Card Pricing Update: ARod's SP RC; The Ryan Braun Phenomena

During the time between Alex Rodriguez's 499th & 500th career HR, his 94 SP RC sold for an average TAC price of around $101. For the week after he hit his 500th (during which he hit HR #501-503), his SP RC was averaging around $107; a very modest 6% rise. Now, the 2nd week after his 500th, that same RC has dropped down to $88 TAC. What happened? This month, he's hitting .383 with a .466 OBP, and is averaging a HR every 11.75 at-bats, in addition to leading the majors in HR & RBI and helping his team to a 10-4 record through 8/15. Is that not enough? I guess the bar is set quite high for ARod, so he really needs to provide that "wow-factor" in order to maintain his RC card values.

Ryan Braun's RC cards, on the other hand, don't seem to have a brake pedal. His 05 Bowman Sterling Auto's average TAC in June was $41.70. In July, it jumped to $74.00, and in August, $84.40. Expect to pay around $100 TAC for it now. His 05 Bowman Chrome Auto has been even crazier. It went from an average of $79.00 in June, to $153.00 in July, to $174.00 in August. I saw one sell yesterday for a record amount of $220.25 TAC. Don't even ask about his various Chrome refractor parallels. He BC Blue Ref Auto #'d 150 is averaging $571.00 per pop this month. Every week I think that his card prices are going to level out, but then they jump even higher. If you didn't buy into Braun a couple of months ago, then you missed to boat (I missed it also).