Bargain Prospecting

2014 Bowman Black Cole Tucker Auto /25

I don't fancy myself a prospector, but enjoy chasing after rookie Pirate autos.  Sometimes prospect hype leads me away from the Bowman sets and towards Panini and Leaf, but that is fine with me. Unless the player is super hyped like Bryce Harper you can almost always find a lull to pounce on the higher end cards at a later time.

Cole Tucker was never an expensive autograph to begin with.  He was a Pirates first round pick back in 2014, but only had moderate hype because of his slim build and distance from the major leagues. While injuries has slowed him down, Tucker's stock has been slowly rising.  Many believe he can stick at short which automatically makes you a hundred times more attractive.  My guess is Tucker will start at high A this year with the hope of a promotion to AA Altoona around the mid point of the season.

With all that being said Cole Tucker is still relatively unknown and his card prices reflect that. This Black auto only set me back around $13 which is a nice price considering the product. Now he just needs to turn into Francisco Lindor or something like that....

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A Look at Trinity

Not that Trinity.

2014 Leaf Trinity is a set based around autographs of prospects. The set has 3 different type of cards. You will either get a patch auto, inscribed auto or plexi-glass auto. This is a type of product that I would never open, but love to buy on the secondary market. It is a great way to get some nice on card autos of prospects for a much cheaper price then some of the Topps/Bowman products.

This years set featured both of the first round picks of the Pirates this past year Cole Tucker (picked 24th) and Connor Joe (39th). I've been buying a lot of cards of each lately as prices have been very affordable. As you will see I've went a little overboard with adding some cards from Trinity, but it will showcase all the auto types I referenced above.  While the pictures are pretty plain, the autos are very bright and on card!

I think my favorite is the acetate card of Cole Tucker. It is one of those cards that a scan doesn't really capture the essence of the card.  It looks really nice!

If you are a prospect collector take a look at Trinity.  You might be able to find a really nice card for under $10. The printing plate was the most expensive card out of this group, costing around $15-20. 

Thanks for reading!