Name: Johan Santana
Position: Starting Pitcher
Team: New York Mets
Age: 30 years old
Best Season: 2004 when he went 20-6/2.61/0.92 and finished 1st in AL Cy Young voting.
Set it’s from: 2005 Upper Deck Ultimate
How obtained: eBay auction
Why this Card?: For the life of me I can’t figure out why Johan gets no respect in the world of collecting. I mean he is the best pitcher in baseball right now and you would be hard pressed to find someone more consistent than he is. Yet his cards always fetch lower than half book value for anything, including autographs. Recently I have been getting back into collecting game used cards, but now I lean towards the patch variety. This was the first of the latest game used cards that I have obtained. What drew me in was the nice size patch on this card and the fact that it is numbered to only 30 copies. I had been looking for a nice Twins patch of Santana for quite some time and believe it or not, they are not easy to come by. So when I came across this copy there was only 2 minutes left and I had to make a choice quickly. I put in the maximum value I would pay for any patch and was pleasantly surprised when I won the auction. Even sweeter was that the seller was also in North Carolina and I got the card in 2 days. This season Santana is off to yet another Cy Young type season and so far he is 6-2/1.50/1.05 and leads the NL in strikeouts with 75. In my mind this card is an absolute steal for what I paid.
But What About the Set?: 2005 UD Ultimate boxes run about a 75 bucks. They contain a pack with 3 cards per pack. From the deal you’ll see below, the cards just don’t average $25 a pop. Buy it second hand on eBay where you can get the exact card you want for around the same price as the box.
Beckett’s Value: $20.00
eBay Value: I got it for $5.25 (including shipping)
Nice find! That’s a sweet looking patch. The hobby has never seemed to directly correlate with the game’s best players – pitchers especially. They never seem to generate the same “buzz” as offensive players. Not sure why… perhaps because they’re stats aren’t as “glamorous”? Everyone can easily track homers, hit streaks, averages, etc, but not necessarily K/9, WHIP, etc.