Sports Card Investing Targets - Buying Wide Receiver Cards Before They Break Out
With all of the attention in the NFL card market focused on Quarterbacks, I feel like we have an opportunity to target Wide Receiver cards. There has been a huge boom in the Sports Card market recently which new investors flooding in and sending prices of NBA cards and NFL Quarterbacks, in particular, through the roof. The traditional mentality in the Sports Card market has been “Quarterback or bust”. But when the NFL season starts and millions of football fans have their attention focused on their fantasy teams and home-team fandom, I’m going to bet that some of the new money pouring into the market will be priced out of the booming QB position and start targeting their next favorite position… the Wide Receiver. Now is a great time to target Wide Receivers you think are primed for breakout seasons. It is especially a good time to target their scarcer high-end cards which are simply unaffordable when it comes to NBA and QB cards, like those RPAs we all love so much. We’ll be using Market Movers data to get an idea of what the current market prices are for these cards. You can sign up for your own Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code GRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription. You will want to sign up for Market Movers specifically in order to access the great tools and data, and if you sign up for the annual Market Movers subscription, you will save you 20% on the entire year instead of just the first month. I’ll be adding additional targets at the end of the article from previous articles so you can see if you can still find the cards within the target range.
We will generally target Panini brands for football and basketball as they own exclusive NFL and NBA rights for sports cards. Just like DFS, be sure to manage your bankroll and don’t spend more than what your budget allows. Make sure you pay attention to the grading when looking at targets. Grading makes a huge difference in price, so price targets will be based on grading. An ungraded card is referred to as “Raw”. When targeting a Raw card, try to find one with the best centering, corners and edges (and surface if you can tell) as that is a card that might be worth sending in for grading. We’ll use SportsCardInvestor’s Market Movers data to evaluate current-market price targets based on what people have been paying most recently. Go above/below that market rate based on your convictions and confidence levels by player.
Sports Card Investing Targets – Buying Wide Receiver Cards Before They Break Out
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Kenny Golladay – Kenny Golladay got off to a hot start last year with Matthew Stafford at the helm surpassing 100 yards in 4 of 8 games and scoring 7 TDs over that period. It looked like Golladay was on the verge of a massive breakout season. Then Stafford went down for the remainder of the season and the Lions were left with a scrap heap at the QB position. Golladay had just one more 100+ receiving yard game the rest of the season. With Stafford back and the lions looking to pick up where they left off before his injury, Golladay is in good position to resume his dominance and catch the attention of the NFL fanbase who could reward his cards with investment dollars. I’d recommend checking out one of his more conventional cards along with some of his higher-end RPA cards which are listed below this Market Movers chart of his 2017 Prizm Silver PSA 10 card.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2017 Kenny Golladay Prizm Silver PSA 10 | Target Under $100 |
 | 2017 Kenny Golladay Prizm Silver PSA 9 | Target Under $20 |
 | 2017 Kenny Golladay RPA | See Market Movers Prices |
Odell Beckham Jr – I’ve targeted both OBJ and Baker Mayfield over the past couple months in my articles. I’m high on the Browns going into the 2020 season with a new coaching staff, an easier schedule, and Beckham should be back to full strength after playing through several injuries last year. Plus he’s got a year under his belt with Baker Mayfield, so he’s not entering unfamiliar territory as he was before last season. A lot of people have given up on OBJ which makes this a nice time to start targeting some of his scarcer rookie cards. If you can find what you believe is a nice National Treasures auto patch card, make sure to use the Market Movers price charts to ensure you are paying the market rate for the card.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2014 Odell Beckham Jr Contenders Auto #277 PSA 10 | Target Under $170 |
 | 2014 Odell Beckham Jr Contenders Auto #277 Raw! | Target Under $70 |
 | 2014 Odell Beckham Jr RPA | See Market Movers Prices |
DJ Chark – This is our 2nd time targeting DJ Chark as well. Chark had a nice breakout season last year and will look to build on that success in 2020. The last time we were looking at his Contenders Optic autographed cards they were going for around $15. They are now closer to the $30 range, but still have plenty of room for some upside. Chark is currently going in the early rounds of Underdog Best Ball drafts and I think he will climb throughout the summer along with his card prices as the hype for NFL starts to grow. Take advantage now to pick up his scarcer cards while they are still relatively cheap.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2018 DJ Chark Contenders Optic Purple Auto Raw | Target Under $30 |
Darius Slayton – Slayton had a nice rookie season in 2019 with 740 receiving yards and 8 TDs including 3 multi-TD games. Slayton is a name that is still a bit under the radar so there isn’t much hype surrounding him right now. The Giants will likely be playing from behind often in 2020, so expect them to turn to the passing game frequently which will keep Slayton busy in his 2nd season.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2018 Darrius Slayton National Treasures RPA Raw | Target Under $20 |
 | Darius Slayton RPA cards | See Market Movers Prices |
Diontae Johnson – Diontae is a name I’ve mentioned many times on our show as a player I’ve been targeting. I think he is a talented young player who broke out with some awful Quarterback play while JuJu Smith-Schuster slumped. Diontae Johnson might just be the next big thing in Pittsburgh when it comes to WRs and getting Ben Roethlisberger back at QB will only help his prospects.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2019 Diontae Johnson Contenders Optic Raw | Target Under $20 |
As always you can sign up for your own Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code GRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription.
As a new bonus in our articles, we are going to list all the cards from recent articles that you can check out to see if you can still buy at the target prices. Just click right on the links next to the cards to get to the eBay searches. Here are the additional targets we’ve recently featured in our articles:
