Alex Gordon collected baseball cards as a kid.
He would buy them, a dollar a pack, and carefully sort out the keepers. The others he traded with friends. He would put the best ones in a shoebox, and if they featured Ken Griffey, his favorite player, he would put them in a special plastic case.
Today they're somewhere in his old bedroom at the family home in Lincoln, Neb. Combined, they probably would be worth a couple of hundred dollars.
Or about $7,000 less than a rookie card of Kansas City Royals third baseman Alex Gordon.
That's the same Alex Gordon, the one who is neither a rookie nor a member of the Royals. In the flesh, Gordon is a little-known but highly regarded infielder for the Double-A Wichita Wranglers. In cardboard, Gordon is pure gold.
"I should retire now and stay on top," says Gordon, who will be in uniform at Wolff Stadium tonight when the Missions take on the Wranglers to open a four-game Texas League series.
Gordon's 2006 Topps baseball card is more valuable than any issued of Lou Gehrig or Ted Williams. It's certainly not because Gordon, a former Nebraska All-American, was the second pick in the 2005 draft. Gordon is considered a hot prospect, destined to play in the big leagues. But that has nothing to do with the card's value.
Gordon's card is rare — about as rare as copies of the Declaration of Independence. Why?
Because Topps, the established king of card makers, screwed up. Royally.
Under the terms of an agreement with the Major League Players' Association, Topps no longer has permission to issue a card of any player who has not played in the major leagues. Gordon, who signed with the Royals in late September, didn't play his first professional game until last month.
But when Topps issued its 2006 set in late winter, there was Gordon — No. 297 — decked out in a Royals uniform. When Topps noticed the error, the company withdrew the card from production.
That didn't prevent some number of Gordon cards (Topps isn't saying how many) from slipping out via early shipments of boxed sets to Wal-Mart stores. Collectors have been mining Wal-Mart inventories ever since for Gordon cards easily convertible to cash on eBay. It's all about supply and demand. A collector who wants a complete set of 2006 cards either can get lucky or lay down some cash. How much cash?
One card recently sold on eBay for $7,500, reportedly to MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann, an avid collector who is said to have corralled six cards.
Even Gordon is questioning the interest in a 31/2 x 21/2-inch piece of cardboard.
"What are people thinking nowadays?" he says. "You'd think a card worth that much would be a Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens."
When word spread of the cards' value, some of Gordon's teammates — his roommates in a shared house in Wichita — asked if he had any spares. Actually, he doesn't own any.
"I told them that if I had one we could put it on eBay," Gordon said, "and then buy a hot tub for the house."
Limited window
He'd better hurry.
Bruce Rice, who owns the "What's on Second" card shop in San Antonio, says the bottom is likely to fall out of the market at some point.
"A Mark McGwire rookie card once was going for $200; now you can get it for $30," Rice says. "It's a pack mentality, whatever is hot. Unless (Gordon) goes on to have a Hall of Fame career, it will probably be worth about $500 in a few years."
Local card shop owners report modest interest.
"I got a few calls the first couple of days, then nobody gave a hoot," said Howard O'Desky, owner of Howie's Sports Cards. "It was back to, 'Go Spurs Go.'"
O'Desky said he doesn't know of anyone in San Antonio who has the card.
"We're the only major city where pro basketball is No. 1 and football is No. 2," O'Desky said. "Baseball's a distant third. Right now, there's all the hype. In a month or two the buzz will be about Vince Young and Reggie Bush (cards)."
Frank White, a five-time All-Star second baseman for the Royals from 1973-90, now manages the Wranglers. His most valuable card? About six bucks, he says with a laugh.
"It depends on where it was being sold," he said, "but it doesn't go for a heckuva lot."
Does White think Gordon would rather be known for his playing skills than for his first baseball card?
"Oh," White says, "he will be."
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Gordon swept the college player of the year awards as a junior at Nebraska last spring. The highest pick in Royals history, he finally agreed to a $4 million signing bonus and played 16 games for Surprise in the Arizona Fall League, batting .260. Going into the weekend series with the Missions, Gordon is hitting .331.
White said it's only a matter of time before Gordon is called up.
