The Fabulous Yadier Molina

I have had a really dull week as far as posting goes.  School has started back up and has kept me fairly busy, but this has also been a little bit of a calm period before the 2014 products start hitting the shelves in roughly one week.  I am really to see what the new Topps has in store for the hobby.  In the meantime, I am filling the void by sorting out cards into sets, selling off some doubles, and searching out a few things I could use for the collection.

I managed to pick up a really good piece last week and was waiting for it to show in the mail.  Today was my day.  Here's my new card:

2006 Upper Deck Yadier Molina Autograph 

This is actually my second copy of this card, but I had the opportunity to trade for this card and really did not mind parting with Marlins autographs for a chance at a Molina autograph.  While Yadi has become a great player on the field he has always been a pretty popular and expensive figure around the baseball card hobby.

The main driver for the prices of Molina cards is clearly the small quantity of his cards out on the secondary market.  For example there are several Molina autographs from early in his career in 2004, 2005, and 2006 sets.  However, Molina has basically signed nothing since 2006.  Ask people who chase autographs and they will tell you that Yadi is nearly impossible at the park too.  In fact, this year is the first year in several that he has actually shown up at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up and signed autographs.  The quantity of Molina autographs is just flat out low.

Collectors looking for Molina autographs should generally commit a minimum of $50 towards landing a copy.  Every once in awhile one will fall short of $50 on Ebay or COMC, but it's really rare.  Especially since a good number of his autographs are actually rookie cards.  Low print run autographs of Molina can frequently approach $100.

Looking for Ben and Jose?  They are in here....