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Midway through the 2012 Football season, I was approached by Beckett Football editor Susan Lulgjuraj regarding the growing popularity of Redskins rookie Alfred Morris. She sent me some interview questions via e-mail and used my quotes in her article in Beckett Football Monthly #263. I loved her full-color two page article, but the mock-ups I made never made it to print.
Now that we are in the off-season I thought it would be fun to look back at the full interview and see just how far the Redskins have come in our hobby in such a short time. I also thought it would be nice to share the Redskins Exquisite RCs and XRCs I made specifically for this story. Susan’s questions are in bold.
1. How excited are you for the Washington Redskins this season? Exceptionally excited. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a football season. The Redskins have not had a legitimate franchise quarterback in as long as I can remember and to get someone as mind-blowingly talented as Robert Griffin III is too good to be true. I must mention that I was not a Redskins fanatic until only recently. I graduated from Baylor University and have followed Robert Griffin III since his high-school days at Copperas Cove, and I decided long ago that whatever team was smart enough to draft him was going to be my #1 team. The team was easy to fall in love with as they have many parallels to Baylor: RGIII tasked with turning around a struggling franchise, unbelievably potent offense, terrible defense, and an incredible running game made up of players that continuously go under the radar. I have always been more excited about Saturday than Sunday, but now that I have RG3 and my Redskins I’m looking forward to Sunday all week long.
2. RG3 has gottten all the hype, but Alfred Morris has really come on. How do you think collectors are reacting to his cards? How do you think it will change in the coming months?
Picture a group of pre-teen girls screaming for Justin Bieber’s autograph. Now imagine those pre-teen girls are grown adults with disposable income, a propensity for gambling, and an insatiable desire to own an autograph of “the next big superstar.” The eBay history makes it clear…on August 5th an Alfred Morris Panini Donruss Elite die-cut autograph numbered to 49 sold for $4.12. Two copies of that same card sold this week for just under $70 and one copy numbered to his jersey number (46/49) sold for just under $100. From $4 to $100. I’m no Jim Cramer, but that’s one heckuva stock if you bought low. I haven’t seen a buy-low/sell-high situation like Alfred Morris since Jeremy Lin did the same to the basketball card industry last year (only on a larger, more global scale.)
3. How nerve-wracking is it that there are two rookies leading the offense of this team?
It’s fantastic…why not? These rookies bring the passion, emotion, and desire that they had in college to every snap of the football. Very few veterans play with the same passion. More importantly, these rookies can play! But let’s not forget that the entire Redskins team is dominated by young players. Leonard Hankerson, Roy Helu, and Evan Royster are all second year players who, when healthy, get many opportunities to prove that the young-guns can make an impact. But to have two rookies be leaders of the team…now that’s something you don’t see every day.
4. How crazy are RG3 cards right now?
Only slightly hotter than they were during pre-season. Robert Griffin is so marketable that collectors are just drawn to him. He is insanely talented, confident yet humble, has a great personality, and loves Subway sandwiches. All summer long collectors were consistently paying more for his autographs than they were for Andrew Luck’s! Now that the season has begun and people are seeing that he is the real deal, the prices of his extremely rare cards (like 1/1s) may have received a big bump but the majority of his other autographs were already at a pretty high ceiling. Plus every week more products are being released which means more of his autographs exist, so there is plenty more supply to meet the ever growing demand. In summation: I still can’t afford them.
5. How many cards of each do you have right now?
I loved what I saw of Morris during pre-season so I snagged a couple of his autographs for under five bucks a piece back in early August. Right now my Redskins rookie collection consists of four Alfred Morris autographs (Elite and Momentum,) SP Authentic rookie-patch-autographs of Leonard Hankerson and Niles Paul, SP Authentic and Threads autographs Roy Helu, multiple copies of each player’s rookie-auto from Contenders, and several beautiful autographs of each player from National Treasures and Five Star. I have only two Robert Griffin autographs: One is a nice auto from Topps Inception and the other one–which I traded away over $800 worth of cards for–is his Upper Deck Shadow Slot Autograph (which is a redemption I have yet to receive.) I believe it to be a 1/1 or at least a very limited print run. I also am trying to collect one Exquisite rookie-patch-auto of each of the Redskins’ 2011 rookies…I love the look of these so much I decided to make myself one for RGIII and another for Alfred Morris (see attached pic.) A guy can dream, right?
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