He’s building a case to mentioned with the all-time greats. No matter if you’re talking offense or defense.
In our newest edition of Better Than a Box, we’re going to give you four awesome Nolan Arenado cards at virtually the same price of a 2022 hobby box of Bowman Heritage Baseball. For around the same cost–or less– than the going rate of right around $180-$190 for the box, we’ll find you four golden Nolan options to give you a great start to a PC.
By the time he hangs up his cleats and golden glove for good, Arenado might be able to make the case as one of the greatest third basemen to ever play the game. The 32-year-old is a seven-time All Star, a ten-time Gold Glove award winner and a five time Silver Slugger and owns a multitude of statistical accomplishments. Just surpassing the 300 home run and 1,500 hit mark a few short days ago, he’s got a shot at 3,000 hits and 500 homers before he’s through playing. It’s also not out of the question to think the flawless fielder might add a few more Gold Gloves, putting himself in rarified leathery air.
As always, we build a collection quartet, with one key rookie card, an autograph, relic card and serial numbered parallel at a price at or below our selected box, in this case the prospect heavy Bowman Heritage from last season.
Here are our picks:
The Rookie Card
For $75-$85 (sometimes less), you can get a PSA 10 Gem Mint copy of Arenado’s 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects base rookie card. Check out the intensity and focus on the young face of the Rockies rookie. This beautiful flagship brand and always iconic chromium name coupled with the perfect PSA score and official RC logo is a nice addition to the collection for a modest price.
The Autographed Card
Our autograph of choice hails from the sleek and sharp 2016 Topps Strata collection. This nicely designed horizontal card showcases Arenado at the plate when he was playing for the Colorado Rockies. It works well with the sig on a futuristic clear acetate piece toward the right hand side of the card.
With recent selling prices in the $30-$45 range, this is a really sharp addition to this starter collection… and there aren’t a ton of Arenado signatures to be found.
The Memorabilia Card
For the memorabilia card, we went with the 2018 Topps Update All-Star Game memorabilia piece of the hot corner king. Arenado is featured in his ASG red event used fabric. Any piece of ASG related mem from the perennial National League All Star third baseman is pretty special. For under $10, this is a great representation for this collection and showcases Arenado’s All Star level of consistency.
The Serial Numbered Card
For the fourth and final piece of this starter collection, we pull from the super popular current year 2023 Topps Series One baseball and pick up a 1988 Tribute Orange Mojo parallel. The eye-catching design shows Arenado with his current team, the St. Louis Cardinals, getting ready to field a grounder. It’s a throwback design for a throwback player. With a serial number of 25, it’s limited enough to where it sells in the $30-$35 range.
While someone recently paid $35,400 for one of the five 2010 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor autos, overall Arenado is criminally underrated and undervalued in the hobby.
You could certainly pick out your own representative cards (see over 6,000 of them here) but it’s good to know that for the price of a box that carries plenty of mystery, you could start a Gold Glove collection of Future Hall of Fame awesomeness.
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