BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-EIGHT - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (22/75) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Bowman Draft Corey Seager Black Chrome Refractor (22/75)

The first of 2 colored parallels of Corey from the 2014 Bowman Draft release. Reason this one is up first is that I believe the centering is just a little more off than the blue version that I also submitted. Everything else looks good under the loop but I still feel this one falls short of gem mint status by half a point. Prove me wrong Beckett. 

Well this was a nice little surprise when the results were revealed to me. I expected this to miss the gold banner mark by half a point but instead it makes it by said half a point.

I believed the blue version had a better chance of earning a 9.5 but instead that earned a 9 and this black and more limited one earned the coveted 9.5. I figured that centering would be an issue and in fact that indded came back with a 9 and I had a gut feeling that one of the other 3 subs would also earn a 9 but it didn't happen and with that I have a gem mint low numbered Seager card. Nice little get for the collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number SEVENTEEN - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (32/399) Now BGS Graded Mint 9.0

2014 Bowman Draft Corey Seager Blue Chrome Refractor (32/399)

... and the second colored parallel of Corey. Unlike the black version I believe the centering is better on this blue one but I still think they both earn a silver banner of 9.0. That said if either one would earn a 9.5 I think this one is more likely as the corners look much sharper than the black so maybe it squeaks into the 9.5 club. 

As expected this card has returned to me with a silver mint 9.0 banner and though I was right I was also wrong at the same time.

While I knew the odds of a gem mint return were remote I thought the corners would be the biggest issue and while they did come back as a 9.0 it was the centering that took the biggest hit on this card card as it came back as an 8.5. I didn't think it was that bad but I guess BGS did. The card still has 2 9.5 sub grades and if it came back as a gem then that would have been a bonus but in its current grade I am more than satisfied.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Silver Wave Parallel (2/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

This rainbow project for Urias and Seager has been getting harder and harder lately to add to as both player's card prices have gone up since the beginning of the calendar year so deals are far and few between.

With that said I look for graded cards 1st prior to raw cards so if I can bypass the grading process then all the better. There are two silver wave parallels of Urias with one coming in the main Bowman Chrome set and then this one that comes in the Bowman Draft set. Both are numbered to only 25 with the main one commanding just a little more than this one but both still highly sought after.

I have seen and lost out on a copy of this card before on eBay as the price skyrocketed over $50 and that was before he started dominating in AA ball. When this one popped up I crossed my fingers as the seller had this on a BIN auction with a high amount attached to it. If not for the best offer option attached to it I would have passed on it. I sent him an offer of almost 50% off of what he was asking for and expected a quick rejection. The offer was rejected but he sent over a pretty fair counter offer. I decided to try my luck one more time and sent him an offer between our two offers and thankfully he took it. I promptly sent over the necessary funds and had the card in hand a few short days later.

One more notch on the rainbow project and yet I still have so many more to acquire.

Yet another gold banner

2 of 25

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Jeff Brigham Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (271/399)

Chipping away at what continues to be an endless checklist of cards I still need to acquire from the 2014 Bowman brand. Whether it's the Draft release or the flagship Chrome one I still have a lot to hunt down so anytime I can get my hands on one at a minimal cost it brings a smile to my face.

With this card in hand I now only need its black brother to finish off my Brigham collection. The problem for me when it came to this card (and the black for that matter) is that while the cost of the card was reasonable the shipping was not. A dollar or so for the card was fine with me but $3-$5 tacked on for shipping wasn't. Just had to wait it out till someone finally slashed or eliminated shipping on their auction and the wait finally ended as I was able pick this up for under $2 delivered.

It is amazing sometimes that these non stars or minor stars are so hard to acquire but that is the cost of collecting limited parallels. Blue down and black to go.

271

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399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Jared Walker Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (51/75)

5 whole quarters.
No, not an overtime game in basketball but a grand total of $1.25 is all it took for me to complete my very small Jared Walker project.

Jared was included in the 2014 Bowman Draft set and he was not represented by an autograph so I only had to lock down two cards for the young man. One blue and one black chrome refractor. The blue with its 399 copy print run was easy to obtain and I only had to really hold out/search for the black since there are only 75 copies.

I only ever saw a couple of copies on eBay but every seller wanted an arm and a leg for this card. I just waited it out and finally a seller had it on a traditional auction with $1.25 as the starting asking price. Surprise, surprise I was the only one to bid on it at auction's end and now my 2 card project is done. Onto the next mini project

51 of 75

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : John Richy Base Chrome Green Refractor Parallel (104/150)

So, yeah.
I only acquire black and blue parallels of Dodgers now other than rare occasions like the rainbow project that I am still doing for Urias and Seager or if I can score a deal on a Kershaw parallel. That basically is what I am collecting now so why do I have this green card of the same guy that I showcased last weekend in blue form? Price of course.

This card has a Beckett book value of $5 which I only looked after I picked this up as I was curious on how much of a deal I got it for. This is rarer than the blue by 144 copies and I won that one for 99 cents so you would think this would be slightly higher right? Nope. Seller had this up on eBay for a mere quarter. I almost felt like I was wasting money, and yeah I know it's only a quarter, as it doesn't fit into any part of my collection but for 25 cents I put a bid in.

Of course I won for that amount. Ha Ha. Anyways, I now own a green copy of pornstache Richy to compliment the blue copy. Now to find the black pornstache.

104

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150

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : John Richy Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (177/399)

I didn't know who Jeff Brigham was in the 2014 Bowman Draft set but I really didn't know who John Richy is. At least Brigham had an autograph to chase for so that "forced" me to figure out who that guy was. Richy on the other hand just had base and non autograph cards, to chase after.

The one thing I come away with after this purchase was, damn look at that pornstache !!! John is rocking the facial hair on this card and I love it.

I didn't expect much demand for John's card as he is not a "name" in the Dodger organization and even with a $4 value attached to this card in Beckett I was looking to spend no more than a $1 or so. Took a few days to find an auction that was suitable for me as sellers were still trying to make an extra buck or too on this card. Found this one with a starting price of 99 pennies and at the end of the day I was the only one to bid on it so all I had to part with was some loose change.

177

of

399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number THREE - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Silver Wave Parallel (19/25) Now Graded Near Mint 8.5

2014 Bowman Draft Alex Verdugo Silver Wave /25

First of two Verdugos in this batch and even though I rank this lower on the list of earning a gem mint return I still think it has a very good chance of doing just that. Everything looks good from my point of view on this rainbow card and hoping to keep the streak alive on Verdugo graded cards in my collection as all of them are gem mint as of now. Come on BGS, no silver banner here please.

Well I almost hit this grade on the head but just like Harper's card from Monday I missed on the surface aspect of this Verdugo card. Every other sub grade received a 9.5 which meant all I needed surface to get was a 9 and I would add yet another gem mint Verdugo to the collection. Well the grader said no you will not get that gem mint but here's a nice 7.5 surface sub grade for you to drive the overall grade down to an 8.5. Just like the Harper card I do not see what I missed on this card. I really need to educate myself more on surface grading for future submissions. I will end up cracking this open and reselling it if and when Alex starts really heating up in the hobby. Till then I just have another irritating near mint card in my collection.

3 9.5's yet a near mint return

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Refractor Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Other than the base card this refractor is the least costly card for the the rainbow project I am doing for Julio but I didn't expect to pick one up in graded form but glad that I was given the chance to do just that.

I have this card in ungraded form and that was going to be it for the rainbow project as I was not going to spend a submission cost to BGS for a $4 card. Doesn't make since but someone thought it did and this bad boy was on eBay and I came across it during one of my searches. Surprisingly the end cost was more than I thought it would be but still within reason for my tastes and with that I secured it for my collection/project.

With 2 different Urias rainbows (Base and Draft) to be completed I have to do a count but I believe I am getting close to finishing off the Draft portion of it. Just need to secure some of the more limited ones and I'll be golden.

Solid Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (22/75)

I know this card is limited to just 75 copies but I didn't think it would take me this long to acquire one of them.

Yes, I know Seager is hot in the hobby right now and everything of his is rising but this card comes out of the 2014 Bowman Draft and is not his rookie card nor his 2nd year card yet I kept losing out on it as the prices constantly went to or above its $15 book value. I expected that with his previous years cards but not this one. Even the Urias black was easier to obtain than Seager's. The only thing I can attest to it is that the card doesn't come up for sale much on eBay so when people see it they pounce on it.

Well here was my chance again when this one appeared on eBay but just like all the others the price was driven up by the time the last day of the auction had arrived. It was still in my ballpark so I crossed my fingers and put my bid in which made me the high bid. One second left and someone tried to snipe it but the only thing that did was drive up my purchase price as my amount held. Whoosh. Thank goodness as now I can move on to other Seager cards on my want list.

Twenty Two

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Seventy Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Autograph Refractor Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

I don't like that fact that Bowman went back to the unnumbered refractor parallel for this set but that won't stop me from acquiring certain autographs within said set. Case in point I finally locked down another Verdugo autograph.

I already have a blue autograph parallel of Verdugo but I still wanted a black version and the base refractor for my "mini rainbow" project for Alex. The black one will have to wait for awhile as that is too limited for my liking right now aka as in too much moola, but the base refractor shouldn't be too much of a hassle I thought. Plenty of ungraded (raw) copies were to be had on the bay but every week or so one of this graded version came up for sale and I rather snag one of these than a raw one. A couple weeks and couple cards came and went as the final price went above my limit. Unlike those I wasn't outbid days prior the auction's end on this one and I was still the high bid with a hour left. I put in another bid just to pad my "lead" and thankfully I did as at the last moment someone else tried to snipe it and their bid went over my original bid but not my second. The card was mine.

Two autographs down and one more to go for the Verdugo project.

Gold banner day once again.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Gold Refractor Parallel (16/50) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Gold encased in gold.

With most of the easier to acquire color parallels in hand now for my Urias rainbow project I shift my focus to the harder ones now. Again, to make matters worse there are two cards of each color to pick up since there are two sets that featured Urias's rookie cards. The main Bowman Chrome release and then the Bowman Draft one which is where this card comes from.

Numbered out of only 50 the gold parallels are harder to nail down and I have already seen multiple copies of this card sell so I was hoping to get my own copy before the price skyrockets out of my price range. Another traditional auction here and I expected I would have to get in a slight bidding war which I indeed had to enter. A total of 10 bids were entered but at the end of the 7 days I came out on top once again and that's even with 2 last second bids by another buyer.

It being already graded made this one particular card a priority as I don't need to submit a raw copy to BGS now. So that is one gold acquired with one more to go. All I have to say is thankfully there are not other super prospects in the Dodger farm system other than Urias and Seager so I won't be doing this rainbow project again for awhile. It can be really tiring.

The gold standard

16 of 50

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Blue Chrome Refractor Parallel (32/399)

More and more releases of the Bowman brand means more and more Dodger chrome to chase after and this year is no exception. Bowman released their annual Draft product and within it are a few Dodgers to pursue with Seager and Urias the headliners when it comes to non autograph cards.

As per the norm now, I am only searching for black and blue parallels which means I only needed two cards of the two players and with a print run of 399 the blue parallels are and will be more plentiful. I was in the process of negotiating with a seller on eBay on a different card when he posted this one up for sale. He was asking a minimal price for it and we were able to strike a deal on it (the other card though we couldn't come to an agreeable price).

It shipped promptly and within a week I had my first card from my list of wants from the 2014 Bowman Draft brand. The card is slightly off centered but I had no plans to grade this anyways as the print run is too "high" and not from his rookie year. Nonetheless, another great blue parallel of the Dodgers future shortstop.

32 of 399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Jeff Brigham Base Chrome Autograph Black Refractor Parallel (7/35)

Patience is truly a virtue at times and once again I gained from it by waiting out this seller for a few months.

I saw this card on the bay one day months ago and with an assigned book value of $50 I had no intention of buying it for his asking price of $40 on a BIN auction. I wanted the card but I didn't need the card. I love black autograph parallels but since Jeff is not a "big" prospect in the Dodger organization I wouldn't be devastated if I never acquired on of the 35 copies of this card. The seller lowered his price a couple of times and it sat at $30 for a few weeks. Still not interested. He finally canceled that auction and put it on a traditional auction with a starting bid of 99 cents. Now I was interested.

Wasn't sure what kind of bidding war if any would be attached to this card but I stayed on the outside and just watched to see how it would play out. Decent activity on the auction as there were 7 separate bids on it going into its final day. The cost was hovering around $10. Still reasonable. I entered my bid in and even though someone tried to snipe it at the last second my bid held and I won the card for a little over $16. That is a long way from the original asking price of $50 that the seller wanted but his loss is my gain.

Lucky 7 of 35

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Grant Holmes Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (46/75)

Slowly but surely I will get all these black and blue parallels from last year's Bowman Draft set and with this Holmes black refractor now in hand I can check off another box on the list.

I am working backwards with Holmes as I 1st picked up his autographed blue refractor and now the "harder" black parallel compared to the blue parallel which I am still trying to hunt down for a reasonable price. With only 75 copies of these it was more important to get this now than later as the blues have 399 copies so I am sure I will find one sooner or later.

Book has this card valued at $10 which is more than I believe it's worth but the $2 plus change I did pay for is more than reasonable. I won it on a traditional auction with minimal effort. Now to find that blue one.

46

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75

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Orange Refractor Parallel (12/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Urias
Seager
Urias

Back and forth I go trying to acquire the rainbow of Bowman Chrome cards of the Dodgers two super prospects. Depending on the day either one is more expensive than the other so the trick is to acquire any said card on the right day at the right time. Today it happens to be Urias's turn.

