Card of the Day - 2017 Topps Heritage : Mike Trout Base Chrome Blue Refractor Parallel (51/68)

A streak continues yet 1 ends while another one is holding on by a thread but won't know that result until BGS rolls back in town in a couple of months.

I am moving away from most parallels as I am concentrating on just autographs now but Heritage chrome still holds a special place in my heart and I will continue pursuing then for the foreseeable future hence that streak continues. What did stop this year was Topps went from chrome having a black parallel to blue which I am not a fan of. I love blue and all but I liked how all my Heritage chromes where all black and now it will have a different color in the group. It will be more of a standout if they revert back to black in 2018 which I hope they do. The streak that is in jeopardy is will this earn a 9.5 from BGS as every other Trout Heritage chrome I have submitted has earned that grade. This one has some issues on corners and not sure what mood the grader will be in when he sees this. On the front it is fine but the back and under the loop shows the problems. Crossing my fingers but not holding my breath.

Fifty-One

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Sixty-Eight

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Finest : Mike Trout Base Autograph X-Fractor Parallel (141/299) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2 Seagers = 1 Trout?
Maybe not on the baseball field but in card collecting that is exactly what it took me to pick up this gorgeous autograph of Mike Trout from his rookie year of 2011.

While collecting/acquiring an autograph rainbow of Mike Trout's cards from the 2009 Bowman Chrome is not even remotely feasible I have decided I am going to give it a go for the 2011 Topps Finest set as it is more reasonable and I have cards that I may or may not let go to pick up the various colors. Well this is the first of I hope many from the set.

I picked up a 2012 Bowman Chrome Refractor autograph 9.5 of Corey Seager awhile back even though I already had one and this was the exact reason why I did it. I don't/didn't need 2 of them so 1 was always expendable. The other one I had of him was also a 9.5 but with lower grades so I decided to unload that card and the base version to pay for this card.

There are few reasons why I did this, 1) Mike Trout is a future Hall of Famer and maybe an all-time great by the end of his career and while Corey has started out strong it has only been 1 full season. Trout has been a top 2 MVP for 4 years running. 2) While the BC Seagers are nice they are not numbered and as mentioned before I already have another refractor to call my own. This Trout is a numbered parallel and already certified as gem mint. 3) and to top all of that off I have multiple Seager rookie autographs of Seager from the 2016 Topps Chrome set which is more than enough for me than to also hold onto the base BC one.

Of course I picked this Trout up on an eBay eBucks promotion day so I landed quite an amount of extra $$$ for a future transaction.

One Hundred and Forty-One

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Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Cognac Diamond Anniversary Parallel BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

During the 2015 off season I made it a goal of mine to pick up as many graded Trout rookie cards I could get and I ended up with a lot. The 2016 off season was reserved for Corey Seager but there was 1 last colored parallel of Trout I was unable to snag in 2015 that bugged me. I fixed that during this past off season.

The Topps Update is THE rookie card to get for Trout and I ended up getting the base, diamond, gold, blue and red during the 2015 off season but I could never land the Cognac parallel at a decent price. I had a feeling if I didn't get now it might be very hard to come by in the upcoming seasons so I kept my eye out for a copy and I missed out on quite a few but I finally was able to lock this particular one down at no hassle.

Now that I am not spending much out of pocket I had to figure out what to unload to acquire this for my project and after much thought I ended up selling off some non rookie parallels of Trout which were easy to get top dollar for and I ended up with this one for my collection. No regrets in this decision as my rainbow is complete (minus the impossible black one) and I am a happy camper.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

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 High Tek : Mike Trout Base Diamonds Parallel

According to odds and pull rates from various websites these "diamond" parallels from the 2016 High Tek set are the hardest to come by that are not numbered. Estimated odds are 1 in every 24 boxes or 1 in every other case of the product. Not an easy pull by any means.

Once it was figured out that this pattern was the hardest to get this Trout version went on my to acquire list. I have/had no intention of getting any of the other lesser parallels (still going after the numbered ones though) so I could concentrate all my energy on tracking one of these down. Beckett book has this with a range of $20-50 and was very pleasantly and happily surprised that I snagged it near the lower end of book. Like most High Tek cards I half way expect all of them to gem if and when I send them to BGS and this one is no different. Another "rare" card for the Trout collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Allen Ginter : Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel Brooklyn Back Variant (1/25)

Let's.... try .... this.... AGAIN.

There are only 25 copies of this Brooklyn back in existence and this will be my second one that I have called my own. This one is numbered 1 of 25. I originally had number 24 of 25 and it was in great condition as I decided to send it in to Beckett to get it encased. I expected a gem mint return and in fact there were 3 sub grades that had earned a 9.5. Of course someone at BGS had to ruin my fun and drop it while it was in their care as they gave corners a 7. I would never send a card in that had corners that would earn such a low grade (unless it was vintage). Well to say the least I needed another copy that would be acceptable to me so I sold off that "damaged" card and went on the look out for another 1 of the 24 out there that would be good enough for me.

Since I knew the availability is diminishing I had a slightly higher price ceiling and was glad I did as I won this one in the middle of the night as the auction ended at 4 in the morning. It was nice waking up to an email declaring me the winner. Now this #1 just like that #24 is in very good condition so when I send this to BGS they better not drop it again.

Numero Uno

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Allen Ginter : Mike Trout Mini Frame Autograph Black Parallel (2/25) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Allen Ginter is probably my 2nd favorite brand every year and the mini frame autographs are number 1 within the set for me. This is my 2nd numbered A/G autograph of the Angel's great. I lucked into the red ink parallel from the 2013 set (quick recap on that is I sold a Puig BGS gem to cover the full cost of the Trout AND pocketed some money, try doing that today!!!) and am always on the lookout to add another but most of the time the price is too high for me. Lucky for me when one day eBay was running an eBucks promotion at the same time I saw this and I was ready to part with a few cards to cover it's cost. I did not get the same awesome deal as the Puig/Trout swap but I did get another limited and numbered Trout autograph that has already been certified as gem mint by Beckett at no cost out of pocket. The best kind of transaction.

Two

of

Twenty-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2011 Topps Update : Mike Trout Base Gold Parallel (878/2011) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

Selling from surplus to acquire a need. I feel like the Dodgers as I finally landed this beautiful gold parallel of superstar Mike Trout.

During the 2015 off season my goal was to acquire graded rookie cards of Mike Trout from the Topps Update set and I did quite well as I picked up the base, diamond, blue and the hard to get red versions. The 2 left that I needed (other than the black which I don't ever see me getting) were the gold and cognac and my "rainbow" from this set would be complete. I wanted to wait for the right time which meant at the lowest price and an eBucks promotion. Well this 2016 off season presented that to me when this card popped up.

I asked friends on Twitter and Instagram which would they prefer in their collection, this or graded photo variations, and the answer was unanimous . Gold by a land side. I had a few Trout gem mint photo variations and while I like them I really love this gold one. I knew in my heart what I was going to do but wanted to see what others thought and we all had the same thought process. While variations are fun and unique gem mint rookies of a future Hall of Fame member is better.

Locked in this card which was on a BIN auction from a seller from Canada (probably another reason why price was reasonable) and promptly sold the variations to cover the cost. Now to finish off the rainbow with a cognac.

Eight Hundred and Seventy-Eight

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Two Thousand and Eleven

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2015 Bowman's Best : Mike Trout 1995 Bowman's Best Design Refractor Autograph (29/30) BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

There are certain card sets from years gone by that I loved and still think look great to this day. That list includes among others 1993 Topps Finest, 2001 Bowman Chrome, 1990 Leaf and 1995 Bowman's Best. All of them are visually appealing now as they were back in their hayday. Topps did a retro insert of the Finest set which I collected and last year they included an autograph insert set in their Bowman's Best brand to honor the 1995 set's 20th anniversary. When I saw the checklist I noticed there was no Kershaw to be found but there was a Trout and I knew I wanted a copy but didn't think I could land it. Obviously that changed as here is my newest addition to my small but respectable Trout autograph collection.

Nothing like another gold banner for the Trout collection

With a print run of 30 I have seen at least 10 change hands on eBay and a couple here and there on other social media outlets so I knew my chance at it was closing. Well one day eBay had a 6 hour eBucks promotion and with about 3 hours left in it this bad boy popped up on site. I had to make a decision on how bad I wanted this card. I knew if I was to acquire this I had to sell something in my collection to pick it up and probably more than just one card at that. My thinking was with the extra eBucks earned by acquiring this card I could get something nice in the next quarter so I took the plunge and snagged this one.

It was a hard decision on what to let go to offset this card's purchase but I ended up letting go of my 1994 Finest refractor that is numbered out of 25 and graded gem mint by BGS. That hurt as I loved that card but I love the 1993 version better which I am still on the hunt for. I will also be letting go my 2015 Strata Koufax autograph which came back from BGS as a mint 9. Being a Dodger fan this one cuts deep as well but my thinking is I have 3 other great Koufax autographs that I call my own and watching Trout on a daily basis I realize I am watching history and want as many autographs as I can have of him. You have to give something to get something and that is what I did but at the end of this day I am very happy to own this beauty of an autograph.

Twenty-Nine

of

Thirty

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY-SIX - 2016 Allen Ginter Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel EXT Variant Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Allen Ginter Mike Trout Mini EXT Variant

Another Trout Ginter and another one with a high expectation when it comes to the grade it will earn. 

I see nothing wrong with this card under a loop as everything checks out with no problems so hopefully this limited EXT variant will be encased in a gold banner just as its Brooklyn brother that I believe will come back with the same result. 

Well unlike the Brooklyn variant this EXT version received what I expected from Beckett which was a solid 9.5 gold banner.

Other than that Brooklyn card I have had a great track record with BGS in my Ginter submissions and this one is no different as it earned quad 9.5's. Thank God as it seems every year these EXT's are becoming harder and harder to come across. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY-FOUR - 2014 Topps High Tek Mike Trout Base Black and White Parallel (14/15) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps High Tek Mike Trout Black and White Parallel (14/15)

While I am still not the biggest fan of the High Tek I am a fan of black and white parallels especially if they are as limited as this one (15 copies) and Mike Trout in general.

The one good thing about the High Tek brand is that they are plastic cards which means that most are in better condition than the traditional cards and this one seems to be just to be in great condition. I see no issues other than maybe a very slightly frayed corner but you have to squint your eyes under a loop to see it. Here's to hoping and expecting another gem mint Trout card for my collection.

I guess the "slightly" frayed corner I saw was more than a little as that sub category earned a 9 instead of the 9.5 I thought it would pull in. Thankfully though everything else checked out OK and I have another gem mint for the Trout collection.

Also with this card officially certified as a gem I completed my mini project from the 2014 High Tek set. My 3 primary players that I collect that are in this set (Kershaw, Trout and Koufax) had black and white parallels and now all 3 have gold banners. Not too shabby considering the low print run of 15 and it's always a crap shoot when you submit to Beckett.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number FORTY - 2014 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Base Photo Variation Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Photo Variation

Another Trout, another Trout photo variation and this one looks to come back as a 9.5 as long as the slightly off centered front does not hurt it too much. I have the Kershaw variation from this year and would love to pare it up with this in gold banner condition. Make it happen Beckett. 

I worried for nothing.

This is a key piece for me as I have wanted this for years but each copy I found I could not pick up for some reason. When this finally landed in my lap I hoped to turn it into a gold banner 9.5 but I was a tad worried about centering and hoped it would not come in lower than a 9. Well not only did centering not come in as a 9 none of the other 3 subs did either and this became yet another addition to my strong 9.5 Trout collection.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-EIGHT - 2016 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel (50/100) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Mini Parallel (50/100)

This would be a nice coup if this mini Trout comes back with a gold banner and I believe it happens more than it won't.

I love minis and I love the Heritage brand and this card only seems to have one small issue as a corner on the backside is ever so slightly not sharpie sharp. I don't think that will be that big of an issue and I expect a 9.5 from Beckett. 

I waited out months on an eBay seller to acquire this at the price I was happy with and now my patience has really paid off as I now have yet another numbered card of Trout certified as gem mint.

As expected the corner on the back did receive a 9 on that category but thankfully nothing else was dinged and this card received my desired 9.5 overall grade. Unlike variant cards it is hard for me to part with parallel cards and I do not foresee me flipping this but you never know.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin 

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-SEVEN - 2014 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Base Action Pose Variation Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2014 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Action Photo Variation

From a this screen shot this Trout Heritage in action form looks to be pretty good when it comes to centering but under the loop reveals that it is slightly off centered from top to bottom but I don't think enough to knock it down to a 9. There is also some fraying on a corner but also not enough I think to cause any grade issue.

One "issue" came up and another did not.

I thought centering might be a tad off but it wasn't bad enough to knock it down to a 9 and thank God for that as corners did have enough fraying issue to send that sub grade to a 9. Even with that though this becomes yet another Heritage gem for my collection. Nice cheap pick up got better by at least 100% with that gold banner attached to it.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-SIX - 2016 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Base Gum Back Variant Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Topps Heritage Mike Trout Gum Stain Back Variant 

Hoping that both my gum stain variants come back in gem mint form but if 1 was more of a sure thing it would be this Trout one over the Kershaw version. I saw nothing wrong with and if you look at it here it looks almost dead on centered and under the loop is where you see that seems to be the only flaw of the card as it is ever so off centered. Gold banner or bust BGS.

Guess Beckett went nit picking with this card but considering it is a paper variety I should just be happy that a gold banner adorns this variant.

I didn't say it in my original write up but thought this had an outside chance at receiving a perfect 10 but instead it received 4 9.5's which is fine by me. Though I love this card I may or may not use it for trade bait to get something I really want/need but having it now in this case makes it much easier to move it I ever go that route. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THIRTY-FIVE - 2016 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Base Photo Variation Green Refractor Parallel (21/99) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Topps Chrome Mike Trout Photo Variation Green Parallel (21/99)

Other than the cards being shiny the best thing about chrome cards are that they usually come out of the pack in better condition than their paper brothers. This one is no different.

While green is not my favorite color being numbered under 100 at the same time it being a photo variation of Mike trumps the color being just meh to me. When I received this I hoped it would be in gem mint condition and to me that is what I see as there is not a flaw that I can see. Hope to add this to my growing gem mint photo variation collection of Trout. 

Expected gem and received gem.

While I love these photo variations every time I look at green parallels from this year's Topps Chrome release I like them a little less. The design was not one of Topps best and other than the black parallel it makes me think I should unload it/them to get something more desirable. Once this came back as the strong 9.5 I thought about it more and more and I think I might flip this for a need instead of this card which was/is a want. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number TWENTY-SEVEN - 2016 Gypsy Queen Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel Gold Variant (1/50) Now BGS Graded Gem Mint 9.5

2016 Gypsy Queen Mike Trout Gold Mini Parallel (1/50)

While a gold banner on a gold parallel is the optimal result of said parallel I am really stretching it here and thinking this returns with a 9.5 attached to it.

While centering and surface looks good there are 2 corners that have issues. I have seen worse on other gem mint cards so it will come down to which grader I get for this card. Hoping for gold but halfway expecting silver. 

Once again I guess I was lucky to get the grader who was in a good mood the day this card hit his/her desk. I saw 2 corners with issues and as expected they did not receive a 9.5 but thankfully they did earn a 9 as the other 3 categories earned the needed 9.5's to make this an overall 9.5 card. Surprisingly I have had great luck with GQ in this batch while in previous batches they have never gone my way. Guess every Penguin has a good day once in awhile.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2016 Topps Chrome : Mike Trout Base Purple Refractor Parallel (98/275)

It's good to have friends and I and many others have one in Judson of My Cardboard Habit .

Judson wrote up a post one day on his blog stating he was "paying it forward" and was going to gift out some cards to some people and I was lucky enough to be one of them. I have dealt with Judson in the past on some trades and transactions and he is very easy to deal with. He informed me that he was sending me something PC and even though I told him he didn't have to I thanked him in advance for whatever it was. After almost 3 weeks in USPS limbo the mailer showed up at my post office and inside was this great looking purple parallel of Mike Trout from this year's Topps Chrome set. Judson knows I love my rainbows and sending cards to BGS for grading and that is exactly what this card does and will happen to it. Under my new 20x magnifier I see no issues with this card and see no reason why it won't gem when I send it in next March.

Thank you again to Judson for sending a card with no expectations of something being sent back and he has helped push me to do what I have dragged my feet on which is to send care packages out to other people as well. This hobby and the people in it have given me a lot and I have always wanted to pay it back somehow and what better time than now?

Ninety-Eight

of

Two Hundred and Seventy-Five

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Card of the Day - 2014 Allen Ginter : Mike Trout Base Mini Parallel Red Border Variant (32/33)

It's always nice to snag a card that you never thought you would get even though the demand isn't overly high for it.

I have the 2015 Ginter red version of Trout and wanted at some point to pare it up with the 2014 version. The 2015 has a print run of 40 which was hard enough to acquire (thankfully that gemmed by Beckett) but this 2014 only has a print run of 33. Even less copies to go after. I have only seen a few on eBay and one day I happened to see a different copy going for close to $50. Even with a book value of $30-60 I felt that was too high. Upon further review of my search I saw that this was on a BIN but not in my original search location. Go figure. This card's price was more up my alley and was a no brainer to acquire. Clicked the button and had it in hand a week later.

With my 2015 version as a 9.5 I hoped that this 2014 one would be in great condition as well and it looks like it is. It is now ear marked for the grading treatment in March when Beckett is back in town.

Thirty-Two

of

Thirty-Three

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

September 2016 BGS Submission Result Number THREE - 2016 Stadium Club Mike Trout Base Photo Variation Now BGS Graded Near Mint/Mint 8.5

2016 Stadium Club Mike Trout Photo Variation

I love me my Trout photo variations but I do not love anything less than a 9.5 but I am taking a chance on this one as it will return with a strong 9 or weak 9.5 and hopefully it will be the latter and not the former.

There is 1 corner that has fuzziness around it which is connected 1 edge which doesn't look "that" bad but we shall see what BGS thinks about it. This card would irritate me even more so if it comes back as a silver label since I "overpaid" for it.

3 cards in and terrible results for 3 Trout cards is the count so far. The only good thing to say about this one is that it is the last disappointing return of the whole batch which happens to be 56 cards large. So I am trying to look on the bright side. 

Unlike the other 2 the corners were not an issue as they came in at a 9 which I hoped for but it was the surface sub grade that earned an 8. What did I miss? Maybe I scanned it too fast and didn't see a blemish. I will be cracking and selling this back on eBay as all of my photo variations of Trout so far have been gems and this 8.5 is not acceptable.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin