eBay Wins #98

This time, I picked up 2 rookie cards for their minimum bid of 1 cent each. I wonder what these would have cost me in 1991. Maybe up to a buck, or more in LA or Houston.

1990 Donruss #34 Eric Anthony
1991 Upper Deck #4 Dave Hansen

Here we've got 2 promising young rookies, from a time when your rookie card typically came out the year after your first season of play. Eric Anthony made the Astros for 25 games in 1989, and Dave Hansen played 5 for the Dodgers in 1990. I also picked up the Topps version of the Eric Anthony rookie, a "Future Stars" card, last year.

Since both of these were rookies, I decided to have a look at baseball-reference.com to see how their careers compared. I was a little surprised, especially since my firsthand baseball knowledge goes back to 1992 when I discovered I really liked the game.

Eric Anthony played 9 years, all the way through 1997, for Houston, Seattle, Cincinnati, Colorado, and the Dodgers, but only 682 games, 282 of which came in 1992-1993 as a starter. I feel like I vaguely remember him being around, which is about right considering his role on his teams later in his career.

Dave Hansen, I was certain, must have flamed out after a year or two. His name didn't ring a bell at all. But, he played 1230 games in 15 seasons, missing 1998 but playing from 1990 to 2005. Either the unbalanced schedule kept me from being exposed to the Dodgers and Padres much more than I thought, or my memory of the full league isn't as good as I thought. He also played 90 games for the Cubs in 1997 at a time when teams play 10% of their games against each division rival, which should mean he faced the Cardinals more than a few times. Memory is a funny thing.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2521
Total Spent	$44.04
Per Card	1.747 cents