BGS Submission Result Number EIGHT - 2014 Topps Dynasty : Clayton Kershaw Base Autograph (10/10) Now BGS Graded Mint 9.0

2014 Topps Dynasty Clayton Kershaw Autograph (10/10)

Another encased card from Topps and unlike last years Piazza from this same Dynasty brand I hope this Kershaw comes back with a gold banner unlike Mike's which earned a 9.0

To be fair under the loop you could see a slight issue with Mike's card but I didn't think it would hinder it that bad but it ended up coming back as a strong 9. Rather have a weak 9.5 than that 9 and I expect that this Kershaw might end up as that. There is 1 corner that is a tad fuzzy which might hurt the overall grade a little but I don't enough to make it a mint 9.0.

Well I was right when it came to that corner as that sub grade did in fact earn a 9. The problem though was that 2 other sub grades earned a 9 with only edges coming back with a 9.5. On the bright side at least this didn't up in the overall 8.5 category but it would have been nice if this would have gemmed.

Solid mint

Considering this came from a trade I am not that disappointed with this card's return and it still is a mint card which qualifies it to stay in my collection per my "rules" but at some time I really would like a 9.5 Dynasty Kershaw card to call my own. Maybe the 2016 version will look better than the 2015 as I stayed away from those black ink autographs.

The all important 10 on autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin 

Trade with Instagram Friend - JMBCards : 2014 Topps Dynasty Clayton Kershaw Autograph (10/10) AND 2014 Topps Five Star Mike Trout Base Autograph Rainbow Parallel (14/25)

I have been in the restructuring mode pertaining to my collecting habits and I am purging my collection of anything that is not Kershaw, Trout, Corey Seager, Vintaage graded or Koufax related with a few exceptions here and there. Well that meant Harper here was not long for my collection but unlike most of the other cards I was debating when to let this one go. Bryce is a very good player and is only 22 and the sky is the limit but I have never warmed to him. I acquired this card in raw form when it was going for a lot less than it is now and it earned a 10 from BGS a few months after that. Now it was time to sell high on him. Yes, the card probably and will go up in the years to come but IF I really want another Harper autograph I will pick it up then. Now it was time to trade this 1 MVP for 2 MVPs

Jeffrey aka JMBCards saw my post about wanting to unload this card among others and inquired about a possible trade. If it would happen it would be yet another high end aka high dollar trade for me in the past month. Jeffrey and I agreed on an amount that this Harper was worth (as I factored in the money it would cost to sell on eBay) and then we had to figure out what he would give me for it. I turned down his Koufax autograph as I just hate silver autographs on gold metal bordered cards. To me it just doesn't look right. Instead of that Koufax card I picked another but more on that later. First up was this bad boy from last year's Topps Dynasty release :

That's right, yet another Kershaw autograph for the collection. I hate the black ink that Topps is going with for the 2015 release which means I won't be picking any of those up but I still have wanted a 2014 one of Kershaw but I could never land one at a decent cost. Well I can finally check this off my want list as this card looks perfect in hand. As everyone knows by now any Kershaw I acquire I intend to send to Beckett to get it graded and this card looks like a lock for a gem mint 9.5. Corners are good and autograph looks great. Hopefully I can add yet another gem to my every growing Kershaw collection.

Ten

of

Ten

Now for the card that I chose over Mr. Koufax which I have no regret doing even though some people might not have done it :

Another autograph in my ever slowly growing Trout collection. It's slow because Mike's cards are higher priced not because I haven't tried. His autograph cards are even more pricey so picking this up now without a penny leaving my pocket is a good thing in my eyes.

Unlike Clayton I have only a handful of Trout autographs and Topps Five Star is one of my favorite brands so this was an easy choice for me. As with Clayton I always intend to send Trout's cards in for grading and this one is no different. Five Star is notorious for conditioning issues and this one I believe has a little better than 50/50 chance of earning a gem mint 9.5. One of the corners is not perfect under the loop but if they hold to a 9 I might just eek out a 9.5 overall. What gives me more concern is the autograph and it will depend on what grader I get that day to what it earns. I have seen worse examples earn a 10 but some graders might say its streaks so it should be a 9. We shall see.

Fourteen

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you again to Jeffrey for reaching out and completing this high end trade in the matter of half a hour. It was easy and smooth and I look forward to our next one.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

"Trade" with Fellow Blogger : Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby (2013 Topps Five Star Craig Biggio Base Autograph Rainbow Parallel BGS Graded Mint 9.0 and 2014 Topps Dynasty Craig Biggio 6/10)

After months of no trades with Frankie we completed another transaction just a couple weeks after the last trade. This one though is more of a sale if anything as I plan to trade one of the cards that I acquired from him. Frankie announced on Instagram that he was looking to move a couple of cards as he needed funds for a card he had recently purchased. For me it was time to bring an old friend back home.

Both cards are of Craig Biggio but this BGS Mint 9 from the 2013 Topps Five Star release was originally my card which I traded to Frankie when we did one of our bigger (card wise) trades. After that I ended up picking up another Biggio autograph for my collection as I wanted him represented in it. When Frankie said he was looking to move it I jumped at the opportunity to reacquire this card as I always did love it and hated to see it leave. I promptly sold the replacement one (sold more than I "paid" for it too) which I sent to Frankie for this transaction. Once again I have my preferred Biggio in my possession.

Love my minty nines

... but there's more. Frankie had only use for one Biggio in his collection as he had the one he really wanted so he was looking to part with this other one as well.

2014 Topps Dynasty

Six of Ten

Like Frankie did I really need 2 Biggios for my collection? No I do/did not but I took them off his hands as I had/have another trade lined up for this card. I am not the biggest fan of the 2014 release (I think the 2015 looks tons better) so I hold no special love for this card. If that other trade falls though (guy is wishy washy) I can always flip it on eBay to recoup my costs. Either way I am not worried as it will take care of itself.

Thanks again go out to Frankie for the cards and once again I look forward to our next trade/transaction.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Result Update Number Four - 2014 Topps Dynasty : Mike Piazza Autograph w/Relic Now Graded Mint 9.0

2014 Topps Dynasty

With a card being uncirculated it would seem to me that it should get a gem mint grade as it has not been handled but I have seen plenty of uncirculated cards earn lower grades. Hopefully that does not happen to mine but when I acquired this I did my research and from the pictures and with card in hand I do not see any problems here. Nice crisp signature on what seems to a perfect card. Here's hoping my one and only Dynasty card in my collection will be gem minty. 

Results and thoughts :

UGH !!!

The biggest disappointed of the whole batch. This was second on the submission post which meant I was pretty damn sure that it would grade out to gem mint yet it did not.

What I also found interesting is that the graders did not open the case that it came in. These Dynasty cards come in a sealed case and I never touched the card when I acquired it. I submitted it to BGS in the still sealed case and they did their review without breaking the seal. Interesting to say the least. 

The perfectionist in me is irked that I did not get to add a gem mint Piazza autograph to the collection but the collector in me is happy nonetheless that the card did earn an overall 9 and as expected the autograph grade is a 10 as it is flawless. 

As with all raw grades you never know what the sub grades are so you don't know how close you are to a higher grade or how close you were to earning a lower one. This like most of the cards from the submission went to BGS to get slabbed so in a month we shall see how close I was to gem mint on this one. 

Full Submission Results and Thoughts :

While I want all my cards to grade out to gem mint this one is really disappointing. When I 1st received the raw grade and found out it was a 9 I was miffed and couldn't believe this "uncirculated" card would grade that "low". Now with the full grade back I am even more ticked off.

8.5

9

9.5

10

With one of each possible sub grade it makes this card an overall mint 9 but not a strong one at that. Again, disappointing. If there would have been a little hiccup on edges I would have ended up with a near mint card of Piazza. Sigh, you can't win them all but damn if this one wasn't one that I really wanted and expected to be a gem mint or at the very least .5 from it. 

A disappointing and "unexpected" 9

At least the autograph is a 10

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Raw Card Review Submission From March 7, 2015 Update Number 3 - 2014 Topps Dynasty Mike Piazza Autograph w/Relic

With the 2 resubmitted cards done now we get to the cards that went through the BGS grading process for the first time. Piazza is up 1st :

2014 Topps Dynasty

With a card being uncirculated it would seem to me that it should get a gem mint grade as it has not been handled but I have seen plenty of uncirculated cards earn lower grades. Hopefully that does not happen to mine but when I acquired this I did my research and from the pictures and with card in hand I do not see any problems here. Nice crisp signature on what seems to a perfect card. Here's hoping my one and only Dynasty card in my collection will be gem minty. 

Results and thoughts :

UGH !!!

The biggest disappointed of the whole batch. This was second on the submission post which meant I was pretty damn sure that it would grade out to gem mint yet it did not.

What I also found interesting is that the graders did not open the case that it came in. These Dynasty cards come in a sealed case and I never touched the card when I acquired it. I submitted it to BGS in the still sealed case and they did their review without breaking the seal. Interesting to say the least. 

The perfectionist in me is irked that I did not get to add a gem mint Piazza autograph to the collection but the collector in me is happy nonetheless that the card did earn an overall 9 and as expected the autograph grade is a 10 as it is flawless. 

As with all raw grades you never know what the sub grades are so you don't know how close you are to a higher grade or how close you were to earning a lower one. This like most of the cards from the submission went to BGS to get slabbed so in a month we shall see how close I was to gem mint on this one. 

With all that said, we are 3 cards out of 15 in and I am already done with being disappointed. Yes, the other 12 range from satisfactory to downright giddy.

= )

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin 

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Dynasty : Mike Piazza Base Autograph w/ Relic (9/10)

A new set hit the market in 2014 with a price tag that was/is outrageous and in each box there is exactly one card. Imagine plucking down $350+ and coming away with a $50 card? Yeah, I would be pissed beyond belief. That is why other than Bowman Chrome I do not buy boxes anymore. It just seems like a waste of money and any card that is in a set you can probably acquire for a lot cheaper on eBay or other sites. Once I looked at the checklist for this product there was exactly one card that I wanted to acquire . . . and this is that card.

9 of 10

As shown yesterday I finally reacquired Piazza's autograph in the form of an old SPx card. While it was sufficient enough for me at the time I held out hope that I could get a better autograph of the former Dodger in a more current issue but the requirement was that it had to be an on card autograph and in a Dodger uniform. 2014 brought about many new Piazza autograph cards but most were of him in a Mets uniform and the couple Dodgers ones had sticker autographs... till now.

The cards is stamped 9 of 10 but that is a bit of a stretch as Piazza (and all players for that matter) have multiple 9 of 10's in the set. On the Dodger side there are eight 9 of 10's so I had 80 to go through. The first item of business was to create some funds for the future acquisition and that came in the form of me selling off the SPx card. I also added a months worth of comic codes and then I was off to the races and looking for a copy of this spiffy card.

I have heard that this card looks better in person rather than pictures and I can now attest that I agree with that comment. The card comes in a sealed magnetic one touch case and I have yet to take it out. I don't want to mess it up.

The signature really pops against the darker background of the card. Since this card is "uncirculated" as it's has been sealed since it was created you would think that it is minimum a gem mint card if it were to be graded by BGS. Well I am going to find out as I will submit it to them in the coming month to see what they think. Either way though this is a fine addition to my collection of the former Dodger catching great.

Man, I remember those 3 years fondly.

In final, I can never see myself paying that much on a pack of card(s) on the "chance" of getting a great card but these Dynasty beauties are nice indeed and I wouldn't mind adding another to my collection at a reasonable price.

Have a blessed day and thank you for reading.

- Penguin