Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Blue Chrome Refractor Parallel (32/399)

More and more releases of the Bowman brand means more and more Dodger chrome to chase after and this year is no exception. Bowman released their annual Draft product and within it are a few Dodgers to pursue with Seager and Urias the headliners when it comes to non autograph cards.

As per the norm now, I am only searching for black and blue parallels which means I only needed two cards of the two players and with a print run of 399 the blue parallels are and will be more plentiful. I was in the process of negotiating with a seller on eBay on a different card when he posted this one up for sale. He was asking a minimal price for it and we were able to strike a deal on it (the other card though we couldn't come to an agreeable price).

It shipped promptly and within a week I had my first card from my list of wants from the 2014 Bowman Draft brand. The card is slightly off centered but I had no plans to grade this anyways as the print run is too "high" and not from his rookie year. Nonetheless, another great blue parallel of the Dodgers future shortstop.

32 of 399

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Base Mini Parallel Flag Back Variant (3/25)

I've picked up a lot of 2015 Ginters so far but this was one of the biggest wants on my wishlist as it is a low numbered parallel (25) and unlike the red borders these are hand numbered instead of machine numbered, Flag backs are not something new this year but this is the first one I have been able to pick one up and what better one than of the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw.

I ended up picking this up on a BIN auction when another flag back of Kershaw I was looking at on eBay went over the cost of this one. I had hoped to score a deal on the other copy but as I kept bidding another person was bidding against me and with a minute left that one went over the cost of this one. At that moment I jumped ship and moved over to this one and hit the BIN button and had it in my hands in a few short days.

I always intended to send this to BGS for grading and once in hand the only thing I can see really wrong is that on the front's lower right corner there seems to be some mark. Might go the raw grade route instead of the full review just to make sure it would grade gem mint which I think it would do.

3

of

25

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel Red Border Variant (38/40)

Though I have been acquiring a lot Ginters off my wish list Kershaw and Trout are the biggies that I always want to acquire on a deal and after some misses on other copies of this card I was finally able to land me this red beauty.

While blue border parallels are one of my parallels that I always hunt down when it comes down to Trout he obviously looks better in a read border since the Angels team color is red. With this card being numbered out of only 40 that made it a highly sought after item on the secondary market and I was one of the many searching for it. Book wasn't out on it yet but other copies sold in the $40-50 range which was too rich for my blood. I had to hold out and hope one would land into something more to my liking and thankfully this one did as it seemed people backed off on it for some reason.

Still 10 separate bids on it but maybe with minimal description it scared off some as they didn't know what kind of condition it would arrive in. I took the chance and I ended up winning it for a lot less than others had gone for and when it arrived I made sure to see how it looked in person. I have to say there is a 50/50 chance it would grade out to gem mint which I might test when BGS heads out this way again. Either way I caught me another big fish.

Thirty-Eight

of

Forty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Trade with Fellow Blogger : Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby (2013 Topps Five Star Johnny Bench Base Autograph 11/50)

It's been a little while since Frankie and I have done a trade together and usually it is a high dollar and/or a big stack of cards type of trade that takes some time to get all situated out so we are both happy with what we receive. This time though it was none of that as the trade consisted of 1 card coming to me and 3 cards going to him in a trade that took probably no more than 10-15 minutes to complete.

Frankie had remembered that I wanted this card in a previous trade but that never panned out but he approached me a couple weeks ago to see if I was still interested in it now which I still was. He asked about a Julio Urias autograph which I happen to have 2 of so 1 was expendable. I can't remember what the 2nd card was which means it didn't mean that much to me and then thirdly he asked about a Paul O'Neill card that I was planning to get rid of anyways but he liked it as Paul is a favorite of his.

Those 3 cards for this spiffy 2013 Five Star Bench card. He had been on my want list for years and now I didn't have to spend any money out of pocket. I know this will not grade out to gem mint 9.5 but it might earn a mint 9. I might submit it to BGS for a raw grade review just to test the waters. Either way I am happy to finally have one of best catchers to ever play the game in my collection after all these years.

Another smooth and easy trade with Frankie which once again was a win win for the both us. Thank you again and I look forward to the next one.

Eleven

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin(

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Tier One : Pedro Martinez Acetate Autograph (77/99)

It's been awhile since I have reacquired an autograph lost during my ball purge but I finally got my hands on one of the biggies that I had continued to pursue since said purge. A player that should have never played for another team other than the Dodgers, one Pedro Martinez.

Though it hurts me to see Pedro in a Red Sox jersey it was a priority to have his autograph card in Red Sox jersey. Why? His greatest accomplishments and his peak years were with the Boston ball club. Would have loved to have him Expo colors but those choices are far and few between and there was no way I was going to pick him up in either Met or Phillie colors.

There were a few choices but I kept coming back to this Tier One brand as there always seemed to be one or two copies for sale at all times on eBay. Now I had to lock one down at a decent cost which is what I was able to do with this particular one. Book has it valued from $40-100 which thankfully I "paid" close to low and no where near the high. Once the card came in I noticed "smudges" on the card which might be hard to see on the pics here but I have looked at other copies on eBay including one that was graded BGS 9.5 and they all seem to have it so I guess it is part of the card and not a defect. That's good as I had this ear marked for BGS grading before I even had it in hand and now I will for sure be submitting it in the hope for a nice gold banner.

Seven Seven

of

Nine Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Five Star : Miguel Cabrera Base Autograph (1/50)

Other than Mike Trout there aren't any non Dodgers that I currently pursue multiple autograph cards for the collection but Miguel I think is going to be an exception albeit probably a minor one.

I already have 1 Cabrera autograph in my collection and funny enough it is also a Five Star card but it is the 2013 variety. I believed myself done with Cabrera autographs but the more and more I watch him and seeing the trajectory his career is going I thought I should pick up another one or two here or there. His card prices are a little on the high side which will be a deterrent to picking up many more copies but they don't touch Trout prices so that is a good thing.

There are not many on card choices and the ones that are out there are limited (like this one to 50) so they only pop up on eBay from time to time. This one showed up one day and was probably only the 5th or 6th one to make it to eBay at the time and I put it on my watch list just to see how high it would go. Final day arrived and to me it was still under valued so with literally a second left I put in a bid at exactly a dollar higher than the current high bid (more like a token bid) and was surprised to see that I won the card. Happy but shocked. Card arrived shortly and looks to be in pretty good condition. As you can see it is a redeemed card from Topps so I will leave it in its case as this card has joined the future BGS submission stack. My 2013 Five Star came back a 9 so here's hoping I can finally score that elusive gem mint 9.5 Cabrera autograph with this beauty.

Numero Uno

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Clayton Kershaw Major League Debut Ticket

I am always looking to add something unique to my collection as most of it consists of cards and signed pictures as I have moved away from signed baseballs. One day I was looking for more Kershaw stuff on eBay, shocker I know, and came across a couple of signed tickets and thought to myself that would a nice change of pace for me. Which one would be the best when it came to significance pertaining to Clayton? Why his MLB debut of course.

When that light clicked in my head that I would love to have a signed ticket from Clayton's debut game another light clicked in my head, wait I was at that game but do I still have the ticket? As most know the Dodgers stopped issuing hard tickets to season ticket holders last year (BOOOOO) so I no longer have any to put into binders but back in 2008 they still did. I was given (4) tickets to this game from a co worker weeks before the game and when it was announced that Clayton would be debuting it made it even better. The wife, father in law and I headed to the game and got to witness the official beginning of a hall of fame career. I looked on eBay and saw that some of these sell northward of $150 unsigned so when I opened up my binder and saw I still had one I was ecstatic. Now I could sell it but I will not be. Someday down the road I will have Clayton sign this for me and then I will get it slabbed and it will become a permanent fixture in my collection.

I saved one but boy do I wish I had the other (3) but I can't complain as I can say I was in attendance for his debut and I don't have to spend any out of pocket money to get this ticket to have him sign it.

May 25, 2008

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Sterling : Grant Holmes Bowman Black Autograph (#/25)

It has been a long time since I have acquire and done a post of a "card" of this nature but when I can score a deal there is no way I am going to pass it up even if there is a wait ahead for me to acquire the "real" card.

When it has come to the Topps redemption program for the most part I have had good luck of the draw. Of all the codes I have obtained and submitted I am only waiting for 3 to be fulfilled. That might seem like a lot but I have heard horror stories of people having to call Topps and negotiate a different card than the one they earned as the subject (player) never signed the cards or there were other issues that arose. Well when I saw this card pop up on a no reserve auction with a starting bid of 99 cents I promptly put it on my watch list. I already have a nice Bowman Chrome autograph of Holmes but I feel I need a couple more of his John Hancock's for my collection.

This card books for a high of $100 and a low of $40 so in my view anything less than $40 would be a score. How about less than $30? Double score. How about less than $26? Oh yeah, that's the sweet spot. In the end that is what I won it for. Though the demand for Grant's autographs are not the greatest right now this price is nothing to sneeze at. Great purchase and I couldn't be happier. Now hopefully the real card will be in hand soon enough.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Zack Greinke Base Mini Parallel No Number Variant (#/50)

It's that time of the year again, yup, Allen and Ginter new release time and like every year I will be pursuing my fair share but unlike previous years a I will only be going after the minis but even with that there are plenty to pick up. Second day of its release and I picked up a nice limited one to start of the A/G year right.

I think there is only a 50/50 chance that Zack will be with the blue next year so this might be one of the last handful of cards I will be getting of Mr. Greinke. As most of you know A/G has multiple announced and unannounced parallels/variants every year and this year is no different. The no number on the back version is not a new one but definitely one that I pursue as A/G states there are only 50 copies of each. They are not numbered which is a shame but knowing there are only so many out there is good enough for me.

This was the 1st one of its kind to hit the bay and it was on a BIN auction but thankfully there was a best offer option attached to it. I put a bid in that I felt would be under the book value once that is released and hoped for the best. No haggling by this seller as he accepted my offer. I know not all my 2015 A/G acquisitions will be this smooth but this is a nice way to start off my quest for many Ginters.

No number but print run is stated as being only 50

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Five Star : Ernie Banks Base Autograph (24/50)

Let's play two !

The man that would love to play all day in the form of a doubleheader and frequently did during his career finally makes it into my collection. Mr. Banks has been a very elusive autograph to acquire for me and became moreso when passed away earlier this year as prices jumped as they usually do when a famous person dies.

I missed out the couple of times Ernie was out here in California for a public signing and the few times I found out he was at Dodger Stadium signing for fans I was unfortunately not at the stadium that day. I never had a signed ball of his when I collected autographed balls so this is the 1st time I have owned a Banks auto. The hold up has always been that it had to be an on card autograph on a reasonably attractive card which there just wasn't that many of. I knew of this card but I could never lock one down at a decent price until the day this one popped up on the bay on a BIN auction with a best offer option. After going back and forth for a couple hours on offers the seller and I finally agreed on a price and within the week I had my Banks autograph card. Looks even better in person.

Even though this card has probably seen its peek in value I will probably send it in to BGS for grading even though I know the best it will do is a mint 9 as one of the corners is fraying just a tad which should earn it either a 9 or 8.5. I think it will just look better in a case so the grade isn't overly important to me but I still would like it to be a 9. We shall see.

24 of 50

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Tribute : Hank Aaron Mystery Redemption Autographs (12/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

This is part two of back to back day posts of the cards I acquired for the 1 of 1 Joc Pederson plate card that is above this paragraph. I debated on which card I would showcase first as the Seager from yesterday is limited to just 5 in the world and there are only 2 graded as gem mint and I am now the owner of one of them. Well the reason I got rid of the Joc card is 1) of the 3 Dodger hot prospects (Seager, Urias and him) I believe he has the lowest ceiling and is 3rd on my favorite list and 2) Joc is an unproven commodity just like Seager is, so Corey was up first as the main prize in my sale/swap is definitely a proven producer, the immortal Hank Aaron.

I have been after a Hank Aaron autograph for years upon years and not till now have I been in position to pick one up. I wanted a ball when I collected balls but every single one was over my set limit and/or the ball was not in good condition. When I moved over to collecting cards again I put Hank high up on my list but knowing that it would a long time coming till I could get one as his autograph cards are price prohibitive. 

Gold banner day

It was now or never to finally pick up an Aaron autograph. I had funds in hand and was specifically looking for a Hank card. It had to be on card obviously, but more importantly it had to be a BGS 9.5 as this was going to be my one and only of his autographs. This card popped up on eBay a couple days prior to the sale of the Joc card and I wanted to click the BIN button then but I held off till I knew I had funds to cover it. What made this card even better was that it commemorates his 714th home run which surpassed Babe Ruth for the all time record at the time (some say it still is but that is another argument for another day) which he hit against ... the Dodgers. Does that notion of 714th add value to the card? No not really but for this Dodger fan it adds a little more coolness to it. 

Once the Joc funds were in hand I went straight to the Hank auction and saw that the watch list had grown to 11. I hit the purchase button and within the week after all these years I had my very own Hank Aaron autograph to call my own. Woo hoo.

A closer look at the autograph

Hank's John Hancock has been getting worse and worse with age

Happens to all of us

So I ended up trading/selling the 1 of 1 card of "unproven" Joc Pederson for a #/5 gem mint of Seager (who is my favorite Dodger "prospect") and a great looking Hank Aaron autograph. I might even do an update on my timeline with the addition of these cards as the "funds" for these and other cards came from a purchase/trade from friend Jesse. Question to you guys and gals out there, would you have swapped out the Joc for Seager and Hank? Just curious is all as I am totally satisfied with the transaction and don't regret it but would love your opinion.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Red Refractor Parallel (3/5) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Joc 1 of 1 and gem mint to boot

I have been lucky enough to have/had owned a couple 1 of 1's in my collection but of them this was the only one that I wasn't emotionally attached to. For long time readers that actually remember what I type, ha ha, Joc is a distant 3rd in my pecking order for the current Dodger rookies either in the bigs or close to it. For those who care it is Seager one, Urias two and Joc three. I have met all 3 multiple times and face to face Seager and Urias have a more approachable personality and on top of that I believe their overall talent is head and shoulders over Joc's so with that combination Joc has always come in last when I prioritized my want lists of the 3. That said this Joc plate with clean autograph was to be my crown jewel of my Joc collection for years to come and I was ecstatic to have lucked into it. But I had an itch that I wanted to scratch that has been years in the making but like usual I always trying to get the most bang for my buck so more on that "itch" in tomorrow's post. First up is the "secondary" card.

As most of you know, or at least I assume you might know, I have been on a quest/project to acquire the rainbow of 2013 Bowman Chrome Seager cards. A hard thing to do just by itself but on top of that I want them to also be at the very least BGS mint if not gem mint. To this day my best in the collection has been the yellow parallel that has a print run of 10. I believed at the time that would be the lowest print run I would acquire as the superfractor is a print run of 1 and red has a print run of just 5. A whopping 5 in the world and of those 5 two have been graded by BGS as gem mint and of those 1 has already been sold on eBay so yet another reason why I never thought I would get my hands on a copy. Things change

Three

of

Five

When I decided to move on from the Joc card and acquire tomorrow's subject I still had left over funds for another high end card (all planned of course) and low and behold the other BGS gem mint was on eBay. This bad boy though was located across the pond in Korea. You just never know where these cards might show up. I have had loads of luck from our friends on that side of the ocean but the seller of this card had a very high asking price and this was before Corey got called up. I shot over an offer that was about 55% of his asking price which was also lower than the amount that the other BGS had sold for. It didn't automatically decline so there was hope. While he didn't accept he did counter which I then countered him and stated that was all I had in my paypal account. A little white lie but hey, I wanted the card. He stated he couldn't do that on eBay but would honor it if we did it paypal direct.

Uh, yes please. In the end he even took out the shipping costs as he was asking for $25 and I asked him if there was a cheaper rate and he said don't worry about it. So I ended up picking up this ultra limited Seager card a week before he was called up and it physically in my hands 2 days after he arrived. I do not think I would have scored such a great deal if he had made to the bigs at the time of this transaction.

While this was a sweet deal I still think tomorrow's was the bigger get but you might see it differently. Your opinion would be appreciated on if you would have done this sale/trade, which you think is the bigger of the 2 and would you have rather just kept the 1 of 1 of Joc.

Strong subs which include 2 10's

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day,

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps : Clayton Kershaw Series Two Base (National League MVP) Silver Framed Parallel (17/20)

Well that wasn't too hard or bad.

Within days of each other I was able to pick up both framed parallels of Kershaw from the series 2 of the 2015 Topps release. The 1st series also had 2 Kershaws to pursue but those took me months to lock down and I went in with that same attitude when it became known that once again there would be 2 Kershaws in series 2 to hunt for. Same attitude but different results and thank God for that.

Book just came out (at the time of write up) and for some reason the values of these cards with the exact same print run are running give or take 50% less than series 1 cards. Don't know why but it helps when trying to acquire one at a bargain which I did with this one. With a print run of 20 I still counted at least 6 that had been sold on eBay so even with the lesser book value I had to make sure I got my copy before they were all gone and when the dust settled I was declared the winner on a lower than expected sale price. Couldn't be happier and now this card joins its series 2 brother in the BGS submission pile to hopefully join their series 1 brothers in gem mint glory.

One Seven

of

Two Zero

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Chrome : Julio Urias Base Autograph Refractor Parallel (92/500) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

A Bowman Chrome graded refractor of Urias is finally back in my hands as I sold my other one awhile ago as I received an irritating grade from BGS when I submitted to them. I expected a gem mint 9.5 when I sent it in but what I received it back it was a mint 9 as supposedly there were some surface "issues". You can read about my unhappiness HERE

Well ever since that time I have had this card on my radar to reacquire and unlike that one I was not going to go the raw card route and then submit it and try my chances again. This time I wanted one that was already graded as a gem mint. Even though I have a black parallel of this same card I am was not going to be denied in acquiring a base refractor for my collection and now that wish has been fulfilled.

Must have been a slow day on the bay when I picked this up as it went for less than what comparable ones had been going for a few days prior to this one including two I lost out on. I had been building up some funds for this card via comic book sales (physical and digital) and a couple of paperbacks so I had enough in hand to purchase this gem beauty.

The auction had a lot of bids on it but the only one that matter was one which was the highest at the end of the day which was mine. I am very happy to finally have this back in the fold and now I can work on getting the blue parallel but if I never do this and the black one is just fine with me.

Another gem for the Urias collection.

Oh....Yeah !!!

92 of 500

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Museum : Joc Pederson Archival Autograph (278/299) BGS Graded Mint 9.0

Being addicted to these graded cards is what prompted me to go after this one and in the end acquire another copy of this card of Joc.

I already have/had this card of Joc in raw form but as long time readers know I love me some BGS cards and the raw one I had I could tell would never grade out to gem mint and might still need some help earning just a mint grade. Watching the eBay market I had an idea what my raw card would sell for so when I saw this graded version I decided to see if I could win it for the amount that the raw card would potentially sell for.

.5 from gem mint

Some people are turned off by the silver banner as all they want are gold gem mints so they steer away from cards like these. With that thinking I hoped to score a deal on this one. The auction ended up having 12 separate bids but mine stood tall at the end of the day as I won the card for a little under $40. Now to sell my raw card to off set the cost of this card. I put it on the bay as a traditional auction with a BIN option and within a day I was contacted by a buyer who offered me a little less than what I paid for the graded card. I accepted his offer and in the end I spent around $4-5 out of pocket to pick up this mint card.

278 of 299

10 Autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Jeff Brigham Base Chrome Autograph Black Refractor Parallel (7/35)

Patience is truly a virtue at times and once again I gained from it by waiting out this seller for a few months.

I saw this card on the bay one day months ago and with an assigned book value of $50 I had no intention of buying it for his asking price of $40 on a BIN auction. I wanted the card but I didn't need the card. I love black autograph parallels but since Jeff is not a "big" prospect in the Dodger organization I wouldn't be devastated if I never acquired on of the 35 copies of this card. The seller lowered his price a couple of times and it sat at $30 for a few weeks. Still not interested. He finally canceled that auction and put it on a traditional auction with a starting bid of 99 cents. Now I was interested.

Wasn't sure what kind of bidding war if any would be attached to this card but I stayed on the outside and just watched to see how it would play out. Decent activity on the auction as there were 7 separate bids on it going into its final day. The cost was hovering around $10. Still reasonable. I entered my bid in and even though someone tried to snipe it at the last second my bid held and I won the card for a little over $16. That is a long way from the original asking price of $50 that the seller wanted but his loss is my gain.

Lucky 7 of 35

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Finest : Ken Griffey Jr. Generations Autograph (10/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

The life of an eBayer and a neurotic one at that.

That spiffy looking Beckett Raw Graded reviewed card up top of Ken Griffey Jr. was supposed to be my one and only Griffey autograph for my collection but every time I looked at it it gnawed at me as even though BGS gave it a gem mint grade they stated they could not slab it in a hard case. YET, I have seen the same exact card in slabbed form and other Stratas in a case but every time I asked Beckett why mine was an exception to the rule they just said it was too thick and when I referenced actual certification numbers of the other Stratas they gave me a deer in the headlight look. Well I finally had enough and decided to search out another Griffey autograph to replace this one but the kicker was I had to sell this one and use the funds from the sale to acquire the new one at zero cost. On top of that it had to be an on card autograph, Ken in a Seattle uniform AND graded gem mint. I had my work cut out for me. Weeks went by but I finally landed one.

High and low I looked and I came across this one as it popped up one day a few weeks ago. I wanted to pull the trigger right then and there but I need the Strata funds which its auction was not due to end for a couple more days. I had to cross my fingers and hope that this Finest card would not sell. On the last day of the Strata auction this Finest card had 8 watchers. I believed my time was limited as someone was going to purchase this and at the last minute someone bid on the Strata. I took a look at that buyer's feedback and it was solid with over 2000 positives so I went ahead and locked in this Finest card even though the funds were not officially in hand. Thankfully a couple hours later the Strata funds came though which I promptly transferred to pick up this one officially.

Gem mint

Ten

of

Twenty-Five

Though I loved my Strata I think this is an equal beauty and I am happy that I went and acquired it. Now I can say I have my one and only Griffey autograph in my collection and hopefully I won't ever be on hunt for another.

Closer look of this silver ink beauty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2012 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Autograph Refractor Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Considering the cost of Seager autographs are going way up across the board this card's acquisition completes one project that had to end as if I was to go after other parallels I would need a lot more funds which I do not.

I have a few ongoing rainbow projects pertaining to Urias and Seager but when it comes to the autograph portion there are less cards to pursue do to it being cost prohibitive. I picked up the blue parallel of this card over a year ago and was lucky to pick up the base a little while ago when I had extra comic code funds but I knew this base refractor would be the last of the rainbow I could or would acquire. There is a gold parallel but that price is over $1000 and I will not be going after that so I wanted to get this card before the price went up anymore.

This happens to be an unnumbered parallel but it still holds a higher demand than the base non refractor and I really didn't want to go the raw route and then cross my fingers its grades out to a gem mint. These refractors don't seem to pop up as much on eBay so when this one did I had to make some funds appear. I picked out a few cards and one paperback that I could sell so that would cover the cost of the card which happened to be on a BIN auction. By the time the sales of the other cards were confirmed this Seager card had 15 watchers so I knew its time of being available to me was dwindling. Made sure the funds cleared from the sales and got back to this card's auction and thankfully it was still available. Clicked the button, sent the funds and had card in hand within a week.

The 2012 Bowman Chrome BGS 9.5 autograph rainbow project is officially finished.

Gold banner for a golden kid

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Stadium Club : Clayton Kershaw Base Rainbow Autograph (27/50) BGS Graded Mint 9

This should have been the second post on a Kershaw autograph from the 2014 Stadium Club release but due to my neurotic tendency of wanting cards in BGS cases and Kershaw autographs in general to be at least mint this is the 1st time the blog has showcased this card.

I originally acquired a copy of this card when the set was released last year but when I received it I didn't feel it would grade out to a mint 9. I for one didn't want to waste time/money with BGS and have it earn a NM 8.5 so I sold the card for the same price I "bought" it for. No harm no foul. A few months passed as I had moved on to other cards and projects so I forgot that I liked this card until I saw this pop up on one of my eBay searches. A quick Beckett inquiry showed that this is the only 2014 copy to have been graded as of this write up and it earned a strong 9. Well guess who was back in the market for a Stadium Club Kershaw autograph? This guy.

With Kershaw "only" having a good season and not dominating (yet) his secondary market prices have come down a tad and even though this card books from $90 to $150 the demand for it was a little softer than it normally would have been. A traditional 7 day auction for this card and with a hour left the high bid was only at half of the low end of Beckett. When the auction ended I was declared the winner for well under the low ($90) Beckett guide price. Another right time, right place and a little luck acquisition and another Kershaw autograph for the collection.

.5 from gem mint. Might send it in for a bump

27 of 50

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Museum : Ozzie Smith Archival Autograph (48/59)

For years I have been trying to acquire an autograph of Ozzie Smith whether it be on a ball or on a card but till now he has been elusive just as he was at times on the field. When all was said and done I picked this up on what I perceive as a steal.

When I collected signed balls I could/would never pull the trigger on an auction as the prices were out of my comfort zone and the couple of times I saw that he was doing an in person signing the promoters were asking too much. Now that I moved over to collecting cards I thought it would be easier to get Mr. Smith's autograph. Not so much as I had been going on two years and still no Ozzie. As with the balls most cards I felt were too pricey but as more and more brands came out with Ozzie in them the prices started to drop.

Since I didn't care if the card was graded that opened up my options and this newly released Museum card was my target as book has it in the range of $20-50 and most sales I saw were on the low end of the spectrum. A few lost auctions led me to this particular card and with minimal effort I finally won me my very own Ozzie autograph. He tormented my Dodgers at times and I would have preferred to have him in a Padre uniform rather than the hated Cardinal colors but nonetheless I am happy to finally have him in my collection.

Forty Eight

of

Fifty Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin