey.  However, do you remember when the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993?  That indoor stadium was rocking.  Remember Joe Carter’s game-winning three run home run in game 6 of the 1993 World Series?  Absolutely an epic moment in baseball history.  Those fans were going crazy.

As of the making of this video, the Blue Jays were about 9 games out of 1^st place in the AL East.  Definitely not saying they are making the World Series in 2021.   That isn’t likely.

However, I do really like they are the only baseball team in a country of 38 million people, almost identical population to the state of California.  Imagine if there was only 1 baseball team in California and how popular they would be?

Now yes, Canadians in British Columbia might not identify as being a Blue Jay’s fan because the team is all the way on the east coast of Canada.  But should the Blue Jays get hot and make a playoff run in the near future, I can see the entire country getting behind the team.  Toronto is also the largest city in Canada.  This is a major world city.  The entire Toronto metro area has a little over 6 million people.  That means lots of fans buying Blue Jays memorabilia.

#3 People are scared to ship to Canada.

For some reason, many people think Canada is some weird foreign land and that if they ship their product there is almost guaranteed to get lost. 

As I just talked about, Canada is about as American as America in some parts.  They have a thriving economy, a well-educated population, and a safe country.  There is not a logical reason why someone should not be shipping their product to Canada.

Some may argue cost, but I can ship a card with tracking to Canada for about $14 via USPS 1^st class mail.  Gets there in about 2 weeks.

If people don’t want to ship their Vladimir Guerrero Jr memorabilia to Canada, that’s fine with me.  Less competition.  But please people, Canada is like practically shipping to the United States.  The only drawback is if you use FedEx or UPS the customs fees are absolutely theft.  Way too high.   Definitely would avoid using them at all cost.

To summarize before we get into the items, I like to look for players who are obviously playing well, have good name recognition, and have some strategic advantage, either where they play or maybe the background of the player. For example, Steve Nash sells really well in Canada because he’s Canadian.

Now let’s move onto the items I have enjoyed picking up recently.

Let’s touch on the cards first, because I know that’s what everyone wants to know.  Again, if you’ve watched any of my videos, you know I love the cheap cards.  I hate having to keep saying that, but there are a ton of new people watching the videos and I always want to mention that.  I tend to stay away from the more expensive cards because my strategy is to not only help the casual collector buy cards, but also the gift giver who is looking for something of nice quality but at an affordable price. 

Here are 4 cards I have been picking up.

#1 2019 Topps Update Card #US62

These are my favorite.  Great price, I was picking these up a few months ago for about $30 as PSA 10s.  They’ve about doubled since then so I just moved up my retirement date by about a month. 

What I love about this card is it has his rookie debut date on the card.  I think that is very cool to have in one’s collection.   Not too keen on the image, just a random pic of him in the dugout jumping.  An action shot would have been better, but it is what it is.  Can’t beat the price on this card.

#2 2019 Topps Update Card #US62 Gold Version

Same card as above, but the gold version which is numbered to 2019.  Anything gold I love.  I think that is the best parallel color of any card. 

Was picking these up for about $40 ungraded and about as cheap as $100 as PSA 10s.  If you don’t like this one, there are a few other gold cards out there.  They always seem to be very eye appealing.

#3 2019 Topps Complete Set Card #700 Fielding Variation

I was stoked when I stumbled across this card.  It was one of those cards when I saw it, I knew I had to have it.  Ever see a card like that?  Where in 1 second you know you want it?  Those are the types of cards to be collecting.

I just love the fact that he has those awesome sunglasses on and also the background of the card is a dead match to the jersey he is wearing.  Color matches are just awesome cards.  Another cheap option, was picking these up as a PSA 10 for $55.

#4 2019 Topps Living Card #179

I am a HUGE fan of Topps Living.  Really any player, but specially the retired guys like Babe Ruth and Roberto Clemente.  Most people can’t afford their older cards so these are nice affordable pickups.

I like that the Topps Living print runs are made available.  Only 27,749 were printed of this card, however that is the 2^nd highest, trailing only Juan Soto who had a print run of 28,572. 

But compared to the number of other cards they print of Vlad Jr; these short prints are way below those numbers.  That’s another big advantage to this card is there are way less out there.

Let’s move onto the autographs.

As with any baseball player, the best items to pick up are autographed baseballs.  Easy to store, hold a nice autograph for a long period of time, usually a great price.  They tend to be around $150 which I think is just a very solid price for the potential league MVP. 

One item I have seen that is priced extremely well is his autographed jersey at about $230.  This is for the officially licensed Majestic ones, not that custom or China knockoff junk.   Jerseys cost about $100, so you are paying $130 for a premium, authenticated Vlad Jr autograph.  I think that is a steal.