Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Strata : Clayton Kershaw Base Autograph Black Parallel (42/50)

This is a first for me. When it comes to Kershaw autographs he is 99% of the time the main focus of my searches but this time he was an "afterthought" or throw in if you like. No, the card wasn't free but its addition to the transaction made it cheaper by a lot.

Strata has been a name that Topps has used before for an insert that has been in their Topps releases the last couple of years but in 2015 they decided to make it its own card line and considering they are smaller than the insert versions (aka gradable as they aren't as thick) I knew I wanted to acquire a few and once I looked at the checklist there were 3 subjects I wanted and obviously Clayton was one of them. This card was part of a bigger transaction which I will showcase the other card tomorrow.

Like most releases Topps had various colored parallels but my 1st choice is always black and that made this card the one I wanted to have. I lost out on a couple of other copies but when I came across this one I knew I would pick it up and at a steal at that. Next up in this card's journey is a trip to Dallas to hopefully have a gem mint gold label affixed to it.

Forty-Two

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Bowman's Best : Mike Trout Hi Def Heritage Insert Atomic Parallel

While the majority of the cards I am searching for from the 2015 Bowman's Best set are colored parallels there are 3 total that I am looking for that don't fall into that category and this Trout one is the 1st of the 3 I was able to get my hands on.

There is a base Hi Def insert that are scattered plentifully through the boxes but these Atomic parallels are only seeded 1 per case. In that case if you wanted Trout or any other player you would have to go through 45 cases as there are 45 players in the insert set. While not numbered this parallel has enough going for it that I wanted to secure my own copy.

As with the blue parallels I picked this up with no book to go by but felt that I paid a fair amount for it and more so considering 2 other copies sold a couple days later for $5 more. A nice win for me and I might actually send this in for grading. Think it would look good with a gold banner.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps High Tek : Sandy Koufax Base Spiral Bricks Parallel Black and White Variant (13/15)

As I have stated many times before my Koufax collection is severely lacking in quantity but I am trying to slowly remedy that "problem". The good thing though is even though the volume is low I believe the quality is high and it only gets better with this card's addition.

While my main focus for Koufax are vintage cards from yesteryear (1955-1966) I keep an eye out for any numbered parallels but there are just not that many to be had. With that said I came across this one on accident and I think it was still available because it was "lost" on eBay. For some reason it did not pull up on a standard search and I found this on "you might like these" suggestions from eBay and this one particular time they were right.

This is a numbered out of only 15 and has no book value assigned to it. I had a price in mind that I thought was fair but the seller had it on a BIN auction at about $25 higher than I was comfortable with. Thankfully he was open to negotiating and a few hours later we agreed to a price that was only $2 higher than my mental ceiling for the card. Before I received the card I had already planned to send it to BGS for grading and now its a sure thing as this looks gem mint to me.

Thirteen

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Fifteen and see through

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Black Chrome Refractor Parallel (29/64)

I showcased yesterday (or the day before depending when I posted it) the 2014 version of Kershaw's Heritage black chrome and now I get to proudly show of the 2013 version which I believe is more eye appealing than the 2014 version.

A seller on eBay had a few of these Kershaw chromes to win and I was lucky enough to win the 2014 and this 2013. I plan(ned) to submit both of them to BGS for grading and while I see the smallest of flaws on the 2014 card I see nothing wrong on this 2013 so I am hoping for a gem mint return. What would be really sweet is if I can finally earn my first black label from BGS to pare it up with a black chrome card like this Kershaw. We shall see.

With this addition to the collection I now own 3 of 6 black Heritage chromes that Topps has released of Clayton and while that is a small number I think it will be a long while till I land the other 3 as the print runs are minuscule for all 6 so you just don't see them up for grabs very often. Crossing my fingers and hope to come across them sooner rather than later.

Twenty-Nine

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Sixty-Four

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Heritage : Clayton Kershaw Base Black Chrome Refractor Parallel (37/65)

A small but important project finally adds another member to the collection with the acquisition of this limited (37/65) black chrome from the 2014 Topps Heritage set.

I am a later comer to the Topps Heritage brand but when I landed my first black chrome Kershaw from last year's set I knew I wanted to pick up all the black parallels from each year. Problem is that they are very limited and are one of the most sought out parallels so I knew I would have an uphill battle to pick them up. I was lucky enough to pick this one up along with another (post on that coming up in a day or two) from 1 seller on eBay would actually was unloading 3 but I was not able to win the other 1. Guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Other than me just wanting this card is that the seller advertised it as in pretty much gem mint condition and once in hand I can confirm that it has a better than not chance of earning that. Only thing that gives me pause is the top edge which frays ever so slightly. We shall see shortly as BGS will be in town soon enough.

Thirty-Seven

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Sixty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Allen Ginter : Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel EXT Variant

Patience, desire and good timing finally landed me this "rare" Mike Trout card.

It hails from the 2014 Ginter set but it is the EXT variant which can only be found in rip cards and not all those cards are torn open so who knows how many of these are actually on the open market. Book has this valued from $30-80 which on the high end is too much for my tastes but the low end is reasonable if it was nothing out of pocket.

This bad boy popped up on eBay one day on a BIN auction from a newish seller and had a best offer attached to it. I sent him an offer and he promptly countered at only a few bucks from his asking price. To say the least I declined and moved on but kept it on my watch list as I was curious to see what it would sell for. A few days later he messaged me and said if I would pay right then and there he would sell it to me for $5 less than my offer price. What? Well OK then. I accepted his "offer" and sent over the funds. I half expected this card to come in with some small flaw but under the magnifying glass I see nothing wrong with this card. Well you know where this card is going, BGS. Hoping for another Trout gem.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Base Purple Refractor Parallel (220/250)

Well since I recently acquired the purple Trout from the 2015 Topps Chrome release you knew I had to "bookend" it with the purple version of Clayton Kershaw and all I had to do was wait for the right auction to come along and finally it did.

With 250 copies I knew sooner or later I would land my own purple copy but with most sellers selling this as a BIN for north of $6 I had to wait it out. Book has this at a high of $8 with a low of $3 and I was more inclined to pick it up at the lower end of that scale than the high end.

A seller finally switched this card from BIN to a traditional auction with a starting price of .99 cents. With only 2 bids I ended up with the winner for a grand total of $3 and a handful of pennies. Not too shabby as once again patience pays off.

Two Hundred and Twenty

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Two Hundred and Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Inception : Julio Urias Inceptioned Autograph (28/35)

What to do...what to do....

Months ago I was all about Seager and Urias but I decided I needed to concentrate on a smaller amount of players and Urias was dropped from my chase lists and I sold/traded off my collection of Julio cards. As I did that I knew there was 1 card that I did not have but at some point I would end up receiving and that time is now and this is that card.

I won this card in redemption form back in September of 2015 and posted about it in October. I moved on from Urias cards in November/December but this card was still M.I.A. and had no idea when I would receive it. Well a couple days ago I received an email from Topps stating that it was on its way and today I officially got it. The card looks beautiful in hand and now the question is what do I do with it? Keep it? Sell it? Trade it?

Centering looks to be perfect and surface and edges look to have no issues. The only problem I see is that one corner looks a tad rounded but I think it would grade out to a 9 at worst and if that holds and everything else gets a 9.5 then I would have a gem mint autograph card that is only limited to 35 of the young phenom. One of the lowest numbered autographs that Julio has on the market.

The one thing I will do is submit it to BGS in a couple weeks and get a raw grade review and if it indeed earns a 9.5 then I might just have to submit it for full slabbing. I think though if it comes back as a 9 then I will flip it on the bay.

Twenty-Eight

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Thirty-Fve

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps High Tek : Clayton Kershaw Drama Tek Performers Insert (38/50)

Just a typical day cruising on the bay looking for some deals of my four core players that I collect and came across this 2015 card of Clayton hailing from the Topps High Tek brand. Since it is numbered I knew at some point I would want to acquire it but I just had to wait for the right time.

Book range for this card is $6-15 which is too much on the high end in my opinion but if anything sold near the lower end it would be a good enough deal for me. Well this popped up on a BIN auction for a measly $5. Made sure there was no damage I could seen on the computer screen and after that I crossed my fingers till it made it to me and hoped I scored a deal. Card came in and looks to be in great condition and with that I picked up another limited card for the Kershaw collection at a bargain,

Thirty-Eight

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Bowman Chrome : Mike Trout Base Gold Refractor Parallel (20/50)

Usually when I acquire a Mike Trout card it's because I am searching for that one specifically and not as a "throw in" of a bigger deal per se but that is how I feel about this card even though I would have wanted it at some point down the line.

I acquired another Trout card (will see its own post in a few days I expect) but to get free shipping and no interest (my own eBay sales had not come through as of yet) I had to get over a certain dollar point so I was on the look out for another card from the same seller to push me over said price point. He had 7 different cards I was interested in and they all happened to end the same day but I lost out on the 6 prior to this one which led to me landing this gold parallel and in the end I couldn't be happier.

The other 6 were more desirable as they were all in BGS cases but when I won this one at way less than book I was more than happy I lost out on the others as 1) they cost more than this one and 2) when I submit this to BGS and hopefully get a gem mint return (50/50 chance I believe) I will consider this one hell of a steal considering it was an afterthought of a "purchase"

Twenty

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps : Clayton Kershaw Strata Autograph (13/25)

It is amazing how months of waiting on the sidelines and then one night of sleep can change the course of one's mentality when it comes to acquiring a card. That happened to me here.

I love the Strata brand but I love my cards graded a tad more. I had a beautiful Ken Griffey Jr. Strata that was raw graded as a 9.5 gem mint but BGS would never slab it as they said it was too thick even though I have seen others exactly like it slabbed AND I have a Pee Wee Reese in my collection that received the full slab treatment, I ended up letting the Ken go and decided even though I loved the Strata brand I would not pursue any more of them as there would be a good chance I could not get them fully graded. That thinking even applied to Kershaw and Trout as they both have Strata cards but I decided to keep this 2014 version on my watch list to see how much it would end up selling for as it books for $200-300 and the asking price on eBay was near the high end at the beginning of 2015.

So there the card sat on my watch list for the the duration of the calendar year with the cost dipping every couple of months till it was $40 under low end of book. Damn, it was starting to become too good of a bargain to pass up but I held firm to not acquiring it. I went to sleep one night and woke up and checked eBay to see what was new and saw that the seller of this card dropped the price once again and this time it became so low I couldn't ignore it anymore. I snagged a Strata autograph after I said I would never do it again but I just couldn't pass up such a bargain. Once the card made it to me I inspected it and if I was to submit it I believe it has a very good chance of earning a 9.5. I might just try my luck once again and submit it and cross my fingers that they slab it. Either way this is another great addition to my Kershaw autograph collection.

Thirteen

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Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps : Corey Seager Base Black Parallel (55/65)

My first 2016 card of the year and it's a biggie as I acquired this on a MAJOR steal on eBay as the seller did not know what the market was going to be for this card. To be fair I did not know what it would be for Seager cards in general in the just released 2016 Topps set and man was the seller wrong as well as I was.

Corey's numbered parallels, like this one, have gone through the rough on eBay and there were 2 auctions that a seller put an obscene low BIN price compared to what other copies ended up selling for. This happened to be one of them. The other for reference was a framed parallel which is numbered out of 16 (which I am still trying to acquire) that a seller had set a BIN price at $45. I was in a meeting and missed out on it as I would have scooped that up in a heartbeat as I had comic money to spend. Other framed copies have been selling in the high $200's. Man I would have loved to pick that one up at that price.

That same day this one popped up as I kept refreshing my eBay feed and the asking price was just $25. I had already seen a few sell for more than that and as of today there are a couple on eBay that are touching the triple digits. With only 65 copies these are being scooped up quickly. The only thing that bothers me about this card is that I can see a white chip on one of the corners so when BGS comes to town in a couple of weeks I will be submitting it for a raw review. I hope it will still earn an overall mint 9 which considering my purchase cost is acceptable but if for some reason it comes back as an 8.5 then I am flipping it back on eBay and try my luck at another black parallel.

Fifty-five

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Sixty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Chrome : Clayton Kershaw Base Sepia Refractor Parallel (42/75)

Now that I am focusing on only a handful of players it makes it easier to search for cards to acquire whether through trade or purchasing. With that said though I know I will never have every card I want as there are just too many in existence but it's always nice to snag one for a deal when I get the opportunity.

There are numerous refractor parallels in Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome et al and any of the numbered ones I would like at some point to acquire them. Trout's cards are pricier but Clayton can be had for much cheaper and this sepia parallel fell into my lap one day as I noticed it on eBay on a BIN auction but the seller was more than willing to work with me on price. Email here, email there and I had the card in hand shortly after.

Card looks better in person and condition wise it looks pristine so I might send it to BGS to get it slabbed.

Forty-Two

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Seventy-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Chrome : Mike Trout Base Purple Refractor Parallel (213/250)

This is a  baseball card my wife will actually "enjoy" that I have added it to my collection for a couple of reasons. One, her love of the color purple and when she sees the color on a card as I bring into the house she loves to claim it as hers and also it depicts a non Dodger and in this case Mike Trout from her favorite team the Angels.

As I have picked up more and more colors from Chrome brands purple is becoming my 3rd favorite color to acquire after black and blue which will always reign supreme in my collecting mind. Even though my goal this off season was to pick up as many graded Trout cards as I could I was/am still on the look out for bargains when it comes to "raw" cards of the young superstar.

This one books for a low of $10 and a high of $25 so when I landed this for less than book on a traditional eBay auction I couldn't be happier. I crossed my fingers that it would come in great condition as I would love to have this in a gem mint case from BGS and once in hand I think it has a good chance to do just that.

Two Hundred and Thirteen

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Two Hundred and Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Finest : Clayton Kershaw 1993 Insert Refractor Parallel (21/25)

I totally forgot that I wanted this card for my collection and thankfully I stumbled upon it before they all disappeared into people's collection as its print run is only 25 for this retro beauty.

Back in 2013, Topps brought back the Finest brand and though I really didn't care much for the release they included this insert commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first Finest release which was and still is a favorite of mine. To think I was 19 when that set came out and now I am collecting retro cards of that set. Boy time flies.

I already have the base card of Kershaw but back in 2013 the refractor copies that I saw were too rich for my blood but now 2 years later the prices have come down and with me only focusing on Kershaw and Trout I might be able to complete this small yet important project. I didn't have a book value to go by as these are too scarce to warrant a price but when all was said and done I think I picked it up at a steal. Though the front might be a tad off center I think there is a good chance this might grade out to a gem mint. Knock on wood. Now to find that Trout refrator

Twenty-One

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Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Draft : Corey Seager Base Chrome BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

There are three separate rainbow projects for Corey Seager that I am trying to complete and the Bowman Chrome Draft one is lagging in 3rd as they just don't come up for sale that often on eBay or any other site I frequent for cards. So when one pops up I better move quickly if I want to secure it.

While this base has no color I still deem it a necessity to have in my collection for the rainbow. This card has minimal book value but it being slabbed in a BGS case made it much easier for me to pull the trigger on this card's BIN auction. Might have been a slight overpay but having it in hand and not worrying if it is mint or not was more important. With that I can check off another card on the project as I inch closer to its completion.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1966 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good/Excellent 4.0

Oh Canada....
Our friends from the north helped me with the sale of this vintage, graded Koufax card from 1966 and with the exchange rate it was had at a bargain.

On a recent search for old, graded Dodger cards I came across this but when it popped up on my screen it showed a price higher than what I was comfortable paying for it. Upon a closer look I saw that the auction originated from Canada and the price I saw was in Canadian dollars not U.S. and once I clicked to see the converted amount I was more than pleased with what I saw.

The card happened to be on a BIN auction and with an assigned book value of $40 for a card in this grade I promptly clicked the button since the cost was more than half off that amount. Another Koufax notch off my belt as I seek to get a base graded card of his from each year between 1955-1966.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps High Tek : Mike Trout Base Base Gold Rainbow Parallel (10/35) BGS Raw Review Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Only 35 copies in the world and already "graded" by BGS as gem mint so you know I just had to have this Trout in my collection. Once again this happened to be an eBay BIN auction with a best offer attached to it so let the negotiations begin.

The seller was/is new to eBay so I wasn't sure what to expect when contacting him with my offer. Long time sellers tend to be more flexible with prices as they look at the long picture but newer sellers or people that don't sell much want to get as much bang as they can when they list their small amount of items. He was prompt in getting back to me but his counter was a tad high for my tastes so it took me a good 3 days to get the price to a point where we both were happy with it.

Card arrived a week later and joined my ever growing stack for the next BGS submission.

Ten

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Thirty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Five Star : Clayton Kershaw Silver Signatures Autograph (33/50)

Silver autograph on a black background of a thick card with future hall of famer Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers on it? Yup, it is as beautiful in person as it is when I typed that first sentence. Yet another Kershaw autograph has been added to the collection and at the rate I am going I might hit 40 by the end of the year. We shall see.

On one of my daily eBay searches for Kershaw autographs I came across this gem of a card on a BIN auction for a very reasonable price. Book has it valued from $40-100 and the price the seller was asking for was right around the low end of book. I put it on my watch list but I was the 9th to do so since the auction went live a day earlier. The reason I didn't just hit the purchase button right then and there was because I wanted to inquire about the card's condition with it being a Five Star which can have fraying issues. I reached out to the seller and hoped to receive an answer quickly so I didn't lose out on it and not 15 minutes later he relieved any concerns I had for the card and I promptly "bought" it and had it in hand a few days later.

Once I had it in front of me I believe it has a very good chance of coming back as a BGS 9.5 as you know I already had that in mind when I bought it. It's now in the stack and waiting for Beckett to come back to town next month.

Thirty-Three

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps High Tek : Mike Trout Drama Tek Performers Insert (36/50)

It took a little more than 2 days of back and forth negotiating with our friends from Taiwan but in the end I was able to secure yet another numbered and limited Trout card and with a book value range of $15-40 it was had at a discount.

With each acquisition of a 2015 Topps High Tek card I appreciate the brand more and more. The 2014 version is still an eyesore in my opinion but the 2015 is a vast improvement. The base cards are fine but the inserts, like this one, are a step above and with a print run of just 50 I had to make my move before they dried up on the market. BIN auctions with best offers are my bread and butter when it comes to eBay purchases and this one was no different. Thankfully the seller was agreeable to working out a deal that worked for both of us. Unlike other Asian transactions this card took awhile to get to me but as long as it makes it I don't really care about transit time as long as the card arrives in good condition which this one did.

My BGS stack is getting bigger and bigger and this one has been added to it. Volume wise the next submission batch might be the biggest yet.

Thirty-Six

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Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps High Tek : Clayton Kershaw Base Home Uniform Variant

It doesn't matter whether it's home or away, Clayton Kershaw is a the best player on the Dodgers and the best pitcher in baseball hands down. This card shows the Dodger great pitching in his home unis and with that I decided to pursue this High Tek card.

I prefer numbered and limited parallel cards but photo variations still hold a place in my collecting heart and this happens to be a type of "photo" variant. The base card in the set has Kershaw in road grays which I have no intention of acquiring or search for but this home whites card is a SP and holds a book value of $25 to $50 and I wanted to own it if I could find it on a deal.

Even though it's a SP they come up enough regularly on eBay that I just had to wait for the right price at the right time. I happened to lose out on one particular card from a seller but a hour later I was sent a 2nd chance offer for my high bid. I usually think that when this happens its not because the high bidder backed out but the seller had multiples or had someone bidding up his card and then decided to sell to next highest bidder which happened to be me. Normally I would pass but since my high bid was less than low book and I had nothing else going on that day I pulled the trigger and had this variant beauty in hand a few days later.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Wal Mart Blue Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

The pursuit of acquiring all the different versions/parallels of the Trout card from the 2011 Topps Update set during the off season continues with another fine addition in the form of this blue parallel. While not numbered this is a limited parallel that could only be found in packs of cards that were sold at Wal-Mart.

I already have the diamond anniversary parallel and still haven't decided if I am going to pursue the cognac parallel (not very eye appealing to me) but the red (not numbered), gold (numbered to 2011), black (numbered to 60) and this blue one have and remain on my want list. The black I will probably never see due to its scarcity which leaves me with the other 3 colors to chase after. This blue was the 1st one to pop up on eBay for a reasonable price. It was on a BIN auction but thankfully the seller had a best offer attached to it as his asking price was too rich for my blood. Sent over a low ball offer and surprise surprise it was rejected. He actually sent over a counter that was reasonable and thankfully when I woke up the next day the card was still available as he sent the offer in the dead of night. I was one of a handful of watchers so I don't know how many other people he was negotiating with but I clicked the button and made it mine and it is now in hand.

Another great Trout pick up for the off season and hoping I can land the gold and red before the start of the 2016 season. I might circle back around to the cognac at some point but right now it is not high on the radar.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014-15 Upper Deck Trilogy : Marian Gaborik Base Autograph

The journey to pick up at least one autograph card of any and every player to suit up in a Kings jersey continues with this Marian pick up which did not go as planned but in the end it went in my favor.

Since Marin hasn't been a King long there are not that many autographs with him in King's gear which made it difficult to lock one down. This Trilogy version caught my eye the 1st time I saw it but each and every time I bid on one I was outbid in the last seconds of the auctions so I had to turn my attention to other less desirable cards. Thankfully I never won those as finally this copy came up for sale from a seller from Canada. Once again people seem to shy away from it since it was an international seller but with my one bid which happen to be the only one on the auction I won my very own Gaborik autograph for the collection. Took awhile but I am happy that I lost out on all those others as this was had for less than any of the other Trilogies that sold.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1954 Topps : Joe Black Base BVG Graded Excellent Mint 6.5

I had no idea what the final cost of this card would be on eBay but it surely was not the amount I ended up forking over for it.

As I try to gobble up as many vintage graded cards at a bargain as I can I am always on the lookout for Dodger players that aren't the most sought out for and Joe Black happens to be in that group. Everyone wants Koufax, Pee Wee, Drysdale et al but I have love for all vintage Dodgers especially ones that are decked in Brooklyn unis.

When this card is in BVG 7 it books for $150 and when its a BVG 6 it comes in at $40. Quite a steep drop in price from one whole grade level to the next. So if you average out the 2 a 6.5 would come in roughly at $95 give or take. If you went with a low end estimate maybe it comes in at $70. Well this card is only .5 from a 7 so I went with the average of $90 give or take so a bargain would be in the $45 range I would assume. Now that was not my price ceiling as I had my hands in other eBay auctions at the time and Joe was not a priority but when I was declared the winner at a little more than $20 I believed I won this on a steal. A nice win for me and with this card's acquisition it is now the oldest (62 years) card I own in my collection.

.5 from a 7 and $$$

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Chrome : Corey Seager Base Green Refractor Parallel

I recently showed off my purchase of the red wave parallel of this 2013 Bowman Chrome card of Corey Seager and I thought with that card now in hand I was only 2 cards short of a full rainbow but upon looking into that matter further I found out I was actually 3 away from completion. Now with this green goody in hand I know I really am only 2 way from rainbow perfection.

I have the green parallel from the Draft set which is why I thought I already had this card but when I went to eBay to find one that would hopefully grade out nicely there were none to be had of the base Chrome so I had to sit and wait for a few weeks for this one to show up. When it did with its 99 cent starting bid I was all over it and was determined to win it at all costs (within reason of course).

A week later I came out on top for the exact amount of $10. Comic codes paid for it and now this card sits in my "to be graded" stack. Getting ever so close to finishing the rainbow.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps High Tek : Clayton Kershaw Base Autograph Clouds Diffractor Parallel (5/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

By the end of this year I hope to have at least 35-40 or so autographs of the best pitcher in baseball aka Clayton Kershaw. As I stated in an earlier Kershaw autograph post I want to someday to make the claim that I own 100 autographs of Kid K and this card's acquisition continues the long journey to that goal.

High Tek is a brand that I do not seek out when I am looking for autographs but this one popped up on one of my graded card searches and for a High Tek card its not that bad looking. The 2015 version is far and away better than the 2014 which was the brands reentry into the hobby.

Strong gem

With a print run of just 25 I expected I would be on the outside looking in when this auction came to a close. Even with it being off season this is Kershaw we are talking about and he is featured on a limited run autograph card that happened to already be graded as gem mint. I put it on my watch list and tracked it for the week. Final day was here and the high price sat at a very reasonable amount but I knew I was going to be busy when the auction was scheduled to end so I put in my bid which was a bit on the lower side than what I normally would bid on a Kershaw autograph but if I was meant to win it I would with that amount. A hour later I was declared the winner for $5 less than my high bid and with that I added yet another Kershaw autograph to the collection.

Five

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1957 Topps : Pee Wee Reese Base BVG Graded Near Mint 7.0

Pee Wee... the little man that could
Pee Wee... Jackie's friend and teammate
Pee Wee... Dodger great and Hall of Fame member
Pee Wee ... Part of the Penguin's graded vintage collection...finally

I have always admired Pee Wee and his career so much so that even with my liquidation of non core four players that I collect now I decided to keep my 1 of 1 Pee Wee autograph. That piece of history is a prized part of my collection and I don't see it ever leaving my possession (knock on wood). I knew at some point with my new focus on vintage graded cards I would land a Mr. Reese card and I finally did and at a bargain IMO and with the 7 grade attached to it this card is now my highest graded vintage card to date.

When I 1st came across this card on the bay I put it on my watch list but wasn't holding my breath on actually winning the card at anything that I was comfortable with. Surprisingly on the last day there was only 1 bid on it. Unsurprisingly 6 more bids were put on it in the final hour and once again surprisingly I ended up with the top bid and with it I now have this nice vintage Pee Wee in Brooklyn gear to pare up with my Pee Wee autograph.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin