Card of the Day - 1999 SP Signature : Greg Maddux Base Autograph BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5 AND eBay Bucks Quarterly Purchase Number Two

And now the second and final day of my most recent eBay bucks quarterly "purchases".

While yesterday's Edgar Martinez autograph card was a nice addition at no cost out of pocket he was not the main pursuit for me when it came to using my earned bucks from eBay. While the main get from the Christmas time eBay buck "purchases" was Urias with a look to the future when it came to that acquisition, I wanted this quarter to be a look back to the past with hopefully it being a hall of fame member. Searched and searched and I came up with the immortal Greg Maddux.

Greg had a tremendous career which even included two separate stops with the Dodgers. While I did acquire a signed ball by him it was not in person and said ball was part of the ball purge of last year so Greg has been on my list to reacquire for quite some time. I anticipated that I would only have one autograph of Mr. Maddux in my collection so I had to make it count when I locked in on one.

Even though he played for the Dodgers his hall of fame resume was cemented while playing for the Braves. That meant I wanted/had to have his autograph with him in a Braves uniform. Obviously it also had to be on card as well. What also has become the norm or requirement for any star player that I only have one autograph of is that the card should be graded by BGS as a gem mint or mint 9 at worst. With those 3 "needs" I set about looking for a card that would satisfy those needs. Only a day in and I found what I wanted.

Gem minty

With it being roughly March 20th and the eBay bucks not being available till April 2nd (almost 2 weeks later) I was hoping the seller would accept what I seem to have patented a lot of these eBay buck purchases of late. Lock in the card and pay two weeks later with the trust that I would not back out of the transaction. I contacted the seller and asked if he would do it and he said sure but informed me that no one else has every asked him to do that and not that he didn't trust me it just seemed odd and asked me why I wanted to do this. I explained to him that the reason being was I wanted to take the card "off the market" (as it was on a BIN auction and already had 6 watchers) and didn't want to lose out on it prior to the eBay bucks being available. He said no problem so I locked in the card and told him I would contact him in two weeks and send payment.

Ten baby,,,

The card books from anywhere from $60-$120 in raw form with an obvious bump with a gem mint grade attached to it but when April 2nd rolled around I sent payment to the seller with not a single penny out of pocket or Paypal funds. I so love these "purchases" every 3 months.

Two cards for this quarter but this was the one I truly had to "have" and now I can say I do.

That's it for this quarter and the countdown continues for the next one which ends on June 30th. What autograph can I find at that time?

Before Wil Myers there was Greg Maddux

(scribble signatures that do not resemble anything near their name)

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin