BGS Submission Result Number FIFTEEN - 1999 SP : Adrian Beltre Base Autograph Now Graded Mint 9.0

1999 SP Adrian Beltre Autograph

I am actually submitting two copies of this Beltre card as I picked one up on trade (actually my card being reacquired) and one from eBay when I was void of Beltre autographs. This is the oldest (16 years) card I have ever submitted and while they both look exactly the same condition wise I don't know what years of being passed around does for my chances to have at least one of these if not both come back as gem mints. At the very least I think they come back as strong mint 9's.

No, you are not seeing double per se. Yesterday I showcased a 99 SP of Beltre and now we go back to back as this is my final BGS 9 from this batch.

I never expected either of the Beltres to earn a 9.5 but they both came so very close but I rank this one just a notch better than yesterdays and that is due to the sub grade that received an 8.5. Yesterday's 8.5 was for the corners and today's is for surface. My personal ranking always has corners more important than surface as corners are more visual right of the bat but surface can be on the reverse of a card which you will never see. Also, if I decide to resubmit either card for a regrade this one would be the one not the other.

Either way I am very happy with 2 Beltre 9's and now for the rest of the 18 cards left in this batch to blog about we shall only see gold banners. Woo hoo.

Oh so close to gem....AGAIN

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number FOURTEEN - 1999 SP : Adrian Beltre Base Autograph Now Graded Mint 9.0

1999 SP Adrian Beltre Autograph

I am actually submitting two copies of this Beltre card as I picked one up on trade (actually my card being reacquired) and one from eBay when I was void of Beltre autographs. This is the oldest (16 years) card I have ever submitted and while they both look exactly the same condition wise I don't know what years of being passed around does for my chances to have at least one of these if not both come back as gem mints. At the very least I think they come back as strong mint 9's.

I hit this card right on the head. It did indeed come back a 9 and a strong one at that as it only needed corners to earn another half a point and it would have been a gem 9.5. I am not surprised that the corners received an 8.5 as being in and out of hands for 16 years can add wear and tear. I would have loved to have this come back as a gem as I think Adrian is a future HOF member and this great looking card shows in him Dodger blue. A real bonus. Oh well. As stated in the original paragraph I have 2 of this same card so maybe the other one did better? Maybe? We shall see.

Oh so close to a gem 9.5

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1999 SP : Adrian Beltre Base Autograph

Well look whose back in the collection?

If you go check my past posts (which I myself did to verify date) I showcased this card back in August of 2013. Over a year and half as passed since then and I can now say I have the card once again but this time I had to pay more for it.

That 2013 copy was supposed to be my one and done for Adrian but Alex of Chavez Ravining ended up with the card when we did a trade last year. It was the one piece of the trade I didn't really want to let go but to make the trade work I had to part with it. At the time I assumed I would be able to pick up another copy within a reasonable amount of time. Yeah, not so much.

Beltre is going to make it to the Hall of Fame and his autograph prices are starting to reflect that. Time and time again I lost out on other copies of this card but after all these months I was able to pick one up at a price I was happy with even though it was twice as much as I spent the 1st time I won this card.

Hopefully I don't do another trade that the other person demands/needs this card in return.
= )

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

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

Card of the Day - 1999 SP : Adrian Beltre Autograph

Back to the nineties I went to get this gem. What could have been. Since Adrian left the Dodgers for assumed greener pastures in Seattle the Dodgers have had a constant revolving door at third base trying to replace him. To this day they haven't found anyone that comes close to what Adrian brings to the table. Sad too as he will probably make the hall of fame as he will hit over 400 home runs maybe even approach 450 and will flirt with 3000 hits. Would have been nice to see him go in as a Dodger. Might still happen per se as he spent the majority of his career in L.A. so the hall might put the Dodger logo on the cap part of the plaque.

I recently picked up a signed Adrian ball but since I was back in card collecting I wanted to get one his autographs on a card as well. But since he hasn't been with the Dodgers since 2004 I knew it would be an older card that I would end up with. There is an adequate amount of Adrian cards in Dodger blue so it wasn't too hard to lock on to one to buy. This card came up for auction which has a nice crisp blue signature which is slightly different than the way he signs nowadays. Ended up winning the auction after I put in my high bid in a day earlier than normal and won it for the lucky price of just $7.77.

Wish he never left our team but with Scott Boras as your agent odds are that you will leave for a lot more money or resign at a non hometown discount. But at least he has come home to my collection.