Bad Wax

Name: Jason Bay

Position: OF

Team: Pittsburgh Pirates

Age: 29

Best Season: 2005 when he went 0.306/32/101/21 which was good for 12th in MVP voting.

Set it’s from: 2004 Topps Series 2

How obtained: eBay of course (I can’t beat 1:355 odds).

Why this Card?: Everyone knows me as a die hard Yankee fan and although that is indeed true, I have to have a NL team to root for as well and unbeknownst to a lot of people, I am indeed a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.  The Pirates always seem to find solid outfielders from the days of Barry Bonds, to Brian Giles, and now Jason Bay.  I’ve followed Bay since he was traded to the Pirates along with Oliver Perez for Brian Giles.  I knew him to be a possible 20/20 guy.  Giles was about to leave his prime years so I thought it could work out well.  He has had some pretty great seasons since then.  Hopefully he can continue to be a very productive player as he has already past the apex of his prime years himself.  I still remain a fan and have several relic and autographed cards of him.  This one though is probably my favorite.

But What About the Set?: This was from the basic Topps set of 2004, series 2.  The boxes for this one ran pretty low, around the $40-$50 mark.  You were not guaranteed any relics or autographs per box.  Actually the odds of hitting this autograph was 1:355.  You can now get those boxes on ebay for about $25, which isn’t bad since you should be able to clear about 90% of the set with 360 cards per box, 375 cards in the set. Overall I think this is a great buy for set builders but if you want relics and autographs, this is the wrong box for you.

Beckett’s Value: $10.00

eBay Value: $0.99

Will it ever be worth more?: No but that’s OK, I like the card so much that it’s worth a lot to me.