Card of the Day - 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends : Stan Musial Autograph BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

As a Dodger fan all things Cardinal related is getting more and more irritating as each year goes by. Every team has a team that gives them issues and once again those redbirds from St. Louis knocked out the Dodgers in the 2014 playoffs. With that said I do not have an autograph in my personal collection of any Cardinal (edit - I do have one now of Mark McGwire in a Cardinal uniform ) but I did want a specific one and I was able to finally lock one up.

Stan, the Man, Musial is a Cardinal legend and I have looked forward to the day I would reacquire his autograph. I had a signed ball of his but as with all my signed balls it was sold and his named was added to my "to be reacquired" list.

Stan died in January of 2013 and during his last few years his autograph had deteriorated and was getting harder and harder to read. It comes with age but I wanted a legible autograph for my collection and it also had to be a non sticker variety to boot. I had to go back 15 years to find the perfect one to purchase. This card was part of Upper Deck's celebration of the 20th century of players and Stan obviously was a part of it. To top it off it had already been graded gem mint so I did not have to worry about the condition of the card. This obviously is not really an investment piece and if I would have found another card that looked to be undamaged I would have pursued that one but this one was too good to pass up.

The seller on the bay had it up on a BIN auction with NO best offer attached to it and it was already on 10 other people's watch list. I held out for over a week as I waited for my comic sales to go through and when they did I was lucky to see that the card was still up for sale. Clicked the purchase button and a week later I welcomed Mr. Musial back into my collection. A great card from a great player.

Gem mint 9.5

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