Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Chrome Black Refractor Parallel (22/75)

I know this card is limited to just 75 copies but I didn't think it would take me this long to acquire one of them.

Yes, I know Seager is hot in the hobby right now and everything of his is rising but this card comes out of the 2014 Bowman Draft and is not his rookie card nor his 2nd year card yet I kept losing out on it as the prices constantly went to or above its $15 book value. I expected that with his previous years cards but not this one. Even the Urias black was easier to obtain than Seager's. The only thing I can attest to it is that the card doesn't come up for sale much on eBay so when people see it they pounce on it.

Well here was my chance again when this one appeared on eBay but just like all the others the price was driven up by the time the last day of the auction had arrived. It was still in my ballpark so I crossed my fingers and put my bid in which made me the high bid. One second left and someone tried to snipe it but the only thing that did was drive up my purchase price as my amount held. Whoosh. Thank goodness as now I can move on to other Seager cards on my want list.

Twenty Two

of

Seventy Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Base Mini Parallel EXT (Rip Card Exclusive) Variant

Our/my friends across the big pond have helped out me out once again in acquiring a hard card to get your hands on at a cost way below book which happens to be a high of $80 and a low of $30.

There are mini parallels in the Ginter brand that are more common and then there are limited/numbered ones on top of those but this one can only be found in rip cards. For those that don't know what those are they are cards that have another card (mini) in them and to get to those you have to rip the card open to see what you have. To rip or not to rip is the question that faces collectors every year as while you hope to score an autograph you could end up with a card like this which while very nice is not as nice as a limited autograph. Some people decide not to rip and just keep the card as is as it can hold more value depending who is featured on it. That is why these book so high as not all will hit the aftermarket but people like me that collect a certain player are always on the look out for them. Well I found my 2015 Kershaw not in the United States but in South Korea.

At the time of "purchase" of this card there had been a few to hit the bay and sold for more than I wanted to fork over aka $30+ with one even hitting $58. Yikes. Well Americans always seem to steer clear of Asia sellers to a point as I always seem to get cards on deals from our Pacific friends. This one was no different as at the end of the day I won it with minimal effort for the grand total of $16 with none of it coming out of pocket. Thank you comic book sales. In hand it looks gem mint and I will be submitting to BGS to see if it is indeed.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Chrome : Mike Trout Base Photo Variation

This year's Topps Chrome release recently came out and thankfully there were only a handful of cards that I wanted to acquire but the biggie once again was a photo variation of the Angel's Mike Trout. He has had a variation card for the past few years but I have never been able to land one as they always go higher than I am comfortable of "paying" for. Well it was a new year so yet another opportunity for me to try to get one.

When this one popped up on eBay there had already been a few that sold so I had an idea on what to expect the end cost would be. Prices had started to trend down so I expected to score some type of deal and if not I could wait as since I've waited years for one I could wait a little more. Well I didn't have to as I won this with minimal effort and well below my price ceiling. The only issue I have is that after this a few more copies have sold for a few bucks less. Yes, I got a great deal but I could have had just a little bit better one. Nonetheless, I am finally happy to add a Trout variation to the collection and hopefully it will grade out to a 9.5 from BGS as it will sent to them in a week or so. The only "issue" I see with the card is that the corners are not super sharp so at worst I think they might score a 9 but everything else should earn a 9.5. Knock on wood.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Alex Verdugo Base Chrome Autograph Refractor Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

I don't like that fact that Bowman went back to the unnumbered refractor parallel for this set but that won't stop me from acquiring certain autographs within said set. Case in point I finally locked down another Verdugo autograph.

I already have a blue autograph parallel of Verdugo but I still wanted a black version and the base refractor for my "mini rainbow" project for Alex. The black one will have to wait for awhile as that is too limited for my liking right now aka as in too much moola, but the base refractor shouldn't be too much of a hassle I thought. Plenty of ungraded (raw) copies were to be had on the bay but every week or so one of this graded version came up for sale and I rather snag one of these than a raw one. A couple weeks and couple cards came and went as the final price went above my limit. Unlike those I wasn't outbid days prior the auction's end on this one and I was still the high bid with a hour left. I put in another bid just to pad my "lead" and thankfully I did as at the last moment someone else tried to snipe it and their bid went over my original bid but not my second. The card was mine.

Two autographs down and one more to go for the Verdugo project.

Gold banner day once again.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Allen and Ginter : Josh Hamilton Mini Frame Autograph Red Variant Parallel (9/10)

Long time readers of the blog might actual recognize this exact card as I have gone and done another 1st in my collecting history and reacquired the exact same card after I got rid of it which I did with this one in a trade with an eBay seller.

How do I know it's the same card? Why because it is numbered 9/10 and I acquired it back from the same person I traded it to a couple months ago. I first acquired this card back in March of 2014 as seen HERE . After I had it in hand I thought it would be a good candidate to earn a gem mint grade from BGS with the possible exception of a potential mark next to the 9/10 on the front of the card. It came back a strong 9.5 with no down grade for the autograph and that is recapped HERE . I had my Josh Hamilton autograph for my collection and I was done...or so I thought. I ended up doing a trade with this eBay seller where I had to let go of this and a Ryan Braun red ink autograph to pick up some Koufax and Kershaw cards which I thought was a real boon for me and my collection. With it I put Josh back on my to reacquire list as he was on there once before when I was transitioning from signed balls to cards. The eBay seller was trying to complete a red ink master set so I never expected to see this card again but I found out after another transaction with him that he was changing his focus for his collection and that he would probably get rid of a lot of his red ink cards. Within a week or so I noticed that he indeed did put up some of his red inks and Josh here was one of them. He attached a higher price than I was willing to spend but after a few weeks he lowered the price to a point that it was lower than what I originally paid for the it. Once again, I was looking to buy Josh at a low point and hoped to do it again. Typical 7 day auction and at the last minute I put in the one and only bid and with it I once again reacquired Josh's autograph for the collection.

You probably notice that this card is raw and not in its BGS holder that it was in when I did the trade and that is because the eBay seller had no interest in graded cards and just wanted them for his collection so he cracks them all out of their cases. I looked it over and it looks like he did a great job of not messing it up and once again I will be submitting Josh to BGS for a gem mint grade and this time I expect no problems but as always I am knocking on wood.

Nine

of

Ten

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Draft : Julio Urias Base Chrome Gold Refractor Parallel (16/50) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Gold encased in gold.

With most of the easier to acquire color parallels in hand now for my Urias rainbow project I shift my focus to the harder ones now. Again, to make matters worse there are two cards of each color to pick up since there are two sets that featured Urias's rookie cards. The main Bowman Chrome release and then the Bowman Draft one which is where this card comes from.

Numbered out of only 50 the gold parallels are harder to nail down and I have already seen multiple copies of this card sell so I was hoping to get my own copy before the price skyrockets out of my price range. Another traditional auction here and I expected I would have to get in a slight bidding war which I indeed had to enter. A total of 10 bids were entered but at the end of the 7 days I came out on top once again and that's even with 2 last second bids by another buyer.

It being already graded made this one particular card a priority as I don't need to submit a raw copy to BGS now. So that is one gold acquired with one more to go. All I have to say is thankfully there are not other super prospects in the Dodger farm system other than Urias and Seager so I won't be doing this rainbow project again for awhile. It can be really tiring.

The gold standard

16 of 50

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Base Mini Parallel Red Border Variant (25/40)

Took longer time than I wanted or anticipated but I finally landed the other big red border want from this year's AG set. Already had Trout in hand but Kershaw was elusive but I finally locked one down.

There are only 40 copies of each red border and even though I have other players I still need to track down I wanted to get Kershaw as soon as possible as I didn't want the price to go up any higher and I wanted to have it in hand before BGS comes back to town as I planned to submit it for grading. This card was on a traditional eBay auction with no reserve and with a high book of $50 and previous sales in the 30's I expected yet another battle. Thankfully armed with enough funds as I am restructuring my collection I put in a higher than normal bid to ensure I would win. Though I did win (obviously) my max bid was no where near reached.

Card came in a week or so later and I think at the very least it will grade out to a mint 9 with a good shot at a gem mint 9.5. We shall see. My Kershaw collection proceeds ahead with yet another great looking limited parallel.

Two Five

of

Four Oh

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Tribute : Buster Posey Base Autograph Orange Parallel (22/25)

As a Dodger fan I feel a little dirty that I acquired this card. Worse yet I actually have been pursuing a Buster autograph for a couple years now but him being a very good player for a ... gulp... 3x World Series champion trumps any orange hatred here. To be honest there were only 2 Giant players that I wanted in my collection and both are now in hand (more on the other player in a future post) so I won't have that guilty feeling while I hit the search button on eBay anymore.

It's kind of appropriate that this card is the orange parallel for the base autograph. It just happened that way as all I wanted was a good Posey card. This was on a buy it now auction but it sat on my watch list for weeks as I wanted two things to happen which took time. One, I was selling off some other lesser cards which meant I had to nickel and dime my way up to cover this card's cost and two I wanted eBay to run a ebucks promotion so I could earn a little extra for this quarter. Money was in hand after a few weeks worth of auctions but I waited a few extra days till I received an email stating that it was running an ebucks promotion that earned me an extra $12 for a future acquisition. Went to the auction and saw that it was now on 12 other watch lists. Post haste I clicked the buy it now button and locked in my Buster card and had it in hand a week or so later.

A great looking card and before the pursuit started I wanted one that looked like it might grade out to a BGS 9.5 and with it now physically in front of me I give it a 50/50 shot of receiving that grade. Everything looks good except one corner has slight fraying which can be seen under a loop. If that can hold at a 9 then it might have a chance at an overall 9.5 but if not I am sure it will earn a mint 9. Beckett is in town in a few days so I shall found out then with a raw grade review.

Twenty-Two

of

Twenty-Five

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Gold Refractor Parallel (32/50)

I finally landed the one "easy" color that I haven't been able to get my hands on as I try to finish my rainbow project for Seager. Most colors have two separate cards as there is the main Bowman Chrome set and then the chrome parallel in the Bowman Draft release. As of yet I have never been able to get a gold copy of either. That finally changed.

With only 50 copies of each they do not come up for sale that much on eBay and when they do they usually seem to have a high starting off price which I then promptly move on. This one though had a 99 cent starting price point so I hoped I could score this on a semi deal as most Seager cards are going up as he gets closer to hitting the majors (edit: he has made it since this write up). At present this card books from a low of $25 (yeah good luck on finding it at that price) and a high of $60. My goal was to pick it up for less than $60 and that is what I did.

After 14 bids and another person bidding back and forth with me I came out of on top at the very last second and when this card made it to my house I could not see anything wrong with it and think it has an outside shot at a pristine grade from Beckett. At the very worst it should come out to gem mint which isn't bad either as I would have a gold card in a gold label case.

Thirty-Two

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps : Mike Trout Series 2 Base Framed Parallel (11/20)

My/our friends from Japan helped me out by listing this beautiful and limited card on eBay. With it depicting Mr. MVP Mike Trout I expected it would be a long time before I got my hands on it as with a print run of only 20 and him being popular in the hobby I expected them to go for much more than I was willing to spend. Of course with this particular copy being overseas I saw my opportunity to snag it at a lower than expected cost and that is exactly what happened.

As I have discussed before and as I am sure some of you readers have experienced first hand when it comes to auctions from across the pond they seem to get less traffic as I suspect people are either too impatient to wait a longer time and/or aren't as trusting in shipping services. Doesn't bother me as I can wait and if it does get lost I am covered by eBay.

The series 1 card books from $60-120 but this series 2 one only books for $25-60 but I had already seen others top that high mark which I wasn't going to do so when this one popped up on the bay with a starting price of 99 cents I hoped to score a deal and in the end that is exactly what I did.

Not surprisingly there were 12 separate bids but surprisingly there were at small increments and when I put mine in at the last moment I secured this card a little over the low end of book. Yet another overseas win for me and with this I can now close the book on the "higher" priced/demand framed cards from this year's Topps set. I have 2 more to acquire but they are of lesser caliber players.

11

of

20

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

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