Card of the Day - 2011 Bowman Chrome : Jose Fernandez Base Refractor Autograph (454/500) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

edit : I forgot to post this entry mid last year and just saw it in my que. I decided I am not going to re-write it so as it would have me redoing the whole post hence the references to his performance prior to his injury. Still a great pick up in my eyes.

Just cruising along on eBay one day and thought I would see what the past sales were on this card. I have Jose on an on card autograph from the 2013 Five Star issue and I also ended up picking up a black signed baseball but when it comes down to it I always come back to Bowman Chrome.

Jose is dominating right now and at his young age I wanted to pick up this card if I could at a reasonable price. Still had funds left over from the sale of my baseball collection and if I was going to pull the trigger on this card I had to have it graded by BGS as a gem mint and it would have to be at least a numbered refractor. Looked at the blue refractor which is numbered to 150 and it was way out of price range so back to the regular refractors that come in numbered to 500.

I had a feeling this card would skyrocket soon so I had to figure what I could do in a short manner of time. Found this card on a BIN with best offer auction and sent in a low amount to see what he would counter with. Came back with a reasonable amount but thought maybe I could do a little better. I countered his counter and he accepted in a few short hours. Woo hoo. 

As the card was making its way to me through the mail the cards book value went up $50 for a raw copy. The few BGS cards to sell after this one sold for at least $20 more than I spent for mine. I had great timing on this purchase and with Kershaw probably out of the running for Cy Young we might be looking at the 2014 Cy Young winner. NL ROY one year and Cy Young winner the next will only do wonders for the value of this card.  

Signed Ball of the Day - Jose Fernandez ( ROMLB Sweet Spot )

Since my re dedication to just on card autographs and photos with the exception of a black ball here and there I have found it hard to find quality signed black balls. I knew it would be an issue but it is more difficult than I thought it would be. I picked up a Paul Goldschmidt and Cal Ripken Jr. signed black balls but once I received them I returned them for a refund as the quality in person was not what it was described or looked like online. The pen used on these has to be a very specific one and it seems a lot of people are using the wrong ones or the signers don't know how to use them. With all that said I finally picked up a decent one for the collection.

I picked up Jose Fernandez's on card autograph a while back as seen HERE . A great silver signature of the young star. I wasn't looking for anymore of his but came across this black ball that looked good in the picture and looks good in person as well. Only reason I ended up with this ball was that the starting asking price was low enough so I put my bid on and for some reason no one bidded on it. Thank you very much fellow eBayers for not making work for it.

Result Number One ( 2013 Topps Five Star Jose Fernandez Silver Signings Blue Parallel ) From Beckett Raw Grade Event On March 8, 2014

For this week I will be posting one result per day from the Beckett Raw Grading event from this past Saturday the 8th that was held at South Bay Cards in Lomita. I will post from the least impressive to the most which will be on Friday and its a beauty. With that said first up is the one card I was hoping for a generous grade but was left wanting.

This still great looking card of Jose Fernandez is from the 2013 Topps Five Star set which like its 2012 edition is susceptible to card issues such as rounded or chipped corners. I acquired this card on eBay with the knowledge that it had a slightly rounded/frayed corner but I was still hoping it would grade out to a mint 9. I was basing that on the other 3 grades ( centering, surface, edges ) would offset the 8.5 I probably would get on the corners. Result is :

So close to that mint 9. A 8.5 is still a nice grade for Five Star and it even has a gem mint autograph grade of a 10 but I wanted that mint 9. I expected this grade even when I was holding out hope for a higher grade of 9 but that's ok. This is still a great looking card and will be staying in my collection.

If this is my worst result you know the remaining four are good.

= )

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Five Star : Jose Fernandez Silver Signings Blue Parallel ( 7 / 25 )

So close to a card that I thought might grade out to a gem mint.

It was time for me to acquire an autograph card of the 2013 ROY Jose Fernandez and I wanted it to be a good one. Saw plenty of Topps Chrome or I could have gone back a couple years and picked up a Bowman Chrome but I have been on a Topps Five Star kick and knew this parallel existed and wanted to see if I could acquire one at a reasonable price.

Book is at $80 for this lovely parallel and from the pic above it looked to be in great shape. If you collect Five Star you just have to assume that there will probably be chipping or possible rounded corners and I knew that going in. The autograph looks pristine but I was worried about one corner so I made sure to keep my bid in line with that thinking. Surprisingly there were only 2 bids on the card and I was the top dog. Now I waited for the card to show up as I crossed my fingers for the best.

Card of 7 of only 25 arrived a few days after winning and it looked great. Centering, photo, autograph etc all checked in perfectly. Now to look at the potentially troublesome corner.

Sigh...
Looking straight on you can't tell the very slight "curl". Upon closer look you can see it. Even with that I would think it would grade out a 9 and with Five Star cards I have noticed on eBay that 9's are treated like 9.5 compared to other brands. I am debating on getting it raw graded tomorrow at South Bay Cards. We shall see.

Even with all that this is a very nice addition to my collection and will enjoy it.