"The old adage is you need 1,000 at-bats in the minors before you should be called up," White said. "I'm not saying he needs that, but (the Royals) have rushed guys up so often, and they haven't always done well. People end up saying, 'He's another mistake.'"
When Gordon goes up, White says, "He'll stay for a long time."
News of the Topps flub broke in mid-April, a few weeks into the season. Gordon learned of it when a friend called him to say he had just seen a Gordon rookie card go for a few hundred dollars on eBay. Gordon, unaware of the legal issues, wasn't all that impressed.
Then came an onslaught of calls from the media to the hotel where the team was staying. Gordon says he was forced to register under an assumed name to avoid the crush.
"I'm not the guy to talk to," Gordon says. "They need to talk to Topps. I had nothing to do with it."
Supply and demand
Sometimes home run totals on the back determine a card's value. Sometimes errors do.
Production errors, that is.
Topps tried to rectify its Gordon mistake by issuing copies of the card with his face cut out of the middle, or with a blank space instead of a photo. Collectors cackled all the way to the bank — as they usually do when cards become rare or notorious.
In 1989, Fleer put out a card of Baltimore Orioles infielder Billy Ripken holding a bat marked with an obscene word. Collectors paid as much as $1,200 for the card.
The most valuable card in collecting is a 1909 Honus Wagner produced by the Piedmont Tobacco company, the value of which doesn't stem from Wagner's career .327 batting average or his Hall of Fame status. Wagner demanded that the card be pulled from circulation — either because of a dispute over compensation or because he objected to the use of his image to promote tobacco products.
A Wagner card sold recently on eBay for almost $1.27 million.
The most prized post-war card is Topps' 1952 Mickey Mantle. The card was part of a late-summer issue that resulted in dead inventory as bubble-gum blowing kids turned their attention to school and football season. Most of the cards ended up on garbage barges and, eventually, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A few years ago, a 1952 Mantle sold for a reported $275,000.
Gordon, whose monthly salary is $1,100 — only a fraction of the value of his card — hopes Topps will send him one. But he's not holding his breath.
So, if you have one, keep this in mind before you ask Gordon to autograph it.
"I'll take it" he says, "act like I'm signing — and then take off."
He would buy them, a dollar a pack, and carefully sort out the keepers. The others he traded with friends. He would put the best ones in a shoebox, and if they featured Ken Griffey, his favorite player, he would put them in a special plastic case.
Today they're somewhere in his old bedroom at the family home in Lincoln, Neb. Combined, they probably would be worth a couple of hundred dollars.
Or about $7,000 less than a rookie card of Kansas City Royals third baseman Alex Gordon.
That's the same Alex Gordon, the one who is neither a rookie nor a member of the Royals. In the flesh, Gordon is a little-known but highly regarded infielder for the Double-A Wichita Wranglers. In cardboard, Gordon is pure gold.
"I should retire now and stay on top," says Gordon, who will be in uniform at Wolff Stadium tonight when the Missions take on the Wranglers to open a four-game Texas League series.
Gordon's 2006 Topps baseball card is more valuable than any issued of Lou Gehrig or Ted Williams. It's certainly not because Gordon, a former Nebraska All-American, was the second pick in the 2005 draft. Gordon is considered a hot prospect, destined to play in the big leagues. But that has nothing to do with the card's value.
Gordon's card is rare — about as rare as copies of the Declaration of Independence. Why?
Because Topps, the established king of card makers, screwed up. Royally.
Under the terms of an agreement with the Major League Players' Association, Topps no longer has permission to issue a card of any player who has not played in the major leagues. Gordon, who signed with the Royals in late September, didn't play his first professional game until last month.
But when Topps issued its 2006 set in late winter, there was Gordon — No. 297 — decked out in a Royals uniform. When Topps noticed the error, the company withdrew the card from production.
That didn't prevent some number of Gordon cards (Topps isn't saying how many) from slipping out via early shipments of boxed sets to Wal-Mart stores. Collectors have been mining Wal-Mart inventories ever since for Gordon cards easily convertible to cash on eBay. It's all about supply and demand. A collector who wants a complete set of 2006 cards either can get lucky or lay down some cash. How much cash?
One card recently sold on eBay for $7,500, reportedly to MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann, an avid collector who is said to have corralled six cards.
