BGS Submission Update Five - 2013 Topps Five Star : Bo Jackson Base Rainbow Parallel Autograph ( 18 / 25 ) Now Graded and Slabbed a Mint 9

Original Submission Post
Beckett Book Value : $120

While technically a disappointing result considering I was half expecting a gem mint grade this card also was one of the top 6 that I suspected might not earn that grade as I knew one of the corners had a little ding in it and that grade showed as it earned an 8.5. Overall though the card came out to a mint 9 with the autograph grade getting a 10. Even though I am disappointed at the final result I half expected it could and would happen.

The good news though is with this being the 5th post of 13 I am now finished with non gem mint results. That is a good thing. Would have loved a nice gem mint Bo as I have had my issues with in person autograph sessions with the man so I may try one last time at the upcoming Raiderfest in February to get a better autograph. Till then I will enjoy this card.

13 Cards Submitted To Beckett Grading Submissions (BGS) At Frank and Sons On August 20, 2014

My stack of cards that I wanted to get graded was piling up and I knew it would soon be time to submit them to get slabbed. As always I have the option to drop them off at Frank and Sons and wait two weeks to get the full grade treatment but I found out that South Bay Sports Cards is holding yet another in store BGS raw grade event at the end of September. What to do? With a few more cards coming in the mail from eBay auctions and Topps in the next couple of weeks I decided to submit 3/4 of my stack to Frank and Sons and the rest I will hold off till the raw grading event. Now I had to decide which cards I wanted to submit first. I went with my gut and research on which ones I think might possibly grade out gem mint and all my Kershaw autograph cards even though I know only one has a possibility to earn gem mint status. The ones I held off for the raw grade event are of less importance and ones I think might only grade out to mint 9.0's. I will have results in hand on September 4th and cards in hand on the 6th when I go back and pick them up and meet Joc Pederson for his autograph appearance. With that said here are the cards in the order of the possibility of earning a gem mint grade (if applicable) Any and all well wishes are appreciated as always.

2009 Topps T-206

I have decided to get all my autograph and SP ( photo variations / limited parallels ) Kershaw cards graded as even though I want a high grade I really just want them in a nice case for storage. I expect all the cards I submitted to at least earn a mint grade and this one is no exception. While the centering is good as I can tell it is off centered a tad and the corners while sharp are not gem mint crisp. I think it will earn a mint grade and I am OK with that.

2014 Bowman Inception Blue Parallel

Up next is the young man many are deeming the next "Fernando". That's a lot to put on a young man but from what I have seen in person and in the box scores he is capable of doing something special when he does make the big leagues. This blue parallel while not my prize piece of Urias cards ( that one is in route to me via Topps ) was one I wanted to get graded at some point and even though the odds of it earning gem mint status is minimal I believe mint is well within reach.

2009 Topps

The least favorite of all my Kershaw autograph cards. Design is not visually appealing to me and the autograph is of the sticker variety. The fun thing about going back through your cards is to see if their value went up or down. When I acquired this card back in 2013 as seen HERE I only spent $13 for it and the book value was $30. How times have changed. It now books for $80 and eBay sales have for the most part been north of $50. I am almost 100% sure this will not get a 9.5 but I think a mint 9 is well within reason.

2012 Bowman Sterling

The Dodgers future at SS/3B and even though he is only 20 he might be up to the big league team as a September call up next year. I have been trying to acquire as many Seager autographs before that happens and with him no longer on the Quakes team IP autographs won't be happening anytime soon. I picked this up and a twin in an eBay auction and while they both look at least NM this one looks to be a mint or at least in my eyes. Everything looks good other than the corners as they seem just a tad less than pointy sharp. I see mint in its future with an outside chance of gem mint if the other 3 sub grades come back 9.5.

2012 Allen and Ginter

Back and forth we go with Kershaw autographs. I picked this up on a steal of a deal a few weeks ago and that is probably because it is off centered. Everything else looks good but with my history with Allen and Ginter cards I don't expect anything more than a mint 9 grade for this card and I would be more than happy with that result. This card will look great in a BGS case.

2013 Allen and Ginter Red Ink Variant

Trying my luck with another red ink variant from the Allen and Ginter brand. This is my second submission (Ryan Braun was the first) and I am hoping for a better result but I am not sure how this will fare as there is "blemish" on the surface per se. Centering is good and the corners are crisp but next to the 9/10 there is a small red blotch that is probably from Josh's finger. Not sure how this will affect the overall grade of the card. I am hoping for a 9 on surface and 9.5 on everything else but would not be surprised nor overly disappointed in a mint 9 overall grade.

2007 Bowman Sterling Refractor

Long time readers might recognize this card as I was the lucky winner of a contest that was held by fellow blogger The Dutch Card Guy . A quick recap on that. I had to put a comment on every single blog entry he had published (400+) and then I had to be lucky enough to be randomized as the top pick out of a group of 4 that posted comments. Thank you again for holding the contest. This card has only gone up in value since I won it and I knew I would submit it someday. I don't know what grade to expect so I will be happy with a mint 9. I say that because clearly to me it is off centered on the front but I have seen the same card slabbed and graded by BGS with the same "issue" and the sub grade for centering was a gem mint. Everything else looks fine to me so it will be interesting to see what it earns.

2013 Topps Five Star Rainbow Parallel

Well hopefully Bo knows gem mint. These final 6 cards starting with Bo here I expect to grade out to a gem mint 9.5. Bo though is the only one I am worried about as one corner seems a little rounded but everything else looks perfect so I still think it grades out to a 9.5 overall. Knocking on wood and hoping I can keep my Five Star luck going.

2014 Topps Museum

A beautiful card with my lucky marriage number (7) attached to it. A card that doesn't need to be encased in a BGS holder but one I think will look even better in one. This is my favorite and most limited Adrian autograph and to me it looks gem mint. No streaks in the autograph, well centered, corners are perfect. We shall see but anything less than a gem mint grade will be disappointing.

2013 Bowman Chrome Mini Black Parallel

The second and last Seager in the batch and other than my autographs of Corey this is my favorite card of his. I love Bowman Chrome, I love minis, I love black and when you combine all that you come out with this great looking card. Another great steal for me on eBay for this card as it wasn't described in the auction with the other cards in the auction. Woo Hoo. The card is ever so off centered but everything else is perfect and I wouldn't be surprised if all sub grades come back 9.5. Only 25 in existence and this would be the second gem mint. Hoping and wishing.

2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Blue Parallel

With no luck on the blue parallel of Puig from the regular issue of Bowman Chrome I am not trying my luck with this blue beauty from the Draft Pick set. It is more limited (99 to 250) than its base twin so if and when this comes back as gem mint it will help me swallow the bitter pill I took when I forgot to look on the back of the other blue one and didn't see that it was so off centered that it dragged the grade from a 9.5 to a 9. This card looks to be void of any major defects and I expect it to come back as a gem mint.

2013 Topps Five Star Rainbow Parallel

Second to last submission and we have a sure hall of famer in the form of Miguel Cabrera. When I laid my eyes on this card and as it looked perfect on the computer screen it looks even better in person and I knew I had to have it. Had to replace my Cabrera autograph baseball and this was the perfect card to do that. I knew when it came in I would eventually submit to BGS and now was the time. Anything less than a gem mint grade will be a major disappointment. Don't make me sad Beckett.

2013 Topps Tribute

And I finish off the biggest submission ever with the best pitcher on the planet. Clayton makes his 5th appearance in this batch with what I believe to be his best conditioned card. Though not as visually appealing as the Allen and Ginter card it is a very nice on card autograph of the Dodger great. When I bought it on the low end price-wise last year I thought it had a very good chance to grade out to gem mint and that belief still holds. Hopefully that comes true at the end of next week.

Well that does it. 13 cards with at least 6 with a very good chance to acquire a golden banner grade. I will still be doing the Beckett raw grade event at the end of September but with those I am not as confident of them earning a gem mint grade but I am still curious on what grade they do earn.

Thank you all for taking your time to read this if you gotten to the end of this long post. Have a good one.

Card of the Day - 2013 Topps Five Star : Bo Jackson Base Autograph Rainbow Parallel ( 18 / 25 )

Long time readers of the blog might know that I have had issues with in person autograph sessions with Bo Jackson.

In 2013 I went to the Raider Fest at Frank and Sons and got Bo to sign an All-Star baseball. A great piece then shortly after the signature started to bleed. Ugh. So I sold it off as I found out that Bo would be attending the next Raider Fest.

Now its 2014 and I head back down to Frank and Sons and decide to try to get Bo to sign a black baseball with gold ink. I bring my own pen but he declines to use it and uses his own which is dry and in turn makes the autograph dull and ugly. Ugh again. Didn't even wait a day and sold it on eBay and thankfully it sold for the amount I paid for the Bo's autograph.

I have found out that Bo will be attending Raider Fest in 2015 and I am not sure if I will be trying my luck a third time but I still wanted a Bo autograph for my collection. Enter Topps Five Star.

This set has really become my own person gold mine for me to acquire autographs of players I never had or like Bo here reacquire ones that I once had on a ball. With still enough funds from the ball purge I was on the look out for this card. I lost out a few times but still held out hope.

A seller had this card up on a traditional auction with a BIN option. I contacted the buyer and asked how the condition of the card was as I wanted no fraying of the corners or surface issues which Five Star is known for. He finally contacted me back and said all was clear but when I went to buy it someone had bid on the card which took away the BIN option. Now I had to play the bidding game.

The days went by with a few bids put in but at the end of the week I was top dog with a top bid that was 7 dollars cheaper than his buy it now option at the beginning of the auction. Guess I saved a few bucks. Woo Hoo.

Bo is back once again in my collection. Let's see if I can get a gem mint grade by BGS on this one.

Signed Ball of the Day and Player Appearance Recap : Bo Jackson ( Black ROMLB Sweet Spot ) @ Frank and Sons on 2.15.2014

Another year and another meet and greet for me with Bo Jackson. Last year Frank and Sons held a Raider Fest that I attended for the sole purpose of acquiring Bo Jackson's autograph on a baseball as seen HERE . I was one of the few there that was a Bo baseball fan and not there as a Bo football fan. It was a black and silver sea.

One day I was going through my collection of signed balls and I noticed that the ink of the pen that I had Bo use for the autograph ( I have since switched brands ) was bleeding out on the ball. Irritating. Wasn't sure if and when I would be able to replace the IP autograph but late last year I found out that Bo was returning to Frank and Sons for another Raider Fest so I could get another shot of a good autograph. Had a different idea in mind this time but first things first as I sold last years ball for almost what I paid for it originally. With those funds I pre-purchased an autograph ticket for Bo but this time I decided to go with a black ROMLB and brought a gold paint pen. It worked wonders on my Puig ball so I assumed it would work for Bo as well. Off to Frank and Sons to put my theory to test.

What the hell? I arrived at Frank and Sons and waited among all the Raider fans and soon was in front of Bo for the second year in a row. I had brought my paint pen and Bo said no that it was too thick and proceeds to bust out the gold pen next to him and proceeds to attempt to sign as he had to stop twice as you can see the pain was dry. WHAT THE HELL !!! This so did not come out like I wanted or deserved so now I have flipped the ball on eBay and I will wait till next year and try for the third year in a row to acquire an acceptable Bo Jackson autograph on a baseball.

Left Frank and Sons with a bad taste in my mouth but since I was still in the neighborhood I decided to do another signing which was a complete 180 from Frank and Sons. More on that tomorrow.

Signed Ball of the Day - Player Appearance Recap : Bo Jackson ( 1989 All-Star Baseball )

I now know Bo.

Bo Jackson made an appearance this past Saturday at Frank and Sons in Walnut. It was part of the Raider Fest. I know that I was only a handful of people that were there to see Bo for baseball. I think I saw two other people that had baseballs in their hand and there was at least 1000 people on hand for the panel of Raiders. I know the Raiders have a die hard fan base and I have never attended one of these before but I was not expecting the horde of people. The only thing comparable to me was when Matt Kemp did a signing here last year.

Bo was scheduled to sign at 1:00 in the afternoon so I arrive around 12 to find the parking lot jam packed and after about 20 minutes of driving around I finally found a spot. I walked in and noticed the line was about 150 deep for tickets with the other 800 plus people milling around getting signatures, pictures or just waiting. I went to the front of the line and at the end of the table to ask if I needed to wait in the line for pre purchased tickets and thankfully she said no and gave me my tickets. It pays to pre buy tickets. That saved me at least a hour.

I headed over to what I will call the holding pen as I, like others felt like cattle. Bo came out right on time and I was number 88 out of at least 400 from the numbers I heard being announced. Got in line and talked to some of the Raider fans. We Dodger fans are not the only crazies I soon found out. The line was going somewhat slow but that was because Bo was talking to anyone that would engage him and he looked everyone in their eye and said he and thank you. He also took a few pictures here and there. It was finally my turn and I handed him my 1989 All-Star Baseball. Now this ball I wanted side paneled. For those who don't know this was his first and only All-Star appearance and he started that game off with a home run and was eventually named the MVP of the game. I thought this would be a unique and cool ball to have in my collection as these balls are getting harder and harder to come by and in good white condition it's even harder. He signed the ball right where I asked him to and added his number to it as well. What I found a tad funny he had to go back and paused for a minute before adding the number as I think he was so used to writing 34 for all the football autographs he had to think what his baseball number was. 16 BTW. Came out great I think. Thank you Bo for coming out and doing the signing and thank you for being cordial and nice.