September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-SEVEN - 2014 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Base Action Pose Variation Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Action Photo Variation

From a this screen shot this Trout Heritage in action form looks to be pretty good when it comes to centering but under the loop reveals that it is slightly off centered from top to bottom but I don't think enough to knock it down to a 9. There is also some fraying on a corner but also not enough I think to cause any grade issue.

One "issue" came up and another did not.

I thought centering might be a tad off but it wasn't bad enough to knock it down to a 9 and thank God for that as corners did have enough fraying issue to send that sub grade to a 9. Even with that though this becomes yet another Heritage gem for my collection. Nice cheap pick up got better by at least 100% with that gold banner attached to it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number EIGHTEEN - 2014 Topps Heritage Clayton Kershaw Base Action Pose Variation Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps Heritage Clayton Kershaw Action Pose Variation

Another Kershaw action variant from the Heritage brand and another that I hope squeaks by with a 9.5 but I am worried about the centering as it might be just a tad too far to the right to the liking of Beckett to give it a 9. There is also a corner with a small issue but that could only be seen under a loop so I don't "think" that will be an issue.

A small surprise in the gem mint group of this batch as I had an iffy feeling on centering and if that would have been coupled with a corner that I wasn't sure how it would pan out then this would have come back as a silver banner. Thankfully that did not happen.

I guess I was over thinking the potential centering problem as that came back as a 9.5 along with corners earning the same grade. In fact all the subs received at least a 9.5 and this eBay get got even better with the gold banner now attached to it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Action Variation

For a card that books for $6-12 it has been a real pain to acquire it for less than it's high as I kept losing out on eBay auctions because I set my price ceiling below $12. After months being in the losing column I finally entered the winner's circle.

After chrome cards and the Five Star brand the yearly Heritage releases are becoming one of my favorites to go after. While I don't collect the base cards I do love me some photo variations in this and any brand release. As I have been collecting all of the Trout ones I finally decided it was time to turn my attention to Kershaw and that began a 3 month adventure to picking up this card. After numerous losses I finally snagged this one at a decent cost below high book and now await Beckett to come back into town as I think there is a decent chance this comes back as a gem mint 9.5. While centering is not dead on it is on the fence of being 9 or 9.5. The only thing that gives me real concern is that there is a small mark on the back of the card which might hurt the surface grade. Hopefully only 1 of those sub grades comes back as a 9 and not both. A weak gem mint is still gem mint and I would be more than satisfied with that result.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Action Photo Variation

I know I have mentioned it many of times here on the blog but man do I love it when eBay sellers don't describe everything in their auction and/or end the auction at a time during the day that is not optimal for a sale.

I won an auction that included 3 cards even though I only wanted (needed) 2 of them. The other card I placed in my giveaway stack for when I do another trade I'll just include it for the hell of it. The other 2 were the ones I really wanted and surprisingly I was the only one to put in a bid over the auction's reserve. I expected that limit to be high but was happy to find out that it was only $25. So for that amount I received 3 cards for an average of $8.33. What also helped me was that the auction ended when I was still asleep out here on the west coast. I had put my bid in before going to bed and was shocked I was the only one to do so the whole night.

Now that I have been collecting the Trout action shots in the Heritage brand I had to make sure to pick up the Kershaw ones when I had a moment. Unlike Trout with his 4 Kershaw only has 2 so I am already halfway done with this mini project. The seller described this on his auction title as "Kershaw Heritage". While his description within the auction said it was an action SP and a lot of buyers don't take the time to read the full description so for $8.33 I snagged this beauty which at least $7 less than I thought I would have had to spend to acquire it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Heritage : Mike Trout Base Action Photo Variation

While I am not the biggest fan of this card's design I am a fan of the Angels Mike Trout and photo variations in general and with me trying to acquire one from each year that Trout has one I knew I would land me a copy of this 2014 version at some point.

Mike has an action variation in each year from 2013-2016 and with 2015 and 2016 in hand and graded gem mint 9.5 by BGS I knew since I had 2 of the 4 in that condition I had to have the other 2 to complete the project. While the 15 and 16 are seen on a constant basis on eBay in BGS cases the 13 and 14's are not. They also don't show up that often in raw form so when this one popped up on eBay by a seller that I have done numerous transactions with in the past I knew it would be an easy transaction if I could come out on top at the end of the auction. He stated it was in tip top condition and was well centered and I agreed with him. It took a whooping 22 bids for me to land this card but thankfully I did as I think as the years go by this card and the 2013 will be hard to come by in good condition.

Once in hand I had hoped that my eBay seller did not "oversell" this card's condition but under a loop I think this card is almost guaranteed to come back with a minimum 9.5 overall from BGS. We shall see in next month.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWO - 2014 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (37/65) Now BGS Graded Near Mint 8.5

2014 Topps Heritage Clayton Kershaw Black Refractor (37/65)

Another borderline card that may or may not earn a 9.5 but unlike a couple others that fall into that category I really hope this makes it into the gold banner club,

Heritage has had black chromes of Kershaw over the course of 6 years and are very limited and even though I just want all of them I really would like them all to be in 9.5 cases. I already have 1 and now hoping to add some more to that group. Surface and corners look to be in great condition on this card and don't worry me. What does worry me is centering and a possible edge problem. Centering at worst is a 9 but might squeak out a 9.5. The bottom of the card might or might not be considered fraying. I have seen it before on my cards and some get 9.5's while others received a 9. I don't mind if either get a 9 as long as they both don't get a 9.

