BGS Submission Result Number EIGHT - 2015 Bowman Chrome : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Twitter Parallel (10/10) Now Graded Mint 9.0

2015 Bowman Chrome Alex Verdugo Twitter Refractor /10

Going back to back on these Twitter parallels Alex here gets the 2nd spot (edit: I took out the other one as I sold it for a premium that I couldn't pass up) as he is further out from the big leagues but he did quite well in Rancho Cucamonga so he might make it sooner than I and others think. Condition wise this cards looks to be in fine form and say there is more than a 50/50 chance that it earns a 9.5. Only the centering on the front gives me a little concern but everything else should prop it up.

Going forward starting with this Verdugo entry the remaining cards of this batch either either met or exceeded my expectations. So this being card 8 of 33 that means 26 from the batch were met with a smile. Woo hoo.

While I had hoped this very limited (10 of 10) parallel of up and comer Alex would earn a gold banner I gave myself a 50/50 shot that it would and it came ever so close to getting that 9.5. Corners and surface both received a 9 which dropped the overall to a 9. It is only .5 from gem mint and I have put this card in my "we shall see" pile of cards that I might resubmit to BGS in March in hopes of getting a bump to gold banner status.

Oh so close to a gem mint.

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 : 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 - 2015 Bowman : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Blue Twitter Refractor Parallel (10/10)

With the same parallel of Jose De Leon in possession I have been on the lookout for the 3 remaining Dodgers left that were in this Bowman Twitter special. Jose was one of the two big names along with Julio Urias so I expected the other two to be easier. Verdugo here fit that bill to a "T".

With only 10 copies there would be only so many chances to pick this up but at the same time even though it is limited if the player(s) are not hobby hot it doesn't make a difference and they can be had for cheap. With that said I expected to pay a little more than I did for Verdugo here. While he isn't the biggest name he is no scrub on the aftermarket. Check on eBay for sales of his autographs from Bowman Chrome. Not cheap my friends. A couple of these had already been sold so I had a rough idea what I was willing to fork over to pick this up. I wasn't expecting $4.30 that's for sure but that is all I had to send over to acquire this nice blue beauty.

Once in hand the card looks to be in great condition. To grade or not to grade that is the question.

Ten

of

Ten

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Bowman : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (22/150)

It has been awhile since I had a nice simple and cheap auction win so on a slow day I decided to look at my need list from this year's Bowman release to see if there as something easy to acquire. I zeroed in on two cards and this was the one I won.

Thankfully there aren't many cards left to acquire but the ones I do need are limited blue parallels but since Verdugo has 2014 cards I assumed the 2015 versions would be cheaper to acquire. Off to eBay I went and found this one and only blue copy on a traditional 7 day auction with a starting price of a penny. Two bids is all this card drew but mine was the top one at a nice little total of $2.50. Not much of a bidding war and no hassle and within a few days I added another Verdugo to the collection. I wish all cards were this easy to acquire.

Well with that out of the way it's time to get back to the bigger fish once again.

22

of

150

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Autograph Blue Refractor Parallel (122/150) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Back to back to back Verdugo days brings us to the best of the trio with me picking up this graded gem mint autograph parallel of Alex.

This card was already on my wish list and even though I was willing to acquire it raw and then get it graded by BGS in the hope of a return of gem mint status if an already graded one was available I surely would go that route if it was feasible.

I decided to sell a few of my signed black baseballs as there were not up to snuff in my eyes so I had funds to use and found this card on the bay. At the time of this writing there are 11 copies of Verdugo's card that have been graded gem mint 9.5. I saw 2 sell already and 2 that are on BIN auctions with high asking prices. This is the only one that was on a traditional auction and I wasn't sure when another one would pop up. I decided that this is the one I "had" to have and with that I played the waiting game with the intention to snipe it at the end.

Not much action but the last 10 seconds brought about 4 separate bids but mine held up even though there was another person trying to do what I was doing by waiting for that last second. They lost, I won and with that I picked up my first Verdugo autograph.

I can never get enough of 9.5's

122 / 150

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Silver Wave Parallel (19/25)

As stated in yesterday's post there was another card that I wanted/needed to par with the blue Verdugo to make the transaction a success and a "steal". Thankfully I did indeed win the card and this is it. A nice low numbered parallel and it's of Verdugo as well.

Back to back Verdugo days and the camera light catches the colors of this card perfectly. There are only 25 copies of this card out there and since it is neither blue or black it was not on my wish list but once I saw it and knowing I could cut the cost to acquire by combining it with another card (the blue parallel) I decided to pursue it.

Knowing I already had the blue one in hand meant I could go a little higher for this card. With 5 different bids on it already the price was still in the mid single digits so I knew I had a decent chance of winning this card. Seconds left and I put my bid in and the winning price was no where near my ceiling which made the now 2 card transaction that much sweeter. This card looks even better in person and like most recent transactions it is also has been ear marked for BGS when they hit town again.

19 of 25

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (351/399)

The elusive Verdugo has finally been caught and added to the collection.

You would think with 399 copies of this parallel that I would have acquired this much sooner than now but for some reason I had not. Every time I came across one on eBay the price would skyrocket. Beckett book value is only $6 but multiple times it went close or sometimes over that amount. I wasn't going to pay that cost. I finally came across this particular card and it's starting price was reasonable enough and shipping was low. Always looking for deals so I looked at the seller's other cards for sale and found another to my liking. Either one by itself would probably not be a deal but if I could lock in both then it would be a steal.

Now the other card (more on that tomorrow) was scheduled to end 2 days after this one so I had to take the chance that if I win this one I wouldn't win the other and I would be stuck with a higher than what I wanted price on this blue card. I put my slightly higher then normal bid and ended up winning the card. Now I had to wait a couple days to see how the other one would pan out.

351 / 399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.


-Penguin