Card(s) of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke Base Mini Parallel Black Border Variants plus Friends

Black Kershaw...

Of the five cards in this post I was only looking to acquire 2 of them. The Cy Young tag team duo of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. Sooner or later I knew I would pick up both of them but when the opportunity came up for such a great deal for 5 total cards with the 2 I was after included I couldn't pass it up.

... black Greinke

Combined Zack and Clayton book for a high of $13 and a low of $7 with Kershaw obviously commanding the highest of the two. I already had Adrian so I didn't need another of him and I wasn't after Ryu nor Jansen this year but this 5 card lot came up for sale on eBay for a starting asking price of $5.

I would have considered that a bargain for just the 2 I was really after and if I was lucky enough to win the auction I could use the other 3 as trade bait or throw ins in some trade I would do. Last day of the auction and I was surprised not a single person had placed on a bid on them. With a minute left I put in my $5 bid in and a minute later I was declared the winner. Not too shabby of a deal if I so say myself.

and friends

Kershaw and Greinke are for the pc but the other 3 are available for trade if anyone wants them

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps : Kenley Jansen Base Framed Parallel (14/20)

Series 2 of Topps was released back in June and unlike the 1st series I was stalking eBay a day prior to release to land me these framed parallels the minute they hit the aftermarket. Series 1 has been a hassle to complete and with only 20 copies of each card they are far and few between. I am still looking for 2 cards to complete my series 1 checklist. I decided to be aggressive for series 2.

Thankfully there are only 4 cards in series 2 that I was/am after and Kenley would be the cheapest to acquire I assumed as the others are Kershaw (2) and Trout. Framed parallels started to pop up on eBay on the morning of its release and I continuously hit refresh as I wanted to lock these in fast. Kenley finally showed up in the afternoon on a BIN auction but thankfully it also had a best offer option. I shot over an offer to the seller who promptly (30 seconds) countered. I also promptly sent him back a counter between our two original offers and he agreed to it. A few days later the first of a planned 4 card project was in my hands. This was the cheapest of all the 2015 framed parallels I have acquired.

14 of 20

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Heritage : Kenley Jansen Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (51/66)

I do so love me some black chrome but man can they be a real bitch to get your hands on as most years they are one of the more limited parallels in sets and this year's Heritage brand is no different.

Unless the player is a scrub it is really hard to score deals on these babies as there are only 66 copies so multiple people are looking for multiple cards which dives up the cost. Supply and demand at its best. Beckett has Jansen here pegged at $25 which is high as usual. eBay sales have been in the $12-$17 range which I still felt was too high. Not surprisingly I lost out on more than a handful of Jansens as I refused to go over my limit. I am still on the lookout for a Trout black chrome which is more important to me than this card so I only allocated a certain amount for the non "big names". Thankfully one day my limit held as I came out the winner of this copy and checked off another box on my list for this year's Heritage.

51 / 66

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Actual Prizes For The #kershawwalletcardcontest

I have been running my #walletcard contest here on the blog and on Instagram for the past couple of months but held off on showing what you are all playing for. On the blog I ran a poll on what Kershaw autograph you would prefer. An 8x10 signed photo or a team ball that includes his autograph but has smudges on some of the other signatures. The ball won out in a 2 to 1 difference so finally here are the prizes you have your choice from at the end of the contest. For reference on how these will be dolled out and "rules" on the contest feel free to read about it HERE . I might add an autograph or two as the contest continues but no guarantees. I will say that every 5 follows that the blog adds I will FOR SURE add an autograph. Pimp it !!!

Pedro Baez signed card.

Acquired by Austin at the 2015 Dodger Fest and generously donated.

Thank you again Aus.

Topps Ricky Nolasco

I'm kind of curious which will be the last taken. This or the Baez card.

Topps Paco Rodriguez

Topps Finest orange parallel Jerry Sands

Bowman Chrome refractor parall Chris Withrow

Topps mini Hanley Ramirez

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and now the ball

Matt Kemp underneath the logo

Smeared Shane Victorino

Luis Cruz

A.J. Ellis on the sweet spot

Chris Capuano

Andre Ethier

Mark Ellis

Josh Lindblom

Tony Gwynn Jr.

Aarong Haran

Kenley Jansen

and the man himself

Clayton Kershaw

So there you go. I hope everyone likes the prizes and as always good luck to you all and thank you for playing. Remember, pimping out the contest on your blog earns you points and the more followers the blog receives the more autographs I will add.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

2015 Dodgers Fan Fest Recap

The yearly Dodger extravaganza known as Fan Fest was this past Saturday and once again I attended and couldn't be happier to be back among my "friends" in blue. Official baseball season is just around the corner and this event starts the countdown to it in earnest.

While there are other things to do and see the main reason I and a lot of people attend Fan Fest is to acquire autographs of current and retired players along with some coaches. As a season ticket holder I had the opportunity to purchase tickets prior to the general public and also the chance to buy during that time as well. My main focus was to get Mark McGwire and to hopefully get more than one ticket as I had a photo and a black ball I wanted signed by big Mac. After all was said and done from the two sale times I ended up with 9 autograph vouchers with each one getting you autographs from two separate players. Unlike last year they were not spread out as I was double dipping in a couple sessions and I was scheduled to be done around 1:30.

I decided to arrive early as I did not want to deal with the massive onslaught of cars entering the parking area. Mark was in the 1st session so I wanted to be near the front of the line. I also had another person that I bought a voucher for but more on that tomorrow as that changed mid last week. Even with me being in the stadium parking area early I still ended up being around 40th in Mark's line. No biggie. First up in the Dodger pairing though was Zach Lee

Zach was probably the nicest and most engaging Dodger of the day. Hopefully he can help the big league club this year as I am sure he will get called up at some point even if it is just in September. He has a "quick" signature which made the autograph streak a little. Little disappointed in that.

... but since I had two vouchers I switched to blue sharpie for the second auto. Came out a tad better but his pen stroke causes streaks either way. Still came out good though.

Big Mac hitting dingers. I couldn't find a good enough picture of Mark in Dodger blue to my likely so I went with one during his glory days with St. Louis. Love this pic as the bat is just "floating" in the air and with his hand gesture it looks like he is commanding it. My favorite picture of the day. No streaking here.

And with the second voucher I got this black ball signed. This was the main focus of the whole event as I wanted Mark on the sweet spot of a black ball. I knew that he signed slow so the odds of streaking would be minimized and the result did not disappointed. Don't have many signed  balls left but this one is a keeper.

While I was acquiring those four autographs my friend Jimmy was in line for Orel Hershiser's autograph who was paired with Chris Withrow. He didn't really want or need Chris's autograph so he was willing to trade it off. Again, I had a ticket for that line but more on that in tomorrow's post. I handed him a photo and a pen and he got this 8x10 for me. Great signature with no issues. Thank you again Jimmy for the autograph.

I had a hour till kill before my next autograph session so I decided to roam around and saw that there were camera lights on near the 1st base dugout. I decided to see what was going on and I'm glad I did. Jerry Hariston was setting up for an interview and he started to engage with the fans and sign autographs. I did not buy a voucher for his session so this was a nice little bonus for the day. Great signature and placement.

Resting time was over and it was time to double dip again as I had two vouchers for Joc Pederson and Mickey Hatcher. Found this great photo of Mickey from an Old Timer's game but when I approached the table I found out that my silver decos (all of them) had run dry. Ugh. Hence why his autograph is on his leg. I only had blue pens left to use for the remainder of the day and a blue autograph on a blue background doesn't look good. Asked him to sign on his leg which was no problem. Odd placement but Mickey was accommodating.

Now for the odd signature of the day. When I approached Joc's part of the table he asked me my name which I found odd and knew right then what he was planning to and did do. He personalized the photo. What? Why did he do that? Didn't notice him do that to anyone else. Why me? You notice though that he also added his old number to the autograph as that is the number he is wearing in the photo. So since I had two vouchers what would he do on the ball?

Well he knew my name but thankfully he did not personalize the ball as well. You notice on this though he put his new number on it. So I ended up with a 65 and a 31. Nice. This was a replacement for a black ball I got signed by Joc last year at Frank and Sons where the signature streaked a little. This time it's much better with minimal "issues"

Down to the last two (4 autographs) sessions of the day. I needed to reacquire Tim's autograph as I sold the signed ball that I had of his but I couldn't find a decent picture of him playing as a Dodger. I decided to go back to his roots and printed out one of him as an Expo. The only issue I have here is the placement of the autograph as he put it right on his uniform which would be fine if the pen wasn't blue !!! Still a nice autograph though.

I acquired Howie's autograph last year when he was an Angel but I wanted to get one of him as a Dodger but since he hasn't played on the field yet there are no photos of him in that situation. So why not print one of him in a Dodger hat and jersey during his press conference? Good enough for me. As always, Howie is one of the nicer players and his signature is one of the best.

Last session and I finally got get Kenley's autograph in person. To me it is still one of the odder ones out there as is looks like a seven but hey, we all have different signatures and this just happens to be his.

What better way to end the week and Fan Fest than to get the Penguin's autograph one more time. I started off the week getting Ron's signature on a photo at Select a Seat and now he was last on my to do list for Fan Fest. Once again, Ron as always was cordial and pleasant.

That finishes up my day at Fan Fest. 13 signatures in under 4 hours. Not too shabby. Thank you again to Jimmy for the trade and it was great seeing friends such as Luis, Bill, Eddie of Harry's Dugout Fame, Franz among others. Thank you again to the Dodgers for hosting another smooth running Fan Fest event and I look forward to next year's when we celebrate the 2015 World Series Championship team.

= )

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.
-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Chrome : Kenley Jansen Base Refractor Parallel (378/500)

I debated on collecting the base refractor parallels from last year's Bowman Chrome issue and up till my acquisition of this card I was still on the fence about it. But when you pick up a card at what you believe is a very good deal it can sway your thinking for future purchases. I came across this card where the seller was asking only 50 cents for it. Will all my refractor purchases be this cheap? No, but this is a good start and I think I can pick the rest up in that ballpark of a price excluding Puig and Kershaw.

This may or may not be my last year getting these base refractor cards but for at least one more year I will strive to collect them all to accompany my blue parallels. Kenley is the first in a long journey as there are a lot of Dodgers to acquire.

378 / 500

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Chrome : Kenley Jansen Base Black Refractor Parallel (15/100)

It's been awhile but I finally picked up another limited parallel for the handful of change of 99 cents. These black parallels seem to be more plentiful this year compared to last year. Though both years have the equal amount of 100 I have seen more copies of each player this year. Go figure.

Even with that though people are setting most of their auctions at a higher than reasonable starting amount in my eyes. So when this copy came up with a starting asking price of 99 cents I knew I would be in on it as I suspected there would not be many people bidding on this card and to no surprise at the end of the auction I was the one and only one to do so.

Great horizontal card of an underrated closer. Now if we can just build a bullpen to get to the 9th so we can use Kenley more efficiently.

15 / 100

Card(s) of the Day - 2014 Topps : Dodgers Team Set In Red Foil Parallel Form From Series 2

Haren, Billingsley, Jansen and Guerreo

Series two of Topps flagship set for 2014 was recently released and as with the first series most cards are just a continuation. Whether that be inserts, subsets or just the base cards. I collect two parallels from the main Topps set and those happen to be the blue border cards and these red foil parallels.

