Card of the Day - 1956 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good-Excellent 4.0

And here it is. The final piece. Such a satisfying feeling when you finish a project that while doable seemed to destined to be a multi year pursuit but in the end took less than 12 months.

Sandy does not have that many numbered cards in the modern sets that are released by Topps and while I chase after them there just isn't that many. I decided that I wanted to do a vintage project and what better subject than Mr. Koufax. After debating on what I would go after I decided on a 12 card goal which would be a card from every year that Sandy played in the majors which was from 1955 to 1966. 1 year 1 card. No league leader subsets or anything else. Just the main card in each set. The kicker was that they had to be in BVG cases and while I knew I would come across my fair share I knew that a lot of times there would not be one for a specific year. Out of the 12 cards I ended up acquiring 2 raw and submitting it to BVG for encasing. Since I didn't really care what condition the cards were in (no major visual issues were to be accepted though) it freed up some choices.

While I thought his rookie card from 1955 would be the hardest it ended up being this 1956 to be the final piece of the Koufax puzzle. During all the time I was picking these up I only came across a few BVG graded ones and each had an ending price that I was not comfortable with. My timing was perfect when this came up on a simple BIN as I had just sold some books and with a click of the button my project was completed.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-FOUR - 2015 Topps Tribute Sandy Koufax Base Black Parallel (33/50) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2015 Topps Tribute Sandy Koufax Black Parallel (33/50)

With a batch close to 60 cards this is the only one that is of the Dodger legend, Mr. Sandy Koufax. That is to be expected as he does not have that many numbered parallels to pick from in the modern area but this black one fits the bill but I say it has a 50/50 shot at a gem mint return. There are 2 corners with some fuzziness around it. Hoping that they can hold to a 9 and the rest of the subs gem as I am sorely lacking in Koufax gems or at least in my point of view when compared to Trout and Kershaw gems.

I'm batting 1000 when it comes to numbered Koufaxs for this batch and that number will not be getting any lower as this is the one and only limited Sandy in the batch.

While I had the 1957 card in this group as well this was the only one with a stated print run and with me snagging this $40 high book black parallel for less than $8 I really wanted to turn it into a great return. To do that I would need this to gem and with me seeing a couple corners with fuzziness I hoped they could hold to a 9 as I believed everything else looked at least 9.5 worthy. When results were released it all went according to plan. Corners received the 9 I expected and everything else gemmed. Slowly but surely getting my graded Koufax collection up to snuff.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FIVE - 1957 Topps Sandy Koufax Base Now BGS Graded Excellent 5.0

1957 Topps Koufax

The one card where I do not care what grade is attached to it as I just want it slabbed to add it to my vintage Koufax collection. With that said I think it will earn somewhere between a 3 to 4.5 which is
good enough for me.

I am finishing off the 1st week of my BGS returns with a card that received the lowest grade of the batch and yet I under conditioned prior to submitting it as I thought it would come back no higher than a 4.5 and instead it checked in as a 5.

My 1955-1966 Koufax project is now just 1 card away (1956) from completion and this was the last one that wasn't encased by BGS/BVG yet and no matter what the grade came back as I was going to be happy. It being a 5 probably helps a little in resale value if I ever needed to move it but I have no intention of doing that and hope it never comes to it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1958 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good-Excellent 4.0

1956...

No that is not what year this card hails from as it is from the 1958 set but 1956 is the last year I need a card from Koufax's playing days. My project of having a card from 1955 through 1966 is now just 1 card away from completion. I'm giddy with anticipation.

This 1958 card had been on my eBay watch list for weeks on a BIN auction with no best offer option. The price wasn't the best but it wasn't outrageous so I played the waiting game for 2 reasons. It took me a couple weeks but I accumulated enough comic codes and TPB sales to cover the cost of the card and secondly I wanted to wait till eBay ran another eBucks program special. That day came up towards the end of last quarter and I quickly snatched it up and with it I am now down to the aforementioned 1956 card to complete my Koufax project.

1956... coming to the collection...soon

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Gypsy Queen : Sandy Koufax Base Mini Parallel Gold Variant (18/50)

Glad I was able to negotiate a good deal on this card on eBay as once it hit my hands I can see at best it would grade out to a 9 from Beckett if I chose to send it in for slabbing. Gold parallels with silver banners are annoying to me as they are not color coordinated.

I have been trying to up my Koufax collection with numbered parallels so when one does show up on eBay I put a little extra focus on acquiring it. This card has a book value of $8-20 and from past sales I have seen it sell from $4-$15. The owner of this card had an original asking price north of $15 which I wanted nothing to do with. After it didn't sell he lowered it a tad on a relisting and added a best offer option. After a couple days of going back and forth we agreed to a price of a little over $8 which I felt was more than reasonable.

On the computer screen the card looked well centered and corners looked good but once in hand and under a loop I can see that 3 corners have slight chipping which would mean an 8.5 or 9 on that sub grade. Guess I don't NEED to slab all my cards right? Ha Ha.

Eighteen

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Tribute : Sandy Koufax Base Black Parallel (33/50)

$40 is what the high value is according to Beckett. Sorry not going to spend that for this card even though it is a limited Koufax card.

$15 happens to be the low value that has assigned by Beckett to the card as well. Maybe if I had extra funds on a good day I might entertain that cost but today was not that day.

Now for a little change over $7 I would do that all day everyday and that is exactly what it cost me to pick up another black parallel for my Koufax collection.

This card comes the infamous 2015 Tribute set that was recalled by Topps due to quality issues and this one is not void of said issues. While I was hoping to submit this to BGS and earn a spiffy gold banner I think at best it would earn a mint 9 one. While I don't think this card deserves its $40 high book value I believe I won this on a steal of an eBay deal and couldn't be happier to add another limited addition card to my Koufax collection.

Thirty-Three

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number FIFTY-EIGHT - 2011 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base Diamond Anniversary Parallel Now BGS Graded Pristine 10

2011 Topps Sandy Koufax Diamond Anniversary

To finish this post up I end with a guaranteed pristine 10 in the batch and it will be my first ever for my Koufax collection (unless the Tek shocks me and comes in with a 10 as well but I am not getting greedy as a 9.5 there is fine by me).

The question will be is this a black label 10 or a plain ole "boring" gold 10? Would love to add a black label to my collection at some point and even though this card's value will not increase that much it would make the deal I got for it all that much sweeter. In any event at least I will have 1 ten in the batch and that is OK with me.

So I am down to 2 cards left in this batch but this is the 1 of the 2 I knew what the return would be and the only question would this be my 1st black label or not.

And the wait continues as this pre-graded Koufax parallel came back as a regular 10 and not a perfect 10. Even with that "disappointment" I can't complain on this eBay steal and fine addition to my Koufax collection that is still severely lacking in quality cards. This helps a little but I am still looking for more.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1957 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base

Just....two....more
So very close and yet still a big hurdle to get over.

As many of you know I have been working very hard to acquire a card from each year that Sandy Koufax played in the majors which was 1955 through 1966. A total of 12 cards for my project and with this 1957 addition I now sit just 2 away from completing said project. 1956 and 1958 are still needed and since they hail from loved sets from the 1950's they are hard to come by at a bargain just like this 1957 was.

I had not seen many copies of this 1957 card for sale prior to seeing this copy and around the same day this one popped up a BVG graded one also came up for sale. I preferred to have that one but the seller was unwilling to move off his high amount so I turned my attention to this one. While this one is not graded (yet) the asking price was close to the graded version but the auction had a best offer option so began my quest to get the price down.

My 1st 2 offers were automatically rejected so I only had 1 last chance to snag it and I was not in the mood to negotiate between offers so I waited a couple days till I had some comic sales complete and sent over my firm and final offer which was over 35% off the seller's asking price. Expecting a reject email I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email stating that the seller accepted my offer with no counter.

Now with this in hand I await Beckett to come to town so I may submit it to get slabbed and even though I do not care what grade it receives I believe it will be somewhere between 3 and 4.5. Now to find those 1956 and 1958 copies to complete my vintage Koufax collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1965 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Excellent 5.0

12 years, 12 cards and with this 1965 beauty of Koufax in hand now I can make the claim I am 3/4 of the way to finishing my vintage Sandy project.

1955 through 1966 were the playing years of the immortal Sandy and I set out to get a card from each of those years in BVG cases and this is card number 9 of 12 for the set. I now have all the 60's cards and just need 1956,1957 and 1958. It might be awhile till I can complete this project as those almost 60 year old cards are not easy to come by in graded form.

I had only seen a handful of these 1965 cards in graded cases on eBay so when this one popped up I made it my week's mission to pick it up. Thankfully all it took was 2 bids and I was declared the winner. Looking back at all the pictures and design of these cards this is probably my least favorite but the project would not be complete without it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Allen Ginter : Sandy Koufax Base TTM (Through the Mail) On Card Autograph

I went and did something that I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't do again due to unsavory people on the internet but 2 things made me change my mind for this one time, Koufax and a money back guarantee.

I love Koufax autographs and they are a pricey endeavor as other collectors know. On card versions from Topps can range from a couple hundred to well over $1000 while trying to get him in person is a hard process in itself. So when I first saw this card up on eBay I didn't really thing twice about is but a few days later I saw it again and decided to click on the auction. His asking price was $40 OBO but what caught my eye was that he guaranteed it was/is authentic as he received it from the man himself AND IF the buyer would send it to a 3rd party authenticator i.e. PSA/JSA and it didn't pass he would refund the whole cost. Hmmm.... now I'm interested but of course only if if could be had at a deal. What happened now I really didn't expect.

I sent over an offer of $30 and if he accepted great if not I wasn't interested in negotiating. He declined my offer by taking someone else's which I found out was $35. Well he contacted me a day later and said that the buyer backed out and if I still wanted it I could send him an offer. Well I wasn't changing my offer so I sent him the same $30 one and he rejected that AND INSTEAD sent me a counter of $25. What? He messaged me and said he should have taken the original one from me and felt "bad" so he wanted to sell it to me for the lower amount. Well with the money back guarantee still in place I took his offer and will now get it authenticated by JSA.

So either I just picked up a great Koufax autograph for $25 which I think is a steal or I am just loaning him $25 as if it comes back from JSA as not real I will get my money right back. To me either way is a win win situation but I am for sure hoping for the former and not the latter.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number FORTY-THREE - 2014 Topps High Tek : Sandy Koufax Base Black and White Parallel (13/15) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps High Tek Sandy Koufax Black and White (13/15)

Now we get to the interesting part of the batch. The next 7 are all from the High Tek brand and if you don't know they are plastic cards which minimizes corner issues. Of course even with that thinking nothing is guaranteed.

All my High Tek cards are of the numbered variety and this Koufax has the lowest print run by far with a scant 15. With minimal Sandy cards in my collection and availability in products I would really like to see the ones I do have gem from BGS. Nothing looks wrong with this card up close so I am thinking this is an easy 9.5.

I expected an easy gem on this card and for the most part it was as there was only one area that caused any problem.

In the back of my mind I thought maybe this would finally be the card that would receive a black label as I thought that it would be cool with a black and white card but it wasn't meant to be. There was 1 sub grade that earned a 10 but the other 3 came back as 9.5,9.5 and 9. While it might not be black label "unicorn" that I am still trying to acquire it is a nice gem mint being added to my growing Koufax collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1964 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good-Excellent 4.0

8 down and 4 to go or in other words 2/3rd done with the vintage Koufax checklist that surprisingly hasn't been that hard to acquire. Of course 3 of the remaining 4 are from the 1950's which have a higher price tag so it might be awhile till I finish this project.

This is one of the better looking card years from the old days and still looks good today. It's simple but it works. I have only seen a few copies of this card in graded condition but after trying to pick this up from another seller who tried to nickel and dime me I finally landed this at a much better "cost". The other seller would counter my offer by lower his price by 50 cents or a dollar. What is the purpose of a best offer if you really don't want to work with a potential buyer? Whatever. At the end of the day I wound up with this one and I couldn't be happier.

Koufax unlike Trout, Koufax and Seager in my eyes has a finite amount of cards I will be hunting down. After I pick up the remaining 4 needed for this project there really is only a handful left of modern day cards I want of Sandy since he is not in every set. Hopefully more will be released in the coming years by Topps.

Four as in four more vintage Koufax cards left to acquire

Old school vintage grading by BVG

Wish they went back to it

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1962 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good 3.0

Inching closer and closer to my desired goal of a copy of each card from every year Koufax played (1955-1966) in the majors and with this acquisition I am now sitting at 7 of the 12. Over half way there.

Of all the 12 cards I am hoping to pick up this is probably the least visually appealling card of the bunch. I am not a fan of the color brown but the completest in me had to have a copy of this no matter the color. Not many copies of this card in graded form have popped up on eBay and the few that have were either too pricey or worse had a crease down the middle. While I don't care about the grade I didn't want a crease on the front of the card either. Finally this particular copy came up for sale and had a low enough starting price I had a little breathing room on the cost ceiling. Thankfully that was not needed as there was only 1 bid for the card and that happened to be mine. Another notch in the vintage Koufax belt and now I am down to just 5 cards needed to finish my project.

One of the few times Koufax is labeled "very good"

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-TWO - 2014 Allen Ginter : Sandy Koufax Base Mini Parallel Red Border Variant (24/33) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Allen Ginter Sandy Koufax Mini Red (24/33)

Another Ginter for the this big batch of cards and another one that I hope and expected will return to me with a gold label affixed to it.

Still working on the quantity for my Koufax collection as the quality is for sure there and my thinking is this will come back with a minimum of a 9.5 as I could not see anything wrong with it. This is definitely the strongest Ginter of the batch and anything less then a gem mint return will be considered a disappointment. 

My comment of this being the strongest Ginter of the batch was far off but more on that a down the road. Even though this was not the strongest it still earned the coveted gold banner even if there was a 9 sub grade.

When I acquired this centering looked almost 50/50 under the loop and BGS agreed as it handed it a 9.5. Surface did it one better with a 10. The only grade that suffered were the corners as they came in last with the aforementioned 9. No worries though as overall it still is a 9.5 and that is all that matters at the end of the day.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1960 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Excellent 5.0

With my Seager rainbow project finally completed I think this is the next project that will be finished sometime in the near(ish) future. Though I want more and more Koufax cards my main focus has been acquiring all his base cards from his playing years (1955-1966) and they must be in BVG cases. The good thing for me is that the grade does not matter to me as I am just looking for the best deal and I finally was able to find one for the 1960 version.

I have a friend, and he knows who he is = ), that for the better part of 7 months I have tried to unlock his grasp on his copy and trade it to me. He is a Dodger fan so it was expected but I kept trying. Finally one day though this card, which had been on my watch list for months, had it's asking price lowered by 20% on a BIN type auction. Click here, payment there and a few days later I finally have my own 1960 copy of Koufax. Card could have been a 2 or a 3 or even a 7 but all that matters is that I have one to call my own.

On a side note, with Sandy retiring from his role within the Dodgers organization I will probably never get the chance to meet the man himself in person and I make that point as the aforementioned friend has and I am jealous of him for it. Good for him though. A memory that can't be taken away.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Topps Finest : Sand Koufax Generations Insert Refractor Parallel (9/25)

Wait.
Waiting..
Kept waiting...

That is what I did for this card. I first came across it during one of my random Koufax searches and considering it is one of only a handful of current cards of Sandy that are numbered I wanted to add it to my growing collection. The issue was the cost as none were on traditional auctions. All were on BIN and each one was set a high price with no best offer option. No bueno for Penguino.

Each copy sat on my watch list for months in the hope that someday one of these sellers would realize they were asking too much for it. Finally the day came when one finally did figure it out and dropped their price by more than 50%. I saw the adjustment and jumped all over it and acquired it. Hoping it would come in great condition as I would love to get this graded and thankfully once in hand and under a loop I now believe nothing but a gold banner is destined for this Koufax beauty.

Nine

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Trade with Instagram Friend Robert aka Huskys.Sportscards : 2013 Topps Tier One : Sandy Koufax Autograph Copper Rose Ink Parallel (16/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

This is the 3rd time I have held this specific card in my hands but this is the 1st time I can claim it as my own as I was finally able to secure it on a trade after it had been handled by many hands.

Frankie was the original owner of this card as he sent it to me to be included in our joint BGS submission batch and I thought it would have a decent chance of earning a 9.5 from Beckett. The only thing that worried me was the autograph but it indeed earned a gold banner and a 10 on auto. When I received it back from Beckett I informed Frankie that if we could ever come to some type of deal I would love to have it, With that I sent it back to Frankie and we had some soft trade talk but before I could acquire it he traded it to Robert. I turned my attention from Frankie to Robert and hoped to trade for it from him. Once it became available he and I completed the trade within a couple of days as I had to wait for funds that were due to me from eBay as I did not want to use any out of pocket money.

While I would have loved this to be a 1 for 1 card trade I knew that I had to include some money to make it happen. In the end I sent Robert over some cash and a card and I finally picked up this limited, gem mint beauty of Koufax. When I first looked into getting a Koufax autograph for my collection I was going to be content with just one great copy but now with this addition my Koufax count is up to 5! I barely have more Trout auto cards than I do Koufax autos and I consider Trout more primary than Sandy. Go figure as you never know how the card world turns.

Thank you again to Frankie for submitting this and letting me know of its existence and to Robert for the trade. This is my first trade completed with Robert but I doubt it will be the last.

Sixteen

of

Twenty-Five

Perfect ten on the autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1955 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Good-Very Good 2.5

The condition of this card is far from mint, not even close by any standards, but it is the perfect card in my every growing Koufax collection and THE card to have if you are a serious Koufax collector. This fine readers is my new crown jewel (non autograph) of my Koufax collection, his rookie card from 1955.

I am very surprised I have been able to lock down a copy of this card in such a short time of my original pursuit of it. My goal since I decided to acquire vintage BVG graded cards of the Dodgers from the 50's and 60's and especially Koufax was to have Sandy's base card from every year between 1955-1966. A total of 12 cards. I have been lucky enough to pick up a few at a reasonable amount but I knew getting this 1955 copy would be the biggest hurdle yet in the end I barely broke a sweat as I was at the right place at the right time.

I had seen similar graded versions of this card sell for over $200 and even some in "worse" condition sell for that amount. Too much for my tastes but along came this one which the seller put up for sale for $200 on a BIN auction. There it sat for weeks unsold till he altered it and added a best offer option. That's when I dove in and sent over an offer way below any other similar card sold for in recent months. A day and half past and no answer from the seller until I received an email stating he accepted my offer with no counter. Happy day happy day.

This card is 61 years old. It is a piece of baseball history as this bonus baby would become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. A 2.5 has never felt like a 9.5 till today and I am ecstatic that I have this beauty in my collection finally

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Result Number SIXTEEN - 2015 Topps Strata : Sandy Koufax Base Autograph Black Parallel (26/50) Now BGS Graded Mint 9.0

2015 Topps Strata Sandy Koufax Black Autograph (26/50)

This is my 3rd Koufax autograph in my collection and the first that I am afraid might actually earn 9. I was lucky enough to pick up a Topps Five star in raw form and submitted it to BGS and it came back with a 9.5. Nice! I then picked up an already graded gem mint of Koufax from Topps Finest and thought I was nearing my cap on Koufax autos as they are pricey to come by. Well I ended up with one on hell of a deal and hoped to add it as my 3rd 9.5 Koufax auto but depending on one sub grade that streak may or may not end.

With the naked eye everything looks fine but under closer inspection on the back side of this card one of the edges has an issue. Enough to knock its sub grade to an 8.5? If so then this card has no chance at a gold banner but if somehow it can hold the line at a 9 then I could claim my 3rd gem as I do not see anything else wrong with this card. Hoping for a 9.5 but expecting a 9.

The streak comes to a close.

I have never owned a non 9.5 autograph of Koufax until this one but even with the "disappointing" return here there is no way I am unloading the card as it is still a great piece for my collection. You know you have it good when a 9 is the worst one in your collection.

I knew going in that the corners/surface would be an issue and I expected an 8.5 on at least one of those subs and surface was the lucky recipient of an 8.5. Corners didn't do too much better but at least they earned a 9. All said though I am satisfied with this card the way it is and glad that I own it.

The all important 10 on autograph

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 1959 Topps : Sandy Koufax Base BVG Graded Very Good 3.0

The hunt for 12 years worth (1955-1966) of graded Koufax cards continues with this latest addition to the collection. While this card is not in the best of condition that is not what matters to me the most. What I wanted was the card in a case no matter what the grade was at the best price I could find it for. After watching a few auctions go by without me winning I finally won this baby for way under book.

A seller on eBay finally put this card up for a reasonable starting price aka 99 cents so when I saw it I was quick to add it to my watch list. Literally a last second bid netted me this 57 year old card and even with a 3 attached to it I couldn't be happier. I have to do a recount but I believe I am now officially halfway (6 of 12) to picking up all the vintage Koufaxs I have set out to obtain.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin