Slab-tober

This is going to be one of those posts most card bloggers loathe: a showoff post (gasp!) that involves selling a significant card (gasp!!) to buy graded cards (GASP!!)

I wasn't even sure I wanted to share this with the group, but this was years in the making. As you may recall I sold my Alex Ovechkin SP Authentic RC, shown here:

total received: $6,008.75

I also consigned two other cards which sold for a combined $820. In total I raked in just shy of 7k. Setting aside 3k for home improvement projects and Christmas gifts left me with just under $4,000 to build my graded card PC.

Behold ! My Summer of slabs September of slabs Slab-tober spoils!

total spent: $1,224.00

I'd never considered acquiring RCs of Mario Lemieux or Patrick Roy, they were condition sensitive and out of my price range. Mario is super undervalued compared to Gretzky's RC but his OPC is hard to find centered (did the best I could but it's still 80/20) Roy's RCs often have a speck of blue ink in the name bar. Took me a long time to find a centered copy with no ink speck. 

total spent: $447.83

This was somewhat of an impulse buy. I had planned to purchase a 1987-88 Fleer Michael Jordan in Near Mint condition, but I wasn't satisfied with the centering - and it's a $600+ card. Considering I don't like Mike (and never have) it seemed like too much money to spend on a pure investment. Instead I spied this Mint condition card of the guy who went #1 ahead of MJ in the 1984 draft. I was always an Olajuwon fan, and the only reason I never owned this card was because Star made everything confusing for me. 

Honestly I'd rather have this Akeem card, but it isn't his first Star card. His first Star card is waaay out of my price range, and both/all of them have card backs that look like unlicensed knockoffs. 

Total spent: $346.50

Here's a couple of LT rookies. I always liked Tomlinson, and his RC was $60 more than Taylor's. The OG LT strikes a thoughtful pose on his '82 Topps single, which is appropriate since I've thought long and hard about how a player's off-field character factors into my collecting choices. Short answer: it's complicated. Perhaps I'll dig deeper into this topic one day. 

Total spent: $647.20

Add A-Rod to that discussion. Ergh..I got those plastic display stands so I wouldn't have to scan slabbed cards, but the lighting in my card room is horrible. Ebay's authenticity wrappers are distracting and  unnecessary. I haven't broken the seal on any of them, but it's tempting. 

Total spent: $597.03

No character issues with these legendary aces. These '60s singles were roughly the same price, yet Koufax didn't have to pass through eBay's authenticity program. Perhaps because it was purchased from a Canadian seller? Palmer was one of the few 1960s-70s greats that wasn't represented in my PSA box. I actually prefer this second-year single to his '66 Topps rookie card. 

Total spent: $452.53

Joe Montana's rookie card is an infamous part of my collecting life. In my early teen years it was a 'grail' card, one that I could only afford because the owner of my LCS was friendly with my mom and allowed me to make payments. It took me all summer, but I paid off the shop owner and had my Montana card. Shortly after, when Mom argued with me about my sports card "obsession" and accused me of caring more about my cards than my family... I ripped it up right in front of her.

Mom stared at me slack-jawed, and after a second or two she said "well, that was dumb."

For a long time I thought about replacing the Montana RC, but whenever I saw one it brought back that unpleasant memory. It was time to patch that hole in my collection. 

And that brings the total to $3,715.09. There was also a Jack Eichel rookie card and a Terry Sawchuk that I'll scan up and discuss some other time. The pictures from my phone are just too blurry :/

Obviously this all happened at the worst possible time. It seemed frivolous to spend so much on trading cards, but that's how long it took to re-slab the Ovechkin, get it back from Beckett, consign it with 4 Sharp Corners, and receive my payout. Acquiring these cards in particular has helped me focus on which cards I would prioritize in order to consider my collection 'complete' and after this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that list is much shorter. 

I've got a post or two planned to track my vintage base and modern-ish rookie card collection and where these news slabs slot into those lists, plus that project on overlooking(or not) great players with bad reputations. 

Thanks for reading!


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Summer of Slabs 02 - Adventures with Alex

Yesterday I shipped my consignment order to 4 Sharp Corners. I sent two separate packages - 14 cards to be listed immediately, and three high-value cards for their August Showcase:

Huh huh.. ass  ... huh huh huh 

 

I mentioned the Mickey Mantle before. It's my hope that the 14 other slabs will sell for enough cash to upgrade this to a 5.5 or maybe 6 if I'm real lucky (when am I ever lucky though?)

