Replacement Options

Since I pulled one card out of this case of Draft that could very well end up paying for the whole case, I can focus on having Upper Deck send me a replacement for the Michael Johnson autographed card that will end up staying in my collection.  I’m having a little bit of difficulty figuring out who I should ask for though.

The first part of the equation is trying to put a price tag on the Michael Johnson card that this redemption is for.  This doesn’t even have to be a real world price since I would assume that to determine value, Upper Deck would have to go by Beckett’s prices.

Michael Johnson is one of the most famous modern Olympic athletes there is.  He’s won four Olympic medals and it didn’t hurt that his best performance in an Olympics was here on American soil when he became the only male athlete to win both the 200 m and 400 m events at the same Olympics.  His record in the 200 m that he set at those Olympics stood for over 12 years.

I saw a Michael Johnson autograph that sold on eBay which sold for $50.  This site is selling an autographed 3x5 index card for $60 and an autographed Sports Illustrated that’s numbered to 96 for $300.  There’s a definitely lack of Johnson’s autograph out there especially certified trading card autographs (which is largely due to his never signing for Upper Deck).  I think that I could legitimately see this card, numbered to just 99 copies, having a value around the $100 mark.  Too high?  Too low?

Now I have to figure out what 5-7 comparable players I would like to ask for in return.  I don’t do hockey at all so that rules out the only sport that Upper Deck still has a license for.  There are some players that I collect which would have to be a 1/1 card in order for this to be comparable such as Glen Davis, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Dwight Evans, Kent Hrbek, etc.

So, who do I collect who I think might possibly have a card that I feel is comparable to the hypothetical Johnson?

• Well, I don’t have a Tom Brady autograph in my collection yet.  Maybe I should request a Brady shadowbox auto.  That’s probably worth 5 hypothetical Johnsons.  Tom Brady definitely makes the list.  That’s about it as far as Patriots go though.
• Paul Pierce is an option, but I already have a lot of his autographs and none of them go for a hypothetical Johnson unless they’re low numbered with a patch.
• One Celtic who I do not have an autograph of in my collection is Kevin Garnett.  There aren’t a ton of Garnett autographs out there and I don’t think he’s in Panini products at all.  Garnett is a solid option.
• I also don’t have an autograph of Ray Allen, but he’s about a half of a hypothetical Johnson.  One option might be to request some kind of multi-signature Celtics card to see what they can do.
• I finally added a David Ortiz autograph to my collection, but it would be nice to have another.
• New Red Sox Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford will be here for a while.  It would be nice to have autographs of either of those guys especially A-Gon since I’ve been a fan of his for a while.

Anyone out there have any other ideas or suggestions?