Certain projects I can accept 9's instead of 9.5's but this Heritage black chrome parallel is not one of them. So when this came back as an 8.5 you know I was highly disappointed by its return. 

As with the blue wave of Corey that received an 7.5 overall the centering on this card "earned" an 8. Really? I know it's nowhere near perfect which I knew but an 8? I suspected it would squeak by with a 9 and I would have an overall 9.5 card but no BGS did not see it that way as corners and surfaces also were docked to a 9. Sigh. If this came back with a 9 I would probably keep it for the time being as a place holder but with an 8.5 attached I am cracking it open and selling it on eBay and looking for a replacement. Bit of a risk as it only has a print run of 65 but I just can stand the eyesore of an 8.5

.5 from mint but unacceptable for my collection

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Black Chrome Refractor Parallel (29/64)

I showcased yesterday (or the day before depending when I posted it) the 2014 version of Kershaw's Heritage black chrome and now I get to proudly show of the 2013 version which I believe is more eye appealing than the 2014 version.

A seller on eBay had a few of these Kershaw chromes to win and I was lucky enough to win the 2014 and this 2013. I plan(ned) to submit both of them to BGS for grading and while I see the smallest of flaws on the 2014 card I see nothing wrong on this 2013 so I am hoping for a gem mint return. What would be really sweet is if I can finally earn my first black label from BGS to pare it up with a black chrome card like this Kershaw. We shall see.

With this addition to the collection I now own 3 of 6 black Heritage chromes that Topps has released of Clayton and while that is a small number I think it will be a long while till I land the other 3 as the print runs are minuscule for all 6 so you just don't see them up for grabs very often. Crossing my fingers and hope to come across them sooner rather than later.

Twenty-Nine

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Sixty-Four

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Black Chrome Refractor Parallel (37/65)

A small but important project finally adds another member to the collection with the acquisition of this limited (37/65) black chrome from the 2014 Topps Heritage set.

I am a later comer to the Topps Heritage brand but when I landed my first black chrome Kershaw from last year's set I knew I wanted to pick up all the black parallels from each year. Problem is that they are very limited and are one of the most sought out parallels so I knew I would have an uphill battle to pick them up. I was lucky enough to pick this one up along with another (post on that coming up in a day or two) from 1 seller on eBay would actually was unloading 3 but I was not able to win the other 1. Guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Other than me just wanting this card is that the seller advertised it as in pretty much gem mint condition and once in hand I can confirm that it has a better than not chance of earning that. Only thing that gives me pause is the top edge which frays ever so slightly. We shall see shortly as BGS will be in town soon enough.

Thirty-Seven

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Sixty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Another Great Trade With Alex Of Chavez Ravining

Alex was in town a couple of weeks ago to attend his first ever nighttime game with his buddy Dikran. Alex and I had been coming up with a trade for quite some time as I posted on my blog of cards I had that were available if anyone wanted them and he claimed a majority of them. You can see what he received in this trade on his blog post seen HERE .

Also stated in his recap post of the attended game he forgot to bring down my cards but promised to ship them to me when he got back home. No biggie. Knew he was good for it.

I really didn't ask him for anything specific so it was a batch of cards that would be unknown to me except for the last one which he did ask if I wanted and I said yes. The only thing in general I stated I needed were the base Dodgers from Topps series 2. He sent a few and then some. There were too many cards for me to post pictures of each as that would take up the whole blog post. Ha Ha. There was also another packet of cards that I will go over tomorrow as they were not part of the trade but from something else. Here are the highlights for me from the trade.

Like Alex has stated in his own posts it seems Topps does horizontal cards better than verticals. Love the Dee one with the ball about to be put into play. And look at Uribear doing something offensive and producing. The terrible 2011 and 12 seasons seem so long ago for Juan. Then you have Puig doing Puig things.

3 horizontals and now 3 verticals. They just seem blah to me. Even with that said I still wanted and needed these for my set needs. That's 6 base cards now I don't need to go hunting for at Frank and Sons.

Love me some Trout cards.
Other than Dodgers, Trout is the only specific player I collect. Needed his base card which Alex added to the pile and I needed the Saber insert and thankfully Alex had that as well. Also included is the red (Target) parallel from series 1 which I did not have. Not to be confused with the red sparkle parallel which I do have. And to top it off Trout's 2014 Heritage card was included as well. Wasn't collecting Heritage and still won't but I gladly will add this Trout card to my collection.

Kershaw gets his own group picture. The left card is the Saber insert which complements the Trout Saber card nicely. Though I love the Dodgers I do not actively pursue any Donruss cards as they are non licensed cards. What is funny though is that Alex has thrown in a few Dodgers in each our past couple of trades and I might have the whole collection now thanks to him. Lol. I'll have to double check on that later.

The "final" card of the batch is this gold parallel of the greatest Dodger lefty prior to Kershaw. One Mr. Koufax.

I already own the base, non numbered version from a case break I was involved in and wasn't looking to acquire this one as I had other cards that held priority. Didn't know Alex had this card but he asked if I was interested in it. How could I say no? Some people are not biggest fans of these manufactured relic cards but for the most part I like them a lot more than the "real" relics. This Koufax is a great addition to my collection.

64 of 99

And that is it for yet another great trade with Alex. He included a lot more cards that included Vladimir Guerrero, Trout and others but these were the big gets for me. Thank you again for the great trade Alex.