Card of the Day - 2012 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Blue Refractor Autograph Parallel ( 4 / 150 ) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

I got an eBay itch that just needed to be scratched. I had the above BGS 9.5 Seager autograph card already in my possession but I am always looking to upgrade to the blue parallel of any Bowman Chrome autograph that I might have. Seager is tearing up the California League and is getting hotter and hotter in the hobby as each day goes by. Still, he is a prospect and he could flame out or never make it to the majors. But if I could acquire the blue parallel I would be very happy with that. I just had to figure a way to get it without spending much, if any money out of pocket. Most sellers on eBay are/were asking at least $400 but each one did have a best offer option attached to the auction. A little back and forth with a couple of them yielded nothing of note. One seller and I though came to an agreement without me committing to it just yet. I told him I wanted to have funds in hand prior to completing the transaction and he understood that just as I understood if someone else came along and bought it I would left empty handed.

So what should I sell to get the necessary funds to buy my new Seager card? Obviously with a blue parallel I wouldn't need the base refractor so that was the first one in the sale pile for eBay. I decided to reach out to some fellow bloggers and twitter friends and get their insight and opinions on the matter. In the beginning of my plan and even though I was highly hesitant to add a Kershaw autograph to the sale pile I knew I would get a premium price for his cards right now. I didn't want to and my heart really wasn't into it. Derek and Aus from Twitter reaffirmed my thoughts and basically said I would be crazy if I did that. I pulled the Kershaw out of the potential cards and moved onto another subject.

I have plenty of Kemp autograph cards and knew I was willing to sell at least one to fund this purchase. The trick was to find one that still held some value as most of his cards had gone down in price the past two years. One thing I wanted to make sure to get rid of was a sticker variety as those are annoying to me. With that thought I knew which one to include.

Even though I love that Matt is in his Brooklyn uniform the autograph is on a sticker and I have another autograph of Kemp in his Brooklyn uniform that is an on card version. That made this card expendable. With it being numbered only to 10 I knew the scarcity of it would help it sell. I was right in that thinking as the sale of the Kemp card was close to $50. I added that to the stack with the sale of the refractor BGS card of Seager that brought in close to $100. So with the 2 bringing in close to $150 combined I still had a little ways to go and knowing I wasn't going to sell a Kershaw card I had to figure another avenue to acquire some funds.

After talking to Aus and Derek I ended up talking to fellow blogger Greg as well on the purchase I was trying to put together. I contemplating on selling my BGS Puig card that hails from the 2013 Bowman set. It is a non autograph card but probably would net me somewhere in the ballpark of $80. Was also thinking of selling a couple of other Kemp autographs but there was nothing else that either would sell at a reasonable price that made it worth my while or one that I could live without. So no Puig and no more Kemp. I was finishing up a TPB story line that I could sell and add those funds to the collection pile. Did just that and it netted me a little over $80. So almost $230 in total now. Still needed a little more so I thought about it and came up with something I was comfortable with.

Refractor
X-Fractor
Green
Orange
and
Gold.

5 Dee Gordon autograph rookie cards that were part of my rainbow project that hit a wall as I could not find a purple or red to complete the set. I went with the thinking that you sell high and buy low. I bought each one of these prior to the 2014 season for a total of a little over $25. I sold them as a lot thinking some people would rather have them all at once instead of searching for them individually (which also keeps my shipping costs lower). I was right as the sale netted me close to $50 which when added to the almost $230 I already had put me a little south of $280.

I know some people, including the ones I asked for their opinions, might think I overspent/paid for the Seager card. In the long run, money wise at least, they might end up being right but I look at it this way. Didn't need the Seager anymore so that was a wash. Kemp was expendable due to me having more than 20 autographs of the Matt and the one I got rid of was a sticker autograph. While the Dee bundle was a lot and wiped out all but 2 of my Dee autographs in my collection I was able to hold onto all my Puig and Kershaw cards (which would have brought in the most money). I like Dee and think he is a great guy but I didn't feel as much attachment to these cards as I do to a nice gem mint card of Seager. I love any and all Kemp cards but when it comes down to it I could spare one even though it was a limited one.

All that netted me this great card :

2 10's

The new crown jewel of my Seager collection.

I ended up spending nothing out of pocket and even though I gave up 7 autographs for 1 I think it was a good deal and I am happy that I did it. Though the Dee part of it irked me a tad I am already working on acquiring a new Dee autograph that will make any bad taste that I might still have from this transaction disappear.