March 2017 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-NINE of FORTY-TWO - 2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Magenta Printing Plate Autograph (1/1) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Half way there to the ultimate Kershaw autograph project albeit not the priciest.

Having one autograph plate is a nice thing but have 2 of the 4 to make a card is a nice achievement. Having both in gem mint condition is just crazy. Crazy why? Printing plates are know to have flaws as they are used to make the cards so are constantly being "handled". No surprise that this one received a 9 for its surface but thankfully everything else checked out OK with a 9.5 and I now have the yellow and this magenta and still on the look out for the cyan and black ones. If anyone happens to come across them please point me in that direction as it would one helluva an accomplishment to own all for 1 of 1's.

Another 1 of 1 gem

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Raw Card Review Recap Number Four From Submission Batch Done On Saturday March 6th, 2017 (2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Magenta Printing Plate (1/1) Autograph)

I know this picture is a little dark as I took all my RCR results in a hurry due to time constraints but all that matters is that beautiful gold you see glowing at the top of this picture. Another gem mint Kershaw autograph for the collection.

I am trying to the impossible with this 4 card project but with this return I am now officially 1/2 done of completing it. I am trying to get all 4 printing plates of Kershaw from the 2015 Supreme set and on top of that I would like/love them to be in BGS 9.5 condition. I already have the Yellow in said condition and now I have the Magenta one. I still need to locate the Black and Cyan plates which may or may never happen but being 1/2 to completion is better than not even have started the project. Either way this adds another 9.5 to the Kershaw autograph collection and that is a good thing.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Supreme : Clayton Kershaw Magenta Autograph Printing Plate (1/1)

What... am .... I .... thinking?

Well when I saw this card/plate I thought to myself, hey why not do yet ANOTHER rainbow for a PC player and lets make it even more difficult than any other project you have done before. Ha ha. I acquired the yellow plate from the 2015 Topps Supreme set and was lucky enough to turn it into BGS gold when it earned a 9.5 from them. I was content with having 1 autograph plate of the Dodger great and moved on. Of course this one popped up and grabbed my attention. Sigh...

When card companies make their cards they use four color plates (Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black) and in recent years have released them in packs for collectors to chase after. Some, like these, are even signed by the player. Even though there are 4 colors/plates each are 1 of 1's and I rarely see Clayton's up for sale. Well when this popped its head up I thought to myself is it even possible I could own all four from the same year? Well why not at least try so I scooped up this Magenta parallel and now it sits in my to be RCR'ed pile for Beckett when they come back to town in March.

If anyone owns or knows who has the Cyan and/or Black plates please keep me in mind as I would love to trade you for them.

Uno

of

Uno

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FIFTY-THREE - 2015 Topps Supreme : Clayton Kershaw Yellow Printing Plate Autograph (1/1) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Printing Plate Autograph (1/1)

Well this card is the final one of the massive batch and why is the final entry? Kershaw, autograph, 1 of freaking 1, gem mint, low expectations and high returns. Plenty to love about this "card" as I expected this to barely squeak by with a 9 if that at all but instead it returned to me from the RCR event as a gem mint 9.5. Is it a strong or weak 9.5? Don't know and don't care as printing plates are notorious for quality issues and with it being a true 1 of 1 and a gold label slapped on it now I am immensely happy with it. 

While there might a pristine return in this batch (fingers always crossed) that is not a guarantee where this Kershaw is and it being what it is this to me is the best return of the batch at the present moment.

We come to the 40th and final 9.5 gold banner from my most recent BGS batch (not the final recap though) and what better way to top it off than with this cherry of a card. A 1 of 1 printing plate of Clayton Kershaw from the 2015 Topps Supreme set. 

I was ecstatic when this came back from the RCR event with a 9.5 attached to it as I believe the grader did me a solid and took care of a potential surface issue and I assumed everything else was perfect but now that I have the full grade in front of me it became even more important that the grader did me that favor. Other than the surface I thought there was nothing else wrong with this card but in fact edges barely squeaked by with a 9. Sheesh, that was close. 

Thanks go out again to the RCR grader for helping a collector out as even though I would have kept this card no matter what the grade would have been it is much better in its new gold case home.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

- Penguin

Raw Card Review Recap Number Seven From Submission Batch On Saturday September 10th, 2013 (2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Printing Plate Autograph)

Before

After

No matter what grade this card will receive from Beckett I will be keeping it as it is my 1st 1 of 1 of the Dodger great. If it earned a 9.5 I would be ecstatic but highly surprised as I see no way that it gets that grade. Why you ask? On the left hand side you will see a dot near Clayton's sight line which is on the surface of the plate. I can not see how BGS will give the surface grade a 9 but if it did I believe the card would gem as there is nothing else wrong with it. My problem is I hope it doesn't earn an 8 which would drive the overall grade to an 8.5 and with me wanting all my Kershaw autographs to be a minimum of 9 that would be an issue with me. The solution? God forbid it comes back an 8 or 8.5 I will just submit it to just be encased with no grade as this is a great piece to own. Hopefully it won't come to that and it earns at least a 9.

We come to the last entry and lucky number 7 of the raw graded cards and the biggest surprise (at least to me) of the batch. Upon closer look I think the grader might have done me a solid and handled the issue I though would arise but seems to no longer be there.

In the before picture you will notice a dot on the top left hand side of the card. It is/was physically on the card and not on the case. When I received the card back as seen in the after photo my eyes went straight to the gold banner. I knew the autograph would score a 10 but I could not believe that a card I was so worried about not even earning a 9 received a 9.5. As I was filling out the form to send this to BGS I took another glance at the card and that is when I noticed that the "mark" seemed to have disappeared. Where did it go? I think the grader saw it and figured out or knew how to get it off without affecting the integrity of the card that he took care of it for me. If that is true then I want to say thank you Mr. Grader for hooking a collector up.

A great way to end my raw graded batch. Only 1 of 11 was unsatisfactory and if I can keep that ratio up for the batch that went to Dallas I would be very happy.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Supreme : Clayton Kershaw Autographed Printing Plate (1/1)

Even though this "card" is not perfect I had to have it as I have been searching for one like it for years and I can finally put that pursuit to rest as at last I have an autographed printing plate of Mr. Clayton Kershaw.

While there are "plenty" of printing plates of Clayton I wanted one that was autographed by the Dodger great and those just don't come up for sale that often as they are 1 of 1's. Since all I wanted was a printing plate and not brand specific I just had to wait for one to pop up on eBay. Well this one had made a few rounds on eBay as a 30 day BIN Auction. The original price had been high but finally it was lowered to a point that I was ready to pull the trigger and buy it as I had sold off some stuff to offset the card's cost. There was no best offer option and numerous emails did not help to lower the cost so I was stuck with what he was asking for it. To be fair the asking was reasonable but nothing wrong with trying to get a better deal.

Now two things were holding me up on picking this up sooner. 1, there was/is a slight imperfection on the front of the card which if you look closely you can see near the top left hand side. Knowing that plates tend to not be void of issues that "problem" was resolved in my head pretty fast as I chose to accept it and be done with it. The second was that eBay had not done an eBucks promotion in a few weeks so I had a feeling that one would be popping up soon so I decided to hold out for no more than a week with the hope of earning some extra cash for the quarter. Low and behold the next day an email was sent out stating they were running a 10% eBucks promotion so I promptly clicked the buy it now button and earned an extra $15 for a future "purchase".

With the card in hand I have no idea how BGS will treat it's grade (of course its going in for the grading treatment) but I am thinking it will be a weak 9 which is fine by me as all I really cared for was to have an autographed printing plate of Clayton and that is what I finally have.

One

of

Freaking

One

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number THIRTEEN - 2015 Topps Supreme : Clayton Kershaw Base Autograph Now BGS Graded Mint 9.0

2015 Topps Supreme Clayton Kershaw Autograph

The design on this card is a tad all over the place so I don't know if its off centered or not. I want to say its 55/45 but at the same time it could be 60/40 or closer to 50/50. With that thinking I place this card in the borderline pile on whether it earns a 9 or 9.5. As always I am wishing for a 9.5 but at the very worst another 9.0 for the Kershaw autograph collection is not a bad thing.

Oh look, it's another Kershaw in the 9.0 section of this big batch. Of course this one is not a shock as I expected it would come back as a 9 and 9 it did.

I knew centering would be the biggest issue and it is the sub grade that earned the lowest score coming in at an 8.5. Not a surprise as I was having trouble figuring out centering so I tempered my expectations. Corners also came in with a lower than 9.5 grade but was better than centering as it earned a 9.0. In the end I expected a 9 and received a 9 so I am happy with another mint autograph of Clayton for my collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Supreme : Clayton Kershaw Base Autograph

Topps puts out so much product over any given calendar year that at some point you have so much staring back at you that there is too much to chose from. The market hits a saturation point and while that can hurt a particular card's value as it is not as desired as the next, new and sparkly card but on the flip side it can drive down prices on the aftermarket for people that hunt for deals, myself included.

My desire and long term collection goal is still to own 100 Kershaw autographs. Obviously most will be in card form but I do have a ticket and photo so that counts as 2 of the hopeful 100. Of course my "need" to have them as on card autographs make the hunt harder as those are usually a tad pricier and more desirable. When Supreme came out I never had any intention of acquiring a Kershaw autograph from that set as I had my eyes on bigger prizes but with the market flooded with new product and the 2016 season inching closer to Opening Day I noticed that this brand's autographs were coming down in price, Clayton included.

While this card is not one of the more visually appealing cards I own the fact that is has a book value of $40-100 and the starting asking price was lower than book and I was the only one to bid on it made the acquisition more attractive in the grand scheme of things. Of course the next step is submitting it to BGS for grading and while I only keep BGS 9 or better when it comes to Kershaw autographs I see no reason why this one wont earn that grade as it looks to be in good shape.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin