2016 Dodgers Fan Fest Recap and a White Whale Finally Caught After EIGHT Years

What thankfully is now a yearly traditional in Dodger land, yesterday was the annual Fan Fest which each year is getting bigger and bigger. There were so many people there it felt like it was game day. Line for the bathroom, food was slow to acquire but surprisingly the beer line was non existent. Interesting to say the least.

Every year though I seem to get less and less autographs but this year there was a one I just had to have. The problem was that I was sure everyone had the same idea. Since that happened 30 minutes after I entered the stadium I will recap the day backwards.

My good friend Jimmy and his beautiful wife Michelle and their happy little boy helped me acquire an autograph for a project that is now more than half way done. I was planning to get my one and only autograph of the day and leave but Jimmy said he had no real use for Bill Russell and that I could have it. Couldn't pass that up and I decided to pay him with with a beer.

This is my 1970's photo of the Dodgers which I hope to complete one day. I haven't been lucky enough to see Bill around the stadium lately but I also didn't want to pay $25 for his autograph but a beer and some time with good friends is a great deal and I got to add Bill to this photo. That is now 6 of 10 players I have acquired. Should be able to get Monday this year but Dusty, Don and Reggie will be harder to track down.

Thursday the wife and I went to Select a Set for Season Ticket Holders and though I upgraded my seats I did not get a chance to sit in them at the event. Usually when you upgrade you take the tag on an available seat and take it to the office and get your seats changed. Well I did pick up a couple of tags but when I sat down with the Dodger rep I asked if there was anything that wasn't advertised and surprisingly there were and I was able to move over 1 full section and 10 rows down. I can not move over anymore without going into the next price bracket which I will not be doing so this might be my final upgrade.

Walked up to Loge 157 and saw that the row had a marker which not all rows have which I think is kind of cool. Plus if for some reason a friend or God forbid I get lost I can find my way back to my seat by looking for this marker. Ha ha.

My new view from row F in 157. I still believe the Loge level has the best view in the stadium and I am happy to say I am a season ticket holder in the this wonderful section.

Now to the big event of the day. It was announced a day before the sale for Fan Fest that there would be 3 meet and greets at the event. They have had these before but I was never interested in any of them and the cost of them ($150) was/is cost prohibitive. This year was different though.

There was a Lasorda meet and greet and a Valenzuela meet and great. That's nice and all but I am not paying that amount when I get them for free on almost anything I own. This year though they announced that none other than CLAYTON FREAKING KERSHAW was going to be one of the 3 meet and greets. Hot damn. I was lucky enough to be at his MLB debut back in May of 2008 and I have been carrying the ticket from that game since then trying to get him to sign it. Year in and year out I have been close but each time I was denied by him. Now was my chance to get him.

$150 was worth it to me but as many of you know I am a hustler online and while many would frown upon a practice I like to do, money does not grow on trees and where there is demand I hope to come in with a supply. I knew that Puig would sell so when the 12 p.m. sale went on for autograph tickets I secured tickets for Yasiel for the sole purpose of selling them to pay for the Kershaw event. I indeed bought the Puig tickets and flipped them on eBay which made the cost of the Kershaw event ZERO dollars for me.

When the Kershaw event went on sale there was no mention of his name (nor Lasorda or Fernando for that matter) so you had to know which event each player was in. I could have ended up paying 150 for Fernando. Now that would have pissed me off royally. I noticed when I went to go pick up my tickets that I was "seat" 7 which is cool since that is my marriage number. Lucky number 7 strikes again.

Now for the amazing part. When I arrived to the Stadium I assumed/expected that for a 30 minute event that there would be maybe 75/100 tickets sold for it. Considering there are 30K of Season Ticket Holders and countless more fans I considering myself immensely lucky I snagged 2 tickets for this event. While my friend and I waited for the time to go see Clayton we noticed there were just not that many people. Everyone was in pairs, which I expected as most would buy 2 not just 1 ticket for this, and there definitely not 75/100 people. We all started to talk and found out the highest ticket number was 30. 30? That's all for this event? Holy crap. Upon further conversing it was rumored that only 20 were offered to STH's at 10 and there were 10 left over for the general public at 12 so the Dodgers could not be accused of giving everything to STH's. I personally met 3 from the group at 12 purchase time so it seems this story rings true. That means if the 20 tickets sold at 10 were bought in pairs that would mean that only 10 people out of literally thousands of people were lucky enough to get their hands on tickets for this event. Man, I beat the odds and yes I went and bought lotto tickets yesterday to see if my luck will transfer there. Lol.

Off the group went to the club level to meet the best pitcher in baseball. Clayton was more than nice with every fan that he met and I gave him the thumbs up for him showing up. This may be the only time he ever does Fan Fest as every previous year he has been with his wife in Africa doing his charity work. The thinking among fans is he stayed in the country this year as he had his first kid last year so she might be too young to travel for a year or two. If this is the only time I meet Clayton then it was a great one time event.

Of course here is the ticket which will soon be slabbed by BGS and stored away and even though it is not the most valuable Kershaw piece in my collection it is my most cherished one.

I debated on which color to use as I just didn't think blue would pop on this ticket since it is mostly blue itself. I settled on black and I think it came out great.

I can't believe I finally own this completed piece. Thank you again to the Dodgers for hosting Fan Fest and a special thanks to Clayton for taking the time to meet a handful of fans.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Photo of the Day - Clem Labine 8 x 10 PSA Autograph

I have never owned a Labine autograph but this eBay auction was the perfect one to final fix that mistake.

There were a few cards that perked my interest but nothing that was what I found to be an acceptable price to make me pull the trigger on the transaction. Along came this nice black and white photo that has already been authenticated by PSA and the seller only wanted $7 for it and that included shipping. Uh, yeah I'll do that any day of the week.

Clicked the button on the screen and sent over the necessary funds and within 10 days (tad long but at that cost I wasn't going to complain as I was in no hurry) I finally was able to add Clem to my collection. He was part of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1950 through 1960. Being on the only championship team that Brooklyn had meant at sometime I would acquire his autograph and the time was finally right.

Player Appearance / Signing Recap : Steve Sax @ Dr. Liu's Optometry On December 6th, 2014

Sax and I back in February of this year.

Began the year by meeting Steve Sax for the first time and now I am ending the year with meeting him one more time.

Back in February Dr. Liu hosted a Sax in store signing and I ventured over to the office for the very first time. You can read the recap HERE . How things can change in a little under a year. 10 months separate February and December and in that time I went from collecting primarily signed baseballs to almost stopping that completely (aside from the occasional black ball) and moving onto cards and getting 8x10's signed. With that said I sold off the Sax ball and was now looking to replace it with a signed photo by him. I originally thought I would do the "traditional" baseball photo and then I remembered a project I thought I may or may not do. Enter The Simpsons.

Back in 1992 The Simpsons did the baseball episode entitled "Homer at the Bat" which is classic to this day among fans. Below is the Mr. Burns baseball team that he put on the field during that episode.

As you can see there are 9 former baseball players. Being in Los Angeles I believe I have a good chance at getting Mattingly and Scioscia at some point this year. Canseco should be obtainable once his finger is better from being shot off by Jose himself. Ha Ha. The others are going to be hard but that leaves us with Steve for now. What better way to start the project than with the former Dodger? Off I went to Dr. Liu's with photo in hand to get the first autograph of a project that let's be real probably won't ever be completed. Won't stop me from trying though.

Headed off to the office and I barely made it as it was close to 3;45 but it looked like everyone that wanted Steve's autograph had already been there and gone as there was no line. I paid my fee and promptly placed my photo in front of Steve and now I have the first signature for the photo. Said thank you to Steve for once again showing up and signing for fans and I was on my way.

Thank you again for Alex Lui and his staff for hosting and promoting yet another smooth signing. I look forward to the next one.

Wide view

Closer view

Also for more information on Steve Sax's foundation and his cause please visit his website at this address : Foundation

Attended Game Recap : MAVERICKS 8 @ Quakes 5 On July 26th, 2014

With the Howie signing and movie behind us it was time for the wife and I to meet up with our friends in Ontario for the Quakes game.

Husband and wife Frank and Janet with their son Joey and his better half Kaitlyn were dressed and ready to take in a ballgame. We were celebrating my mother's and Janet's birthday and even though we don't need a reason to get together it is always great to see our friends.

We arrived about a hour prior to the start of the game and I was till in autograph hounding mode. I had 4 autographs I wanted to acquire. More Julio Urias before he is promoted or God forbid traded, James Baldwin, Chris Anderson which I knew became a long shot as I found he was the starting pitcher so that limited the window if and when he would sign and Tom Windle. I headed down to the area above the walkway from the dressing room to the dugout where the players come out and I chose to sit on the dugout side as no other autograph seekers were there as all of them were on the opposite side of the walkway. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Also, I wouldn't be post game graphing which meant I had to acquire all my autographs pre game.

First person that I needed that game out was Chris Anderson and he denied me and everyone else as he kept saying "after" he would sign which I assumed meant after the game. Well there went my chance for him for the day. Next up was James Baldwin and after he set his stuff on the bench in the dugout he came back and starting signing for fans but was doing the other side and not my side. Luckily I got his attention and I was the second to last person he signed for. Thank you for the autograph James.

Next up was Julio Urias. Now I already have his autograph on a few things but I want more. Yeah, I can be greedy. Since I was on my own and I wanted a ball and a photo signed I had to figure out how to do this. Well I was the second person he signed for and I handed him my 8x10 photo first of him in a Loons uniform as I already have him in a Dodgers uniform that he signed for me last month. I had him use this new blue paint marker I bought and I think it came out great. Thank you for the 1st autograph Julio.

Now I wanted a black ball signed by Julio so I stowed my photos away and went on the opposite side of the walkway where everyone else was and got in the back of the line and pulled out a ball I wanted signed along with a gold paint marker. He had some problem with the person next to me and I didn't have enough time to bleed out my pen prior to him grabbing the ball so he signed it with a slightly dry pen. Still a decent autograph and once again thank you Julio for signing for me and all the fans. You might be only 17 but you have been a class act every time I've met you.

After that I stayed around waiting for Tom Windle and he never came out. Don't know what happened but hopefully he and Chris Anderson will be there next year as I don't think we are going to another Quakes game this year. Well I guess 4 autographs for the day is better than no autographs for a day.

Onto the game.

National Anthem

Quakes mascot Tremor

The Quakes and the Mavericks had a dual no hitter going into the 4th inning but that quickly vanished as by the end of the game the teams put up a combined total of 13 runs. A couple of mammoth home runs by Quakes player Chris Jacobs and a Maverick player that I can't remember the name of as I am too lazy to look it up highlighted the scoring. It was an entertaining game even though there were multiple mental and physical errors committed by the Quake players.

The wife and I had a great time but the best part is always the time we get to spend with friends and family. As always it was great to see Janet, Frank, Joey and Kaitlyn and hopefully we can meet up again in the near future.

We are at a baseball game and mom is the only one watching the game

lol

At least someone is doing what you come to the ballpark for

= )

Attended Game Recap : Padres 0 @ DODGERS 1 On July 12th, 2014

It's been awhile since I have been to baseball game and even longer to Dodger Stadium. Life happens sometimes. It was finally time to head back to blue heaven on Earth. I decided this would be our one game this year were we would sit in the all you can eat buffet in the baseline section. Since I haven't been to the stadium I obviously haven't gone autograph hunting as well. Getting this seats also served that purpose.

The game went by fairly fast till the late innings but was void of any really action or drama other than Yasiel Puig getting ejected early in the contest for arguing balls and strikes. The Dodgers finally broke a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the ninth with a sacrifice fly by A.J. Ellis. With the walk off win it gave the Dodgers the best record in the National League. Go figure. With all the drama and issues the team has the best record in their league and the fourth overall in baseball. They need to pull away from the pack when the second half begins. The Giants are still only a game back and even with their problems are not going away anytime soon. Pick it up Dodgers.

With decent food in my belly it was time for me to go pre-game autograph hunting. Alex of Chavez Ravining and his buddy Dikran came down from Fresno to take in their first night time game. We met up prior to the game so I could get them in 3 hours prior so they could take in some up close batting practice. Dikran ended up going home with a ball as he got one that bounced into the seats. Congrats. Josh aka Dodgerbobble was also in the house as he was looking for more autographs to add to his massive collection. I had my big pile of pictures in hand as I was looking to add more to my modest collection.

During actual batting practice there was not much signing going on by the players. As I only saw two and only one that I wanted/needed. J.P. Howell tossed a ball into the stands and was asked over by other fans to sign. He decided to come over and then proceeded to sign for fans along the 3rd base wall. I rushed over and was able to get a 8x10 of him signed.

Went back to my seat as batting practice finished up for the Dodgers and everyone went back into the dugout. Most players did not sign as they went by. Miguel Rojas did but I was not prepared with a photo of him. My loss. Former Dodger player and current coach Davey Lopes did stop and sign for fans and I was lucky enough to be the last one he signed for. He looked at the photo and started saying that isn't him. Look at that fro. No way is that me. Ha Ha. Thank you for signing Davey.

Next up was the SportsNet broadcast team but I only saw Nomar in attendance. No Orel or Jerry. Nomar did sign for fans but was very business like and not overly friendly. He asked everyone what's your name as I knew he was going to personalize each autograph. I have no problem with that as I have no intention of trading or selling the autograph. Did ask him to spell my name right though with two "T's". Thank you for the autograph Nomar even though you weren't really personable.

That pretty much ended my dugout autographs so I headed back to my area and had some more food and waited for the beginning of the game when Kemp, Puig, Andre and others have and might sign. During that time Luis of the blog LgCollectibles got my attention as I still owed him a Ken Landreaux autographed 8x10 that he won from one of my contests. This was the first time I met Luis and we chatted awhile till I noticed a few balls being hit into the stands so I had to head back to the wife to "protect" her. Congrats on the win again Luis and great to finally meet you.

Game time was upon us and the only two players out to sign were Dee Gordon and Andre Ethier. Dee was further down the line and I noticed he only signed for a few people and walked away so I stayed in the Andre area and even though he signed earlier in the day at a paid signing he accommodated each fan and signed for a good 10 minutes and took pictures with multiple people. I know some people have issues with Andre but I am not one of them. He has always be a great guy to get an autograph from and today was no different as I picked up a 8x10 of him. Thank you once again Andre.

Now Kemp and Puig were the only two left that I hoped to acquire before the game but Puig never came out on the field to do his pre-game stretches and even though Kemp did he did not sign for anyone. Oh well, next time.

4 autographs at the stadium and another 2 earlier in the day at the Butera signing. Not a bad day.

Great to finally meet Alex, Dikran and Luis. It's nice to put a face and voice to internet friends. Always a fun time with Josh. Till next time guys. Go Blue !!!

