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This is not buying or investment advice. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.
Prospects are running the show in today’s round of The Flip Files.
And that’s just how things go.
Quiet.
Boom.
Flipping prospect cards is about waiting for these moments that open sales windows. The question then becomes: do you take immediate advantage of them when they come, or do you roll the dice?
I’m more of the take-the-sure-shot kind of guy, but it doesn’t mean you have to be.
Ralphy Velazquez has turned the final month of the Minor League season into a personal highlight reel, with seven home runs in eight or nine games at one stretch, back-to-back multi-homer nights, and a Triple-A OPS that’s climbed into elite territory.
He’s the Guardians’ top prospect (behind Genao who is in the majors) for a reason, and the power he’s shown in August has put him squarely in the conversation for a September call-up.
I had a 2023 Bowman Draft #CDA-RV Chrome Prospect 1st Auto RC, graded PSA 10, that I’d picked up for $70.00 from The Adventure Begins a year ago—when I first started talking about him:
With Velazquez heating up the way he has, I listed it for $350, and it sold for $300 and a net of $251.04. That’s a $181.04 profit.
I still have a couple of raw copies and a big /75 PSA 9 auto on the way from Arena Club.
Abimelec Ortiz has quietly put together one of the more interesting stories of the summer. Traded from the Rangers to the Nationals as part of the return for MacKenzie Gore, he debuted in the Majors on July 12 and has kept swinging it well since. A couple of recent homers brought his young big-league total up to four.
I moved three separate copies of his 2024 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph, all around the same time as his recent homers:
COMC raw, bought for $8.80, netted $14.25 for a $5.45 profit.
COMC raw, bought for $7.80, sold for $18.05, a $10.25 profit.
COMC PSA 10, bought for $35.00, sold for $59.85, a $24.85 profit.
All told, that’s $40.55 off one prospect auto in a single stretch.
I have a /299 PSA 10 auto, a base PSA 10 auto, and multiple raw base autos still left to sell.
Most of these were bought when I first talked about Ortiz…in 2024. That’s how long it takes for cards to come to fruition sometimes. I’m not a big buy and stash guy, but it’s all about those windows, and it took a while for Ortiz’s to open wide enough to make selling make sense.
The Cardinals finally pulled the trigger on Joshua Baez - their No. 3 prospect - calling him up to make his MLB debut against the Cubs after he led the Minors with 34 home runs and 90 RBIs at Triple-A Memphis this season.
I bought late on Baez, which means I was spending between $35 and $65 on his cards, and honestly, I lost patience a while ago—selling off five copies (I think) over the season, including this last one that I’d bought for $64.19.
It sold for a net of $89.77—a $25.58 profit, right on cue with the call-up news.
Not everything in this batch worked, and I’d rather own that than skip past it.
A handful of small losses came out of COMC auctions:
Roberto Clemente Green Wave /99 (bought $14.45, sold for $7.50, a $6.95 loss)
Yadier Molina Aqua Foilboard /75 (bought $5.00, sold for $1.82, a $3.18 loss),
Miguel Cabrera UD Game Jersey (bought $10.50, sold for $4.25, a $6.25 loss).
None of these are backbreaking, but they add up, just like small wins do.
The bigger miss was the Pujols 2001 eTopps uncirculated rookie I’d bought for $150.00 based on comps I thought I remembered from a previous run.
Turns out me
mory isn’t the same as checking current comps, and it sold for a net of $119.06, a $30.94 loss.
Back over on eBay, one more worth calling out was this 2019 Topps Update Will Smith 1984 Red /10 RC which I featured in a recent Card Cart entry:
It was listed cheap because the seller flagged it as “poor condition.” In hand, the condition wasn’t great, sure, but it wasn’t majorly creased or damaged either.
For a /10 flagship insert rookie of a major Dodgers piece, that was a risk worth taking.
I bought it for $16.93 and sold it for a net of $38.40; a $21.47 profit.
Reading past a scary-sounding condition note is sometimes exactly where the value is hiding.
A few more small cards rounded out the eBay side:
A 2026 Topps Finest Tarik Skubal Orange Refractor /25 that I bought for $11.57 turned into a $5.18 profit, while a 2016 Topps 65th Anniversary Don Mattingly Buyback that I bought for $4.92 turned into a $10.19 profit.
And a few others that didn’t work, but sold nonetheless:
Cody Bellinger Short Print /25 (bought $10.71, netted $6.49 for a $4.22 loss)
Tim Wakefield 2001 Retrofractor (bought $27.61, netted $15.18 for a $12.43 loss)
BJ Upton Gold /10 jersey card (bought $17.92, netted $16.50 for a $1.42 loss).
Prospect momentum carried this round—Velazquez, Ortiz, and Baez combined for well over $200 in profit on their own. But the losses are part of the same ledger, and the Pujols miss is a good reminder that comps from memory aren’t the same as comps checked today.
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