At one point I had a small stack of SP Authentic Future Watch autos. The true RCs really exploded in value during the Covid lockdown/hobby frenzy, and I decided to sell off my Henrik Lundqvist RC but not mt Steven Stamkos RC. I always liked Tampa, and Stammer. His autograph was so sharp. 

But he'll be 36 this season. 2024-25 was his first year in Nashville, and his worst full season since his rookie year. I probably should have sold it three years ago, after Tampa's three-year run as Stanley Cup finalists and his first/only 100-point season. But I really liked this card. I still do, just not as much. 

If there was no urgent family health crisis in my life to navigate around, I might have waited until the 2025-26 NHL season was in full swing to sell hockey cards. Stamkos is 18 goals away from his 600th career and he's never failed to pot at least 23 in a full season, so 700 is a possibility before he hangs 'em up.

800 career goals is out of reach. 

900 career goals is impossible for anyone -- except this guy:

Here it is. The Golden Ticket. The most valuable card in my collection... or at least it was until yesterday. I'm honestly a little sad to see it go. But what a journey it has been. 

I bought this card in 2014, after his fifth 50-goal season:

The seller had listed a Buy It Now of $450 but I made a best offer and he accepted. When I received the card I knew immediately why he didn't haggle:

There was gunk all over the case. I couldn't wipe it off, it was embedded in the slab. I knew BGS had a reholder option, and they have a booth at the East Coast National show in White Plains, NY. Eventually I would get back to that show, bring the Ovi, and get a fresh holder. 

That never happened. My wife and I were too busy with our infant daughters to go to a major card show. I worked when she didn't; she worked when I didn't. The time and money just wasn't there.

Meanwhile, Alex Ovechkin kept scoring goals. And this card kept rising in value. I absolutely did not want to send it to Beckett in the mail, risking loss or damage for what would become the crown jewel of my hockey card collection. 

The Capitals finally won a Stanley Cup. Ovi kept scoring goals. Covid, the stimulus, the hobby spike, etc. etc... before I knew it this card was worth 15x what I'd paid for it. This wasn't just my most valuable hockey card -- it was my most valuable possession. I'd have to sell it someday, to put my kids through college (or pay for medical bills) .. and with Ovechkin in hot pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's goals record...

I knew the time to sell was approaching just as quickly. But if I was going to send this card through the mail, I wanted to minimize the risk of postal damage. 

COMC had an option to submit cards to PSA for grading, so I submitted the Ovechkin as a crossover - thinking that those three 10s would equal a PSA 10 (plus a clean case) This was a huge mistake. 

After paying a substantial grading fee to PSA for crossing over a $5,000 card in a hurry (because I wanted COMC to list it for sale right before he broke Gretzky's goals record) I received this... 

PSA didn't grade the card. And, as an added bonus, they pocketed the grading fee. 

I was livid. I ripped into the COMC customer service rep, who reported that PSA considered this 'below standard' or some garbage. Obviously no one at PSA even bothered to hold this in their hand because it's clear that the damage is on the case, not the card. I made this point to COMC customer service while also accusing PSA of stealing my money.

The COMC rep got me a refund, so at least I has some store credit to play with. That was my last order on the site. Ever. 

I also have zero plans to submit anything to PSA ever again, which is unfortunate for my 1956 Topps set build, but that's a story for another day.

While I was insisting on a refund for the grading fees and attempting to sell the card as-is, do you know Ovechkin was doing? Scoring goals at a higher rate than ever before. Russian Machine Never Breaks* 

*my enjoyment of Alex Ovechkin the hockey player is not an endorsement of Russia or the Putin regime

COMC listed my scuffed-up slab at a 20% markup (two things to scare off bidders) while other sellers with an SPA 9.5 were selling theirs for five digits. Right before Ovechkin broke the record, one copy sold for $11,000+ 

Do you know what I could have bought with that kind of coin? I do:

I whipped this up based on COMC ask prices at the time. That would have been an unreal trade. Alas.

Obviously it was a very tight window to max out the sale price, and it's long passed. But $5-6k is still a lot of money. It's enough to buy some timeless vintage cards, a few set fillers and/or upgrades, and have enough left for a minor home renovation project. 

But... the gunk. I had to get rid of the gunk. 

And so, I bit down and shipped it off to BGS, along with the Chapman and Parker and Nash and McDavid and Connor and Forsberg. And it came back, nice and clean and nearly pristine. 

