The Big 40...0. 400.

I am almost a few days short of hitting my eighteen month mark in the baseball card blogging world and I have reached my 400th post at the same time.  I am often amazed at how much I have enjoyed writing these posts and am not sure why I did not start blogging my trades and purchases sooner.  Before delving into today's card I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone who takes a few minutes out of their day to read about my cards.  Thank you.

2008 Topps Red Hot Rookies Evan Longoria Auto 

Some of the more recent Topps sets have been pretty missable, but the 2008 set has to be the bright spot in the more recent releases of the base set.  The cards actually have a white border, but I really like the circle design at the top of the card.  Pretty distinct and attractive look in my opinion.  

The 2008 Topps release also marked the first year that Topps issued the Red Hot Rookies redemptions.  The cards were also issued in 2009 and 2010, but the 2008 set stands out heads and shoulders above the other two efforts.  All three redemptions offered a chance at a limited edition rookie card which took after the base set design from the year, but Topps but the orangish/red border on the card seen on the Longoria card above.  

The 2008 set featured autographs of Longoria and Bruce.  The 2009 set had an autograph of Gordon Beckham and the 2010 set featured an autograph of Brett Wallace.  Clearly the 2008 issue wins.  

I have a few nice Longoria cards in my collection and I am always in the market for a few more.  This card is an official Longoria rookie, but his actually rookie card was in the 2006 Bowman set.  Never-mind the fact that this card is not an official rookie card, the 2008 Topps Red Hot Rookie is one of the best autographed cards of Longoria on the market.  

Generally the most common Longoria autographed cards sell in the range of $25 to $30, but this card tends to price closer to Longoria's premium, low-print run autographs.  The card often drifts north of $50 and graded versions might drift over $100.  The print run of this card has never been disclosed, but many people have guesstimated the cards print run to be around 100.