When Project 2020 launched in March I had zero intention to purchase any of the pieces. I had not done any research about the project, was not familiar with the artists, and as a whole am not overly intrigued by Online exclusives.

Then I saw the mock up of the Ken Griffey Jr. piece by King Saladeen and everything changed. It felt like a must-own item and the style was appealing to me. That day I purchased the Griffey, and just before checking out I added the Mike Trout by Ermsy. It’s not that I loved the Trout, but conventional wisdom told me to grab it as well because … it’s Mike Trout. Also, I liked the idea of having them shipped together.

That was exactly two months ago today.

Today I sit here with 10 cards in hand, another 22 different ones on the way and am daily on the Topps site checking for new releases and spending a fair amount of time tracking the secondary market for these cards as they have become a national talking point.

That initial $40 purchase (or investment if you prefer that term) could in theory net me about $4,000 on the secondary market today. That’s for the first two cards that I bought. And although I did not get into this for the money, I’d be a damn fool if I didn’t at least entertain the notion that I could make a handsome profit.

The economics around these cards changes daily, and for different reasons. What’s important to remember is these are not merely like every other baseball card on the market. I mean it is a picture printed on card stock like other cards, but the vast appeal and demand of these far exceeded the expectations of anyone. While a print run of 1,500-2,000 of a normal card seeded in packs may seem high, such numbers here has proven to be extremely low.

After purchasing my Griffey and Trout, I fell in love with the Roberto Clemente by Mister Cartoon but balked at making the purchase. I backtracked and wound up buying it a week later on eBay for a small mark up. At that time, the Clemente cost me $30 shipped, which was a palatable penalty for me since I missed the window to buy direct.

From that day forward I really used a simple adage to help make my purchase decisions: If I liked it, I bought it. In theory the $20 price point had proven to be a mark at which I could not really lose. And so I did. I looked at the site each day to judge the art. If the art work grabbed me, I made the card mine. Others merely did not appeal to me and I marked them as “not for me.” Now, at this point I was looking at this as art … not as a card investment opportunity,

Of course as we know things changed. I still log onto my device each day to see the newest release and to judge the artwork for myself. But I find more and more that my decision to buy or not has been increasingly driven by FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, as the act of checking the secondary market has almost felt like following a sport.

There had been pieces I passed on before, and the resell market has had me banging my head against a wall, as I am sure many others have as well. But over these last three weeks my judgement has been clouded by the almighty dollar.

I routinely am asking myself if I am actually enjoying the art, or enjoying the idea that I might be getting in on the ground floor of something that may just now be taking off.

As a card collector for 33 years there is a part of me that wants to jump off this ship with as much gold as possible before it sinks into the ocean. This feels very unnatural. But it’d be foolish of me to not at least think that this may actually be bigger than baseball cards and some of the logic in that hobby may not fully apply here. There are people outside of our hobby circle who have taken an interest in this, and that is a factor for which I cannot fully comprehend.

Will this trend of increasing prices continue? The answer to that question shouldn’t matter to me if I am collecting; if I am sticking to what brought me to this point. The decision should be simple: Buy what I like and pass on what I don’t. But it’s not that simple. It’s just not. And every day my judgement and decision-making is put to the test. And when that happens, the bigger questions start to be asked internally: Do I enjoy these that much that I am passing on crazy money being thrown at some of the early ones I own, and could I be missing out if I pass on something today solely because it did not hit my pallet the right way?

The struggle continues today with the release of Mariano Rivera by JK5 and Cal Ripken Jr . By Don C.

Over the weeks I’ve taken a liking to JK5’s pieces — they’re so complex and there is so much to see and interpret. Don C’s two pieces to date have fallen into the “not for me” category right off the bat.

Today I marked myself as “out” on both, but there is a part of me that is still on the fence for the Rivera. And when you’re in for one card, you have to consider the other as well since there is a small discount when buying the daily pair.

Money shouldn’t be driving my decisions with these; it should be about enjoying the piece. But clearly, money is always factor, no matter how you look at it.

This entry was posted on May 27, 2020 at 10:26 am and is filed under Commentary with tags art, baseball, baseball cards, Project 2020, Topps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.