Player Appearance Recap : Drew Butera @ Sports Authority on July 12th, 2014

It has been a long time ( 8 months give or take ) since I attended a free public signing. Its been even longer if I don't count the Dodgers Mall Tour from last year. I used to attend almost all these signings whether they were at a cell phone store, Best Buy, Living Spaces or Sports Authority. Part of the reason is that the last few I would have been interested in were big name players ( Kershaw, Gonzalez ) which meant the lines were excessively long and I didn't stick around for a hour signing when I knew I wouldn't get an autograph. The other reason is that if wasn't a big name player I already had the autograph of whichever player was appearing. With that said it has been a very long time for me when it came to a free signing where I would have to wait hours for an autograph.

Well it was announced a little while back that Drew Butera was going to do an appearance at a local Sports Authority and if this was done last year I wouldn't have gone as I would not have wanted to use a ball for his autograph. No offense to Drew but I was wasting too many baseballs on bench and/or spot start players. If you weren't a starter or a retired player I wasn't going to use a baseball. Well with my ball purge I am now into 8x10's and I knew I was going to go the game on the same day and had baseline seats which ups your chances for autographs. But if I could guarantee an autograph why pass on it? I have this photo of Drew and Beckett from Beckett's no-hitter and want both players to sign so if I could get one half by spending a couple hours in line why not? I also have a picture of Drew pitching so I hoped to get that signed as well. Sometimes you can sneak a second autograph request in when the player is a big name.

Off to Sports Authority I went. I arrived around 8:30 for the scheduled 11 signing. I was about the 7th person in line. Of course when it started I ended up being the 13th. We all know how that happens. Drew showed up right on time and started signing. I still wanted the two items signed and hoped I could get it done. Sometimes the promoters start enforcing their one per person rules. My priority was the 8x10 of Drew and Josh Beckett. A nice 2 subject project for me.Hopefully I can get Josh to sign it as I don't think he will be with the team next year. Till then here is what it looks like without Josh's autograph.

Drew and Josh

My other picture I wanted signed was of Drew when he was called upon in a game early this year to pitch in relief. I think it is a unique picture to get signed as he being a catcher he probably doesn't see many of these to sign. He gladly signed it for me. Woo Hoo. Two autographs for the collection in the span of seconds.

Drew as a pitcher

Drew was cordial and friendly and engaged the fans. Thank you for showing up and signing for us and thank you to Sports Authority for hosting the event.

Player Appearance Recap : Bernie Nicholls @ Dr. Liu's Optometry on May 24th, 2014

This past Saturday the good doctor Alex Liu had a private signing for a handful of patients. A couple days prior Dr Liu sent out an email to patients informing them that he was going to have former King Bernie Nicholls at his office and the first 15 people to respond to the email would have the chance to come down and have a meet and greet with Bernie. Autographs and photo ops would be included. One minute after I received the email I sent a response back that I would love to attend and I was lucky enough to one of the 1st 15.

Included with the meet and greet was the one autograph but you could purchase one more if you wanted which is what I planned to do. I had brought in a puck for Bernie to sign but I also wanted a 8x10 of him in King's gear as well. Thankfully as always the Dr. had some to chose from.

Signing was set to begin around 3 and with the small amount of people it moved quickly. If only all signings could be this easy. This was the first time I met Bernie and he was cordial and polite with everyone. He first signed the puck in silver deco. I think it came out great.

Next up was the 8x10 I purchased. He had a interesting signing process for pictures. He took the picture and held it up and proceeded to sign it. No table for this guy. Thought it was only me he did that to but I saw him do it to the next person after I was done. It got the job done but I have never seen it that way. Whatever works for you I guess.

I was heading out and the good doctor had one last photo left and I was the one patient next him and he said, here you go, have him sign this as well. Oh yeah, freebie. It was the last one because it shows Bernie in Shark gear. Bernie was heading out but I was able to get him to sign this in his patented in the air process. Yes, its him in Shark gear but it is another autograph for the collection. I could always trade it out at some point.

Another successful autograph event at the optometry office. Thank you again to Dr. Liu and his staff for hosting the event and thank you to Bernie for taking time to sign and chat for fans. Can't wait for the next signing. Go Kings Go !!!

Trade with Fellow Blogger - Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle ( 1st Trade )

My first trade with Greg and I sort of failed with pictures as for some reason I only took one of the main prize of the trade. I will update that mistake a little later once I get home.

Greg was one of the 1st bloggers I spoke to online when I re-entered the hobby but this Saturday we finished what had become the longest time to complete trade for me. We could just never meet up in person till now but a local card show presented the perfect place to finish up the trade finally.

Last April Greg contacted me after I posted about some Corey Seager cards that he wanted so I held them to aside till we could agree on something in return. During the course of the year he spotted a Matt Kemp relic card he also wanted so I threw that one onto the stack for him as well. Time went on and we still hadn't physically finished off the trade. The lot of cards he gave me for the ones he wanted is the picture I failed to take. A lot of Dodgers which included Kemp and loads of prospects made it into my hands. Thank you for those.

We agreed to meet up this past Saturday a couple of weeks ago but then Greg stated he was going to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes game a couple of Fridays ago. I hit him up and asked if he had the opportunity if he could snag me a Julio Urias autograph on a photo. I have yet to make it there for a game this year and I feel I might miss my chance as Julio might get promoted to AA soon. Greg said he would see if he could make that happen. Well, here is Greg's  RECAP and included in his great personal haul he was able to get me that Urias autograph I wanted. Oh yeah. Now I just had to get him something that would intrigue him and make the trade right. Well I think I made that happen as we will see on his post about this trade soon enough.

Thank you again to Greg for the overall trade and thank you again for the Urias in particular. Great first trade, let's both try not to take a year next time to get another one done.
= )

17 year old phenom Julio Urias

17?

God, I feel old.

Attended Game Recap - DIAMONDBACKS 4 @ Dodgers 2 on 4.18.2014 Also Photo of the Day : Hyun-Jin Ryu

Our first night game of the year and it did not go as planned game wise but apart from that I did get a first for me in my life but more on that later. The wife, father in law and I arrived at the stadium a little after 4 for our first batting practice of the year and it ended up being a complete bust for us as only a couple of balls made it our way and we didn't snag any of them.

Got a chance to see Clayton rapidly heal from his injury. He looked good and you could tell he was anxious to get back to the team. A lot of reports think he won't be back till late May or early June but it would not surprise me to see him back on the mound by mid May at the latest. He is just that determined.

Love how the Dodgers show what place the teams are in and seeing Arizona in last could only be beat with seeing the Giants in that place instead. All is right in the world seeing the Dodgers in first though. Sad to say today the dog had it's day.

While batting practice was a bust the autograph scene seemed to only be marginally better with a few here or there but not anyone I was really looking for but then I noticed that a pitcher was signing in the bullpen and I headed over and saw that our Korean phenom Hyun-Jin was signing for fans. He had almost finished but I was able to acquire a photo of him. I happened to be second to last of the lucky fans to get an autograph. Thank you again Mr. Ryu.

Perfect placement of the autograph in my opinion.

With my one signature in hand we were off to our seats. For the 1st time in years I sat right behind home plate on the Loge level. Tickets can be pricey but I scored a great deal a couple months prior to the season beginning. Probably the best view in the stadium.

View from the seats.

Side view from the seats. Lady does not look happy she is in the picture.

= )

While our starting pitcher Zack Greinke was on his game and only made one real mistake, a solo home run by Miguel Montero. In the end the Dodgers lost a long game that went 12 innings. The highlight for me came in the fourth inning though as I finally acquired something that I have been trying to do for the 32 years that I have attended baseball games.

I have tried and tried at multiple stadiums to catch a foul ball. I know a lot of people think that isn't a big deal but to me it is something I have always wanted to do. This was a main reason for seating here as well. To up the chance to get a foul ball. In the first 3 innings a few screamed near our seats but none in our section. That all changed in the fourth as Miguel Montero stepped up to the plate and hit a ball that went to the right of me and the wife and behind us and ended up hitting someone/seat and came back towards us on our left and I happened to catch it on the rebound. A little tricky but in the end I finally got the first foul ball of my life. After a few high fives from fellow fans I tucked it away and it now has a place in my collection. 

Game did not go as planned but getting Ryu's autograph and the foul ball made up for it. 

My 1st foul ball ever.

Player Appearance Recap : Bill Madlock @ Harry's Dugout On 4.13.2014

Lunch was consumed at El Teyepac and now it was time to head south for the second of two signings this past Sunday. Back to Harry's Dugout for yet another signing. Love this place as the atmosphere is always chill and Eddie the owner is always pleasant and there is never a problem here. Just autographs and fun.

Bill Madlock was the subject of today's autograph signing and I have never personally seen him do a signing in the Los Angeles area prior to Sunday. Had to make sure I swung by and acquired the autograph of the four time batting champ. Arrived and there were no more than a few people milling around. Went over to see what photos were for sale and picked one of the two Dodgers ones. Went over to see Eddie and paid him the fee and talked for a few minutes. Bill was just signing away for what I assume was store inventory as I approached the table and said hello. I asked for him to sign the photo in silver ink as I think blue on this particular photo wouldn't look too good.

Bill signing away

Also, a Dodger at one time but a Pirate at heart. Nice hat Bill.

After the photo was done I asked Bill if he wouldn't mind a photo with me and he said no problem.

Bill and I

Finished product

Said thank you to Bill and headed out after another successful Sunday in autograph collecting. In the span of just under 90 minutes we were in line for autograph one, went inside and had a sit down lunch and then drove to get another autograph and were back in the car to drive home. If only all appearances were this simple.

Thank you again to Harry's for hosting another fine event and thank you to Bill for coming out and signing for fans. 

Photo of the Day : Don Drysdale 8x10 JSA Autograph

My first reacquired autograph that happens to not be a card.

Don is Dodger royalty and not having his autograph represented in my collection was not a possibility. He was part of the signed baseball purge but I knew going in that a signed card might not be a possibility. Due to his untimely death he was not around for the on card autographs that Topps releases nowadays. I could have gone the cut autograph route but I am not really a fan of those. I also could have acquired one of the old Topps card from the 60's that Don signed and then PSA authenticated but I thought Don was a good subject to get on a photo since photos and cards are what I am collecting now.

eBay here I come again and for the most part all the pre-authenticated photos had an asking price of at least $80. Wanted Don but not at that price. I did have a lot of wiggle room with the ball sale and found this JSA photo with an asking price of $45. Very reasonable but with a best offer you know I was going to haggle. 2 days later the seller and I agreed to a price and Don became the first reacquired autograph in my collection that happens to be a photo instead of a card. Nice crisp autograph from a Dodger great. Welcome back Don.

Trade with Dr. Liu Part 17 also Photo of the Day - Clayton Kershaw Signed 8 x 10

The final post of photos in the trade with Dr. Liu. Tomorrow starts a two day posting of the other items but this is the prize of the photos. My Cy Young himself, Clayton Kershaw.

I have plenty of Kershaw autographs but have yet to have one on a photo and even if I wasn't getting out of collecting signed balls I still wanted one in my possession. Clayton is one of the few signed balls I am keeping at the present moment. Once I get one on a black ball then I will trade/or sell that one but for the time being it stays with me.

Clayton is on course for a hall of fame career and I attended his first game back in 08 when he faced off against the Cardinals. Like now he had minimal run support that day but he wasn't saddled with the loss. Anytime I can get my hands on yet another autograph of Kershaw I am going to do it and lucky for me Dr. Liu had one to trade and I gladly welcomed it with open arms.

After 17 days the photo portion of the trade is over. All quality autographs. Thank you again for all of them and look forward to more trading ( which by the way we are working on trade 2 as we speak ).