Leaf Metal Ichiro patch autos coming soon
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Leaf‘s debut baseball set, 2011 Leaf Metal Draft, is scheduled to arrive this week and it’s going to have some surprises.
As in Ichiro Suzuki autographed patch cards.
Leaf announced on Monday that its 120-point, silver-etched-foil autographed patch cards will be redemptions but that the cards will all be signed on-card and fulfilled within 30 days. In addition, all of the cards will be scanned and available to the public via a website showing all of the cards to ensure that the swatches are the ones that were placed by Leaf and not “upgrades” from potential scammers.
Leaf, although a long-running name in the hobby, is now a stand-alone company.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
They look awesome.
The questions are, how many are being made, what are the odds, and how much
will they be going for? Given they are supposedly going to have almost all of the first
rounders doing hard signed I imagine the set might be a legit competitor to the prospect
cards from Bowman Platinum. At least if they are done right.
I see his Japanese cards, signed later on and PSA/BGS encapsulated selling 200 or and
his early 2000 cards usually selling in the high 200’s to 400’s, and the RC selling for over
$1000 consistently.
I also see people asking insane amounts, though little movement.
I guess they are waiting for the sucker willing to pay the 5 to 10 times the card is usually
selling for. *shrug*
I’m tempted to buy one when it comes out, but I’d rather not pay too dear a premium to
get it. I remember paying $135 for the first Henderson Auto that came out, only to see them
drop to half that and recover a little bit later on. Then again, I remember seeing the Goudey Jeter autos selling for under $100 when the came out, and you can’t touch them for that now.
We’ll see — on all of that, quantities, demand, values, collector interest — when they arrive soon.
I really like the scan of the cards that Razor says they are using. I know many in the hobby have been screaming for tighter controls on the fake patch front.
Keep in mind, this is a much smaller quantity of patch cards.
I don’t “need” a patch, I just want a hard signed auto of the greatest imported
baseball player ever. I have to wonder what the bowman chrome RC would have
been worth if it had been autographed.
In any case, depending on the checklist, I might be more than a little inclined to crack
a pack or two. It breaks down to about $15/auto more or less and considering that it
would cost me $3+ shipping on anything I get from Ebay ….
A small enough set might make me want to actually assemble it like I have the autographed Bowman Platinum Prospect sets.