Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Five Star : Mike Trout Base Autograph (3/50) BGS Graded Mint 9.0

The perfectionist in me has stuck again and that is why I am now in possession of this wonderful BGS graded autograph of Mike Trout. Thank God for eBay and the ease of swapping out cards that may not reach my (high) standards.

I did a trade awhile back for this card in raw form and when it arrived while the condition of the card looked to be borderline mint I knew with past history that Five Star is a touchy brand to get graded and there is always a 50/50 chance it might come back as a disappointing 8.5. I could have risked it  BUT what made me pause was the signature. BGS "usually" gives a pass on autographs if there is 1 streak (to be fair I have seen some without streaks and they get a 9) but if there is more than 1 there is no way that it earns a 10. Well that other card had 2 streaks and I knew it would annoy me to no end with a 9 attached to the label. Had to fix that "issue" and here is the solution.

Thankfully Trout autographs have a great aftermarket resale value so I knew I could get "rid' of that streaky card but I wanted to replace it with a similar Five Star card in graded form. Problem was/is that they don't come up for sale that often. Lucky me this one did a couple days after I decided to unload the other card.

This card has a 9 overall grade but the big thing is the 10 on the flip side which applies to the autograph. No issues with this card. The seller and I negotiated for a few days on this till we came to a satisfactory middle ground and the sale of the other card finalized a day later.

A nice no cost even swap and I have yet another graded Trout autograph for the collection .

Three

of

Fifty

Gem autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin