Card(s) of the Day - 2010 Allen and Ginger : Max Scherzer Mini Frame Autograph Plus Some Relic Cards

I've been wanting and searching for an autograph of Tiger (edit: now he is a National, shows you how long ago I wrote this up) pitcher Max Scherzer to add to the collection and I narrowed my focus to two brands, Allen and Ginter and Five Star. Never could find the right card at the right price till now and not only did I score the autograph but received some bonus relic cards as well.

Though I am no longer looking for relic/patch cards (exception being if there is an autograph on the card as well) I will acquire them with open arms if they are free or throw ins. That basically was the case with this transaction.

I finally found a card that was in my price range. Looking further into the auction I noticed that there were 3 relic cards also included in the package. The title of the auction was a tad mislabeled so that might have been a reason why there wasn't much traffic on it so with that I thought I would have a pretty good chance at the cards. A week later I did indeed win the card I really wanted and then some spares. All for a fraction of book "value". The autograph card is mine but all the relics are available for trade.

2014 Allen and Ginter Green Relic

Twins from 2013 Allen and Ginter

Have a great and blessed day and thank you for reading.

-Penguin

BGS Result Update Number Five - 2010 Allen and Ginter : Andrew McCutchen Mini Frame Autograph Now Graded Mint 9.0

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.

Full Submission Result and Thoughts :

Going in I knew that this might not grade out to a gem mint even though I still held out hope it would. I knew that one corner seemed a tad damaged but I crossed my fingers that it would come back with 9 and everything else came in with a 9.5. Well the results came in and though the latter happened the former did not.

The card did indeed earn 3 9.5's which I had hope/thought it would but the corner sub grade came in at an 8.5 which drove the overall grade down to a plain old overall mint 9. I may or may not try a re grade on this to see if I could get that corner to bump up that extra .5 but with my past history on that technique I definitely will only do it with the card still in the case and not by cracking it open and resubmitting. It's still a great looking card, gem mint or not.

Not a gem but still a nice 9

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 - 2010 Allen and Ginter : Andrew McCutchen Mini Frame Autograph

Jealousy is a bitch but I was finally able to nip it the bud a bit with me finally acquiring this card.

Andrew falls under the reacquired autograph banner as well as I had a signed ball from him but sold it in last year's purge so for that whole time he was on my radar to pick up once again. I kept getting salt poured into my autograph wound as I saw this particular card showcased on various blogs as their writers had acquired it. I was green with envy as I wanted my own copy but never could pick it up at a decent price. Beckett has it valued at $50 and most sales have been in the high 30's and some over $43. That's what happens when you are a former MVP. I continued to hold out and if finally paid off.

Every time I saw this card for sale on eBay it either had a BIN for over $40 or at the end of a traditional auction it exceeded my price ceiling so when I saw this one night on a BIN for a tad over $30 and with comic code money in hand I jumped all over it and within a week had my very own mini frame autograph of McCutchen to call my own. It was a long time coming but the wait is finally over. Card is in great condition and I may or may not get it graded but if I do it will only happen if I have a big stack to submit.

Thank you for reading and may you have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2010 Allen and Ginter : Matt Kemp Mini Frame Autograph

I am doing the mini project of Clayton Kershaw autograph mini frames from Allen and Ginter but I realized that I never collected all of them for Matt Kemp. D'oh. Need to fix that mistake and even though Matt is had a better year than the past two his demand is still near an all time low in the hobby scene. Deals can and are still made regularly on eBay.

I need two different years of Kemp and this was the first one that I found that started at a reasonable price. Typical 7 day auction and on the last day there were 7 bids on it when I put mine in which became the top one which scored me the card. The price? A measly $8+ delivered for yet another Kemp autograph for my collection.

Hate that his value has really soured on the market but love the deals I am getting while it is there. Another project inches closer to it's end.

BGS Submission Update Seventeen - 2010 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph Now Graded and Slabbed a Gem Mint 9.5

Original Submission Post
Beckett Book Value : $80

Second to last post and spoiler alert they are of the same player. THE best pitcher in baseball today. One Mr. Clayton Kershaw.

When I did up the original post I had all my Kershaws near the bottom of the pile. I was expecting very little and when it came to the 2012 Museum card that's exactly what I got. Allen and Ginter cards have always been a mixed bag for me as sometimes I think one should grade out high and it doesn't and then one that will barely and hopefully make a mint 9 comes back as gem mint. These have always been my Achilles heel when it comes to pre-submssion grading.

While I saw nothing wrong with the card I still tempered my expectations. As I've stated before I want all my Kershaw autograph cards to come back as at least mint 9's (they don't) and gem mints are just pleasant surprises. Well this came back as a pleasant surprise as it earned the coveted gem mint status with one sub grade of 10. Autograph was perfect as well and I now have another gem mint Kershaw card to call my own.

Only thing wrong with this card is its border which is punk ass orange.

Card of the Day - 2010 Allen and Ginter : Clayton Kershaw Mini Frame Autograph

With two in hand I still needed to get my hands on the remaining two mini frame Kershaw autographs that exist. 2009 and 2010 are the two years that I am missing and like the other two that I already have they don't show up that often on eBay but when they do there is a lot of action on them and I only expect more as Kershaw plows down the opposition every time he takes the mound.

The 2010 is only slightly easier to find than the 2009 one or at least that is the way it seems considering how many times I've seen each on the bay.The 2010 is often on a buy it now auction with a high price attached to it as sellers are trying to maximize on Kershaw's year. Never going to bite on those but this one came up one day on a traditional auction and I zeroed in on it.

Book is still at $60 at the time of auction and this post but I am always looking for a deal and knew I wasn't going over a certain amount even though it would be no money out of pocket ( relic sales ). Last day of the auction came and there were 14 different bids on it as I put mine in with a few seconds left and then bid number 16 came in with one second left but all that did was push my winning price up a little more. I was still the winner and now own 3 of the 4 mini frame autographs of Kershaw from the Allen Ginter brand.

As per the norm I set it aside when it came in as I will be submitting it to BGS for grading. I expect a mint 9 with an outside chance of gem mint as the corners are not super sharp and one of the edges is just not perfect.