What Roy Halladay did last night was incredible, and I am sure you will hear that from everyone and their mother today. Its something that hasn’t happened in our lifetime, and may not happen again, so its always nice to get a few lines in when you can. My wife put it best last night, being the casual fan that she is, when she said, “Good for him. Good for him.” She was 100% right, Halladay has spent close to 11 years in the league and this was his first playoff start. He deserved to do what he did last night.

In fact, Halladay isnt just embraced by Phillies fans, or even old Toronto fans, he is really one of Baseball’s most collected players. Not pitchers, PLAYERS. When I say most collected, I don’t mean that he has the most fans, or even that he has the most cards to collect, just that people put a higher price on his head than anyone else who plays his position. People like Alex Rodriguez or Evan Longoria have a ton of people that collect them, but its rare that you are shocked by some of the values on their cards. Longo had an autograph in every product this past year, Halladay had close to none. What that means is that people have to chase his cards, and you can bet if they ever had an autograph of him in his Phillies uniform, it would sell like fucking crazy. Its tough not to respect how good Halladay is, and now that he has moved onto a stage where people can actually see his greatness in Philly, everyone is starting to notice.

I remember the two series against Toronto we played every year, I prayed we wouldn’t have to face him. He was lights out, and then after the lights were out, he would pull the hood over your head just to make sure it was as dark as possible. The Twins just couldn’t beat him, and they werent the only ones. Since that time, he has gone from the most feared unknown pitcher in the game to having national attention through being traded, and that’s where the hobby has taken notice more than anything.

His BASE chrome rookie can sell for 50 bucks at times, and that was before last night. Its rare that a player not named Albert Pujols has a BASE rookie that sells for that much. Find an auto of his? Consider yourself lucky, because he doesn’t have many. The ones that sell on eBay sell regularly at astronomical prices, mainly because Halladay was never the guy Tim Lincecum has become in this hobby. Halladay may eventually get that kind of attention now from the manufacturers, but its rare that pitchers sell the way Griffey used to sell. The way Jeter sells.

Baseball cards have truly become a prospector and vintage sport, and that is why Harper’s superfractor sold for what it did. Its why Strasburg’s cards were outselling everyone elses. Strasburg, even before the injury didn’t have anything to his credit, but people were buying on potential. Personally, I think prospecting isnt even close to the evil it is portrayed as, and I think its actually pretty fun in most cases. It gets an unnecessary bad rap. However, it does take the focus away from veterans like Halladay who have earned every cent people pay for his stuff.

You know, last year, Pujols had something like 300 different autographed cards. This is all despite the fact that his signature costs more to obtain than it sells for on the secondary market. Although Halladay’s signatures wont be free, I doubt they cost half as much as what Pujols charges per card. And when you see now that he deserves to be included in many sets, its quite surprising that his cards sell for what they do.

Check out these recent sales. Ridiculous:

1997 Bowman RC Auto – This is Halladay’s only auto RC, and it outsells just about every other pitcher in the game. This price is obviously higher than usual, but its still his best card by far.

Bowman Chrome Refractor RC – Huge price. Huge.

Bowman Chrome International Refractor RC – Bigger price than the above. Wow.

LCM 1/1 Mirror Black Auto – Awesome card, I love the way his sig looks.

1999 Upper Deck Signature Edition Auto – When a subset auto from any product sells for this much, you deserve to be enshrined. Holy crap.

Honestly, I stopped collecting baseball cards a long time ago. I buy a Mauer, Morneau or Puckett here or there, but I usually stay away because Baseball cards have always been more about the low end set collectors than people like me. Yet, for some reason, I am drawn to guys like Halladay who seem to have built a following the way he has. Im not saying I am going to go out and buy a bunch of his stuff, but I will say that its rare enough that I would consider it. Hopefully Doc gets his title this year, I really do hope that he ends up getting everything he has worked so hard to do. Regardless of whether or not Philly wins their second title this decade, you can bet that Roy has gotten a fair share of new fans. After all, Don Larsen is Don Larsen because of his playoff perfection, where does that leave Halladay who has actually done so much more than that? Pitchers wont have the 300 win milestone to get them into Cooperstown anymore, so accomplishments like this will have more impact than anything esle. Roy Halladay just punched his ticket.