Recent Royals: 2008 Bowman Chrome Mike Montgomery Refractor

I have very few card collections given my limited resources and space, but I did decide some time ago to begin collecting on-card Royals autographs. It’s been a blast so far trying to track these things down and this is the latest addition to my collection. To view the cards currently in the collection, take a look at the Gallery or the other posts in this series. I’m working on getting a legit want list together on my trade page but, in the meantime, if you have any on-card Royals autos that it looks like I don’t have, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

Mr. Montgomery? That's a little audacious, don't you think?

I am so far behind on posting anything that this lame kinda sorta repeat of a post of the type that no one reads anyone is probably a letdown even my biggest fan(s). Sorry, Jon/mom! At any rate, we’ve still got a couple of Allen & Ginter boxes left for sale on the site– super big thanks to the bunch of people who ordered from us. We know you have lots and lots of options and we’re so lucky and privileged to be a part of  such a supportive and awesome blogging community! We bested our expectations on our soft launch, so that’s encouraging news for everyone involved! We may send the rest to eBay if I can stop myself from opening them (I’ve seen Friday, so I know not to use from my own stock, but…), but you guys have first dibs! Incidentally, we’ve got a few boxes of Bowman Platinum baseball coming in, so if you’ve had your eye on some Bryce Harper autos that are sure to come out of them, give us a holler!

Now let’s talk about Mike up there. I first wrote about him before the season, back in March. He was a pretty highly touted dude back when I scored his base auto for what was, at the time, a decent price. There was talk of a September callup possibility for him this year, but he’s having a below average year in AAA, with a 5+ ERA and a WHIP nearing 1.5. As far as I can tell, he’s still starting, which is good from a value perspective since everyone knows that relievers get no hobby love. But thinking about value is weird because, for the life of me, I can’t imagine selling off the Royals collection. I have almost 100 Royals on-card autos now and even though only a few people get excited about them, I think the collection will always remind me of getting back into the hobby with Jon and the thrill of the hunt I felt back when I was first collecting in the ’80s. Lots of sentimental value in these things, even if 97% of them are destined to lose 97% of their value!

At any rate, a full (down to Gold for me) rainbow of Montgomery isn’t exactly in the cards (tee hee) for me yet, as his first auto here still commands a premium. If Montgomery does get called up in September and fares well, he’ll be well out of my range for a good long while. Oh how bittersweet, collecting.