Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Clayton Kershaw Collection Autograph (14/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Though this post has been written up prior to today what better way to celebrate the start of the 2015 baseball season than to show off my latest acquisition of yet another Keshaw autograph and it being graded gem mint makes it all the better.

In a few short hours Clayton will be taking the mound to face his old teammate and friend Matt Kemp who is now with the San Diego Padres. Clayton will be the opening day starter once again and this will be the first game in his pursuit of another Cy Young award which would be his 4th in 5 years. I expect a dominant performance from Kershaw and a "W" to start of the year right. Knock on wood of course.

This card had been on a BIN auction for at least the past 6 months with such a high price that I never expected to purchase it. Every 30 days the auction would end and the seller would relist it with the same price and I would continuously put it on my watch list. After another failed 30 day auction the seller relisted it once again but this time he put a best offer option to the auction. I had recently sold off some XBOX games and had comic code sales so I had some spare funds in my paypal account.

I sent the seller a very low offer which was almost 50% off his asking price. Just testing out the waters to see what response I would receive back. I was very happily surprised not a hour later that he actually accepted my low offer. Maybe he was just tired of relisting it or realized he was never going to get what he wanted for it. Only 25 copies of this card exist and this happens to be only 1 of 2 graded this high with none higher. A great acquisition.

The gold standard in baseball and grading

14 of 25

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

BGS Submission Update Six - 2014 Topps Museum : Adrian Gonzalez Frame Autograph Silver Parallel ( 7 / 10 ) Now Graded and Slabbed a Gem Mint 9.5

Original Submission Post
Beckett Book Value : $100 ish

Well for the first of many ( woo hoo ) gem mint returns I focus on the one I mentally labeled, no duh. I mean if a metal pre framed card can't get at least a 9.5 on edges and corners then it is really a messed up card or it was horribly handled somewhere down the road. Well those two sub grades not only received a 9.5 but they both earned a pristine 10. Nice. Centering came in a click under at 9.5 which was fine by me but surface almost cost me my gem mint grade as it only received a 9. In the end all is good and I got the grade I wanted and expected. I am now contemplating on selling off all my other Adrian sticker autographs as this now becomes my crown jewel when it comes to Adrian autographs.

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Adrian Gonzalez Silver Framed Autograph ( 7 / 10 )

I have been a fan of these framed autograph cards from the Topps Museum set since I returned to the hobby early last year but this is the first time I have been able to acquire one at a reasonable price. A lot of that is due to the restrictions I put on myself for this particular autograph set.

These cards all come with a silver signature which other than blue is my favorite color for signatures. A few problems come with these framed Museum cards though.

One, they come in 3 different frame colors. First is gold numbered to 15. I hate gold and even if I didn't a silver autograph wrapped around by a gold frame doesn't look good to me. So that color was out. Next up is a silver frame which is numbered to 10. Silver on silver is good and the most "plentiful" as the third color is black and would be my first choice but those are numbered to only 5.

And the second problem it seems with this brand that Topps got lazy and give the players dull and/or crappy pens as a lot of the signatures seem to be smeared or "dry". So I had to look for a nice signature on a silver or black frame which meant only 15 combined copies out there for me to search for at an acceptable price. Well I finally won one.

Adrian's cards seem to have escaped the crappy pen curse and with him being one of the "lesser" players in the sets his sales were lower than most. The card is number 7 of 10 so I took that as a sign as I should win this with 7 being my lucky number. Sold a very limited Dee Gordon card ( sold high at the right time ) which covered the cost of this Adrian card.

Card was in hand a week later and looks to be perfect in every way. My 1st and hopefully not last framed autograph card.

Seven of Ten

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Mike Trout Base Blue Parallel ( 8 / 99 )

Getting ever so close to acquiring all my needs from this year's Museum set and Trout is the only one left but I need(ed) both the base card and its blue parallel. Considering the limited number of blue (99) and the high book price I assumed that I would pick up the base before this one. Nope, I was wrong.

Book value is set at $30 for this card and I lost out on multiple auctions with the closing price ending north of $18-22. Was never going to pay that much but the base card also was steady at $5 which was too rich for my blood as well. I still am waiting to get my hands on the base but yet another blue came up for sale on eBay and once again I was in the mix for it. For some reason there was not a lot of action on this particular card and I ended up winning it for single digits!

Over 66% off for a numbered Trout card? Yes, please and thank you. With this in the fold now I only have the base card left. Think I need to swing over to Frank and Sons to scrounge the tables.

Eight of Ninety-Nine

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Mike Trout Canvas Collection Insert

There were 3 canvas collection cards I needed from this year's Museum set.

I didn't have to search for the Jackie Robinson as I "won" that in my case break as seen HERE so that left me with Tommy Lasorda and Mike Trout. I picked up the Lasorda one for a couple bucks but was still on the hunt for Trout. I had lost out on a few auctions as with book value set at $8 I was not going to pay $5+ as that is what I lost most of the auctions for.

Surprisingly when I finally did win this card it was for less than what I spent on Lasorda. Go figure. As always, not going to complain. Finished off the canvas collection and now I just need a couple more blue parallels and I will be officially done with this year's Museum set.

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Yasiel Puig Base Blue Parallel ( 87 / 99 )

Still needed three more cards to complete my needs from the Museum set and acquiring Puig here dropped that number to two.