Even Gordon is questioning the interest in a 31/2 x 21/2-inch piece of cardboard.
"What are people thinking nowadays?" he says. "You'd think a card worth that much would be a Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens."
When word spread of the cards' value, some of Gordon's teammates — his roommates in a shared house in Wichita — asked if he had any spares. Actually, he doesn't own any.
"I told them that if I had one we could put it on eBay," Gordon said, "and then buy a hot tub for the house."
Limited window
He'd better hurry.
Bruce Rice, who owns the "What's on Second" card shop in San Antonio, says the bottom is likely to fall out of the market at some point.
"A Mark McGwire rookie card once was going for $200; now you can get it for $30," Rice says. "It's a pack mentality, whatever is hot. Unless (Gordon) goes on to have a Hall of Fame career, it will probably be worth about $500 in a few years."
Local card shop owners report modest interest.
"I got a few calls the first couple of days, then nobody gave a hoot," said Howard O'Desky, owner of Howie's Sports Cards. "It was back to, 'Go Spurs Go.'"
O'Desky said he doesn't know of anyone in San Antonio who has the card.
"We're the only major city where pro basketball is No. 1 and football is No. 2," O'Desky said. "Baseball's a distant third. Right now, there's all the hype. In a month or two the buzz will be about Vince Young and Reggie Bush (cards)."
Frank White, a five-time All-Star second baseman for the Royals from 1973-90, now manages the Wranglers. His most valuable card? About six bucks, he says with a laugh.
"It depends on where it was being sold," he said, "but it doesn't go for a heckuva lot."
Does White think Gordon would rather be known for his playing skills than for his first baseball card?
"Oh," White says, "he will be."
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Gordon swept the college player of the year awards as a junior at Nebraska last spring. The highest pick in Royals history, he finally agreed to a $4 million signing bonus and played 16 games for Surprise in the Arizona Fall League, batting .260. Going into the weekend series with the Missions, Gordon is hitting .331.
White said it's only a matter of time before Gordon is called up.
"The old adage is you need 1,000 at-bats in the minors before you should be called up," White said. "I'm not saying he needs that, but (the Royals) have rushed guys up so often, and they haven't always done well. People end up saying, 'He's another mistake.'"
When Gordon goes up, White says, "He'll stay for a long time."
News of the Topps flub broke in mid-April, a few weeks into the season. Gordon learned of it when a friend called him to say he had just seen a Gordon rookie card go for a few hundred dollars on eBay. Gordon, unaware of the legal issues, wasn't all that impressed.
Then came an onslaught of calls from the media to the hotel where the team was staying. Gordon says he was forced to register under an assumed name to avoid the crush.
"I'm not the guy to talk to," Gordon says. "They need to talk to Topps. I had nothing to do with it."
Supply and demand
Sometimes home run totals on the back determine a card's value. Sometimes errors do.
Production errors, that is.
Topps tried to rectify its Gordon mistake by issuing copies of the card with his face cut out of the middle, or with a blank space instead of a photo. Collectors cackled all the way to the bank — as they usually do when cards become rare or notorious.
In 1989, Fleer put out a card of Baltimore Orioles infielder Billy Ripken holding a bat marked with an obscene word. Collectors paid as much as $1,200 for the card.
The most valuable card in collecting is a 1909 Honus Wagner produced by the Piedmont Tobacco company, the value of which doesn't stem from Wagner's career .327 batting average or his Hall of Fame status. Wagner demanded that the card be pulled from circulation — either because of a dispute over compensation or because he objected to the use of his image to promote tobacco products.
A Wagner card sold recently on eBay for almost $1.27 million.
The most prized post-war card is Topps' 1952 Mickey Mantle. The card was part of a late-summer issue that resulted in dead inventory as bubble-gum blowing kids turned their attention to school and football season. Most of the cards ended up on garbage barges and, eventually, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A few years ago, a 1952 Mantle sold for a reported $275,000.
Gordon, whose monthly salary is $1,100 — only a fraction of the value of his card — hopes Topps will send him one. But he's not holding his breath.
So, if you have one, keep this in mind before you ask Gordon to autograph it.
"I'll take it" he says, "act like I'm signing — and then take off."
