I have very few card collections given my limited resources and space, but I did decide some time ago to begin collecting on-card Royals autographs. It’s been a blast so far trying to track these things down and this is the latest addition to my collection. To view the cards currently in the collection, take a look at the Gallery or the other posts in this series. I’m working on getting a legit want list together on my trade page but, in the meantime, if you have any on-card Royals autos that it looks like I don’t have, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!
He looks like a kid playing major league dressup. Which, in fact, he is.
I won’t deny that I’m a hypocrite. I rail against Bowman Chrome and its inclusion of non-major league subjects mixed with major league subjects on a regular basis. And yet, here am I feeding that monster by bolstering the secondary market sales of its pre-pubescent subjects. Ho hum.
In my defense, 2011 Bowman Chrome is the first year I’ve been able to try and keep up with the Royals on-card autos in the Bowman sets since I started my collection after the 2010 offerings were released. So going back and getting the 2010 Bowman Chrome autos seemed a logical step to try to take and the collection knows no bounds other than the self-imposed sticker ban. So I sat around like a speculator fly trap waiting for a Christian Colon card to fall into my cheap jaws and here he is. When it comes to cards that are certain to decline in value (these started at about $17 and worked their way down to $10), I tend to go with a trailing stop method of buying. If I see the values start to sink a bit, I lower my bids appropriately. I was able to get this one on the extra cheap because it was a redemption and the seller agreed to just send me the code(the only way anyone should bother with a redemption situation). That saved me $3 that other bidders probably thought they were going to have to pay. Not too shabby.
But enough of that, let’s talk about Colon here. He was the 4th overall pick in the 2010 draft. Did they pick him because he was born on May 14th? No, they picked him because some scouts project him as an Orlando Cabrera/Placido Polanco type shortstop. In his first year of pro ball at High A Wilmington, he hit a respectable .278. But he hit only 3 homers in a full season down there. I know, you’re saying, “But a SS doesn’t have to hit for power!” and you’re right. But he’s hitting .235 at AA this year thus far. He’s billed as a strong defender, but his .936 and .961 marks so far in his career don’t speak to his high drafting just yet. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see but I’m getting the feeling that maybe this story ends in a few years with some Royals collector posting this card with a “Never heard of this guy” punchline. Well, stay strong, Christian. Bring those averages up a bit and I’m sure the Royals will let you hit .235 for them for as long as you’d like.
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