And then I put in the mail again, this time to 4 Sharp Corners consignment. It should reach their headquarters Tuesday, but it won't be up for sale until late August. That's fine, I'll be too busy with the Mrs. to spend the money anyhow.

Sending this Ovechkin out for consignment is the end of an era for my hockey card collection. Through the years I've sold Upper Deck Young Guns cards of Ovi, Sidney Crosby, Leon Draisiatl, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and many more. I've sold SPA Future Watch autos of Henrik Lundqvist, Drew Doughty, Logan Couture, and now Ovi (and Stamkos). I once had six Ovechkin rookie cards. 

I've only got two left - a Black Diamond BGS 9.5, and an ungraded Victory RC that was inserted into Upper Deck packs so it probably shouldn't even count as a true RC.

This Ovechkin RC accompanied the SPA and friends to 4 Sharp Corners. It was part of a Pack Wars prize from my LCS, with a few other ungraded Power Play RCs (Corey Perry was among them). I sent it to BGS way back in 2008 - along with a pack-pulled prospect auto of the top slugging prospect in MLB at the time:

Remember Matt LaPorta? He was supposed to be the prize of the CC Sabathia trade, not Michael Brantley. I was so excited when I pulled that card, too. It's fun to look back on my BGS submissions and remind myself of what cards I had and sold long, long ago. The Ovechkin RCs were never meant to be flipped, but I held them in my PC for over a decade. It's time to cash out. 

Thanks for reading!




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Player Collection Roll Call

Much of my collecting focus this year was geared toward building and completing sets. However I think I've hit a wall there. Every TCDB trade option has been exhausted - aside from maybe some 1994 Fleer Ultra baseball singles, there's nothing else I can acquire with what's left of my tradelist. 

I've made 15 separate purchases on Sportlots in 2023(which has become my go-to sports card site, eclipsing COMC) plus a couple from TCDB (shoutout supergajit and RSmith1217). And I made a lot of progress! My two-page wantlist shrunk down to two-thirds of a page, and even with four new projects added it's still much cleaner than it was eleven months ago. 

With my team collections nearing capacity and new sets not really thrilling me (except for 2023 Topps Archives) it was time to turn my focus to player PCs. I added a bunch to my TCDB wantlist and began boosting those numbers. So here's an update on some of the players I collect and where my count stands with four weeks left in the year:

Robin Yount

Current Count: 130 (8th overall, 1st among non-Red Sox in my collection)
Incoming via TCDB: 20
Notes: Even with my meager trade bait it's not hard to reel in overproduction-era singles of a Hall of Famer with over 9,000 unique cards. There are some 2000s singles (Fleer Greats, Legendary Cuts) en route as well.

Kris Bryant

Current Count: 68 (19th, 1st among active non-Red Sox)
Incoming via TCDB: None, but not for lack of trying.
Notes: I didn't add Bryant cards to my wantlist and I've wavered on keeping him on my PC player list. But he's one of few active players I like and his cards always look sharp - especially this one:

I asked for this in a potential trade and the user removed it in his counter, so I declined and bought one on COMC - for well under a dollar.

 

 Eric Dickerson

Current Count: 57 (12th, 2nd among non-Packers)
Incoming via TCDB: 2
Notes: The last time I was able to purchase a football repack from the Shop Rite vending machine I pulled an '84 Topps Dickerson (In Action, not the true RC)

Dan Marino

Current Count: 92 (6th, 1st among non-Packers)
Incoming via TCDB: 2
Notes: Marino has over 14,000 different cards. He'd have crossed the 100-card milestone in my collection long ago if there were more football card collectors on the blogs and TCDB.

Christian McCaffrey

Current Count: 42 (21st, 1st among active non-Packers)
Incoming via TCDB: none
Notes: CMC used to be easy for me to collect, since he's an injury prone non-quarterback. It's been a bit tougher now that he's on a more glamorous team - not just due to the abundance of 49ers fans but also because my dislike for the team. This is the only SF McCaffrey card I have to date, and I acquired it in a recent TCDB trade.

Art Monk

Current Count: 45 (20th, 6th among non-Packers)
Incoming via TCDB: None from TCDB; one incoming from COMC
Notes: Some recently completed trades brought in a few of Mr. Monk's early '90s issues I was inexplicably missing. I should be able to add a couple more before I run out of trade bait.

 

 Hakeem Olajuwon

Current Count: 72 (2nd among all NBA players)
Incoming via TCDB: 12, plus one incoming from COMC
Notes: TCDB counts multi-player team cards, like this. I only count them if the player is specifically mentioned, like this:

...which TCDB does not include in my Hakeem card count, for some reason.

Reggie Miller

Current Count: 75 (1st among all NBA players)
Incoming via TCDB: 2
Notes: The race to 100 is on. Hakeem is pulling ahead. and will take the lead from Miller once all these TCDB trades arrive (even when you factor in their wacky accounting). I've been trying to find an affordable Finest or Chrome refractor of Reggie and it just isn't happening. Although I did manage to pick up his Fleer RC for my set build.

Damian Lillard

Current Count: 34 (19th, 1st among active NBA players)
Incoming via TCDB: None
Notes: My Lillard PC was in danger of shutting down this summer as the Portland legend tried to maneuver his way to Miami. When he ended up in Milwaukee instead(my de facto favorite team) I revived my interested in acquiring more Lillard cards, and I'm looking forward to adding my first Dame card as a Buck. 

Alex Ovechkin

Current Count: 180 (1st among active NHL players)
Incoming via TCDB: 5; plus one from COMC
Notes: Ovi's Gr8 chase toward Wayne Gretzky's NHL goals record is slowing down (he's 67 goals away and only has 5 this year) but my Ovechkin collection marches on. I should be able to reach 200 different cards before the end of 2024.

 

There are plenty of other players I collect, but these ten have been my main focus. 

 

Have you acquired any notable cards of your  favorite players lately? What are your hobby goals for 2024?


Thanks for reading!


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Gifts n' Goals

While I was spending my blogging time on the Young Guns Chronicles, Alex Ovechkin was busy passing Gordie Howe for #2 on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list.

I'd share my thoughts on The Great Eight and The Gr8 Chase, but I'm already dishing out more NHL posts than anyone wants to read, so I'll skip that. Plenty of other topics to cover anyhow.

Just before Christmas I received a small bubble mailer from Dennis and a very surprising PWE from Gavin.

You've probably seen Gavin's 1991 Fleer creations pop up in your mailbox or on your blogroll. I received this Wade Boggs card almost immediately after reading this post. (There was another card included but I was instructed not to share.) The coin was a gift from Dennis, who also sent me two Whalers autographs:

And an Immaculate Collection Rookie Cleats card of ArDarius Stewart, which I'd requested from one of his tradebait posts.

I've added this to my updated Immaculate Collection tally, which you can view under my blog header. All of my pages have been updated, btw.

Since I didn't receive any sports card gifts from the family - not that there's a card shop nearby or anything - here's a few things I couldn't fit into prior posts, just to wrap up the 2022 collecting year:

I kind of planned an entire post around Mikaela Shiffrin, but Matt at Cards Over Coffee beat me to it. Great minds think alike, eh? It's cool to see another Shiffy fan on the blogs. (Is her nickname Shiffy? It should be.) Here are the scans anyhow. I picked these up earlier in the year:

Then I added these later in the year:

Now if I'm correct, this is 18 different Mikaela cards - not counting the Sports Illustrated single I wrote about before the 2018 Winter Olympics. But I guess not every single you see here is listed on TCDB, because they're only giving me credit for 16. Ah well. 

These beauties are headed for my Women on Cards binder, along with the Paige Spiranac singles I scooped up on COMC, non-sports celebs, and other great female athletes. While I'm on the subject...

Why doesn't Sydney McLaughlin have any cards? She's only the most dominant track and field athlete in the world. Get on it, Upper Deck!!

No, no... Sydney with a 'Y'. As in 'Y' hasn't Sports Illustrated for Kids included her in a set? We don't need you to make more Davante Adams or Bo Bichette cards!

One of my goals for 2023 will be to clear out the remaining 700+ cards in my trade bait box and flip them for some set fillers and other cards that fit my collection. I didn't get a chance to show off my final completed trade of 2022, and my 545th TCDB transaction overall, but here it is:

That's 1995 1st overall pick Ki-Jana Carter in the old Redslurs uniform, with a Packers logo in the top right corner as rare cardboard proof of his tryout with Green Bay. I could swear that Eric Dickerson was in Packers camp at the end of his career, but maybe he was just offered a tryout and decided to retire instead? [Editor's note: he was acquired by GB but failed a physical.]

