Supply and Demand Does Not Apply to Atlanta Braves’ Baseball Cards
The autographs signed by Dansby Swanson has to number in the thousands at this point. But try to buy one of his signed cards and you’d better bring your checkbook.
It is a remarkable and highly noteworthy thing that Dansby Swanson does. After nearly every Mississippi Braves game, he hangs out around the ends of the M-Braves dugout, talks with patrons, and signs autographs. He knows many of the fans watching his games would like to speak with him, take a photo, have something signed.
I could have easily had one myself. When the photo above was snapped, I caught him with an uncharacteristically small group of admirers in Pensacola. But I figured… hey, I’m here for trying to get a comment, a picture… I don’t really care about autographs.
After a review on eBay this week, maybe I should have reconsidered that “I’m-so-above-it-all” thinking.
Sticker Shocker
As of this writing, when you enter the name ‘Dansby Swanson’ on an eBay search, you get 1,576 results. Quite a lot for a player who hasn’t cracked past AA ball yet.
Ozzie Albies? 509. A bunch… but less than 1/3rd of the Swanson products.
Let’s narrow the scope of things a bit. The Bowman card company has an ‘Inception’ series – premium, limited cards with a stylized photo of a player and his autograph.
On eBay, a couple dozen Dansby Swanson Inception cards (example above; variations exist) have sold over the past week, ranging in price from $49 to nearly $400. $50 to $100 is a common sales price, though many examples up to $150 were found.
If you adjust the search to Albies’ cards, those sale prices run from about $4 to $27 (a single exceptional card went for $172.50). Many of these even included game-used jersey swatches.
Now this isn’t a knock against Albies, but he isn’t hanging around to offer autographs. His signature is indeed a much more rare commodity to acquire.
I Don’t Get The Card Market
Is it just the personality involved here? Is there that much of a difference between a #1 prospect and #2 or #3 or wherever you’d place Albies? Is it the hair?
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If you went on quantity of autographs available, there’s no contest here: Swanson goes out of his way to accommodate as many people as he possibly can.
Maybe somebody can explain it to me. Normally I have an answer for the questions I pose here, but it frankly baffles me that people will pay that kind of money for a prospect – top drawer or otherwise. That’s especially true when a reasonable amount of effort could get you something I think would be even better – a ball or card or program signed right in front of you at a Mississippi Braves game somewhere in the Southland.
MBraves broadcaster Kyle Tait was musing about this phenomenon during a recent game. He’s checked in with fellow radio men around the Southern League and found that Dansby’s popularity is nearly without precedent… rivaled only by the media and fan frenzy that surrounded Michael Jordan when he had his foray with the Birmingham Barons back in 1994.
Funny, considering this was a guy who hit just .202, OPS’d .556 and hit 3 dingers in almost 500 plate appearances… but I guess people thought he was better at some other game.
Still, Dansby is becoming almost a cult figure among prospects – and that seems to be directly reflected in the demand for his time in personal appearances, media requests, autographs, and yes… baseball cards.
Here’s hoping that he keeps being the affable personality that he is today… and even better if he does that while enjoying a long and prosperous career in Atlanta.
Does anybody actually write personal checks anymore?