Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Transcendent : Vin Scully Gold Framed Autograph (22/52) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

There are a few friends out there *cough* Greg *cough* (lol) that believed I was crazy when I sold off my other Vin Scully autograph but when it came back from Beckett with an 8 slapped on it I just couldn't keep it as it would have bothered me knowing that it was in my collection with that poor grade. I sold the card and made my money back on it but I knew at some point I would reacquire Mr. Scully's auto at some point and now was the time and of course I made SURE it would be a gem mint copy this time around.

With not that many Scully autographs in general I knew that it would take some time to find one that would be in certified gem mint condition from BGS. This one popped up on the bay with a price that was too much for me as I wanted to use funds that I had accumulated over time. I decided to bide my time and also revisit this one when eBay ran another one of their eBucks promotions. They finally did so I reached out to the seller of this card who is based in Asia and wanted to see if there was any wiggle room to work with that would be beneficial to both of us. We finally agreed to a price and with not too much out of pocket I finally own a Vin Scully autograph that is good enough to have in my collection.

Normally I prefer silver or gold framed autographs but this gold one really goes well with the gold banner it earned from Beckett. So the gold standard in broadcasting is framed in beautiful gold with a banner of gold above him. I think this is perfect and happy to call it mine.

Twenty-Two

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Fifty-Two

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Now : Clayton Kershaw 1st Ever MLB Save Base Autograph (145/199) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

I couldn't possibly only own the relic version of this card and not pare it up with the non one right? Nope I couldn't and finally one of these popped up that was already certified gem mint 9.5 by Beckett and I was determined to land it.

There has been shortage of raw versions of this card but I am really just trying to hold out for the graded cards that I want going forward and I don't remember seeing one of this before this one showed up. Knowing past sales of this card I knew what my ceiling would be and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't go for all that much more than a few raw ones had sold a couple days prior to this one.

I now have the relic and this one. If I was going go crazy I could go after all the parallels but I won't be unless they can be had for a major steal. Another gem for my road to 100 project of Clayton.

One Hundred and Forty-Five

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One Hundred and Ninety-Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2017 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Autograph Missing Blackplate Variant

There is supposedly a purple version of Seager's autograph in this year's GQ set but till I see one this version completes all the autos I can acquire of him so far.

I snagged the black and white parallel and then the "missing nameplate" version and finally this one to complete the trifecta. Although this is not numbered it is a limited card and I was happy to land it on a deal considering it books for over $100 and I acquired for more than 50% less than that. Conditioning as always comes into play with Gypsy and this one is no different as a corner gives me a little concern but I hope it won't hinder it too much when I submit it to BGS in the near future. Other than that this is a fine addition to my budding Corey autograph collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Chrome : Julio Urias Base Autograph Red Refractor Parallel (4/5) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Oh...MY !!!!

I have wanted to do a full autograph rainbow on any of my 4 PC players and the ultimate would/is do one for their rookie card years. Of course the problem has and always will be that the red parallel is always limited to just 5 copies. So lets look at this :

Trout Bowman Chrome red rookie? HAHAHAHAHA.... would have to win the lotto to acquire this one.
Kershaw Bowman Chrome red rookie? = ) . Might not need the lotto but I would need one hell of a raise to consider hunting this one down.
Seager Topps Chrome red rookie? Possible but still very much a long shot and don't think it will ever happen. I would have to sell a lot and I mean A LOT of cards to pick that one up.
Then you have Julio Urias. The one of the four who's prices haven't shot through the rough but at the same time still trending upwards. So it is possible? Yes because here it is.

I decided to not do the 2014 Bowman Chrome prospect rainbow as their were more parallels to chase after and higher prices so I decided to concentrate on the 2016 Topps Chrome set instead with its Rookie Card designation on the the card. When I started I knew it would still be a long shot but considering I already had the base, green, blue, purple, orange it only left me the gold and the red to find. I am confident I will land the gold at some point using eBay eBucks so that left the red to find. Till now I have never seen one up for sale then this BGS gem showed up and a quick look up showed that it was the ONLY one to be graded so far. The question now was could I actually win it with the price I had in mind. Let the problems begin.

By the time this post goes live I will have paid it off with cards I unloaded but at the time of winning it I only had half of what it took to snag it. The other issue was that this card's auction ended at 5 in the morning on a Saturday!!! Yeah I was not getting up that early or staying up that late to win a "card" so when I went to bed on Friday I put in my bid which made the high bidder and crossed my fingers and closed my eyes. Woke up to a notification that I actually won this and no one had put a bid in after I went to bed. That in itself was more surprising. I truly believe if this ended at any reasonable time someone here in Los Angeles would have at least bidded me up some as I can not believe what the final price was for this ultra limited card. This is now my crown jewel of my Urias collection and now when I land the gold I will actually have completed an autograph rookie card rainbow of one of the players I collect. Just unreal.

Four

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Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Museum : Clayton Kershaw Base Frame Autograph Black Parallel (5/5)

Very surprised I landed this but at the same time I am a tad worried about what grade it will receive from BGS when I submit it considering the low cost to acquire this card.

This is the 2nd of 2 cards I picked up using the funds from the sales of the cards I did not like the results from in my recent BGS batch. I am also on the look out for Kershaw autographs and metal frame ones are on top of the list. I already have the Gold frame from the 2015 set and roughly remember what that cost was. It was already in a BGS 9.5 case so there is a premium attached to that card. This one though popped up one morning when I was just doing one of my random searches and it was being sold by a well know eBay seller but their asking price seemed very low to me. I took a chance though knowing the seller and hoping I just landed a deal if this card indeed earns a 9.5 from Beckett. At worst it is a great card to have in my collection but man do I want this badly to gem.

Cinco

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Cinco

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Update : Corey Seager Base Home Run Derby Black Parallel (37/65) PSA Graded Gem Mint 10

Look what Beckett and BGS made me do! Went out and acquired one of their competitors graded cards because they low balled me on a different copy of this black parallel that I sent into them for grading. Of course now I will have to get this raw graded to see if it qualifies as a gem mint 9.5 in Beckett's eyes.

I had no intention of doing this project per as when I submitted the 3 black parallels of Seager from this set I thought only 1 would gem. Well when they came back 2 of the 3 gemmed with this HRD version the only 1 not to earn a 9.5. And the story of that is that the sub grades were 9.5, 9.5, 9.5 and a 3.5 for surface. WTH? Well now that I had 2 in gold banners I obviously wanted the other so it would be a complete 3 card set. Of course with only 65 copies of each black parallel they don't come up for sale very often.

I was going to try the raw route again and hope for the best with Beckett but one hadn't shown up in awhile and then this bad boy popped up. At the time it was the only one graded as a gem mint 10 by PSA and since I had the other card I knew I could sell that to help "pay" for this one. Tons of bids on this card and I barely won as someone tried to snipe me at the end of the auction but my bid held on by the narrowest of margins. Now to get this in a BGS case and then I will have all 4 (1 from series 1) possible black parallels of Corey Seager from his rookie year. Nice...

Thirty-Seven

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Sixty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Allen Ginter X (Online Exclusive) : Corey Seager Black and Silver Mini Frame Autograph

For a long time I was jealous of a fellow collector as he had this in his possession and picked it up for a steal when I wasn't collecting and then when I finally was ready to go after my own copy my own impatience cost me some extra funds that shouldn't have been spent. Hopefully this will gem which will help take the sting off this card's acquisition.

My buddy Greg snagged his own copy and before that I knew I wanted this card but could never find one to my liking (price wise). There were and still are a few copies that are on eBay on BIN's and I finally decided to get mine when eBay ran an extra eBucks promotion. They finally did and I went to this card's auction as this was the one I decided I thought was in the best condition. As I clicked the button to acquire I didn't realize aka didn't read, that I would be charged sales tax as I reside in California. Sh*t. I could have backed out of transaction but I hate when people do that to me so I sucked it up and paid the amount. Now that it is in hand it looks like it should be a 9.5 when I submit it to BGS but we all know how that can pan out. Here's hoping I see a gold banner in it's future and to everyone else make sure you read the fine print.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Gold Label : Corey Seager Base Framed Autograph Black Parallel (12/50) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

During my run of results from my most recent BGS batch I alluded to the fact that I cracked and resold a few cards that were not up to par for my collection and used those funds to acquire some that were. This is the 1st of 2 that I acquired.

The Gold Label brand is not the prettiest of cards but I do love me metal framed autographs and this Corey one in its black parallel looks great in hand. There is no book to go by for price reference but using the facts that it is numbered out of 50, a rookie card and is an on card autograph in a BGS 9.5 case I came up with an amount I was comfortable with and when this card's auction ended the actual cost was way lower than I expected it would go for.

This card is a strong gem mint with its quad 9.5's and knowing that his autograph prices are going up in the high end brands I believe this was a steal for me. Plus with the funds coming from cards I had no interest in it makes it just a bit more sweeter.

Twelve

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Fifty

Another perfect 10

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Update : Corey Seager Fire Autograph (10/25)

It's so nice when you expect something promptly and then the player and Topps cooperates with your mentality and delivers a redemption in less than 2 weeks after submitting for it.

I knew this 2016 autograph of Corey was already "live" and didn't expect to have to wait that long for the real thing and that became a fact when this showed up on my doorstep just 2 weeks after I scored a deal for the redemption card online. I am happy people can be impatient as that allows me to lock in on some great deals and this might have just gotten better as under the loop I do not see any major problems that should stop this from earning a 9.5 from Beckett. Another great on card autograph of Mr. Seager for the collection.

Ten

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Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Transcendent : Clayton Kershaw Framed Autograph (7/52) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

It took a lot longer than I thought it would and also believed I lost my chance at this card but after weeks of waiting and wondering I snagged this when the seller finally met my price and surprised that it was there for the taking.

This beautiful framed autograph (love metal framed cards) of the Dodger great was on eBay for a long while with a high asking price which I had no intention of ever touching. I checked past sales and came up with an amount I would be happy with if it ever got to that point. Days went by which turned into weeks and every so often the seller lowered his price (he had no best offer option) and when he was finally about $70 from my price I contacted him about letting it go at my price. He politely declined but said just keep checking back to see how low it would go. He stated he was motivated to move it but just not yet at my offer price.

More days passed and then each day he lowered it $10 here, $5 there and when I went to bed 1 Friday it was only $20 from my price. I woke up Saturday morning and saw his new selling price was a couple dollars lower than my offer. Woo hoo. I snagged it and now own 1 of 3 autographs (Seager and Trout being the others) that I would love to own from this high end Topps brand. Of course it being in a BGS was a main selling point as well as I don't have to worry about this card not gemming.

Seven

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Fifty-Two

A perfect 10

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2017 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Autograph Missing Nameplate Variant (11/35)

Well since I picked up the black and white parallel from this year's GQ set I might as well try to get all the versions of Seager autographs in the set right? Well here is number 2 in that pursuit and its limited to just 35 copies.

I still feel that the GQ brand is a little risky due to condition issues and this one is no different but I still think it should squeak into the 9.5 gold when I submit it. I acquired this while playing the eBay of waiting to see how another auction plays out before picking this up. This copy was on a BIN OBO auction and the seller sent me a reasonable offer after rejecting mine. Well there was another copy on a traditional auction and I wanted to see how that finished before getting this one. A dangerous game when there are only 35 copies but I wasn't going to not get the best deal. Watching the auction card as its price kept going up and with 10 minutes left in its auction the price went above what the seller said I could have for this one. Promptly clicked the accept button and added another Seager auto to the collection.

Eleven

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Thirty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2017 Gypsy Queen : Corey Seager Base Autograph Black and White Parallel (40/99)

I took quite a gamble considering this is a Gypsy Queen card and I acquired it basically sight unseen so I put lots of faith in the seller's feedback. Looks like I did alright.

GQ is a paper product and with that there always seems to be conditioning issues when I hunt a copy of a particular card down. I love black and white parallels and when I heard that Corey would have an on card autograph on said parallel I had hoped to land one at some point. Well this seller on eBay (perfect feedback) had 1 for sale which I originally passed on. 2 days later the same seller adjusted his auction to state he now had 2 copies and lowered the price by $15. It was now far and away the best deal on the auction site. Problem was that with 2 copies being available I had no idea which 1 I would receive so I crossed my fingers and hit the button to complete the transaction. Week later I had this in hand and other than a slight fraying corner on the back side there does not seem to be any issue. Not a bad transaction for me and hopefully I can turn it into BGS Gold.

Forty

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Ninety-Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Autograph (Batting) Green Refractor Parallel (82/99) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

1st day of the 2016 baseball off season, 0 Blue, 0 Green and 0 Golds. Second to last day of the 2016 baseball off season 2 Blues, Both Golds and now for the perfect finish the other Green is now in hand.

I usually have 1 big project I want to do each off season and have a plan in place at the time of year, This past one though was a tad different. My project was to add to my Kershaw autograph collection which I want to have 1 for each win he earns. While I did add quite a few this Corey rainbow project came about because of a ridiculous low priced Gold back in December. I ended up acquiring this Green at the end of March so the span of 3 months I went from zero colored parallels of this card to 6. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

There are 2 other colors our there (Orange and Red) but with the prints runs of 25 and 5 respectively I highly doubt I will ever get the true rainbow of this project considering there are 2 photo variations to go after. Might snag an Orange at some point but a Red would be crazy priced I am sure. So for the time being I need to hunt down the base refractors of these cards and with a print run of 499 I am confident I will get them at a decent price.

Eighty-Two

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Ninety-Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Update : Corey Seager Fire Autograph (#/25)

After weeks of trying to acquire the actual card of this redemption from a seller on eBay I went ahead and went this route as he was not budging an inch on his price.

Knowing that this card exists already made the decision easier to acquire this redemption as I know it will be in hand shortly. There have been a few on eBay and a seller had his on a BIN with a best offer option but his counter literally was $3 lower than his asking price. Ass... I understand it's your card but don't offer to negotiate if you really aren't going to.

This card wasn't overly important to have but when this redemption popped up for sale at over $50 less than what that other seller was trying to get I crossed my fingers I could get this on the cheap considering people are impatient and might not want to wait an extra 2 weeks for their card. The plan worked as I won this with the 1 and only bid on the auction. Now I wait for the physical card which should be coming to me shortly.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Autograph (Fielding) Gold Refractor Parallel (21/50) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

What an off season for me when it came to Bowman Chrome autographs of Corey Seager. What is even more surprisingly was that going into this was not a project I was planning to do at the time but I am glad I did it and with a little luck on my side I had a great haul. This post won't go live till May or June but I acquired the card in the waning days of March.

When I picked up the other Gold (batting) back in the end of December I knew I would want to pare it up with this fielding version at some point but as well know Gold is king in the hobby and with only 50 copies I had no idea when I would be able to snag one. Also knowing as the years go by this card could get out of my price range no matter how many comics I sell to cover the cost so I made it a priority to pick up sooner rather than later.

This card was on a BIN auction for a long time but one day the seller decided to go the ole traditional auction route and made it a 1 day special. Let the fun begin. This I only had a 24 hour "notice" for this card I had no funds to acquire it but I had enough cards and comics I could sell to cover it so I gave myself a cap. A long day of auction watching and after 23 bids I came out on top. Hot damn. I now have the 2 blues, 1 green and both golds. Now I just need to get that last green and I complete one hell of a project.

Twenty-One

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Strata : Clayton Kershaw Signatures Patch Autograph (27/55) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

See card
Want card
Get card

Simple right? Not always. I am a fan of all Kershaw autographs that are on card and if it is already in a BGS case all the better. Of course with this being a POP 1 (at the time of acquisition) more attention is drawn to the card. With me selling off non gems of Seager and Kershaw I usually have funds for when something pops up and that was no different when this did.

I expected a little bidding war but not one that took it all the way to waning seconds of the auction. I wasn't a fan of the ending price but with nothing coming out of pocket I won't bitch too much about it as it is another 9.5 for the Kershaw collection and that is always a good thing.

Twenty-Seven

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Fifty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Tribute : Clayton Kershaw Foundation of Greatness Autograph Black Parallel (42/50)

I went back to the well once again with an eBay seller that I have done countless transaction with in the hope I could snag steal on this card on a day that eBay was running a coupon special. The jury's still out but I in the end no matter what BGS gives this card I think I came out on top.

This is from the 2015 Tribute set which is notorious for being recalled because of condition issues. I have had some luck with cards from that set in the past and was looking to hit another home run on this Kershaw autograph. This books for $100-$200 in Beckett but the seller had this on a BIN for just $85. My mind thought there probably was a conditioning issue and once in hand there happens to be 1 corner with a slight fraying issue. Can it hold the line at a 9 so I can sneak out a 9.5 overall? Maybe but if not I can't see it getting lower than a 8.5 on that category and at worst a mint 9 is what this card would earn.

$85 seems like a slight steal but eBay was running a $15 coupon deal for any transaction that totaled at least $75. Considering this card had been listed for quite some time I reached out and asked my eBay friend what his best deal was and he said $75. So with the coupon added to it the cost to me would only be $60. So for a card that books for $100-200 I think $60 is a decent enough deal. What do you think?

Forty-Two

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

March 2017 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY-TWO of FORTY-TWO - 2016 Topps Corey Seager Base Clear/Acetate Parallel (6/10) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

The final entry of my most recent batch sent to Beckett for grading and the new non autograph crown jewel of my Corey Seager rookie card collection.

I snagged this during the 2016 off season when no one was really looking for baseball cards so it was a steal in my opinion as the price kept going down as there was no interest in it. Being numbered out of just 10 copies this trumps the framed one (16 copies) that I had at one point that also gemmed and I sold for twice as much as I "paid" for it. To this day I have never seen another framed parallel as I have wanted to pick one up once again again. Well with this one I no longer need that one as this is more rare. I knew the grade going in and when I submitted it to BGS for a raw review I half way expected this to receive a 10 but it did not so I was a little disappointed. Now with this in hand I know the sub grades and it "barely" gemmed as there was a 9 (surfaces) but it also did earn 2 10's so I guess this is a strong 9.5 in some way.

I have no intention of parting with this but I am curious of its value now and if Corey continues to have a good season I might throw it up on eBay at a obscene buy it now price but see what I get offered.

42 cards and almost no complaints. Already working on the next batch which is up to 18 cards.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

March 2017 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY-ONE of FORTY-TWO - 2016 Topps Chrome Corey Seager Base Orange Refractor Parallel (16/25) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Second to last card of the batch and even though I knew both card's grades going in it's still a great feeling when you get them back in their BGS cases as it was for this limited (/25) orange parallel from the 2016 Topps Chrome set.

I am trying to complete a rainbow of Seager cards from the 2016 set in general but on top of that I want them to be in gem mint condition. With only 25 copies there are only so many chances of that happening and if this didn't gem on the raw review I would have flipped it for another orange and tried my chances again. Well not only did this gem it did so with 3 9.5 sub grades to go along with 1 10. Not too shabby for a card I graded on a deal. I have to look at all the Chromes I have so far of Corey but with this I think I am done except for the red parallel with its near impossible 5 print run and the super which I know is a pipe dream. Still, even without those two this is an impressive feat if I do so saw myself.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

March 2017 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY of FORTY-TWO - 2015 Allen Ginter Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph Red Ink Variant (4/10) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

I/we have reached the final Kershaw and autograph of this 42 card batch and to me the best of the group bar none.

Though I have a couple other red ink autographs of Clayton is this my first Allen Ginter one. They are always hard to track down since their print run rarely changes from a total of 10 any given year. When I picked this card up I had every intention of getting it graded and since the base version of this graded out as a 9.5/9 as shown earlier this was important to me for it to earn a 9.5/10. Once in hand I believed it would achieve that grade but knowing how nothing was assured I crossed my fingers. I didn't go the raw review route as that batch was getting too big and I was confident and have faith this would come out OK and that it did. Quad 9.5's with the all important 10 on autograph and this is now my favorite Ginter Kershaw in my collection by far.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

March 2017 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-NINE of FORTY-TWO - 2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Magenta Printing Plate Autograph (1/1) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Half way there to the ultimate Kershaw autograph project albeit not the priciest.

Having one autograph plate is a nice thing but have 2 of the 4 to make a card is a nice achievement. Having both in gem mint condition is just crazy. Crazy why? Printing plates are know to have flaws as they are used to make the cards so are constantly being "handled". No surprise that this one received a 9 for its surface but thankfully everything else checked out OK with a 9.5 and I now have the yellow and this magenta and still on the look out for the cyan and black ones. If anyone happens to come across them please point me in that direction as it would one helluva an accomplishment to own all for 1 of 1's.

Another 1 of 1 gem

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin