Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Chrome Draft : Grant Holmes Base Autograph Blue Refractor Parallel (40/150) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

In yesterday's post about the Fan Fest from this past Saturday I alluded to an autograph that I planned to acquire but did not even though I had a voucher for him. The plan was during the first session I was going to get Mark McGwire's autograph and then swing over to Orel Hershiser and Chris Withrow's line to get their autographs. Instead of going that route I ended up with this card in Orel/Chris's place:

Yup, instead of a Dodger great and a very good reliever I picked up a graded card of a player that the Dodger just drafted last year. 19 year old Grant Holmes. Now why did I go and do that? Simple. Money and opportunity. 

I already have a few autograph cards of Chris but the main draw was Orel as I only have one autograph of his in my collection and wanted to add a photo or a black ball (I hadn't decided which one at time of the voucher purchase) to that total. The Chris autograph most likely would have gone into the #walletcard contest. I had this Grant card on my to get list from Bowman Draft and it was also on my eBay watch list. This was the first blue graded card of his to hit eBay so I expected some interest in it. Ungraded this card has a Beckett value of $100 with most sales going for $70-$80. While I wanted it I was just curious to see what the final sale price would be. 

As I was getting my vouchers arranged for Saturday's Fan Fest I thought why don't I check what the Orel voucher is going for on eBay. Puig, Greinke and Adrian were going for obscene amounts of cash with Puig touching $250. Really? Anyways, I saw that there was only one Orel for sale with a BIN of $175 or best offer. There had been one sale already at $150. Hmm.. I didn't need Withrow's autograph and I had Orel but what made me really think is that Orel will probably be with the broadcasting team for a few years and I know he signs at the stadium. I will undoubtedly get baseline seats at least twice this year so I can probably score his autograph then. So why not sell Orel's voucher and use those funds on getting this great looking and graded card for "free"? Well that's what I did and now own the only blue graded card of Grant's. He is already a top prospect in the organization and hopefully he will be assigned to Rancho for his first full season as a Dodger as I have 8x10's ready to be signed by him.

Nothing better than a blue gem mint Dodger autograph

While some people might question why I would trade/sell of an autograph opportunity of Dodger royalty for an unproven player the simple answer is because I can and I am confident that I can get Orel's signature in person in the coming year. If I did not live in Los Angeles I most likely would not have done this but for the ridiculous prices that people are paying for these vouchers can you really blame me? Either way I am happy with my transaction as I got the player I really wanted (Mac) at Fan Fest and got a limited colored parallel for nothing.

40 of 150

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin