General Forum

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I have long wondered if the hobby was sleeping on the Ohtani Opening Day base. Other than his Topps Now card issued of his press conference, his OD release was his first major packed out set he appeared in making it his first true RC. 

It seemed forever to be overlooked IMO and wondered any other thoughts on this card and if there will ever be any significant buzz brought on to this card by the hobby?

It's definitely a cheap RC option. 

Ohtani may have been slept on at first but soon everything will shoot up in price for him.

I grabbed a single 99 cent pack of 2018 Opening Day at Target back when it was released and pulled the Ohtani so I thought that was pretty cool.  I didn't get much Opening Day that year because I spent on a hobby box of the Series 1 flagship and felt I had spent enough.  

Opening Day is the cheapest of all the cards released every year. People don't care which card came first for the most part when it is cheap product vs. higher cost product. His first Topps flagship card will be more sought after than his OD card long after he is retired. His injury shortly after coming to MLB really hurt his card values too. I'm sure the people wanting his first RC got it pretty cheap then. I think his cards might go back up again soon if he makes it through this season with no injuries and a decent season. But there's not a lot of prospecting and investing going on (even today) for a player a few years into his MLB career with a past injury that sidelined him for quite a while. Look what happened in the past with Stephen Strasburg and Yu Davish (among others). Superstar status right at the start and an injury reduced them to just another pitcher. Both are still awesome players, but nothing base is selling for thousands of dollars anymore. Ohtani is one of the latest in a long line of that happening to pitchers.

I totally agree.  And yes the OD sets are like candy compared to the rest. But tends and trends change from time to time. Look how the hobby has shown love to the chromium stocks, people said in baseball they would never take over paper stock flagship but insert a little covid market in everything else and back side you come out with chrome getting 5/2 to 3/1 or better on paper stock. Just never can tell what the hobby will do next.

Another case is how veteran base of say 2012 Prizm, when LeBron was getting $500 on base, crazy.

But also first year prizm goes for a lot

I'm skeptical of all base-level rookie cards these days, ever since I was shocked to find out that Xander Bogaerts' rookie isn't considered to be worth much more than a dollar or two. If a guy has been putting together some solid seasons for years, why should his rookie card value not have already shot up in value while Ohtani has only done something special for two months? I just don't think Ohtani's cards are going to make much of a stir unless, of course, they're glittery, numbered and slabbed. :/

I did not even know 1st year Prizm was a thing.

I love his OD base card

I agree Bogaerts doesn't get the recognition he deserves, but there are factors behind that. He's isn't a flashy player who draws attention to himself (whether on purpose or by deeds done). He just goes out and does his job day in and day out. And he's usually had others on the Sox to draw attention away from him. Heck, Devers deserves some love too. As pointed out on ESPN he's either 1st or 2nd in most offensive stats since 2019. If others wants to overlook those 2, fine by me, makes it easier for me to continue the PC of them.

Ohtani is doing something unseen in over a century and doing it extremely well. That is going to draw major attention, especially when the only other person to do it was some guy named Ruth. And it's been more than 2 months; he's had the spotlight since '18. While he had the dormant hobby period when he had TJ he showed glimpses of what was to come. His hobby surge this year coincides with the hobby explosion. As pointed out, OD cards are the bottom of the barrel for RCs.