As stated in Kris Bryant BGS blog entry from a couple days ago there was another card that I was really after and this is the one. I luckily did this transaction before Urias was named the number one left handed prospect in all of baseball and prior to Spring Training. I think it would have "costed" more if I cam across the card at that time. Even with that there were 10 watchers on this BIN auction so I had to move quickly.

Thankfully I was planning to buy the two cards from the seller so he was little more lenient with the best offers. Not too much mind you but considering the two prospects I was looking to pick up reasonable enough. Card books for $40 in raw form so picking it up in gem mint graded form for less than that is a win win in my eyes. 

12 / 25

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Kris Bryant Base Blue Refractor Parallel (338/399) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Though I searched out a Kris Bryant autograph and was able to acquire a copy for my collection I am not really into pursuing many prospects that are not Dodgers. Kris is the number one rated prospect in baseball and has been anointed as a can't miss player. We shall see about that. His card prices reflect that belief which is another reason why I wasn't going after any of his cards, of course when a bargain presents itself it would be foolish not to at least look into it and that is what I did and came away with this beauty.

I was looking for another card (which I will show off shortly) and found it and was about to purchase it but then I decided to look at what else the seller had for sale. Not much caught my eye except for this card. Raw this card books at $50 and with my "addiction" to BGS gem mints I was drawn to this card. The seller was asking for less than what it books for but still had a best offer attached to the auction. With me locked into the other card I was looking to score a deal on this one to save him money on shipping.

After 2 days of negotiating (longer than usual with sellers from my past experiences) he finally accepted an offer that was agreeable to him. Though I would have liked to shaved off a few more dollars off the transaction I can't really complain as I picked this card up at more than 20% off of what it books for raw and I got two great cards in the transaction. More on that other card shortly.

Another gold banner for the collection

338/399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number Twelve - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Green Refractor Parallel (38/150) Now Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green Refractor Urias

There are 3 cards that I feel are borderline and this is the second of the 3 and the second Urias overall. Just like the purple parallel this green one "suffers" from a slight centering problem. I do not believe it is enough to knock it down to a mint 9 but at the same time since I'm thinking it might I have to be ready that it might earn that "dreaded" 9. Come on Beckett, give it a gold as green looks good pared with it.

One of the few cards that I thought might not come back as a gem mint 9.5 thankfully did and unlike the other Urias that I thought was borderline (purple parallel) I didn't "miss" on the surface as that is what dragged the other one down.

Of all the refractors this is one of the few that does not have a big book value assigned to as this clocks in at a measly $12. I picked it up for pennies on the dollar so now having it slabbed in a case makes me feel like I did a job well done. There are now 3 of these cards that have been graded gem mint and mine is one of them.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number Eleven - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Red Wave Parallel (16/25) Now Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Red Wave Refractor Urias

Alright, I am officially more than half way through the batch now and all I expected to see are gold banners on the rest of the cards from the batch starting off with yet another Urias parallel. This is a limited (#/25) red wave parallel that looks to me to be perfect all the way around but I don't want to be too confident so I'll say that centering is not perfect and cross my fingers. = )

When I submitted this card there were already 4 other cards that had been graded. 1 had earned a pristine 10 grade while the other 3 earned gem mint 9.5's. I sure didn't want to be the 1st to not earn a gold banner and thankfully I did not.

While I want my cards for the rainbow projects of Urias and Seager to be at least mint 9's there are a few for each player that I really want/need to at least earn a 9.5. Those of course are all the lower numbered parallels such as this red wave. Basically any of the parallels that have 25 or less I want as gems (unless I score a great deal on a 9) and I've done pretty well so far and this is another addition to that gold banner collection.

This card is hot as raw and being graded as a gem mint only makes it more desirable.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Jeff Brigham Base Chrome Autograph Blue Refractor Parallel (48/150)

$30 for who?
Brigham?
Who?

Prior to this year I did not know who Jeff was but I have since come across his base cards so I did a little research on him. I might know only a little but I know that his this autograph is no where near worth the $30 that it books for.

Verdugo and Holmes are the big autograph names that I am after but I still wanted to acquire Brigham's as long as I could score them at a reasonable amount. Multiple copies of this card have continuously sold for over $10 and sometimes touching $12-$13. I know that is more than 50% off of book but I was not going to part with my cash for that amount.

Finally found a decent copy that was acceptable to me as I've noticed a lot them are off centered. I don't intend to ever send Brigham's cads in for grading but the visual appeal is still important to me. In the end I picked this up at a pretty decent deal. I noticed a few sales prior to mine and they were in the double digit amount so mine for $7 was a nice little figure.

48 / 150

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin