INVESTING IN MIKE TROUT
A shiny, black Ferrari pulls up to a Bank of America and a confident Dave Oancea hops out.
Oancea – also known as “Vegas Dave” in the sports betting world – is about to pull the trigger on a huge deal.
Inside the bank, Oancea meets a Taiwan businessman who takes out the holy grail of modern-day baseball cards: A 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Mike Trout autographed Superfractor.
The 1/1 card is graded a BGS 9 and 10 auto. It’s a beautiful Trout, truly a one-of-a-kind piece of encased cardboard.
Oancea produces a cashier’s check made out in the amount of $400,000 in exchange for the card. The deal is done.
May 11, 2018 is a day Oancea will remember for a long time. It’s a day that turned modern-day cards upside down.
“I’ve been offered $3 million for the Superfractor, but I’m not selling it for $3 million; there's no reason,” Oancea told Sports Collectors Digest in a candid interview a while ago, before deciding recently to put it up for auction. More on that later.
Oancea, 43, looks at cards strictly as investments. A former professional sports gambler, Oancea doesn’t mess around. When he’s into something, he pushes all his chips into the center of the table.
“I try in everything I do. I go all in,” Oancea said. “So, I just pick a couple players and go very hard on them. I think a lot of people in business, not just in sports cards, they go too wide and diversify too wide. If you’re talking about the sports cards market, they
