(01-05-2012, 10:15 PM)Matsui411 Wrote: [ -> ]Hey, I'm new to collecting cards and stuff so me and my friend bought a couple of packs today and I got a redemption card for a Brett Lawrie autograph gold refractor parallel and I was looking on ebay and the redemption cards were selling for around 150-200, but I am just wondering... are the redemption cards worth more themselves and if I redeem it and just hold on to the actual Lawrie card, is it gonna lose value? Any advice on what to do?
At the risk of sounding too obvious, but since you said you're a new collector, I would either sell the redemption card — now — or redeem it — now.
Worst case scenario is holding on to the redemption card itself, waiting for the value to increase and then forgetting to sell it or redeem it until after it expires ... and then it's completely worthless.
In my opinion, if you don't care about Brett Lawrie specifically, or don't know who he is, just take what you can get for the redemption, and let someone else worry about waiting for it, replacing it if he doesn't sign, etc. ...
Personally, I hate redemptions ... back in 2002, my grandparents sent me a blaster box of Topps basketball for Christmas, and I actually pulled an auto redemption card of Allen Iverson, one of my favorite players.
I was ecstatic, redeemed it right away, and then waited ... waited ... and waited, until a year and a half later when Topps ultimately sent me like three autos and two jerseys of five different guys who didn't last more than a couple more years in the NBA, because Iverson never signed, apparently.
If it tells you anything, Kwame Brown and Gilbert Arenas were the two best autos I received.
Plus, as new products come out (the 2012 stuff is supposed to start coming out like next month), people tend to focus on the new class of rookies, autos, etc. ...
Either way, that's a pretty sweet pull, and Lawrie should be a pretty good player, so the redeemed card would be pretty attractive to a Toronto fan.
But I would just sell it if I were you. Take care, RJ