Signed Ball of the Day : Stephen Strasburg ( ROMLB Sweet Spot )

For today and tomorrow I proudly wanted to show off my two big eBay bucks purchases. For those that don't know what eBay bucks are it is a program that eBay runs. Every quarter ( 3 months ) for every purchase you buy on eBay you earn eBay "bucks". It comes out to $1 per $50 you spend. They also have special days where you can earn double, triple and sometimes quadruple that amount. Also if you use their bill me later service it's an extra 1%. To say the least I use this program like crazy and I have my whole family buying their stuff through me so I get the credit so I can purchase those really pricey signed balls I covet. The first one I bought is an Angel but since I am going to their game Saturday I will blog on that tomorrow and with that I present to you the most recent one that I acquired. Mr. Stephen Strasburg.

Stephen came onto the scene with a bang in mid 2010 and dominated right off the bat. Just a few months after debuting though he ended up needing Tommy John surgery which puts a pitcher on the shelf for 12-18 months. I felt bad for the guy as he is an exciting young pitcher and he and our own Clayton Kershaw are the best young guns in the majors today. He had his surgery and surprisingly he made it back by late 2011 to pitch some games and it looked like he never left. Still putting up great numbers. 2012 was another great year but the team had stated he was on a limit and whether you agree or not with that decision the team stuck with it and shut him down in the last month of a pennant race. The Nationals made the playoffs but were bounced out early. The debate still continues if the Nationals made the right move. My opinion is that in the long run it was the right move but in the short run all you can think about is what could have been.

In this past quarter I earned almost $80 in eBay bucks and was determined to acquire Stephen's autograph on a ball. His signatures have been running anywhere between $130 to $175 depending on authenticated or not and the clarity and quality of the ball. I had sold some more of my comics and had $70 allocated for this transaction so with a total of $150 I went hunting. He pitched a gem on Opening Day and I knew that would jack up the price. I zeroed in on one auction from a reliable seller that I have bought from previously. He had the auction starting at $99 for a PSA authenticated sweet spot ball. There had been one bid put on the ball at the beginning of the auction and in the last hour there was still that one and no others. With seconds left I put a bid in at a little over my self allocated amount of $150 and thankfully I did. I ended up the winner at $142. That other bidder was serious as well as he obviously had a high ceiling as well but luckily I won it. I think his signatures are just going to continue to go up as he continues to mature. He and Clayton will do many battles together for the Cy Young. So far Kershaw 1 Strasburg 0. Great looking ball and for current money out of pocket being zero you can't ask for more. I love eBay bucks.