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!


~

The Clemente Curse ?

I'm somewhat adjusting to life without my wife. It's much more hectic, and there's hardly room to relax and enjoy my collection. But it still serves a purpose in my life. 

Still, I do plan to functionally retire from card collecting after this year. I'll always love the hobby but the new stuff is overpriced, the products are uninspiring, and the players are increasingly difficult to cheer for - with some exceptions, of course. 

And so, I'm in the middle of mapping out an exit strategy. Tying up some loose ends and putting a bow on the whole collection. Eyeing stuff I like while prioritizing long-term investments. And, given our current political climate, I've turned my attention toward trailblazing, barrier-breaking legends like Roberto Clemente. 

Years ago, before COMC destroyed itself with greed, I purchased a 1968 Topps "Bob" Clemente card on the site for just under $20. '68 Topps was the first vintage set I ever saw and therefore it had always been my go-to. If I could, I would have accumulated every HOFer in the '68 set, but considering the Ryan and Bench RCs command hundreds apiece even in average condition, that idea was quickly scrapped. 

I'm an outlier among collections with my appreciation for the burlap design - and most old-school collectors loathe grading as well. But here's why I love it. The ungraded Clemente card I bought from COMC was diamond cut. I sold it right away, at a loss of about $5. 

Strike one.

One other Clemente card I purchased on COMC was sold for a profit. But I really wish I hadn't.

I somehow scooped up this Tier One bat relic for $12.99 on the site in 2018.  For some reason that escapes me, I flipped the card for $32.00. $19 profit, yay. Relics are a dime a dozen... but not Roberto Clemente relics, you idiot. 

Strike two.

Lesson learned. Buy graded vintage, screw COMC, don't sell anything until the girls are ready to go to college (or if the US economy crumbles and I need quick cash) 

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that I cashed in a Mike Trout RC and had the option to buy a 1960 Topps Mickey Mantle (BVG 6) or a Roberto Clemente 1971 Topps (PSA 7). I chose Mantle. That seemed to make the most sense. 

I chose wrong. 

The Mick converts to a PSA 4-5, which is about a $600 card. The Roberto '71 sells far less frequently - and for as much as $1300?!?!?

I'll call that a foul ball since the '60 Mantle is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, during my Summer of Slabs sale of the Alex Ovechkin BGS 9.5 RC, I considered upgrading the Mantle and acquiring a Clemente. 

And that's when I spied this beauty: 

This was available for $1500 - an exorbitant amount for a single card but about the same cost as a '71 Clemente PSA 7 and a Mantle '60 PSA 5 combined. I could squeeze it into the budget if I get this instead. It's a high-grade card of an iconic player, from the year his team somehow beat Mantle's Yanks in the World Series.

The website offering this card did not take PayPal (booooo!) but they did have a layaway payment plan (yaaayy!) so I swallowed hard and added this to my order. While we negotiated the payment structure he pulled the cards and realized... he'd sold the Clemente at a recent card show. 

Strike three. 

"Is there anything you would like instead?" The seller asked.

Yes. Yes there was. 

And it's going to be the capstone of my collection. 

~~

Summer of Slabs 04 - First '56 team set complete!

There aren't many holes left to fill in my 1956 Topps set build, but they are spread out evenly among the 16 teams that existed at the time. Not including both League Presidents cards and both checklist cards, these are the remaining cards I need to acquire:

Baltimore Orioles (4) team card, Willy Miranda, Dave Philley, George Zuverink (tough one!)
Boston Red Sox (1) Bob Porterfield
Brooklyn Dodgers (6) Walter Alston, team card, Don Bessent, Pee Wee Reese, Jim Gilliam, Rube Walker
Chicago Cubs (4) team card, Monte Irvin, Bob Rush, Sam Jones
Chicago White Sox (3) team card, Larry Doby, Connie Johnson
Cincinnati Redlegs (2) Joe Nuxhall, Chuck Harmon
Cleveland Indians (3) team card, Vic Wertz, Hal Naragon
Detroit Tigers (4) Ned Garver, Frank Lary, team card, Bob Miller
Kansas City Athletics (3) team card, Tom Gorman, Bobby Shantz
Milwaukee Braves (1) George Crowe
New York Giants (2) Willie Mays, team card
New York Yankees (4) Bill Skowron, Billy Martin, Irv Noren, Don Larsen
Philadelphia Phillies (3) Jim Owens, Del Ennis, Andy Seminick
Pittsburgh Pirates (2) Bob Friend, Bob Skinner (apparently I'm avoiding the Bobs.)
St. Louis Cardinals (3) Rip Repulski, Stu Miller, Willard Schmidt
Washington Nationals (1) Carlos Paula

Most of series 1 is filled, only seven of the first 100 remained. So when I noticed that Paula was #4 n the set I jumped on eBay to find a seller who had a clean copy. The only one was in Quebec, so it took a while to arrive. In the mean time, I counted the remaining cards from every team and noticed that not only would card #4 leave me with just one player card to cross off my first series list (Skowron) I would finally complete a team set!

Here they are, your 1956 Washington Senators Nationals:

Now you know why this was the first team set I completed. Not a ton of star power here, huh? 

Luckily, Topps tossed in a 19 year-old prospect who tied for sixth on the team in home runs despite playing just 38 games in 1955:

I actually bought the Killebrew card sight unseen as part of an eBay purchase. The seller had some more 1956 cards (Pirates team, Yankees team, Mickey McDermott, and Killer here) that he hadn't listed. We negotiated a price and he shipped them with the original purchase - a lot of 20 mid-grade singles from this set. The snow on Harmon's hat isn't as noticeable in hand. 

 

There's one more 1956 Topps card on the way to Collector HQ as part of my bday purchase, but it won't complete a team set. Also, my 4SC Consignment ended (the smaller batch). It was a mixed bag. Some surprises but mostly lower than expected. Which is to be expected; auctions always end lower than they should when you're selling, and higher than they should when you're buying. 

Thanks for reading!

~

Summer of Slabs 03 - Am I collecting catchers?

While looking through my box of PSA-graded singles to select a few for consignment, I noticed something: 

I have a lot of catcher cards in my collection. Baseball cards take up abut 60% of my PSA box (not counting the 1956 Topps singles, which have their own shelf) and out of those seventy-something singles, nearly a dozen are cards of catchers.

Out of curiosity, I tallied each card by position. Pitchers were well ahead with 23, as you'd expect. Outfielders were next at 19 (would have been 20, but I currently do not have a 1960 Topps Mantle)

Catchers lead the infield, in a bit of an upset over first basemen:

C -- 11
1B - 7
2B - 4
SS - 4
3B - 6

This was the count before I sent my consignment order. I'd actually had 12 catchers at one time, but I sold a Jason Varitek Topps Traded RC in a previous consignment since I had an ungraded copy. This time, I sent away the Sullivan and Lollar. It wasn't an easy decision, but this focus on The 144 spots in my box has helped me determine which cards are true long-term keepers. 

Del Crandall and Craig Biggio make the cut this time. Crandall was a cheap COMC pickup from one of my first orders. I'd found so many quality vintage cards around 2014-16 that I renewed my long-dormant PSA subscription and sent in a bunch. Crandall was one of three NM-MT 8s, and one of the reasons I kept trying to tap the COMC well for more vintage to grade. It ran dry around five years ago :/

Biggio stays because it's a rookie card of a HOFer. I almost sort-of had an "all 1990s team" going, but got stuck at a couple positions. I might revisit that one day, and if I do, I'll need this one.

The Astros legend would not be an all-1990s catcher, of course. That honor would belong to Mike Piazza: 

It's odd to me that Piazza's Fleer Update RC is more valuable (scarcity, I guess?) or at least counted as the "top" Piazza RC. I've always preferred this Bowman single. Campy was a COMC acquisition; I prefer this to his 1955 Bowman single though that one has more personal significance. A story for another day.

One reason I never assembled that all-1990s team is because some RCs are worth purchasing in high grade and some aren't. Ivan Rodriguez would be the AL's catcher, and I do have his Ultra Update ungraded. A half-slabbed, half-raw collection didn't look right. But I do have the original Pudge in a plastic prison:

These might not stay in my collection for too long. The '75 would be a keeper if the centering was better (those borders are tricky), while the '79 is nice to have but not necessarily in a slab. It's one of the two 1979 Topps cards remaining from a batch I'd bought on COMC. There were so many HOFers in 8 or 9 grade that I should have held on to - Nolan Ryan, Catfish Hunter, Eddie Murray, Fergie Jenkins, and others - but I kept the Fisk 8 and the Jim Rice 9.

Of course, no catcher card collection would be complete without the greatest catcher in MLB history:

This is the best Bench card in my opinion. At least it's the best Bench in my budget. 

There's your team of the 1970s catchers, with all due respect to Thurman Munson. Although maybe Fisk would start for the AL in the '80s? Gary Carter would be the NL's catcher for sure. I've tried finding his 1977 O-Pee-Chee single but they're tough. Might have to settle for Topps on that one.

1960s catchers are a mixed bag. There aren't any true Hall of Famers; Yogi Berra's career was winding down while Johnny Bench was just getting started. Bill Freehan would be the bridge there. I had a high-grade copy of his 1968 Topps single, but gave it to my father in law when he expressed interest in starting a '68 Tigers team set. That was a lot of fun to help him with. I hope I get to see that again one day.

Yogi cards are a bit out of my price range. I've kicked the tires on a '62 Topps and might have to pick one up if I'm really committed to collecting catchers. 

One more to show you. It's my highest-grade pre-war card, and another COMC pickup from back in the day:

Luke Sewell caught over 1,600 games in the majors over a 20-year career, and compiled a total WAR of... 4.6. Not great. But it's a 1933 Goudey, you take what you can get. And the reason I was able to get this one was the pen mark on the back.

It's more of a pen indent. There's another '33 Goudey catcher card that I've had my eye on for quite a while:

If I could squeeze one more 1933 Goudey card into my box (and budget), this is the one I would target. Unfortunately even a common card like Muddy here are much more expensive than they were a few years ago. 

Ruel was Walter Johnson's catcher in Washington, and helped the Senators win their only World Series in 1924. I've got more Sens to show and tell in my next Summer of Slabs post...

Thanks for reading!



~

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!




~

Summer of Slabs 01 - Color matching

Welp, now that everyone has noticed I've returned to blogging... I will have to go on another hiatus. 

Two weeks from today Mrs. Collector will go under the knife for a 6-hour procedure involving three different surgeons to (hopefully) remove her liver and colon tumors. If all goes well, her recovery will take about a month. But that's strict rest; she will still have to take it easy for a few months after that. 

So.. no East Coast National, no birthday visit to Connecticut, and no card show at the mall the following weekend. I'm still consigning cards with 4 Sharp Corners(might need the money more than I care to imagine), and I'm going ahead with my planned series of Summer of Slabs posts. Some of these might have to be scheduled, but we're not there yet. 

In this series I'll scan up a couple of BGS or PSA-graded cards in my collection. Some of these just arrived from Beckett, some are on their way to 4SC, and some have permanent residence in my hallowed Graded Card Chest -- which the Mrs bought me at least 15 years ago. 

The manufacturer went out of business a decade ago

There's room for 144 PSA-graded cards in this bad boy, and my initial purpose for these posts (before the surgery was moved up a month) was to determine which cards to keep, which to sell, and which cards to acquire. 

We'll get back to this soon enough. Today I want to kick off this series by showing off some color matching parallels fresh from BGS:

This Matt Chapman green refractor is numbered to 75. Someone on eBay offered me $20 for it after he'd just been traded to the Giants. I decided to hold on to it for a while, but decided to submit it for grading while he's still a top-tier third baseman. It's going in the shipment to 4 Sharp Corners. 

I picked up this Tony Parker Bowman '48 tribute for $5.25 on COMC way back in 2015(have I really been back into basketball card collecting that long?!?) The black parallels are numbered to 48 and I wanted to grade it specifically so 4SC would consign it. There is a white corner (back bottom left) that I was aware of before submitting it to BGS, but I took the gamble anyway. No idea what to expect for this one; Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter cards sold for about $20 raw, while a PSA-authenticated (not graded) Kobe Bryant sold for $330. 

I love this Steve Nash orange refractor. The only reason I considered selling it was because these sell for a lot more than I realized; a PSA 9 Nash just sold for about $130. The centering was an obvious issue on my copy, but BGS saw more of an issue with the edges. Either way, a Mint 9 was best-case scenario for this card. A sale price ceiling of over $100 is tempting, but I'm gonna hold on to this for another year or so.

Sorry about the iffy pictures, btw. My scanner won't work with thick BGS holders so I had to use my phone. 

Finally tonight, here's the one card that I knew I wanted to get a Gem Mint grade on, the one that would look the coolest in my color match collection, even if it's not as valuable as the others... 

Wooo this is the best grade yet! Filip Forsberg isn't Connor McDavid or anything, but he's one of the top rookies in the 2013-14 Panini Prizm set. This was the only stand alone Panini Prizm puck product and since a Red Sasha Barkov is out of my budget, this was the best color match I could acquire. There's one on eBay (with a better pic) listed at $129. I don't think it would sell for half that in auction. 

This weekend I'll discuss some more from the 'consign' pile, and maybe another keeper or two.

Thanks for reading!



~