BGS Submission Bonus Result - Clayton Kershaw Autographed MLB Debut Ticket Now Encased

Now that all of the returns for the cards have been accounted for I wanted to include a "bonus" entry from the batch. No grade for this beauty but probably the most important submission of the group. Hello Mr. Kershaw.

I showcased this ticket awhile back when I originally was lucky enough to get it signed by Clayton back in January at the yearly Dodgers FanFest. I have had this ticket since 2008 when Clayton made his debut in the big leagues and I was there to witness it on that hot Sunday afternoon.

Of course with it signed I had to be able to store in safely and what better way than a nice spiffy case provided by BGS? I have to give props to PSA though as when they slab tickets they label it for it's significance which BGS does not as you can see they label this ticket as a "Fernando" ticket while PSA would have said Kershaw's MLB debut. While I would prefer the PSA version I am a BGS person hence it is now in on of their case.

A great item in my collection just got better and won't be leaving my possession ever.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

2016 Dodgers Fan Fest Recap and a White Whale Finally Caught After EIGHT Years

What thankfully is now a yearly traditional in Dodger land, yesterday was the annual Fan Fest which each year is getting bigger and bigger. There were so many people there it felt like it was game day. Line for the bathroom, food was slow to acquire but surprisingly the beer line was non existent. Interesting to say the least.

Every year though I seem to get less and less autographs but this year there was a one I just had to have. The problem was that I was sure everyone had the same idea. Since that happened 30 minutes after I entered the stadium I will recap the day backwards.

My good friend Jimmy and his beautiful wife Michelle and their happy little boy helped me acquire an autograph for a project that is now more than half way done. I was planning to get my one and only autograph of the day and leave but Jimmy said he had no real use for Bill Russell and that I could have it. Couldn't pass that up and I decided to pay him with with a beer.

This is my 1970's photo of the Dodgers which I hope to complete one day. I haven't been lucky enough to see Bill around the stadium lately but I also didn't want to pay $25 for his autograph but a beer and some time with good friends is a great deal and I got to add Bill to this photo. That is now 6 of 10 players I have acquired. Should be able to get Monday this year but Dusty, Don and Reggie will be harder to track down.

Thursday the wife and I went to Select a Set for Season Ticket Holders and though I upgraded my seats I did not get a chance to sit in them at the event. Usually when you upgrade you take the tag on an available seat and take it to the office and get your seats changed. Well I did pick up a couple of tags but when I sat down with the Dodger rep I asked if there was anything that wasn't advertised and surprisingly there were and I was able to move over 1 full section and 10 rows down. I can not move over anymore without going into the next price bracket which I will not be doing so this might be my final upgrade.

Walked up to Loge 157 and saw that the row had a marker which not all rows have which I think is kind of cool. Plus if for some reason a friend or God forbid I get lost I can find my way back to my seat by looking for this marker. Ha ha.

My new view from row F in 157. I still believe the Loge level has the best view in the stadium and I am happy to say I am a season ticket holder in the this wonderful section.

Now to the big event of the day. It was announced a day before the sale for Fan Fest that there would be 3 meet and greets at the event. They have had these before but I was never interested in any of them and the cost of them ($150) was/is cost prohibitive. This year was different though.

There was a Lasorda meet and greet and a Valenzuela meet and great. That's nice and all but I am not paying that amount when I get them for free on almost anything I own. This year though they announced that none other than CLAYTON FREAKING KERSHAW was going to be one of the 3 meet and greets. Hot damn. I was lucky enough to be at his MLB debut back in May of 2008 and I have been carrying the ticket from that game since then trying to get him to sign it. Year in and year out I have been close but each time I was denied by him. Now was my chance to get him.

$150 was worth it to me but as many of you know I am a hustler online and while many would frown upon a practice I like to do, money does not grow on trees and where there is demand I hope to come in with a supply. I knew that Puig would sell so when the 12 p.m. sale went on for autograph tickets I secured tickets for Yasiel for the sole purpose of selling them to pay for the Kershaw event. I indeed bought the Puig tickets and flipped them on eBay which made the cost of the Kershaw event ZERO dollars for me.

When the Kershaw event went on sale there was no mention of his name (nor Lasorda or Fernando for that matter) so you had to know which event each player was in. I could have ended up paying 150 for Fernando. Now that would have pissed me off royally. I noticed when I went to go pick up my tickets that I was "seat" 7 which is cool since that is my marriage number. Lucky number 7 strikes again.

Now for the amazing part. When I arrived to the Stadium I assumed/expected that for a 30 minute event that there would be maybe 75/100 tickets sold for it. Considering there are 30K of Season Ticket Holders and countless more fans I considering myself immensely lucky I snagged 2 tickets for this event. While my friend and I waited for the time to go see Clayton we noticed there were just not that many people. Everyone was in pairs, which I expected as most would buy 2 not just 1 ticket for this, and there definitely not 75/100 people. We all started to talk and found out the highest ticket number was 30. 30? That's all for this event? Holy crap. Upon further conversing it was rumored that only 20 were offered to STH's at 10 and there were 10 left over for the general public at 12 so the Dodgers could not be accused of giving everything to STH's. I personally met 3 from the group at 12 purchase time so it seems this story rings true. That means if the 20 tickets sold at 10 were bought in pairs that would mean that only 10 people out of literally thousands of people were lucky enough to get their hands on tickets for this event. Man, I beat the odds and yes I went and bought lotto tickets yesterday to see if my luck will transfer there. Lol.

Off the group went to the club level to meet the best pitcher in baseball. Clayton was more than nice with every fan that he met and I gave him the thumbs up for him showing up. This may be the only time he ever does Fan Fest as every previous year he has been with his wife in Africa doing his charity work. The thinking among fans is he stayed in the country this year as he had his first kid last year so she might be too young to travel for a year or two. If this is the only time I meet Clayton then it was a great one time event.

Of course here is the ticket which will soon be slabbed by BGS and stored away and even though it is not the most valuable Kershaw piece in my collection it is my most cherished one.

I debated on which color to use as I just didn't think blue would pop on this ticket since it is mostly blue itself. I settled on black and I think it came out great.

I can't believe I finally own this completed piece. Thank you again to the Dodgers for hosting Fan Fest and a special thanks to Clayton for taking the time to meet a handful of fans.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Corey Seager Major League Debut Ticket

Before this year I never thought of getting tickets autographed but now I have gone from zero to three that I want/need to be signed. Kershaw and Puig debut tickets are already in hand and waiting to be signed at some time in the future but with Corey Seager being my favorite new player to chase after I decided I needed to get his debut ticket signed as well. Thankfully he debuted on the road and not at Dodger Stadium since the Dodger no longer print out hard tickets for season ticket holders. Thank you again for that miscue blue.

It was announced that Corey would debut in San Diego the same day he got called up and I quickly searched out for a hard ticket for me to acquire after the game was played. They were going for higher than I wanted to "pay" on eBay but I thought what about Instagram or Twitter? Maybe someone would be selling/trading them there. I found a trusted IG person that I have never done business with before but other people that I know have worked with him said he was trustworthy. He had multiples so I chose which version I wanted and soon enough we completed the transaction. It was promptly sent and now sits in my book waiting for the day that I can hopefully get Corey to adorn it with his John Hancock.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Yasiel Puig Major League Debut Ticket

Awhile ago I spotlighted my Kershaw debut ticket that I plan to have Clayton sign at some point in the future. Once I decided to do that I thought about what other "big" instances have happened in the past few years in Dodger land that I might have a ticket for or need to acquire one for the player to sign. The biggest thing I came up with is Mr. Puig.

Yasiel made his MLB debut back on June 3rd of 2013 and has had a pretty decent career so far. He still needs to grow up a tad but he has a high upside. With the Kershaw ticket in hand and Puig debuting when the Dodgers were still issuing hard tickets I wanted to pick this up and pare them together. Unlike the Kershaw one though I did not have Puig's in my binder as I did not attend that game so off to eBay I went.

There were a few copies on a BIN auctions with a $20 price attached to it. I kept them on my watch list but only as a reminder as I did not and would not spend that much. As my search continued one day this one showed up on eBay with an under $10 starting price. Now this was more up my alley. 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds later and not a single bid was put in so I entered mine and seconds later I was declared the winner. Unlike Kershaw I have had much better luck getting Puig to sign for me in person so hopefully I can get this one done pretty soon.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Clayton Kershaw Major League Debut Ticket

I am always looking to add something unique to my collection as most of it consists of cards and signed pictures as I have moved away from signed baseballs. One day I was looking for more Kershaw stuff on eBay, shocker I know, and came across a couple of signed tickets and thought to myself that would a nice change of pace for me. Which one would be the best when it came to significance pertaining to Clayton? Why his MLB debut of course.

When that light clicked in my head that I would love to have a signed ticket from Clayton's debut game another light clicked in my head, wait I was at that game but do I still have the ticket? As most know the Dodgers stopped issuing hard tickets to season ticket holders last year (BOOOOO) so I no longer have any to put into binders but back in 2008 they still did. I was given (4) tickets to this game from a co worker weeks before the game and when it was announced that Clayton would be debuting it made it even better. The wife, father in law and I headed to the game and got to witness the official beginning of a hall of fame career. I looked on eBay and saw that some of these sell northward of $150 unsigned so when I opened up my binder and saw I still had one I was ecstatic. Now I could sell it but I will not be. Someday down the road I will have Clayton sign this for me and then I will get it slabbed and it will become a permanent fixture in my collection.

I saved one but boy do I wish I had the other (3) but I can't complain as I can say I was in attendance for his debut and I don't have to spend any out of pocket money to get this ticket to have him sign it.

May 25, 2008

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

2013 Playoff Tickets . . . Are Here

A week from today the 2013 Playoffs will begin and yesterday I finally received my packet of tickets from the Dodgers. Other than Opening Day this is the most exciting time of the year baseball-wise. If post season tickets are in the mail it means your team has done well enough to advance to the knock out stage which our Dodgers have done this year for the first time in 4 years. It feels like forever since they have been in the playoffs. Its been even longer since a World Series appearance which hopefully comes to an end in less than a month.

Anyways, this is my first year where my seats have been in the Loge level and what better way to celebrate the upgrade than to watch our boys in blue win 11 games in October. Time for the team to bear down and grind it out and get the job done. Go Blue !!!

 

This will be my view this year. Beautiful !

 

 

 

2013 Season Tickets

We are less than 2 weeks away from Opening Day and I received my season ticket booklet today. Opening the box and smelling the newness of the tickets is a yearly tradition. As always the Dodgers put the booklet in a bag that is usable and this years looks better than the last few I have received. I've never used it going into the stadium but I wonder it would pass the measurements they try to enforce sometimes.

Tickets come labeled in their new slogan " A Whole New Blue ". I'm hoping for a whole new end result this year with a World Series win. It is the 25th anniversary since the last appearance and win in the Fall Classic. It's time we fix that.

Like last year the Dodgers have included the MVP card for season ticket holders and it was a great addition last year as you got to enter the park an hour earlier than the general public and then got to watch batting practice and up your chances to receive some autographs from the players. This is a welcome return for me. The only downside is last year there were some 17K season ticket holders last year and it has been reported that number is around 30K this year which means more competition for autographs. Oh well. I am sure I will manage just fine.

There are also some coupons and one that I really like is you can buy 4 infield reserve tickets to any game other than the Yankees, Red Sox and Opening Day games for just $8. I already know which promotion giveaway I am using that for.

The only disappointment for me is that there is no Sports Authority coupon for $10 included in the package this year. I always used that to buy one ROMLB there for less than $7. Oh well. I will just continue to get my discounts on eBay for those I guess.

Go Blue !!!