Trade with Twitter Friend Kyle : 2013 Bowman Sterling Julio Urias Base Autograph and 2013 Topps Five Star Jim Palmer Base Autograph (170/333)

It's been awhile since I have done a trade (too long for my tastes) but I was finally able to pull the trigger on one with a Twitter friend who I have done business with before, Kyle.

I had a Bowman Inception Corey Seager autograph that I was not happy with as it came back from BGS with an unsatisfactory grade in my eyes and I promptly put it up on eBay to sell to acquire another card. Kyle happen to see it and asked if I was willing to trade it to him and since we have a past trade history I knew he was trustworthy and I'd rather deal without all the eBay charges. Took it off the site and Kyle offered me 3 cards to choose from. I don't remember what the one I turned down was but these are the two I chose for the Seager.

First up is this 2013 Bowman Sterling Julio Urias autograph. I already have another copy of this card in BGS 9.5 form and decided I would like another one for trade bait or just to hoard. Once in hand the card looks to be in really good condition and I might submit it to BGS at their next raw grading event to see if I could earn yet another gem for the collection.

I think Seager has the higher ceiling than Urias but Julio should still have a very good career and I don't think I can go wrong with extra Julio autographs.

While Julio is the future this card is from the past.

One Seventy

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Three Thirty Three

Jim Palmer is a hall of fame member who played his whole career for the Baltimore Orioles and has 3 World Series rings to his name. Jim was always on my "to acquire" list and even though I knew he was represented in the Five Star brand I never pulled the trigger on an auction as something was always more pressing. When Kyle offered this one in addition to the Julio I couldn't resist on finally owning a Palmer autograph.

Another easy transaction with Kyle and I thank him once again for reaching out and initiating this trade as I think we both came out of it happy with the results. Till the next one.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Joc Pederson Base Autograph

I must have done something right recently as karma favored me on acquiring this card.

I recently purchased an autograph Dodger card on the bay and when it arrived the card was taped to another card in their semi rigid holders. Nothing new as that is standard practice. I flipped it over to detach the two cards and saw that the other card was this one. Again, nothing new since I bought a Dodger card the seller probably thought I would enjoy another Dodger as well. I then noticed (the back of the card was showing) that it was a Bowman Sterling card. Well, Sterling cards are only autograph cards. I thought to myself, no way did the seller throw in an autograph card that books at $25 and constantly sells on eBay for $12-$15. Well I was wrong as the seller did just that. So on top of my purchased Dodger autograph card I received an additional autograph card of one of the top 3 Dodger prospects.

I was never going to go out and buy this card for my collection as I already have my crown jewel of Joc autograph cards and of the 3 top prospects he is number 3 in my like list. Nonetheless I will gladly take a free card any day of the week. Thank you again to the seller for including this in the package.

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Julio Urias Base Autograph BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2 for 1

That was my cost to acquire this Julio autograph card in gem mint form.

For long time readers of this blog you might recognize that I already have this exact same card BUT it earned a 9 on autograph. Irritating to say the least. Well I sold that card and ended up with another one of Julio from the Bowman Inception brand and that ended up being graded a gem mint. Not too shabby.

I still had 2 of these cards in raw (ungraded) form with one I was debating on getting graded and trying my luck again to get a gem mint grade. Well I decided to see what was on eBay and found this card on a BIN auction with a negotiated price to my liking. Well, I had one day to sell my two ungraded cards for roughly the same amount as the negotiated price for the graded one so it would be an even swap.

Thankfully 24 hours later I was able to do just that as the two cards sold and I sent the monies earned from that auction to the seller of this one so I could finally have my own Bowman Sterling Urias autograph card in gem mint condition.

I know some people would never do this transaction as they would prefer to have two autograph cards than one even though that one happens to be gem mint but I am in love with these graded cards and in the long run I rather have that one than one that may or may not grade out to the same grade and the other I knew would not.

Card of the Day - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Tom Windle Base Autograph

Was tired of looking at all the new and pricier cards so I thought I would venture back into the pool and look at cheap autographs that I either missed the first go around or just thought they were overpriced at the time. I came up with a Windle card.

When Bowman Sterling came out I was on the look out for the only licensed card of Julio Urias. Chris Anderson and Tom Windle are also included but since I acquired Chris on a Bowman Black card I only "needed" Windle and that was only if it could be had at a cheap price point. Months ago it was going for north of $5 and sometimes touching $10 so I wanted no part of that action. The day I saw this one prices had come down dramatically and I was able to pick this one up on a buy it now auction for a measly $2 delivered. Once again, patience is a virtue.

Card(s) of the Day - 2014 Bowman Inception : Julio Urias Base Autograph Blue Parallel ( 16 / 75 ) and 2013 Bowman Sterling Base Autograph

The third of 3 Bowman Inception blue parallels is finally in hand and with it came a bonus card.

