Judge-Mania Pays Off

Last week, I visited my LCS to see what was new. Because of the rookie rage this year (JUDGE, Benintendi, Bellinger, etc.), most products have become too expensive for me to afford. That wasn't a problem this time, because the only baseball product available was 2017 Tier One. 

So, I'm not going to fork over $150 for two three cards. It just ain't gonna happen. However, the owner had something else that I wanted, and trust me - this piece will be a centerpiece item. I didn't have the cash for it at the moment, but he agreed to hold it for me and let me pay it out. I'll let you in on what it is in a later post. (Oh, the suspense!)

Anyway, I went home and started looking for semi-valuable cards that I had in my collection that I wouldn't mind letting go. I never thought about it, but I checked to see what I had of Aaron Judge in my collection. Turns out, I had a silver ice and a blue parallel of Judge from 2014 Bowman (oh, if they would have only been a year older!) and a Clubhouse Collection relic from 2016 Heritage Minors. Then I started looking at what I had from this year's cards and I found rookie cards from Diamond Kings, Heritage, Gypsy Queen, and Series 1. IN all, I found ten cards. Instead of trying to sell each one individually, I decided to put them all into one lot:

I list the group at $100 or best offer. I am thinking I will be happy with $60. I wait for a few days and nothing happens. No bites.

Then, something magical occurred. While I am at the theater watching the new Spider-Man movie (which was great, by the way), Mr. Judge decides to do this:

Thank you Mr. Judge!

I walk out of the theater around 12:30 and check my phone and viola, I have an offer much higher than I expected! So I hit 'Accept' and smiled all the way home. The item I want is that much closer to being mine!

How, I feel the need to say that I am clearly not in the hobby to make money. I do it strictly for the enjoyment. That being said, I am on a grad student budget, which means that I don't have the luxury of having a ton of cash set aside for my hobby. Therefore, I have to sell cards that aren't central to my collection to get cards and items that are. So if it bothers you that I sold those cards, then I'm sorry. But it's how I grow my own collection.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great day!

Some PSA Goodness

I turned in my last final a couple of hours ago. I turned in grades for the class I taught a bit earlier in the day. What does that mean? I'm officially done with the semester!!!

Well, I have a bunch of research to do over the break, but that's the life of an academic. Always trying to plan ahead for tenure.

Regardless, this is the first opportunity I have had in a while to post. So I'm not going to miss the opportunity.

A wihle back, I threw some cards into my LCS owner's PSA order. I got them back a couple weeks ago, and I was stunned.

First up, I included this Phil Bickford team omission auto from '16 Heritage Minors:

The guy had some promise, but was suspended for the first 50 games of next season for his second failed drug test. C'mon, man....I hope he gets his act together. Drugs lead people down bad roads.

Next up was this Tyler O'Neill green bat variation from 2016 Heritage Minors:

I don't know much about O'Neill, other than that he is supposedly one of the Mariners' top prospects. MLB.com ranks him as #2, behind Kyle Lewis. This leaves me in a dilemma: I want him to do well so the card increases in value, but, as a Mariners prospect, I also want him to fail miserably (relax, I don't really want him to fail...I just don't want him to succeed against the Rangers).

Next up, Jon Daniels GM Signature card from 2012 Topps:

This is one of my favorite cards in my collection. I wanted it for a while before I finally got it. When I got back into collecting, the first auto I pulled from flagship was the GM auto from now-former DBacks GM Josh Byrnes. It was one of the pulls that brought me back to the hobby.

Lastly, I sent in my Cole Hamels Real One auto from '16 Heritage:

Anyone see the problem with this?????

For some reason, the grader at PSA decided that Cole Hamels was demoted and listed this as a Minor League Real One Auto.

I just double checked, and PSA still has it listed with the error. eBay 1 of 1, anyone??? But seriously, is there an eBay market for PSA errors?

Anyway, back to the main story. The thing that shocked me about this order? All of my cards came back Gem Mint 10s. That's kind of crazy, right? I'm definitely not complaining.

Well, that's it for now. It is officially almost 2 a.m. my time. I am going to do a few things to clean up my desk and then I am off to bed. I hope everyone is well!