Once I reorganize my boxes and binders I'll give you all a tour - perhaps in video form 🤔

My other goals for the upcoming year will be:

• Make more progress on my 1956 Topps setbuild. With four more graded cards I'll cross two major milestones: 60% set completion, and 200 PSA-slabbed singles.
  

• Finish at least five sets. I've got about 15 set builds near completion, and maybe ten of them are realistic. 2022 Topps and 1993 Diamond Kings will be trade targets for sure, along with 1990-91 Skybox basketball.
  

• Start a new (non-card) collection. My inner child has been screaming at me to get back into Starting Lineup figures. I was so psyched to hear that a reboot was going to be released... but the price point was a major letdown. I've got a closet full of McFarlane figures I can't give away. Why would I spend $50 on a Luka Doncic figure when I can pick up 5-10 classic SLUs and relive my childhood?
  

Eight year-old me ripped the base off of Dave Righetti and Fernando Valenzuela, so I used some tape to stand them upright. Perhaps I'll share more about my SLU collection in a recurring series here - if there's interest?

My main objective is to spend less time on COMC/TCDB, less time sorting and acquiring cards, and more time enjoying what I've already accumulated. Because there is another kind of Chronicles to complete....

Thanks for reading!



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Red Hot Hockey

It's been a rough year for my favorite NFL team. The Green Bay Packers keep pushing out the rotting corpse of Throw Rogan, aka Aaron Rodgers, instead of giving Jordan Love a chance to show what he can do. I'm pretty sure the Pack could go 4-8 with Love, practice squad sensation Kurt Benkert, or the recently retired Ryan Fitzpatrick behind center - but I'm no NFL GM. 

The only three Packer cards I brought home this Black Friday

 
Lucky for me, the '22-23 NHL season is overflowing with hot streaks and milestones, with more on the way.

The Seattle Kraken are in second place, just four points behind the league's second-newest team in Vegas. Seattle is riding a franchise-high six-game winning streak. Mark Giordano was traded to Toronto last year, but Jordan Eberle is still here and scoring at a point-a-game pace. I'm always on the lookout for Kraken cards, like these two cheapies from my recent COMC order. Ron Francis + nautical theme + blue-green color scheme = my favorite western squad. They're basically the Whalers, right?

You know that annoying thing some football people do, where they refer to the Giants and Jets by their proper home of New Jersey - but only when they suck. And now that both teams are in playoff position those same football talkers claim they've earned the "New York" name? Yeah, it's bull crap. If the team plays in New York, they're New York. If the team plays in New Jersey, they're New Jersey.

And right now, the NHL's best team is the New Jersey Devils. Try taking credit for this, NYC (No You Can't) The Devils have the same amount of points and wins as the Boston Bruins (ooh, I bet NY is just seething)  but the Bruins have one less loss, so technically they're on top. Both teams have had incredible winning streaks this season, and neither squad shows any signs of slowing down.

 I picked up a few Devils cards recently:

 

These were COMC purchases. I grabbed the clear-cut single in the center for $2.25, sold it for $5.70, and then bought it again for $4.00. So technically I paid 55 cents for it?

I paid slightly more for this bad boy:

Most of my Young Guns rookies were sold to fund the 1956 Topps set build, but I had to have a high-grade RC of Jack Hughes, the Devils' top scorer and franchise player. This was one of three high-end cards I picked up after selling a chunk of my Brett Favre collection. Perhaps I'll detail that eBay 'trade' in my next post.

Some more hockey pickups here, including a quartet of Alex Ovechkin cards. The Great Eight just broke Wayne Gretzky's career goals record... well, one of them, anyway.

This Tim Horton's single just arrived in a trade with TCDB user Galtview. I got a bunch of Blue Jays and Whalers in the trade, too although one card was missing.

Back to the COMC box. I had to jump on this Exquisite Ovechkin card celebrating his 700th career goal...

...which he tallied against the Devils, way back when they were lousy.

Here's a few more hockey cards I ordered on COMC over the past few weeks:

I've got more of these incoming. I'm halfway done with the Uncommon Rookies portion of the 2003-04 Pristine set.

Pretty Prizm Parallels are pretty much the only way I'll purposely purchase Rangers and Jets cards.

Cheap ePack Whalers.

Not-so cheap Whaler (this one was $2.25)

Cheap ePack tallboys for my 6-pocket pages.


 

And finally, 6 more Paiges 😍😊

Thanks for reading!



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