Urias was/is the big name on the Dodger front from this year's issue of Inception and he was the last one I needed to acquire but each time I tried to buy this card I was out bid at the last moment. There are only 75 copies in existence and with a $40 book value the demand is high and copies are limited.

Well I had a 2013 Bowman Sterling card of Urias that I got graded as recapped HERE but it earned a disappointing mint 9 on the autograph and even though the overall grade was gem mint it still bothered me. Well I saw this auction for this Bowman Inception card and though I wanted/needed it the auction had another card that drew my interest and made me want to win this auction even more.

16 of 75

If I could be the high bidder ( which I was obviously ) I would not only win the coveted Inception card but I would also win this other card :

That's right, another Sterling autograph card. My thinking was if I could sell my "disappointing" Urias graded card that would help if not pay for most of this auction. I ended up selling said Sterling card the day before the 2 card Urias auction was to end and with known amount of funds that I had access to I knew what my ceiling would be. Thankfully the auction did not get too close to it and I came out the winner for both cards.

The Inception card would probably grade out to a 9 with an outside chance of a 9.5 ( going to submit it either way ) and the new Sterling card has a flawless autograph ( no 9 here ) but the card itself is like the Inception one and will for sure grade out a 9 with an outside chance at gem mint. Still debating if I am going to try my luck again with BGS on the Sterling card.

Swap out one Urias autograph card for two. A win any day of the week.

Cashing In With Alex Of Chavez Ravining

Don't remember when Alex did a post (I'm too lazy to go through his archives) on his excess inventory of autograph cards and that they could be had via trade or if you had any Chavez Points aka his blog's version of currency. Well, well, well...

I didn't have anything of note for trade and normally I wouldn't have gone after the cards BUT I had a massive amount of Chavez points from a trade we had done earlier. I was on top of the leader board with a total way over 1000 points. Well I never knew what I was going to do with them but when he did the post stating that people could use Chavez points to acquire these autographs I thought to myself why not.

Most of the players are fringe players and none fill any of my set needs but I love autograph cards and my thinking is I can use them for trade or even pay it forward on some contest I do. Be kind of funny if Alex wins his card(s) back.

I sent Alex a note I would take any and all that were still left as one other blogger had put a bid in for a few. After that was done I took the rest which was a total of 15. Here are the cards :

Topps Chrome of Adam Eaton and Kyle Gibson. Great condition on the cards and would be candidates for grading if they were Dodgers or big stars. I turned one of Alex's Puig cards into a nice BGS gem mint in the past so I know the good karma would be there.

A foursome of Bowman Sterling.
Roman Quinn, Austin Wilson and Cord Sandberg with some nice on card autographs. But why is Brad Miller a sticker variety? On a "premium" brand I would expect more from Bowman.

Jesse Winker, Andrew Mitchell and Erich Weiss in America's colors the good old red, white and blue. Nice simple Topps cards with on card autographs.

Jaye Chapman and Tony Campana.
Two players I know nothing about and two cards I would never go after under normal circumstances.
Non licensed and sticker autographs.

Another sticker and non licensed card in the form of Derrick Robinson and 2009 Upper Deck card of Alberto Gonzalez.

And to finish the batch up we have a Bowman Inception on card autograph of Daniel Corcino and a Bowman Chrome of Shawon Dunston Jr.

15 autographs
Many Chavez Points
No cash.
How can I not love this transaction?

Thank you again to Alex for first having a point system that I was able to use and also for putting these cards up for trade. If anyone is interested in these cards for trade feel free to contact me. I am still looking for 2014 Topps of Dodgers and I think that would be fair a for an autograph or 2.

BGS Submission Update Two - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Julio Urias Base Autograph Now Graded and Slabbed a Gem Mint 9.5

The second of 6 BGS submission results has Julio here coming in second worst. Considering I thought it would be the worst of the 6 I guess I should be happy it wasn't at the bottom of pile. I am and I'm not.

As stated in the submission post I expected this to be the one card that I expected not to come back gem mint but was surprised and happy that it did. Of course if this card is shown this early in the week you know I had to have some issue with it. As with yesterday's post involving Joc Pederson, Julio also came back with a mint grade of 9 on the autograph. That is now 4 autograph cards in the last two batches to come back with that grade. WTH BGS? The only reason I am not as disappointed with this outcome as I was with the Joc card is that I expected this one to grade out as a mint which means it was better than I thought it was which is always a plus and I really really really wanted the Joc card to be gem mint all around. 

Well I guess I can always submit Julio's twin here and see what I get but I probably will restrain myself from doing that.

Card(s) of the Day - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Julio Urias Base Autographs

I am getting old.

I never thought I would be trying over and over to acquire an autograph of a 17 year old.
And here I am now the proud owner of not one but two of Julio Urias.

Julio has gone from unknown to a Top 50/100 prospect in baseball. He is so new that he was only featured in one product prior to this year's Bowman set and it was only in autograph form. I had no intention of acquiring cards from the Bowman Sterling set but when I found out Julio would be included I had to get my hands on his cards. Easier said than done.

I lost out on at least 10 auctions as I just wouldn't pull the trigger on what I perceived as high priced for a base card. Book has the value at $40. It had to be reasonable. The right auction never came so I changed my mindset and went after a 2 card auction as they were plenty of them to chose from. Only lost out on one auction before I won these two in another.

Not sure what I will doing with the other as I only need one. Trade, sell, hold on, we shall see.

Duo Julio

BGS Raw Grade Update 1 - 2013 Bowman Sterling : Yasiel Puig Now Slabbed a Gem Mint 9.5

Last month I went to a BGS raw grading event at South Bay cards and came away ecstatic with the results. I ended up with 4 out of 5 9.5 gem mint cards. Considering I knew the other one I submitted would not be a gem mint I will chalk this up as a 4 for 4 transaction. The one thing that you don't know with the raw grade is the actual sub grades that make up the final grade. Now with them back I can see how close or how far I was from a 9 or a possible 10.

One a day posts for the rest of the week with the surprising and biggest card on Friday to end off the week.

First up is the 2013 Bowman Sterling Puig card. When I first submitted the card I felt out of all of them it was the surest to receive a gem mint grade. It received the gem mint grade but I was a tad surprised on the corners grade. Everything received a 9.5 ( with edges getting a 10 ) but the corners only received a 9. Corners looked crisp to me but I guess not crisp enough. But in the end I still got my gem mint grade so no harm was done.

1 of only 4 in the world at this time.

Result Number Two ( 2013 Bowman Sterling Yasiel Puig Refractor Parallel ) From Beckett Raw Grade Event On March 8, 2014

The second of five posts regarding my BGS results from this past Saturday and it only gets better from here on out.

I obtained this great looking card from my buddy Alex up north. Alex runs a great blog and if you get some time you should take a look at it HERE . Great reading.

Once the card arrived I knew it was a candidate for grading. It looked great in my hand and I believed it would at least grade out to a gem mint 9.5 with an outside chance of a pristine grade of 10. Before I turned it  in for grading I looked online to see what the population was for the card.

Fourth line down shows that there have only been 3 copies submitted for grading and each came back a gem mint 9.5. I wanted to join this exclusive club. This was the one card of the group of five I was confident would get the grade I wanted and expected. The result :

I love that I still have a good eye for grading. Not too old yet. Card came back as a gem mint and I obviously chose to send it to Dallas for it to be slabbed. I am curious to see the sub grades on it to see how close it was to a 10 if it was at all.

Thank you again to Alex for the card. This card is now number 4 in my graded Puig collection.

Trade with Fellow Blogger : Chavez Ravining ( Trade Number Three )

It's been awhile and in my opinion way too long but Alex of Chavez Ravining and I finally completed our third trade. This time Alex approached me about a signed ball he was thinking about acquiring from another blogger. It was the right time to have inquired. Again if you don't know I am going away from the signed ball collecting and focusing on cards and photos. Alex inquired about the value of a Dee Gordon ball as he was in the process of doing a trade with the other blogger. I informed him what I thought was fair market value but I sidestepped the other blogger and offered my Dee ball and this trade evolved from there. Alex will be posting what I gave him over the weekend but here is what he sent me.

First up were throw ins by Alex. These three ( Kemp, Young and Ryu ) are from the just released 2014 Donruss set which I had no intention of going after but I do like how the design is clean and simple yet still nice. I kind of remember from Alex's post that he had some issue with the Young card. Will have to look that up again. Thank you for the bonus cards.

Next up is this Topps Chrome Update card of Ryu from the 2013 set. Value wise is couple dollars but I do love our Korean pitcher and I did not have this card and wanted to add it to my collection so I was sure to ask for it in the trade.

I can never have enough Kemp or Kershaw cards and when I saw this one I hoped that Alex would be willing to part with it. I have to look but I think this is my first non auto relic card I have of Kid K. Very rainbowy of a card. Looks great next to all my other CK ones.

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This last one was the main target for me for the trade. Puig may or may not pan out in the long run but as a Dodger I try to acquire him whenever I can. The current problem is that his card prices can be quite high on certain cards. 

Bowman Sterling was one brand I was not going to collect but I noticed this gem in Alex's inventory and inquired on its availability. Thankfully it was available and I was able to add it to the trade. Card came in a nice plastic holder ( thank you, saves me a buck ) and looks pretty gem mint to me. I looked online and saw that there are only three 9.5's of this card in the world. Guess what was just added to the list to get graded tomorrow at South Bay Cards? Let's see how it pans out.

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With that our trade was complete. Yet another successful transaction with Alex. Thank you again and hopefully we can do another a little sooner this time in the future.