Card of the Day - 2008 Topps Update : Clayton Kershaw Base Chrome Parallel BGS Graded Mint 9.0

As my pursuit of more Kershaw and Trout cards to acquire during the off season I tend to come across cards that were not on my initial list to pick up and as most things in life you just adjust and move forward and doing that landed me this beautiful "rookie" card of Kid K.

Clayton has cards dating back to 2006 but in 2008 Topps had their yearly update set and included Kershaw in it and with it also had a chrome parallel. While the base card can be had for a minimal amount the chrome is hard to come by and that is probably why it wasn't on my watch list as I didn't know about it. There are just so many cards in existence and you can't know them all. Well during a graded card search this came up and even though I was about to win another auction I backed away and put my efforts towards this one as I wanted it more. The card was on a traditional auction and it took to the very last second to declare a winner and thankfully it was me.

I excepted a lot of traffic and desire for this card and the auction having 14 separate bids proved my thinking was correct. I was bid 13 but it held up even when bid 14 came in at the very last second trying to swipe it from me.

While not a "strong" mint 9 it is still a mint 9

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY - 2015 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Snow Camo (95/99) Parallel Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps Update Mike Trout Snow Camo (95/99)

Can a great deal with a blogger friend get even better with a 9.5 return on this limited Trout card? I hope so and halfway expect it to. 

I picked this up from Judson on a trade/purchase a month ago and like he said this card looked to be in great condition and I agreed with him once I had it in hand. Now I hope BGS agrees with us. It is well centered with no surface issues and the only thing I see "wrong" per se is that one of the corners is slightly dinged and that can only be seen under a loop. So 9.5 please Beckett people.

All great minds think alike as Judson, BGS and I thought this was a gem mint card and it was confirmed when I received this back from Beckett encased in a gold banner holder. I was actually a tad wrong as the only sub grade not to earn a 9.5 was centering which came in as a 9. Judson and I both believed it was slightly off but I still thought it would come in as a 9.5. The corner that I thought would be an issue was not though. Great pick up from a friend got better with a gem grade return.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-NINE - 2015 Topps High Tek : Clayton Kershaw Base Home Uniform Variant Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps High Tek Clayton Kershaw Home Uniform Variant

The only non numbered Tek of the batch but it still a variant as this shows Kershaw in his home whites not his road grays as that is the base card in the set.

Like all the other Tek cards I expect this one to gem as the only thing I can see on this particular card that might be an issues is a fuzzy corner which shouldn't cause too much trouble. 

Guess I need to change my glasses as I was right that this would come back as a gem mint but I was wrong on my guess that a fuzzy corner potentially could have been an issue. The corners came back as a pristine 10. No issue there. The only grade that was marked down were the surfaces which checked in with a 9 but with everything else at least a 9.5 I still added yet another gold banner Kershaw to the collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Mini Parallel Gold Variant (46/50)

And the final Seager card off of my 2016 Gypsy Queen checklist which was acquired from a trusted seller on a BIN auction. As usual he had a best offer option and thankfully once again he took my offer after we discussed what we both thought it was worth and we came to a happy medium.

As with the other Seager cards I picked up I acquired this one without an assigned book value to go by so the seller and I went with past eBay sales and as a long time buyer I was able to score it at an amount that was lower than the other sales on eBay.

Considering I like to grade all my low serialized cards I held out hope this would come to me in great condition and other than 1 corner with a slight fraying issue it looks to be in great condition. Now hopefully that 1 issue can earn a 9 and everything else props it up.

Forty-Six

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-EIGHT - 2015 Bowman's Best : Mike Trout Hi Def Insert Atomic Refractor Parallel Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Bowman's Best Mike Trout Atomic Hi Def

Though unnumbered this card only shows up every 50 cases so it is semi rare. Unlike other thick Topps cards these seem to come out of the pack in better condition and thankfully mine seems to be in pretty good shape.

I noticed on the population report that there have already been 2 of these submitted to BGS and both received a 9.5. My copy looks void of any issues and I hope to be number 3 of the gem mint group. The only thing that "may" cause an issue is that centering is not 50/50 but at worst it should still pull out a 9 on that with the other subs coming with a 9.5

I was right about centering not being perfect but that did not hinder it too much as it still earned itself a 9.5. I was right though that one of the sub grades might not come back as gem mint and for this card it happened to be the edges as those garnered the "dreaded" 9. No worries though as the other 2 both earned 9.5's which means I added yet another gold banner Trout card to my collection and that is always a good thing. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1960 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Excellent 5.0

With my Seager rainbow project finally completed I think this is the next project that will be finished sometime in the near(ish) future. Though I want more and more Koufax cards my main focus has been acquiring all his base cards from his playing years (1955-1966) and they must be in BVG cases. The good thing for me is that the grade does not matter to me as I am just looking for the best deal and I finally was able to find one for the 1960 version.

I have a friend, and he knows who he is = ), that for the better part of 7 months I have tried to unlock his grasp on his copy and trade it to me. He is a Dodger fan so it was expected but I kept trying. Finally one day though this card, which had been on my watch list for months, had it's asking price lowered by 20% on a BIN type auction. Click here, payment there and a few days later I finally have my own 1960 copy of Koufax. Card could have been a 2 or a 3 or even a 7 but all that matters is that I have one to call my own.

On a side note, with Sandy retiring from his role within the Dodgers organization I will probably never get the chance to meet the man himself in person and I make that point as the aforementioned friend has and I am jealous of him for it. Good for him though. A memory that can't be taken away.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Photo Variation

The 2nd of 3 Seager cards that I won on the same day during a buying binge during a couple hours on a slow eBay day.

This actually is also part of another project stemming from this year's Gypsy Queen set. I no longer collect base cards but I continue to chase after the photo variations of base cards and Seager along with Trout and Kershaw all have these in the 2016 Gypsy Queen release. Since it was a Seager day Corey is the 1st of the 3 to make it into my hands. Just like the Heritage photo variation I plan to send this to BGS for grading and hopefully it will come back with a gold banner as there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the card.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-SEVEN - 2016 Topps : Clayton Kershaw Base Black and White (Photo Negative) Parallel Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Topps Clayton Kershaw Black and White

Another black and white parallel from the 2016 Topps release and like the Corey version I am confident that this Clayton one will earn a 9.5.

Surprisingly I can't find anything wrong with this card but considering it is a paper and not a chrome I still am a tad hesitant of the return grade till I actually see it. That said, there wasn't anything wrong I could see other than the centering might just be a tad off of 50/50.

Was centering was a tad off and if you consider 9.5 "off" then I would take that all day everyday. As I thought, with this being a paper card and not chrome, there would be some "issue" and that ended up coming from the corners sub grade. What a shock. Those earned a 9 but even with that this card was still strong enough to earn an overall 9.5 grade which also included one 10 sub grade as well.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Mini Parallel Purple Variant (114/250)

I needed 3 Seager cards from this year's Gypsy Queen release and I picked them up in back to back to back transactions within a 3 hour window. They all came in on the same day but this was the 1st of the batch that I won.

All 3 were acquired with no book value to reference to but I trusted the seller as we had done business numerous times in the past and even though he had this on a BIN auction with a best offer option I knew he wouldn't be "offended" by my offer no matter how low it might seem. I sent him one that was reasonable in my eyes and thankfully he thought the same thing so with no counter I had picked up the 1st of 3 Seager cards of the day.

Print run is "high" but I do love these minis.

One Hundred and Fourteen

of

Two Hundred and Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-SIX - 2015 Topps High Tek : Clayton Kershaw Drama Tek Insert (38/50) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps High Tek Clayton Kershaw Drama Tek Performers (38/50)

Another Tek card, another Kershaw card.

While not as visually appealing as the diffractors this numbered drama card is still a nice have for the collection. Like with all the other Tek cards this one also looks void of any issues and hopefully it will be part of a clean sweep of 9.5's in the Tek category.

Expected a gem.

Received a gem

It is always (usually) nice to get back a card with a grade that you expected it would receive.

While this card's value does not skyrocket because of the gold banner it surely does look nicer in one than not in one.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Bowman Draft : Mike Trout Base Chrome BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

As the off season comes (came) to a close I finally picked up the base card of Mike Trout from the 2011 Bowman Draft set. Funny how I can acquire the harder ones prior to the so called easier ones but I think when it comes to those I expect a better bargain than the more limited ones. With that said I had to go across the pond to pick up this copy as it originated from Taiwan.

Finally with this card in house I have the blue parallel, the base refractor parallel and only need the purple refractor to "complete" my rainbow for this set. I will "never" really have the full rainbow as the colors gold (50 copies) and orange (25 copies) are too rare for me to win at any type of discount. Hopefully I can locate a purple one at a reasonable in the coming weeks before they skyrocket in value as I suspect they will once the season starts.

With more and more eBay wins from sellers located in Asia I wish more of the cards I am looking for would be from that area of the world as I continue to strike gold money wise over there. I won this on a traditional auction for $10 less than what they were going for here in the USA. I am a patient enough man that I can wait an extra 2 weeks for a card when I can pocket some lunch money.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-FIVE - 2015 Bowman's Best : Corey Seager Hi Def Insert Atomic Refractor Parallel Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Bowman's Best Corey Seager Atomic Hi Def

Just like the Trout card this Seager shows up every 50 cases and just like Mike's card Corey's looks great in hand. I rank this one higher as this one seems to be a lot closer to 50/50 centering than the other and I believe this is more of a lock for a 9.5 than Mike's. Of course I would love both to have a gold banner adorning the case.

Well the centering might have qualified as 50/50 in my eyes and even though BGS agreed this card snuck by as a gem mint but a weak 9.5 is still a 9.5 so it's all good.

While I expected a gold banner return I was still concerned that since I haven't pre-graded one of these before I wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly but I guess I still have it as the only thing that wasn't gem were the surfaces which came in with a 9. Though this is not a numbered parallel it still is pretty hard to find and it being certified as a gem just makes it so much nicer.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Base Black Static Refractor Parallel (22/35) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

With the pick up of this card for the first time ever I have a jersey numbered (22) card of Clayton Kershaw. While I was looking for this card that was never a need but it sure is a nice little bonus on a a limited and gem mint black beauty of the best pitcher in baseball.

I acquired the Trout version of this card months ago and it was had on a deal considering it was graded a mint 9.0 by BGS. I wanted to couple it up with a Kershaw version but with both cards with a print run of just 35 they don't pop up very often. This one though had been on eBay for months on a BIN auction with its price going up and down every week or so. Problem was it never went down enough for me so I never acquired it. Well I had enough.

One day when I ended up having more comic codes than normal I direct messaged the seller of this card and told him I have been watching it for months and wanted to see if he would sell it at a price that was more to my liking. A hour or so later he sent me a direct offer with the price I asked for so of course I clicked the button and soon after had the card in hand.

Another gem for the collection

While this post won't go live till sometime in June I assume it was acquired during the off season and there is nothing like off season transactions when the prices are at their lowest.

Twenty-Two

of

Thirty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Finest : Sand Koufax Generations Insert Refractor Parallel (9/25)

Wait.
Waiting..
Kept waiting...

That is what I did for this card. I first came across it during one of my random Koufax searches and considering it is one of only a handful of current cards of Sandy that are numbered I wanted to add it to my growing collection. The issue was the cost as none were on traditional auctions. All were on BIN and each one was set a high price with no best offer option. No bueno for Penguino.

Each copy sat on my watch list for months in the hope that someday one of these sellers would realize they were asking too much for it. Finally the day came when one finally did figure it out and dropped their price by more than 50%. I saw the adjustment and jumped all over it and acquired it. Hoping it would come in great condition as I would love to get this graded and thankfully once in hand and under a loop I now believe nothing but a gold banner is destined for this Koufax beauty.

Nine

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-FOUR - 2014 Topps Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Base Sepia Refractor Parallel (42/75) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw Sepia Refractor (42/75)

Another Kershaw parallel from the 2014 Topps Chrome set and another one that I believe should come back as a gem mint.

Centering 50/50
Corners, sharp
Edges,smooth
Surface, scratch free.

With that I am thinking this is a lock for a gold banner.

I called it a lock to gem and gem it did though it was a little closer than I thought it would be,cc

While there was a 10 in the sub grades as edges were perfect I was off on the centering as I believed it was perfect but it barely received a 9. No matter as the other 2 sub grades received 9.5's and with that this card indeed come back with a gold banner. Love low serialized parallels with a gold 9.5 attached to them.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Trade with Instagram Friend Robert aka Huskys.Sportscards : 2013 Topps Tier One : Sandy Koufax Autograph Copper Rose Ink Parallel (16/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

This is the 3rd time I have held this specific card in my hands but this is the 1st time I can claim it as my own as I was finally able to secure it on a trade after it had been handled by many hands.

Frankie was the original owner of this card as he sent it to me to be included in our joint BGS submission batch and I thought it would have a decent chance of earning a 9.5 from Beckett. The only thing that worried me was the autograph but it indeed earned a gold banner and a 10 on auto. When I received it back from Beckett I informed Frankie that if we could ever come to some type of deal I would love to have it, With that I sent it back to Frankie and we had some soft trade talk but before I could acquire it he traded it to Robert. I turned my attention from Frankie to Robert and hoped to trade for it from him. Once it became available he and I completed the trade within a couple of days as I had to wait for funds that were due to me from eBay as I did not want to use any out of pocket money.

While I would have loved this to be a 1 for 1 card trade I knew that I had to include some money to make it happen. In the end I sent Robert over some cash and a card and I finally picked up this limited, gem mint beauty of Koufax. When I first looked into getting a Koufax autograph for my collection I was going to be content with just one great copy but now with this addition my Koufax count is up to 5! I barely have more Trout auto cards than I do Koufax autos and I consider Trout more primary than Sandy. Go figure as you never know how the card world turns.

Thank you again to Frankie for submitting this and letting me know of its existence and to Robert for the trade. This is my first trade completed with Robert but I doubt it will be the last.

Sixteen

of

Twenty-Five

Perfect ten on the autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-THREE - 2015 Topps Chrome : Mike Trout Base Purple Refractor Parallel (213/250) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Purple Refractor (213/250)

Purple and gold aka Los Angeles Lake colors or for the purpose of this post what hopefully this Trout card comes back as.

More and more I love these purple parallels and this Trout copy has perfect centering and no corner issues whatsoever so I am expecting a gold banner here. Since the print run is "high" its not really a investment piece but it nonetheless it will/would great in a gold banner.

My wish came true as I indeed have the color combination that I was seeking for Mr. Trout's Topps Chrome card.

Purple is probably my 3rd favorite color now as black and blue will always be my primary loves when it comes to these colored parallels. That said purple looks better with a gold banner than a blue parallel does and this one looks great in its new case. Another gem return for the best every day player in baseball.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Target Red Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Oh....my....!!!

As we near(ed) the 2016 baseball season (at the time of this write up) I thought I was done with picking up graded Trout cards from the 2011 Bowman Chrome and/or Topps Update sets. Over the past 5 months I was able to get my hands on most that were on my checklist but I still had a few biggies left to get and was resigned to the fact that I would not get them all before the new season started. I thought I did quite well and was happy with what I was able to pick up and between the 2 sets I had a total of 5 cards left I wanted to acquire. Well that number is now down to 4 with this big acquisition on what I believed was going to be the hardest one to find.

Unlike the Bowman Chrome blue parallel that I am still trying to find this red parallel from the Topps Update set is not numbered but it seems to be more rare and considering it was only available at Target and it is a paper card (unlike the thicker chrome stock) which makes it more condition sensitive, I thought I would never be able to land a BGS 9.5 anytime soon. Guess you can never say never.

There have only been a handful of raw version of this to pop up on eBay and 1 actually said it was damaged so I had no interest in those. Graded copies are even more rare and doing a quick check on Beckett there are only 11 9.5's of this card. Small population indeed. A seller put this up on eBay (later I found out she had 2 which means she almost had 20% of the total population of this graded card) and it went unsold for a couple of weeks even though it had double digit watchers. I was actually surprised. She finally relisted it with a best offer option and I sent over an offer for less than what a raw one went for. Wasn't surprised she rejected it but was happy she sent over an offer that was pretty reasonable. I decided to try to nickel and dime her a little and sent over another offer and stated that if she would take it I would pay right then and there. She accepted and with the final cost being only slightly over the raw cards that had previously sold I say I came out pretty good.

Of all the non autograph rookie cards this is one of the nicer Trout cards to have and think it is a pretty good investment piece. Can't believe I picked this up before the season started but happy I did. I plan to revisit this card for a price check in October and I bet it will have gone up in value as I predict Mike is going to put up a monster year in 2016.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-TWO - 2015 Topps Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Base Purple Refractor Parallel (220/250) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw Purple Refractor (220/250)

Another purple chrome card but this time its of Kershaw but just like Trout I expect it to gem.

The reason this one gets a higher billing is that under the loop the corners look extra sharp. Even more so than the Trout version. So nice that this might be a candidate for a pristine 10 but I'll try not to get ahead of myself.

As expected this indeed earn a gem mint 9.5 and even had one sub grade that came back as a 10 but it was not close to earning an overall 10 as I had hoped in my preview paragraph.

Purple is king but what is a king without his gold? Well the king of baseball pitchers now has another gold banner for my collection and I just love the color combination and can't wait to hunt down more purple cards of the players I collect. This year adds another to that list as this will be the 1st year that Corey Seager will be in Topps Chrome. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Culminations Insert BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

It's numbered
It's not overly limited
It's not a parallel . . .
But it is a graded, gem mint Kershaw had for a deal so now I call it mine.

While I've been scouring the internet for any and all Kershaw graded cards that could be had on a deal I have steered away from non colored parallels and insert cards in general but I couldn't pass up on this one as timing was everything.

This card had been on eBay a few times but every 7 days it failed to sell so the seller kept relisting it. One week I had sold a few other cards that netted me a lot more than I thought they would and I thought if I could score this card at the seller's starting asking price (and not a penny more) than I would acquire it. The price was lower than what the card books for in raw form so it would be a nice little get for me. Not an investment piece obviously but a nice one nonetheless. Final day of the auction and once again no bids had been put on the card. I put mine in at the last moment and was declared the winner a second later. Not too shabby.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin