Bounties For Collectors Are Coming... Maybe

On Sunday’s Clearing the Bases episode, I talked about collectors putting bounties on cards. Namely, a $400 offer for someone to come forward with a 2002 Edgar Martinez card /50. I hadn’t seen regular collectors do this before; it’s usually a tactic employed by the wealthy or for marketing purposes.

But I heard about more after the video, and I wanted to cover a few.

First, Matt, a longtime viewer and reader who I met at the Shriners show, did a sketch card of Dustin Pedroia back in 2010, and Topps selected it for a 1/1 card!

Here’s his sketch, and the wrapper he based it on. (He recalls that the entries needed to be based on a Topps product.)

And here’s the card, which he has only ever seen on social media when Topps posted it in 2010:

Pretty cool!

Matt is hoping to find this still, and while he didn’t put a bounty on it he would love to hear from the person who has it so they can talk price. He has had an eBay search on for years, to no avail.

Next up is Sam, a big Cardale Jones collector. He writes:

“I’m a huge Buckeyes fan and Cardale is a legend for his 3-game run to the National Championship in 2014. Couple that with the fact that 2016 is the first year of Donruss Optic, it’s a piece of the hobby history that I would love to complete. The plan is to frame all the cards in a shadow frame like I did with my 1993 Finest refractors I showed you in the past.

I’ve had very little luck, so I resorted to putting an ad up in the form of an eBay listing.”

His bounty isn’t actually for $5,000, though. He just wanted to attract attention and make sure someone didn’t actually try to buy the card that he doesn’t have.

He’s willing to pay a few hundred on top of the reasonable card cost.

So there are two “regular” collectors who have cards they desperately want to complete their collections, and they’re willing to pay a premium. Neither of them is able to specify a bounty, though.

I’m sure I’d be the same way if I had a “bounty-able” card: hemming and hawing and trying to make sure I get it but also don’t pay too much.

Incidentally, have we been using the term “bounty” wrong all this time?

Side note: I’m considering starting a bounty tracker, but I’d need to rely on people sending me bounties being opened, closed, and cashed in.

Morehouse Ruth Update

A couple of Fridays ago I did a story on the true one of one 1916 Morehouse Babe Ruth.

On Sunday it sold for $812,724.

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

Nothing! You all need to step up.

🎬 Upcoming Videos

• Another Attic Find Friday — I have a bunch of these again

• #69-65 of my ACE 100 list

• Amazing card room

• A subscriber’s amazing music card collection

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

• Topps and the case of the worsening collation

• An absolutely bonkers vintage and pre-war collection my friend Oliver saw parts of on Saturday and is trying to help the person sell

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

A nice mail day, and talking about paying the PSA Premium:

I posted this next video, about Target / UPS losing my package, and I guess I wasn’t clear on a couple of things. I was accused of theft by many people, which is very much not true. I was also accused of not being ethical or moral, probably because I never actually said that I actually let Target know that I received my package. I wanted to create a conversation and not close it by saying what I did.

Strangest of all were the people claiming that the Target customer support people were telling me to wait a day or two because they knew that UPS had mixed up the tracking numbers. This is objectively false, since they didn’t tell me that part, and also that the manager I was escalated to explicitly told me that UPS had sent my package to the wrong address.

And my ACE100 video:

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

A few small items. Nothing worth sneaking a peek of.

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

I started watching American Psycho, which isn’t really a horror movie, but my 14-year-old (15 this week!) came into the room to hang out and it is wildly inappropriate for my sensitive kid.

I really wanted to start watching the Scream tv series, but despite having a million streaming networks, I do not have one that has this show.

What I will recommend is The Day of the Jackal on Peacock. Holy smokes, is that a good show. My wife and I are 8 episodes into it (there are 10 in season 1, and it’s been picked up for another), and we’re obsessed. I can’t say enough good things about it. And seeing the guy who played Tywin Lannister as a bad guy again is fun after his Game of Thrones run ended.

🔗 Links:

An influencer is suing a competitor for stealing her “vibe” — the background she uses in her videos, etc. If someone dares to steal the hideous half-black, half-white wall behind them, I will sue!

Hobby legend Sooz has a new newsletter with a great father/son story about collecting.

Speaking of hobby newsletters, another one I enjoy is the Post-War Cards Newsletter.

How does it feel to sell three cards before they became worth $15 million?

Jefferson Burdick was godfather of card collecting, gave T206 Honus Wagner its name

Key Cards of Dick Allen and Dave Parker, Baseball's Newest Hall of Famers