Every now and again we make moves within our collection that we ultimately come to regret. For me it’s the selling of both Mike Trout Autograph cards I had in my possession.

It started in 2013 or so when I managed to pull a Trout auto from 2012 Panini Signature series. It was a damn good pull, but the fact that the signature was on t-shirt material bothered me. I held it for a few years but ultimately sold it around 2014 when I got the opportunity to purchase a BGS 9 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft auto of Trout.

So I moved into THE Trout autograph to own, only in 2017 the market for him became so hot — and I needed money — so I decided to sell my Chrome auto for almost 10 times what I paid into it.

Since then I’d been pining for a Trout auto, and over the summer I acquired via COMC a 2013 Panini America’s Pastime Superstar Scripts dual auto of he and Stephen Strasburg. That card featured a bold signature and was serial numbered to 10. I jokingly posted it for triple what I paid … and someone bought it. It was a handsome profit for me, but again I was without his signature.

Alas last week I was on eBay an ai located an listing for a rarer version of the aforementioned Trout-Strasburg dual auto … this one was limited to three.

I added it to my watch list and a few hours later for one of those solicitations to purchase the card with a discount. I snapped it up.

Saturday morning the mail came early, and with the stack of typical mail was a padded envelope carrying the Trout-Strasburg serial numbered 1/3.

While this card does not carry logos — because Panini didn’t and still doesn’t have an MLB license — it’s still a glorious example. First off, this product was expensive and one of my favorites. Secondly, it’s an early on-card auto; a Topps card of this caliber might fetch a multiple of what I landed this for. And lastly, Strasburg and Trout are really the two bookends of the 2010s do this hobby.

Strasburg’s inclusion in 2010 Products really propelled Bowman to the front of everyone consciousness on a level we hadn’t seen. It’s always been popular but that year The mania around the flame thrower was really something else. And of course Trout became the face of the modern baseball hobby. In short, it’s an absolutely piece of modern cardboard icons.

So my intention is to not let this one go now that it’s in my hands and in my collection.

This entry was posted on February 27, 2021 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Mail Day with tags autographs, Mike Trout, Panini America, Stephen Strasburg. 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.