Ellis, Crawford, Uribe and Kershaw 

I decided my plan of attack had to change for this go around. Series one I went and tried to acquire one card here, one card there and it took forever to acquire them all. The Puig alone took a good month plus to track down for an acceptable price. I am sure that they could have all been had from one seller but for some reason I didn't think of that. Duh...

Ethier, Kemp, Puig and Dee

So a week prior to the series release I went looking for someone that might have all of the red foils together as a pre-sale. Found two separate sellers that had them grouped together as a team set. One had it on a BIN auction for $12.99 with a best offer attached to it. The other seller had it on a traditional auction with a starting asking price of $4.99. Options.

Kershaw and the Beard

I went with the traditional auction to see if I could get all 14 cards for 35 cents each. That would be a bargain. Week passed and at the end of the auction I was the only one to bid on the set. With one felt swoop I acquired all my red foil needs for my set needs. Why didn't I think about doing this for series 1? Would have saved me a lot of time and suffering. Another lesson learned.

Trade with Dr. Liu Part 15 also Photo of the Day - Kenley Jansen Signed 8 x 10

Kenley has been with the team for some years now and not once have I been able to get my hands on his autograph in person. The signed ball that I did have was a PSA pre authenticated variety. Even though once again I have his autograph in my collection it is was not acquired in person. Someday I would like to fix that nagging issue with Kenley but till then I have this action pose of our closer.

Card(s) of the Day - 2013 Topps : Full Dodgers Team Set From Retail Factory Box

Day 2 and entry 2 of my Christmas gift from the wife.

Yesterday as seen HERE the main prize for me was the Ryu photo variation that is only found in the retail factory set. The rest of the non-Dodgers will be used for trade to bring in more Dodgers. One way or another the wife is going to be getting me Dodger stuff whether its direct or I have to hustle for it.
= )

Anyways, instead of me hunting for the individual cards of all the Dodgers I was able just to pull them out of the box and be done with looking for them on the bay. Though I have some of them already its always nice to have dups to be used for trades, contests, etc. Though there is nothing specifically "special" about the cards I wanted them all. So everyone into the pool.

Dee, Andre and Kid K

Joe " I cant believe his was a Dodger " Blanton, LL Kershaw and Jansen

Paco, Get well soon Chad and underrated Choate

Nice guy Chris, Why are you still here Josh and Mickey Mouse Adrian

2014 Comeback Player of the Year Kemp, Thank God you retired Lilly and the bane of our bullpen League

Nice blurry Pic Matthew. WTF ??

Harriston, HanRam and Part time wrestler Greinke

Ellis, Cruz and Crawford

Signed Ball of the Day : Kenley Jansen ( ROMLB Sweet Spot )

Today we come to the second of three in my subset collection entitled "my great ebay buys". I have others that fall into this category but I am trying to go back and forth so its not the same o same each day.

I actually have Kenley Jansen's autograph on a team ball that he signed for me when I attended a game in Washington D.C. last year. More on that ball in the months to come. Even though I do enjoy team balls or multi signed balls for a specific achievement club or moment in history I always strive to get the players on a single signed baseball. I have seen Kenley many times at the stadium and in Arizona and I know he signs but it has just been my bad luck and timing that he never is when I am around. Again, I know somewhere down the road I will get him. So onto eBay I went to acquire an authenticated signed ball til I get an IP one. Not too many Kenley authenticated balls around as he is not a "star" per se. Finally one showed up and the seller had it at a buy it now for $32 or best offer. This was for sweet spot PSA authenticated ball which is reasonable but I didn't want to spend $32 if I didn't have to. So we did a back and forth and since no one else wanted to buy it I got it for $25. Not too bad to me as the ball cost $15 and authentication process is $10. So I basically got the signature for free which is a win in my eyes and didn't have to use one of the balls out of my supply to acquire it. Another good thing I found out was that the buyer lived only 5 miles from me so we met up at a local McDonald's to finish the transaction. No shipping cost added so more money saved. A great buy and one of my cheaper ones at that. But nothing beats tomorrow's purchase.