Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Cognac Diamond Anniversary Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

During the 2015 off season I made it a goal of mine to pick up as many graded Trout rookie cards I could get and I ended up with a lot. The 2016 off season was reserved for Corey Seager but there was 1 last colored parallel of Trout I was unable to snag in 2015 that bugged me. I fixed that during this past off season.

The Topps Update is THE rookie card to get for Trout and I ended up getting the base, diamond, gold, blue and red during the 2015 off season but I could never land the Cognac parallel at a decent price. I had a feeling if I didn't get now it might be very hard to come by in the upcoming seasons so I kept my eye out for a copy and I missed out on quite a few but I finally was able to lock this particular one down at no hassle.

Now that I am not spending much out of pocket I had to figure out what to unload to acquire this for my project and after much thought I ended up selling off some non rookie parallels of Trout which were easy to get top dollar for and I ended up with this one for my collection. No regrets in this decision as my rainbow is complete (minus the impossible black one) and I am a happy camper.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Gold Parallel (878/2011) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Selling from surplus to acquire a need. I feel like the Dodgers as I finally landed this beautiful gold parallel of superstar Mike Trout.

During the 2015 off season my goal was to acquire graded rookie cards of Mike Trout from the Topps Update set and I did quite well as I picked up the base, diamond, blue and the hard to get red versions. The 2 left that I needed (other than the black which I don't ever see me getting) were the gold and cognac and my "rainbow" from this set would be complete. I wanted to wait for the right time which meant at the lowest price and an eBucks promotion. Well this 2016 off season presented that to me when this card popped up.

I asked friends on Twitter and Instagram which would they prefer in their collection, this or graded photo variations, and the answer was unanimous . Gold by a land side. I had a few Trout gem mint photo variations and while I like them I really love this gold one. I knew in my heart what I was going to do but wanted to see what others thought and we all had the same thought process. While variations are fun and unique gem mint rookies of a future Hall of Fame member is better.

Locked in this card which was on a BIN auction from a seller from Canada (probably another reason why price was reasonable) and promptly sold the variations to cover the cost. Now to finish off the rainbow with a cognac.

Eight Hundred and Seventy-Eight

of

Two Thousand and Eleven

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

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

Even though the post will go "live" sometime during the baseball season this card was acquired at the end of March aka the end of the "off season" and with it I accomplished my goal of getting most of the Trout rainbow from the 2011 Topps Update set.

I am surprised that I picked up most of the colors and even more surprised that this was the last one as it is the base one aka least valuable one. I have in hand the red, blue, diamond and now this base. That is 4 cards with only the cognac parallel missing but that was last on my list anyways. I never expected to pick up the red as that is in very high demand and the black is basically unattainable with its scant print run of 60. So for the time being it looks like I am done as I have other needs to fill and the cognac one will have to wait.

This base card has been going up and up in price so color me surprised when this popped up on a search and it was a BIN auction with an asking price of $20 less than what every other copy had been selling for. Didn't think twice and locked it in and had it in hand a week later. Looks great next to the other colors and I can consider the off season a success.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Target Red Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Oh....my....!!!

As we near(ed) the 2016 baseball season (at the time of this write up) I thought I was done with picking up graded Trout cards from the 2011 Bowman Chrome and/or Topps Update sets. Over the past 5 months I was able to get my hands on most that were on my checklist but I still had a few biggies left to get and was resigned to the fact that I would not get them all before the new season started. I thought I did quite well and was happy with what I was able to pick up and between the 2 sets I had a total of 5 cards left I wanted to acquire. Well that number is now down to 4 with this big acquisition on what I believed was going to be the hardest one to find.

Unlike the Bowman Chrome blue parallel that I am still trying to find this red parallel from the Topps Update set is not numbered but it seems to be more rare and considering it was only available at Target and it is a paper card (unlike the thicker chrome stock) which makes it more condition sensitive, I thought I would never be able to land a BGS 9.5 anytime soon. Guess you can never say never.

There have only been a handful of raw version of this to pop up on eBay and 1 actually said it was damaged so I had no interest in those. Graded copies are even more rare and doing a quick check on Beckett there are only 11 9.5's of this card. Small population indeed. A seller put this up on eBay (later I found out she had 2 which means she almost had 20% of the total population of this graded card) and it went unsold for a couple of weeks even though it had double digit watchers. I was actually surprised. She finally relisted it with a best offer option and I sent over an offer for less than what a raw one went for. Wasn't surprised she rejected it but was happy she sent over an offer that was pretty reasonable. I decided to try to nickel and dime her a little and sent over another offer and stated that if she would take it I would pay right then and there. She accepted and with the final cost being only slightly over the raw cards that had previously sold I say I came out pretty good.

Of all the non autograph rookie cards this is one of the nicer Trout cards to have and think it is a pretty good investment piece. Can't believe I picked this up before the season started but happy I did. I plan to revisit this card for a price check in October and I bet it will have gone up in value as I predict Mike is going to put up a monster year in 2016.

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 - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Diamond Anniversary Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

For this year's off season I wanted to secure a few key Trout cards when the market would be softer before heating up once February/March rolls back around. I already picked up a pristine refractor from the 2011 Bowman Chrome release so now I turned my eyes over to the Topps Update release from the same year but even though I (still) want the base card I really wanted this diamond parallel but the trick was to secure it on a deal or not at all.

Unlike most current players Trout's card prices don't dive too much during the off season so it gets tricky trying to secure a deal. I have seen multiple copies of this card sell before on eBay but I wasn't ready to jump into the fray until now. This one popped up as a BIN auction but no best offer option was attached to it. eBay was running a promotion where you earned 4x eBay bucks than you normally would for a purchase but the BIN price was too high to my liking. I had funds in hand and wanted to add this to my collection so I contacted the seller via email and asked if he would lower it to a price that I was comfortable with. Didn't hear back from him till literally an hour was left in the eBay bucks promotion but thankfully he agreed to my offer and with that I sent over the necessary funds and at the same time earned an extra $20 to use when the current quarter ends.

Though this card is not numbered it is very desirable in the aftermarket and luckily I was able to lock one down at a bargain before it rises once again which I think it will during and after the 2016 season.

Sparkly and golden

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin