Player Focus: Gilbert Arenas

Gilbert Arenas was clearly the best offensive player in the month of December, averaging 34.1 ppg & shooting .476 FG% (His combined November & January (so far) stats are 26.1 ppg & .390 FG%). Even though Arenas has been a great scorer for the past couple of seasons and his RC cards have booked fairly high, the hobby demand hasn't been consistently there for him. On 12/17, I saw one of his Ultimate Coll RC's (BV $50) sell for $10.50 incl S&H (21% of BV). What seems to have sparked his hobby craze were his 60 point (12/17) & 54 point (12/22) performances against the high profile Lakers & Suns, respectively. Sales for his Ultimate Collection RC jumped to an average of $43.73 incl S&H (87.5% of BV) from 12/28 thru 1/13. His SP Authentic Auto RC (BV $80) was even hotter, averaging $111.71 (139.6% of BV) from 1/2 thru 1/13.

Arenas has cooled some in his past 3 games, scoring 20, 23 & 17 points against non-top tier teams, and the Wizards lost 2 out of three of them. This slump (if you can even call 3 games a slump!) has already started to affect some of his RC sales. If he doesn't have another catalytic performance soon, you can expect to see demand for his RC's to wane some, probably dropping actual sales to lower % of BV levels (especially since the February Beckett will probably have up arrows on his RC's to reflect real market action for the previous month). The bar has definitely been raised for Arenas, so scoring 20 something points just won't cut it for his critics and hobby fans.

We all know Arenas has the talent, and he has become a part of one of the most exciting 3 man offenses in the league (with Caron Butler & Antawn Jamison). I believe that his RC cards are going to remain solid investments for now & the future, especially when the Wizards become a top tier Eastern power in the next couple of seasons.