A Resurgent Javi Baez And His Cards To Collect
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Detroit Tigers outfielder Javier Baez is having a career resurgence. After signing a six-year, multi-million dollar deal, Baez went on to hit .238, .222, and .184. This year, however, he's hitting .289, more than 30 points higher than his career average of .253.
According to MLB.com, he's hitting .340 in his last 30 games. He has moved on to the second phase of this year's All-Star voting. He hasn't been to an All-Star game since 2019.
As Baez returns to All-Star caliber performance, what are some of his cards collectors should pick up?
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The gold standard of collecting baseball cards is the Bowman 1st. Baez's first bowman chrome comes out of 2011 Bowman Chrome. Accroding to eBay sold listings, this card ungraded goes for around $40. Graded a PSA 10 this same card peaked in April 2021 with Card Ladder recorded a sale of a whopping $760. Now that was during the COVID peak window of 2020-2022.
According to Card Ladder, the last recorded sale of a PSA 10 was $50. But that was in the offseason in November 2024, months before his performance on the field started to improve.
Baez was a rookie in 2015 products. Topps Chrome tends to be the gold standard for collectors when it comes to rookie cards after the player has made their debut. While a base chrome autograph of his goes for around $70, the parallels to fetch a premium. According to eBay sold listings, orange refractor numbered to just 25, graded a BGS 9.5 auto 10 went for $300 on May 14th.
While it's non-licensed and a not a rookie or Bowman 1st, the Panini Downtown insert is one of the more desirable cards, for all sports. Baez's downtown goes for, according to Card Ladder, goes for around $100, with the last recorded sale by the card tracking app occurring in November 2024, going for $93.23. Card Ladder shows that this card peaked on October 27th, 2023 when it sold for $130.00.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz