BGS Result Update Number One - 2009 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph Now Graded Near Mint 8.5

. . .  and here we go.

I just received my cards back from BGS and will now post the results and my thoughts on the grade of all 18 that I submitted. I will do one every other day so it will take a little over a month to get through them all. As always I will cut and past my original thoughts and photos from the previous posts for reference. With that we start off with a major disappointment.

2009 Allen and Ginter Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph

Now I am just being down right greedy. I already have one of these Kershaws in a gem mint grade so why submit another? Why because 2 is better than 1. Ha Ha. Unlike the McCutchen mini this one seems to be devoid of corner issues so I hope to earn my 2nd gem mint 2009 A/G mini of Kershaw for the collection. Nothing like a little trade bait for the future as well.

Final Submission Result and Thoughts :

I was being greedy as stated in the above paragraph and it bit me in the ass. I picked this up on a major discount and wanted to pare it with my other already graded gem mint of this exact card so I would have Kershaw brothers. Well the infamous Allen and Ginter curse hit me again and with it I have cracked this card open and will be selling it on the bay. Thankfully what I originally paid for is about $30-$40 less than what it is going for now so in the end no harm no foul.

I could have lived with a mint 9.0 grade but another near mint 8.5 is not going to "pollute" my collection. I have a 2012 Allen and Ginter mini frame of Kershaw that also came back an 8.5 as it received an 8 on centering. Well same thing happened here and like that 2012 if it would have been a minimum 8.5 I would have earned an overall mint as the other sub grades were gem mint. Ugh once again. 

3 9.5's and still a measly overall near mint grade

Thankfully I already have one of these 2009's in gem mint form so this one is going bye bye. Oh well, can't win them all. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

6 More Cards In Addition To All Of The Raw Reviewed Cards Submitted To BGS On March 7th, 2015

The past 3 weeks I have posted my results from the raw grading event that was held in my area on March 7th. Monday through Friday for 15 days those results were posted but on the weekends between those days you may have noticed I blogged about 6 other cards. Well the reason I did those at that time was because I included them in the submission batch that went to Beckett with all the raw graded cards. The only difference was that I bypassed the raw grade and went straight for the full grade review. So this post is a recap of those 6 and per the norm my thoughts on which will grade out to gem mint from least to best chance.

2013 Topps Museum Dual Autograph of Al Kaline / Prince Fielder

In hindsight I probably shouldn't have submitted this for grading since it was such a bargain I couldn't resist considering the "rarity" of the card. I think Prince is going to have bonce back year and this is a great card with a Tiger HOF as well. Even with that I look back and think that I know the corners are not the best and probably won't get better than a 9. Hopefully everything holds up enough to get an overall 9 but the idea of another limited numbered gem mint card for the collection is pretty much gone.

2010 Allen and Ginter McCutchen Mini Frame Autograph

Well with the iffy card of the batch out of the way we come to the couple that are borderline in the thinking of gem mint status but leaning more than not. This will probably be my one and only McCutchen autograph in my collection so it would be nice if it would come back with a gold banner. I don't see anything wrong with it other than one corner slightly not sharper but its not bent so my thinking is if anything the corner sub grade gets a 9.

2009 Allen and Ginter Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph

Now I am just being down right greedy. I already have one of these Kershaws in a gem mint grade so why submit another? Why because 2 is better than 1. Ha Ha. Unlike the McCutchen mini this one seems to be devoid of corner issues so I hope to earn my 2nd gem mint 2009 A/G mini of Kershaw for the collection. Nothing like a little trade bait for the future as well.

2015 Topps Silver Frame Kershaw

It is hard to see how any metal framed cards get anything less than a gem mint grade but I have seen them. I (knock on wood this one won't be the case) have not had that issue and hope it does not start here even though I don't think it will. The card is clean and edges and corners are "sharp" so a nice limited Kershaw gem mint card would be nice here.

2013 Bowman Chrome Corey Seager Green Parallel

Yeah, so now we come to the "uh, duh" cards of the batch which are also the last of said batch. These were acquired pre-graded as gem mint and so that is what I expect back (the uh, duh comment once again) and the pursuit of mint/gem mint rookie cards of Seager continues.

2014 Topps High Tek Puig Autograph

Just like Seager, uh duh.

So that is it. 6 more cards were added to the BGS submission pile and when I get the results later this week and the actual cards back next week it will be interesting to see the sub grades from all the cards that either gem minted or pristined.  

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2009 Allen and Ginger : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph...Part Two

There are not many times where I will go out and acquire the same exact card of one I already have in my possession. Just like Kershaw is an exception to many rules in baseball, he also is an exception to the duplicate copies rule in my collection as well.

I already acquired this card back in the beginning of October and even though that copy cost me nothing thanks to eBay bucks I can't sneeze at the deal I picked this one up for hence why I acquired a second copy for my collection. If this or any card wasn't an autograph I wouldn't have entertained the idea of a second one for the collection but this being Kershaw, an on card autograph and from one of my favorite sets I couldn't pass it up.

Even though I already have a copy of this card I kept this particular one on my watch list. The seller had it on a BIN auction for $70 with no best offer option. Book for this card is currently $80 but eBay sales have been anywhere from $50-65ish the past few months. A few days after he won his MVP award I noticed on my watch list that the seller put a discount on all his cards which also included this one. What was the percentage you ask? Over 50%. WHAT? He had this card for sale at less than $30. I couldn't believe that it was still available considering all the awards he just won. I clicked on the auction to see if it was still there to purchase and it was and I hastily clicked on the button to commit to the sale and sent the funds over. Didn't know what to expect when the card arrived. Would it be damaged hence the low price? No, it wasn't and I couldn't be happier.

As stated in my past BGS submission posts involving my other copy of this card it came back a gem mint 9.5. I will be submitting this one as well and wouldn't it be just grand if I had dual gem mints of this great card? Oh happy day for the Penguin.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.
-Penguin

BGS Submission Update Eighteen - 2009 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph Now Graded and Slabbed a Gem Mint 9.5

Original Submission Post
Beckett Book Value : $80

What better way to finish off the submission posts than to go back to back with Kershaw autographs that also happen to be both Allen and Ginter cards.

I had low expectations for both cards which made the returns that much sweeter. Two days ago I showed off the 2010 A&G and how it earned a gem mint grade and now its the 2009's version that gets its time in the spotlight and claims the number one slot from the 18 card submission batch. What does this card have over the 2010 card? First and foremost the border is not orange. Hate that color. Secondly I just love that the glove is prominent in the photo.

The grades were almost identical with this one not having a 10 in the sub grades like the 2010 version. I have to go over my cards again but I believe this is my 6th gem mint autograph card of Clayton and I can't wait to add another one whenever I get a chance.

Preparing to mow down some batter

... and there we have it. 18 cards shown over the past 36 days. At the present moment I do not have a single card left in my collection that I would like to get graded so it will be awhile till I do another submission. Thank you to everyone that checked in every other day to see what the results were for all the cards. Thank you in general for reading the blog and may you and all your loved ones have a blessed day.

Yet ANOTHER Trade with Fellow Blogger, Alex of Chavez Ravining

With trade number 5 just recently completed with Alex I was already going through his trade bait list to see if I could acquire some more cards for another trade. I found a few to my liking and it was time to reach out once again to Alex to see if he would part with them.

With my focus back to black and blue parallels from chrome brands and autographs in general I have most of my cards that don't fall into those two categories on my trade bait list (take a gander and maybe we can do a trade) so I am looking to move those to acquire my other needs. Looked at Alex's stuff and though he denied me on a couple (actually expected that but I had to try anyways) I was able to secure 3 with no issue with a 4th one needing a little arm twisting.

I ended up sending him 7 cards that he would accept and a few other toss ins and these are the ones I received in return.

2008 Bowman Sterling autograph of former Dodger Josh Lindblom. Even though this is a sticker autograph it still has higher value to me rather than the non autograph cards I gave Alex. I liked Josh when he played for the Dodgers. He was a decent pitcher and even a better person off the field as he contributed to the community.

2013 Bowman Sterling autograph of Dodger prospect Chris Anderson. Even though I have a couple of autographs from Chris there is no harm in picking up another. This being an on card autograph makes all that much better. He may or may not make an impact in the majors but he has always denied me an autograph when I have attended games in Rancho Cucamonga so hopefully this is not a trend he will continue if and when he makes it to the majors.

943 of 999

2011 Tier One autograph of current Dodger second baseman Dee Gordon. Though I don't really "need" another autograph of Dee as I have a couple already, I wasn't going to pass up on an opportunity to add one if I could and this card has a great pose of Dee accompanied with an on card signature.

2009 Allen and Ginger Mini Frame autograph of former Dodger Blake DeWitt. There are a few reasons why I wanted this card and this was the one that Alex didn't want to let go of but in the end he did thankfully. Firstly I haven't been able to find an autograph of Blake since I sold the signed ball of his during the ball purge. While not at the top of the list to reacquire he was still a priority. Secondly, Blake was the first autograph I got when I started going back to in store appearances way back 2008 when he burst onto the scene. He was a class act that day and I remember that when players are like that. And thirdly its an Allen and Ginter mini frame which are just nice in general.

4 more cards from Alex and another trade is complete. Thank you as always and with number 6 done I'm already looking forward to number 7.

Card of the Day - 2009 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph AND eBay Bucks Quarterly Purchase

It is always nice to complete a project no matter how big or small but it's really nice when it involves the best pitcher in baseball and its an autograph project.

Allen and Ginter has released four autographs of Kershaw through the years (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014) and so far I have gotten my hands on 3 of the 4 but I was still on the lookout for the last one which is the 2009 version. Not many of these seem to show up on the bay but one day this on did and it happened to be late September which meant the eBay quarter was coming to a close at the end of the month. That meant I would have some eBay bucks to play with in early October. Well it was once again time to talk to a seller to see if he/she would allow me to pay a little later than the 3 day window they expected so I could use my bucks and not pay anything out of pocket. Thankfully as with all previous sellers they were receptive to my request and they said no problem. Now I just had to win the card.

A decent amount of people had already bid on the card and the watch list was growing by the day but considering what I knew I  had to work with money wise I had a lot of leeway. Final day of the auction was here and the price was still reasonable ($40ish) so I knew I had a chance of winning it. Final minute and I put in my bid at a much higher price than normal but it paid off as I won the card. Waited a week to pay the seller and within a week of that I had my final piece of my Allen and Ginter autograph Kershaw set.

As with all my Kershaw autographs this one was already ear marked for grading. Everything looks good but A & G is the one brand I always have an issue with pre-grading. I can't see it getting anything less than a gem mint 9 but it could conceivably get a gem mint as I don't "see" any flaws. We shall see.

No matter what I picked up a great autograph of Kershaw and it cost me nothing. You just can't beat that.