Pinstripe power?

Pinstripes have a way of slimming, but also have a way making things expensive. For baseball card collectors, pinstripes always usually equate to extra dollars.

The New York Yankees are some of the most sought after cards and its players are hot commodities on the card market making a guy who has never thrown a pitch in baseball, worth hundreds of dollars – for each card. The market for Joba Chamberlain was crazy before he even got to wear a Yankee uniform.

One of the most expensive players to collect is current short stop Derek Jeter. If you look at his numbers compared to others of his price range (Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez), it’s not even comparable. He doesn’t have the same statistics, but he does a winning a smile and that NY that he has donned his entire professional career.

So what does becoming a Yankee do to the value of a player in the card market.The two newest Yankees (AJ Burnett doesn’t count) are CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira.

Look at this completed auction of Teixeira. A 2001 auto, his rookie card season, sold for $46. Notice the word ‘Yankees’ in the title auction. This complete auction went for $69 and another PSA 9 went for a BIN of $134.

Sabathia’s 1999 Topps Traded auto sold for $89 and a BGS 9 went for $170.

Now, we come to Beckett’s monthly hot list. While there are opponents out there of Beckett, it is the only source out there that is giving this type of information, which is why I am using it.

The top card on Beckett’s hot list is Teixeira’s 2001 SPx auto, which, according to Beckett, is up to $90-$150 book value range. Teixera makes the 20-card list, three times. Sabathia just once and Burnett even makes an appearance. All the cards on the hot list weren’t even on it last month.

However, those aren’t the only Yankees to make the list. Prospect Jesus Montero is there as well with the 2008 Bowman Sterling Prospects game-used jersey/autograph card.

Twenty percent of the hot list includes Yankees. Would any of those cards be on the hot list if they didn’t have a future in pinstripes? For the record, not one of those players has even played a game for the Yankees. The closest they have gotten to wearing the uniform was on their signing day when they took the obligatory pictures.

When it comes to favorite players do you want to see your player end up in a Yankees uniform?