The last few weeks have been pretty hectic here. Surely it’s nothing compared to what the folks on the East Coast are dealing with these days thanks to “Superstorm” Sandy. But nonetheless, life has been hectic.
I’ve had little time to document much of my hobby achievements. So I will do my best to post a few things here this morning before I return to my duties.
First off, here are the results of my latest Beckett Grading Services order. I sent these cards in two months and they came back a few weeks ago. But I’ve yet to share them, partially because my regular computer decided to take a crap and the scanner attached to it has been relegated to paper weight status.
Anyhow, here are the results.
When I went to The National in August, one of the cards I wanted to track down was a 1959 Sadaharu Oh rookie card. And as I documented here, I managed to find one at a GREAT price. Well, it’s finally slabbed. It’s the first one graded by Beckett Grading.
About three weeks after The National, I managed to swing a deal in which I was able to acquire a 1949 Bowman Satchel Paige rookie card. At the time of the acquisition, the card was slabbed by SGC and was graded “poor.” I’ve said it before, I like the SGC holders — that black mat inset does look good with vintage — but the majority of my cards are slabbed by Beckett. So yeah, I cracked the Paige and sent it to Beckett. Now it’ll fit in perfectly with the rest of the cardboard icons.
I bought this 1954 Bowman Don Larsen rookie on eBay a few years back and always thought it was in nice shape. The one flaw is a surface wrinkle ON THE BACK OF THE CARD. Really good-looking copy if you ask me.
About a week before I prepared my BGS order, I scored a 2005 Bowman Chrome Refractor Matt Kemp signed rookie year card for about half of what they were going for in May — you know, when he was the greatest baseball player on the face of the earth. It was raw when I got it. Now it’s a slabbed … as a mint 9. I believe Mint copies of this card were about $500 in May. That’s a win.
The last four cards in this batch were all cards I purchased over at Check Out My Cards.
Here’s another chrome rookie-year auto card from 2005. This Jay Bruce Topps Update Chrome Refractor was sitting on the COMC ungraded and was made available to me for $40. Seriously?! I paid more than that for my regular version. And given the Gem Mint grade that the BGS case now bears, I’d say I hit a bargain.
Sometime last year I acquired a 1957 Topps Frank Robinson rookie card on the site that was graded a 4.5. I was content with the grade, but it should be noted that the card had been graded in 2000 and in my opinion, the card appeared to be a bit stronger that the grade on the old BGS label. I was right … a slight bump.
This 1952 Topps Billy Martin was on the site in raw condition and was obtained for 10% of high book … solid buy and addition to my rookie card collection.
And we’ll save the best for last.
It’s hard to top some of the cards already shown in this post. But let’s consider this. This 1981 TCMA Pawtucket Wade Boggs minor league “pre” rookie card was the only one available on the COMC site and I snapped it up for $10 seconds after it became active. I bought it and it sat in my inventory for months; then I had it delivered and it sat in my house for months. Literally minutes before I sealed up my BGS order I figured I’d sent it in. Why? Because it looked perfect. Well … I was right! Only SIX of these have been graded GEM MINT by Beckett. Awesome.
cardboardicons.com 
