Category Archives: give up autos

Chris Johnson and Breaking the 2000 Yard Barrier

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Chris Johnson is 128 yards away from a barrier that only five other players have reached. This 2000 yard club is tough to become a part of, and it includes names like Sanders and Dickerson. Players like Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Jim Brown, who are generally thought of as the greatest running backs of all time, never got to the amazing mark Johnson is approaching. The question I want to look at isnt whether or not he will get there, but what will happen to his cards when he does.

In my opinion, a lot of his value is derived from his production, but it isnt really where it should be. That is the result of having a give up auto as he does, in addition to the team he plays for. Considering that he is a dynamic player, he should have prices in the stratosphere, but because his auto looks like someone said “initial here, here and here” people arent willing to pay the prices that they normally would for someone like Adrian Peterson. Johnson deserves it at this point, dont get me wrong, but when you cant even bother to sign the cards for the fans, the collectors are not going to give as much attention.

When he does break the 2000 yard mark, he might have a large spike, but when the year starts next year, things still may not be at the top of the spectrum where he left them unless he continues to shine. Look at Jamal Lewis, he ran for 2000 yards with Baltimore, but after seasons of limited production, his values have dropped. Having a great season or two does not make a career, though with Johnson, I would think he is more probable to have a better go at it than Lewis. Because Running Backs are now thrown into games in pairs or even committees, the punishment Johnson will receive is much less than someone like Lewis.

Because he will be a better player, barring injury, Johnson’s cards should maintain much more of their expected value over a longer period of time. Does this mean you should hold rather than sell? Hell no. I would have an auction that ends right after the game next week for all of your Johnson cards, as he is pretty much assured to get close against Seattle next week. At that point, you will have a good shot at getting top prices even if he falls just short. My shadowbox auto and dual auto with Kevin Smith will be up for sure, though im not sure how much they will get. Hopefully a lot.

Even if Johnson doesnt get there, he has sure put on a show. I cannot wait to see what he will do next week, as it will be quite a spectacle if he does reach 2000 yards. Im even more excited to see if he will get close again next year, as he is truly an exciting player. Ill tell you one thing, if he does get there, his Offensive Line is going to get a nice gift for New Years care of their new favorite player.

The Plight Of The Player Collector

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Sometimes, players you love go through a pretty radical change, and you are forced to adapt collecting habits to fit it. Either they get traded, they go to jail, or in some cases they switch their auto or something about their allegiance to the collecting public. It really sucks for the player collector in many of these instances because you are either left with a player on a team you don’t like, or nothing if they go to jail. With the auto, a very important part of player collector’s collection, you have to adapt, especially if it goes from one of the most expressive to a give up.

First I want to talk about a trade or free agency. With a trade, it wasn’t anything the player did directly (most of the time) that you have to deal with, and it can be tough to figure out what to do. Free agency is player directed, but the result is the same. If you are that player’s collector, but didn’t live in the city he was from, or had no ties to the team, it should be easy to swtich things up. You may have to put up with mismatched swatches for a year or two, but generally things are fine. If you have a tie to the team AND the player, it’s a completely different story.

Lets use KG as an example, because I think he could fall into a few of these categories. KG was my favorite player on the Timberwolves, duh, and both free agency and a trade were possible at one point. There were probably a lot of KG fans outside of MN, so it wasn’t as big a deal for them. KG gets traded to one of my least favorite teams, and I am stuck with team allegiance to the wolves, but signed memorabilia from a Celtic. I ended up letting both player and team allegiances stand and kept my stuff, but that didn’t mean I didn’t try to get rid of it a few times out of anger.

With Jail, it’s the other side of the pillow altogether. With those types of situations, its tough to like or collect a guy that is a bad enough person to do something requiring jail time. At that point, you might be stuck, it may be time to fold it up and move on with your collection.

For this ill use Michael Vick, because he seems to be at the forefront of all of this, and he has a lot of people who collect him. If you look at his stuff, he went from being one of the more valuable players to someone with little to no value. The falcons quickly moved on to Matt Ryan, which gave falcons collectors someone to bank on from here on out. The Vick people, well, they are out of luck.

As for people and their auto, for us second worlders, this is key. I could love Chris Johnson all the live long day, but I am never going to get a card that is worth my time. For that matter alone, many people may avoid him. I know it would be tough for me to collect a guy with as much of a give up auto as that is. What makes it a slap in the face partially, is that he signs much more completely on the certified stuff I see on eBay. If you can sign for people face to face, but you cant do it on cards, I think it says something about what you think about collecting. Again, that isnt necessarily a bad thing, a la Dirk Nowitzki signing TTM, but its not necessarily a good thing either.

Peterson recently switched from a full auto to a give up, and for people like me, its tough collecting decision to make. My gut says that the give up isnt as good and I shouldn’t buy it, but my collecting tendencies make me want to go after new stuff. Funny enough, about six months ago, I got an email from someone saying this was going to happen, and I shrugged it off at the time. I think from now on, ill stay away from his give ups on stickers, but make an exception with on card shit. Sadly, he has also switched his IP auto as well, which makes me question what he was thinking.

Personally, its really about how much you are willing to tolerate. If Peterson wasn’t a Viking, I probably wouldn’t collect as much, but that is the nature of the NFL. Its become expected that players wont stay with their team their whole career. Its also pretty much expected that eventually players will develop a primadonna attitude and give up on the fans. There are always awesome stories, but more than a few times players have become enemies of the collector before becoming a sympathizer. Hopefully every door that the players close, somewhere they open a window.