This actually is the second blue Museum Puig card I received but the first one I am keeping. I originally won one for a measly four dollars but it was from a new seller that had a feedback of just 1 positive transaction. I took the risk and got burned. Card was sent with no sleeve, no top loader no nothing and thrown into a small white envelope. Yeah you know that wasn't going to work and it didn't. Received the card and it was bent/damaged in transit. Opened a case with eBay and within a day the seller refunded my money. Now back to the hunt to replace that one and came across this copy on a BIN type auction. Seller was asking 50 cents more than the one I had to return and with only 99 copies of these blue cards I went ahead and bought it instead of waiting for a possible better deal of a dollar or two.

With Puig in tow now I am down to Nolasco and Trout to complete my Museum collection. Happy hunting to me.

87 of 99

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Tommy Lasorda Canvas Collection Insert

Man, Tommy even looks grumpy in recent card releases now.

Each time I have met him he has never had a smile on his face. Kind of what he looks like on this card so in that sense the artist for this card drew it to perfection.

With not too many cards to chase after in the Museum set and most of the remaining ones having a low cost I don't think it will be too long till I am finished with this set. The canvas collection inserts are unique and I love the feel of them. Demand for Tommy cards I assume are not too high as I locked up this card for a little more than $2 delivered.

A decent priced purchase for the long time Dodger.

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : David Ortiz Base Autograph ( 199 / 199 )

Big Papi come on down.

I've been searching high and low for an on card autograph of the Red Sox slugger ever since I rejoined the hobby. It had to show him in Red Sox gear which made the search harder. I found enough choices with him in his Twins uniform from back in the day and found multiple copies in Red Sox uniforms but most of the autographs were of the sticker variety. The few on cards were way too pricey ( $75 and up ) for me to chase after.

Well this years Topps Museum set contained this beautiful card of the David and when I won it on eBay it did not have a book value at the time. Once again, bidding from the hip on this one. Beckett just came out and has it listed for $60. Well thankfully I paid nothing near that.

I am not a Red Sox fan or a Boston fan but even though David was attached to PED's I believe he fits in perfectly in that town and has done great things for them. From World Series wins to being the front man on the Boston bombings last year. He will probably go down as the greatest DH in the history of baseball.

199 of 199

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Clayton Kershaw Base Blue Parallel ( 72 / 99 )

One dominant lefty down one to go.

Acquired Koufax earlier and now needed to land Kershaw for the blue parallel set.

I found another reasonable asking price auction and hoped to be the high bidder at the end of the day. This is a small project and would love to knock it out pretty fast and just move on. Still have Trout and surprisingly Nolasco to complete it. Thankfully as with Koufax I was the only bidder and now have 3 of the 5 needed blue parallels. Hopefully those won't be too pricey or hard to get.

72 of 99

Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Museum : Sandy Koufax Base Blue Parallel ( 28 / 99 )

With the case break behind me now it was time to work on the blue parallels of the Dodgers in the set. Thankfully there were only four that I needed to get my hands on. I thought I would go after the big fishes first and found Sandy on a traditional auction for a small enough amount that I felt comfortable with.

I was out of town so I put in my bid earlier than I normally would as I did not know if I would have reception or not. I guessed correctly as I lost my signal. No worries as once it was back on I found out that I won the card. Two down and three more to go to complete the Dodger set.

28 of 99

2014 Topps Museum Dodgers Case Break

Adrian Base

Topps just released their 2014 Museum set and being a fan of last year's I wanted to get in on this new issue. Unlike last year I just bought the singles here and there. This time around I decided to get in on a 12 box case break and try my luck on some of the hard and rare cards that I could flip and make some extra cash of just pay for the break in general. Like all other sets I still want/ed to complete the base set along with the blue parallels. With the Dodgers only having 5 players in the set that meant no more than 10 cards that I would be chasing. One annoyance was the inclusion of Ricky Nolasco. Really? No Ryu, Greinke, or Kemp? We get stuck with a pitcher that is no longer with the team. Go figure. With that said the first card is the one up above which is the base version of Adrian

Within the 12 boxes I ended up with 2 base Kershaw cards. Obviously one will be for my own personal collection but the other one is up for trade and if not I might contest it out with ... 

... one of these 2 Koufaxs that were also in the case. A great one two punch and of course if I was to do that I might as well add in one of these ... 

...yeah... I didn't even want him in the set so my break gives me two of him. I am sure someone will want it though. 

Next up were two different Puigs. The base one I wanted for sure and will be on the lookout for the blue parallel but the case also gave me the copper parallel. Not sure what I will do with that as of yet. Think it holds a little more trade value rather than contesting it out. We shall see.

Also received the copper version of Adrian. This one is up for trade if anyone wants it. 

An Adrian parallel that I will be keeping though. I am glad I scored one of the blue cards so I don't have to go searching for it online.

84 of 99

Now for the inserts. Jackie is not represented in the base set but he does appear in the Canvas Collection insert set. The card has a portrait feel to it's surface and not the normal slick coating. My Jackie collection is sorely lacking and this is a welcome addition.

I just knew since I talked crap about Nolasco that my one "hit" of an autograph would be of him. I have nothing more to say.

387 / 399

Onto the first of two relic cards that were in the case. This jumbo is of Chad who I hope makes a full recovery and can rejoin our team in a month. Card has been selling for a few bucks on eBay so it won't being going there. Might keep it, might trade it. Anyone interested?

71 of 75

And now for my big hit. A quad relic of Yasiel numbered to 75. Thankfully it is of the two color variety as that will help it's resale value. This is already on eBay and previous sales have been anywhere between $50-$75 so as long as it's in that ballpark I will make my money back. 

That is all folks. I am quite disappointed with my luck on this break. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don't but thankfully I have the outlet of eBay to help me recoup the funds back. Great looking cards and I may just try one more break and see if my luck changes. 

Again, if interested in any of the card feel free to contact me for a trade.