Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Tribute : Mike Trout Ageless Accolades Autograph (48/50) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5 and eBay eBucks Quarterly Purchase

With this card's acquisition this becomes Mike Trout autograph #10 in my collection (though #9 has yet to be posted/showed off) but the only reason I picked this up now is because of a major life event that rocked my world so this card is kind of bittersweet.

Any day a Trout autograph is picked up should be a good day but even though I am happy I now have this in my collection it is only because I had a massive amount of eBucks earned from this past quarter due to the fact that my life being turned upside down and with me having to acquire stuff to move forward I turned to eBay to purchase items which earned me all the eBucks. Some of you know what has transpired and some that don't but those sending well wishes at the time they were and are still appreciated as it has been a hard transition period for me. That said I guess I can consider this a present to myself for what has been happening in my life.

This cards books for $200-$400 in raw form but what is becoming the norm for me each eBay quarter is that I want a BGS 9.5 with the eBucks that I earn and when I saw this card and the auction end date being just 4 days prior to eBucks being available to be used I knew this was the card I wanted. Being sold by a seller I have used multiple times made the transaction easier as they trusted me not to pay them right away as they knew I was good for it. Lots of action on this card's auction and I ended up using all of my eBucks on this card as the final bid literally was a few cents less than my high bid but I was the winner at the end of the day so that is all that matter. With that Trout autograph #10 is now in my collection.

.5 from Pristine

Forty-Eight

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Tribute : Clayton Kershaw Ageless Accolades Autograph (32/50)

Perfect.....timing and possibly a perfect card.

I wasn't looking specifically for this but I am always looking out for new Kershaw autographs to acquire and one day in early January after a weekend of book sales I had some extra moola. Saw this and was intrigued by it as it was reasonably priced but I was holding out on another card that I wanted but late in the day eBay did a flash promotion and offered a coupon of $15 off a purchase but the transaction had to be done within the next 4 hours. Well considering that this was on a BIN and the other was on an auction that did not end for a few days I decided to snag this for nothing out of pocket.

Since the seller was from California it only took 2 days to get from his hands to mine and as most of my cards this was already earmarked to be sent to BGS for grading before I even received it. Well once in hand I think this card has a very good chance at a pristine 10 grade as since it is an acetate card the corners are usually better on these types of cards and this one under the loop shows no issues. Everything else looks great and hoping to add another perfect card to the collection.

Thirty-Two

of

Fifty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FOUR - 2016 Topps Tribute Clayton Kershaw Milestones Insert (10/10) Now BGS Slabbed Authentic

2016 Topps Tribute Clayton Kershaw Milestone Insert (10/10)

Technically I know the grade or to be exact the non grade that this card will be receiving. This is one of the handful that I submitted to BGS for a raw review and I was almost 100$ sure it would earn something less than a 9 overall and I was right as it came in at a 8.5. There was no way I was letting this card go so I did something I have never done before and sent the card in for slabbing without any grade attached to it. I did this solely for the purpose of storage purposes. Grade or not this is a great piece.

With the terrible returns finished lets get to the good returns now aka less than 9.5 though this one does not fall into that category either. 

This is the 1st time I have ever sent in a card to BGS just to get it slabbed and not receive a grade affixed to it. I knew what this card probably would receive but I had no intention of selling it back on eBay due to its significance (100th win for Clayton). I also will be doing this procedure going forward for any Kershaw autograph that will not earn at least a 9 instead of reselling it. 

In the end this may or may not be a mint/gem mint card (it isn't) but it is a great piece of Kershaw history that I was lucky enough to see in person and I now have a piece from the game in a nice BGS case.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Tribute : Clayton Kershaw Milestones Insert (Game Used Ball Relic From 100th Win On May 15th 2015) (5/10)

This card is an exception to my collection just like Clayton continues to be an exception to Pitchers in general.

When I decided to refocus (again) my collection habits earlier this year to just 4 players I also made the decision to not collect relic, game used material, etc unless it came with an on card autograph of 1 of the 4. I don't care for the relic but if the autograph was great then so be it. It did not enhance the card in my eyes as it was the autograph I cared about. Well low and behold here I am the owner of a game used relic card without an autograph on it as I purposely pursued it.

There are 2 things that made me want this card. Unlike 99% of all relic cards they are not guaranteed from which game it is taken from but this one has a MLB hologram sticker on it as this ball relic comes from the game Kershaw pitched on May 15th in 2015. Why is that important? That was his 100th career win and I happened to have been at the game to witness the W. Since Clayton is PC and once I found out this card existed I knew I had to add it to my collection.

With only 10 copies I went looking back at past Milestones cards of other players that Tribute has produced and I only had a ballpark amount of what this card would go for so off to eBay I went. There was one that had a ridiculous BIN price so I had no interest in that one. This one popped up on a traditional auction and the final price never got close to my price ceiling. Maybe I valued it too high but I am glad I picked it up for what I did. Off to BGS it goes to be encased and even though I would love a gold banner I believe it will come back with a silver 9 instead and I am OK with that as the memory of the card's subject is more important than the grade. Again, another reason this card is an exception to the norm.

Five

of only

Ten

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin