Card(s) of the Day - 2014 Topps : Base Blue ( Wal-Mart ) Parallels ( A Whole Lot of Dodgers )

Time to really make a dent if not just complete the whole blue parallel set from this year's Topps set. I wanted to get as many as possible of the Dodgers so I didn't have to search for them anymore and move onto other projects. Found a seller that had a majority of what I was looking for at pennies on the dollar.

It pains me to see Brandon in a Dodger uniform knowing that unless he is traded ( God willing ) or released he is here for two more years.

I just love Young's card for the fact that he is doing a baseball play with his eyes closed shut. A professional but glad he did not resign with the Dodgers in the off season. On the other hand I hope Hanley does come to an agreement on an extension in the next few weeks.

Sophomore slump? I have a feeling that Ryu will not fall into that category and look for him to be a solid number 3 in the rotation. Adrian hopefully will be up to his playoff Mickey Mouse antics and produces like usual but with a little more pop.

The lightening rod
The wild horse
Yasiel
This will be an interesting year and other than Kemp I think he will be a main x-factor on how far the Dodgers go.

10 blue cards down and only Nolasco and the two Kershaw League Leader cards are left for me to complete this parallel set. Hopefully I can lock those down soon.

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.

16 of 36

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.

 139 of 199

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. 

Signed Ball of the Day - Michael Young ( ROMLB Sweet Spot )

.300 career batting average.
2375 total hits.
Multi time All Star.
2 appearances in the World Series.

Michael Young has had a pretty good career and probably still has a couple years left so he will have the chance to up his numbers. He played most of his career with Texas until he was traded to the Phillies during the 2012 off season and then was traded to the Dodgers in August of 2013. For the remainder of the regular season he was decent with an above .300 average and with that was put on the post season roster for his veteran presence. And then the series versus the Cardinals happened. He made four outs with two at bats with one being the costly one in game 1. Dodger fans for the most part have hate for Michael now and do not want to see him on the team in 2014. I don't think he will be but with Ned you never know. But since he was on the Dodgers I just had to acquire his autograph on a ball. Wear the blue and I need a ball.

In September I headed out to the stadium and hoped to acquire his autograph in person but each time I saw him I was not fortunate to get him to come over. I know he signed for some people on certain days as I have seen it posted on other blogs but I was never there on that day. So with the season over I assumed I would never get it in person as I don't expect him on the team in 2014 and if he does play it will probably be in the American League where they have the DH which means less opportunities at Dodger Stadium. Not to be denied I headed to my favorite market, eBay. I haven't looked for a Young ball prior to now and noticed a lot of current auctions were buy it nows set at or above $50. There were very few traditional auctions and those had a reserve and each time I lost out as I had a set limit I would spend on Michael. Finally settled in on two separate auctions which closed within hours of each other. This one was JSA authenticated while the other was PSA. Didn't care which one I won as long as I won one. In the end I picked up the JSA one for a measly $17. A steal. $14ish for a ball, authentication process at least $20 unless you get a deal and time and effort to get this all done. Yeah, this was the easier way. While I would love to have gotten Michael's autograph in person I will take a deal like this any day of the week. A nice addition to the collection and it was nice knowing you Michael.