Recent slab pickups / grading

[2014BESTSERVICE]

The last Group of the Base Sterling items I have scanned today is the BURGUNDY # to 14 versions of which I have 5 of the 8 already. These I actually have more of than the White- go figure !! I paid anywhere from $40-65 delivered apiece for these.
Although I think 1 card I may have gotten for like $25 for some reason no one else bid on it. I need 111,112,and 116 here

I have ZERO of the Gold # to 9 sadly

Just refused back then to pay $100+ for a base card that had no auto on it- did not care if only 9 Gold were available.
Was never and still won't overpay to be a "completist" collector. Maybe $75-80 max for a base non-auto.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

OK folks a few more scanned of Clemens for insurance folks = then I will be dealing with my first 2020 bulk back from PSA I'll post the Clemens first then start scanning the new PSA slabs. Some projects almost complete there
Fans of the Dodgers may like a few of them as well as a few player collectors

These next group of scans will be the Base series Game Used 2004 Flair Diamond Cuts items. I absolutely loved these boxes- in the box break section I have broken several loose ones I had in storage . While MSRP was up there for a single box ($120 msrp) I usually picked them up by the case for about $75-80 each. Never paid retail. Still probably have at least a case sitting in storage. Its a hit or miss open. Hobby has just a few cards in it but I always enjoyed the hit or miss aspect of seeing a low # item pop up. Sorta like "controlled" gambling I guess. Hence why the hobby had tons of $$ flowing in the early 2000's. Just another form of gambling.

As always baseballcardpedia is a great resource for info on these baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/2004_Flair

For Clemens the breakdown is below for the Diamond Cuts Game Used series ( base set - NOT the Die Cuts)

Green - not numbered
Blue (serial # to 250 copies)
Red (serial # to 175 copies)
Pewter (serial # to 125 copies)
Copper (serial # to 75 copies)
Silver (serial # to 50 copies)
Gold (serial # to players jersey number - Clemens was 22)
Platinum (serial # to pitchers # of wins in 2003 - Clemens had 17 )

So there was 8 total- which I have completed luckily
I'll show these off first. I did find 4 die cuts with these but I'd like to locate my other 2 before showing those off
Think I am missing just 2 cards from the die cuts ( a Copper Die Cut/8 and the Purple/1 Die Cut)
So basically 90% complete on this series. I do know where some of my missing cards are and which collectors own them.
FYI that is lint on the Silver sorry forgot to wipe it off its been in storage a while

And somewhere buried is the Platinum version below. Its why I am doing this inventory.
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[2014BESTSERVICE]

Posting a few 1998 Mark McGwire HR History PSA slabs that came back. As my prior posts have shown I've subbed these piecemeal as I am working on the set of McGwire only. With the return of these 5 slabs I am down to just 4 Mac's left and I'd have to check on where they are ( I know card # 7 is in grading not sure on the other 3 left). Been a slow slog as these have to be done in spurts as I like mixing resale in with PC items when I sub. Sorta pays for future subs that way

I am fine with PSA 9 and 10 on Pacific stuff as its incredibly difficult the way they were produced . I'll eventually upgrade all the 8's. Without further ado the recent 5 slabs back. Will be great when I finally finish been 18 months of bulks piecemealing each time

I'll have more Clemens BGS slabs soon. I also just have to plow thru 30 card PSA scans some of which are resale i need scanned and ready for Turkey Day !!
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[2014BESTSERVICE]

Apparently I got Mac #7 back from grading last month and set it aside. When I went to put these away there is was on top of the Mac box. Since I know the other slabs "should be in order"( they were) I knew I forgot to scan it
So now I am down to just 3 cards left to complete the Mac HR series = 15 ( at grading this I know) and 59 / 67 (unsure on those)

New sub also back with these 3 Teks. The Mint 9 is normal the Tek series are prone to surface issues I expect 9 or 10. So these are normal. The 8 was a shocker until I looked on back and slapped my head wondering how I could have missed an obvious surface problem

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

So during the pre-Covid19 National those lucky enough to be invited got a private party hosted where VIP packs were handed out. There was quiet a few inserts and the occasional "fat pack" that generally either was loaded with inserts or contained game used. I was especially drawn to the Pink refractors they had in those packs. Back in February I sent a crapload of the cards from these packs I broke in to be slabbed. Just got 4 more back . I also got back two thicker items- 1 an Ozzie Albies Auto and the other my Eloy Jimenez VIP Memorabilia card. The Eloy jersey piece was numbered # 4/5 and is pretty thick."Player Used" is the term on the back. Could be a WS warm up piece for all we know. I knew going out that Mint 9 was to be expected these packs were not handled delicately by Panini staff let's put it that way.
Gemming any makes me happy. Mint 9 is fine as my boy Eric "Thosebackpages" used to say
Scanner really does not like dark cards with silver printing that's for sure

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

Next group of slabs from that recent PSA sub scanned all for my Nomar PC. Happy with the results and the 9 on that Pacific Numbered card makes me VERY happy indeed

The Studio Series Proofs had Silver, Gold and Platinum numbered I have his others somewhere ready for slabbing

The Fleer Mystique Shining Stars was done across all the sports. In baseball they had two base cards
One was the silver regular version # to 500, the other a Gold version numbered to the players career HR total at that time
Nomar had 173 at that point in his career so the Gold was # to 173. Getting a 10 on any Fleer card always makes me happy like Pacific the Fleer items are not known for their production quality

The Pacific Full Count Numbered is a unique series that contains 36 cards. Depending one the cards numbering will define how many there are . In the case of Nomar he was card # 21 and all cards # 19-27 were numbered to only 25
I'll be showing a few more off as I get them returned from PSA . As many know red and green cards don't scan well
Of all the ones I have subbed to PSA most have come back PSA 8 NrMt+ which is normal on Pacific cards from the period
To get this 9 was nice I'll try and get a better phone pic when I can ( phone is charging right now)

A little back story on the Patches of MLB patch card #16/25 . I also own the auto version # 02/05. Since I broke plenty of these back in the day I knew the series quite well. Anyways I was going to sub it to PSA back in 2018 when I went to check into it realized they didn't have the series listed. So I went over to Beckett and checked their OPG out. And lo and behold they also did not list it. So now I realize no ones bothered to tell anybody " Hey so and so, the lists are not correct = your missing stuff - and it exists " . Not the first nor will it be the last that hobby publications don't get all the info from a manufacturer. It's deliberate and designed and anyone whose been doing this long enough makes their own lists.

So off to storage I send my bro and he finds a box for me. I have him mail it here. I then scan the sealed box.
I scan the outside of it-- and lookee here its advertised right on the box that they exist !!
So in Feb of 2018 I shoot my Beckett OPG guy Brian an email and ask that he update their OPG with the lists
I show him numerous cards and tell him I own both the base and auto series and tons of cards in those series
I send pics- and voila -- they finally list the series. Sigh- only took 15 years- but hey - at least its finally there.
So I subbed the first 2 of many to PSA back in Feb of this year and they just came back

Here's the sealed box- and the side where I showed the series exists.

 

[Dilferules]

The weird cutout in the upper left corner of the jersey window in that set always bugged me. I don't get the design they were going for there.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

Well its an inverted baseball diamond / half batters box done rather strange. At least it looks a like one when viewed upside down. My take on that unique cut out nice auto tough # to 5 item !

 

[Dilferules]

Ohhh I can kind of see that now...if they had put the "batters box" in the lower left corner I think it would have looked better. The Tejada is actually 01/10, it looks like some of the cards in the set were /5 and some were /10.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

@Dilferules yeah I forgot that some are /5 and some are /10. Think I saw a Tejada on COMC a few months back. Hopefully you picked it up.

The meat of the 30 cards that just came back from PSA is below. These 6 were ones I wanted to do well on for personal reasons ( PC set related)

If you've come across these cards before you know any Pacific stuff Near Mint 8 is normal and 9 or 10 unusual. So I expected 8's and got them. Cool with NrMt 8 on the Pacific Full Count Numbered Red stuff and its normal so I'm chill. I absolutely love, love the 2004 Donruss Craftsmen BLACK series. To me its Silver tones pop more than the Blue of the Master Craftsmen series. Just a personal preference. I don't do much football but I did Pacific football in abundance. Moss I'll have to think about selling as it will help pay some medical bills. Just 51 available and this one is high grade for that series.

The two Vlad were PC items I wanted protected. I now have Vlad, Clemens, and Nomar protected for the Patch series just need to get the rest done in the next few years. Of note it is a rare sleeve patch on that Vlad. And Ichiro is not PC that one is a definite resale item.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

Some more Clemens scanned as I try and keep the insurance lady happy. If ever there was a box that caused folks to decide separation between good and bad ROI - the 2004 Donruss Timelines series was it. Four packs per box, five cards per pack, and it sold anywhere from $40-60 a pack. So for anywhere from $160-240 a box - you better believe you needed money to spare to crack them. I considered this series very carefully before making my own personal decision NOT to buy or keep any boxes set aside. While I did crack 4 or 5 boxes at the time- just did not continue to break them after the first half dozen. ROI back then just did not justify it . On the rare occasion when a hit was in the box that could make money back, it rarely made back my box investment back then on ebay. I wasn't in the habit then or now of throwing money in a trash can. Waited for my Clemens stuff to come up. Do I like this series- oh yeah. For sure- lots of nice inserts and autos.

Would I crack a box now for a couple hundred ? Sure- but just one for old times memory's sake. I have only a few needs left in this series so wouldn't be worth it to me. My guess is these boxes are buried in a lot of closets I haven't seen one in a while at a decent price.By decent- $140 is decent.

Only going to show the 2 game used I have in this box. I have to locate the autos and combine these eventually.
My proudest moment yet in game used was my first Pristine BGS 10 card. The fact it was Game used- happy face to say the least. Big happy face when its a jersey number item !! Graded the base jersey a year later. Somewhere buried is the Jersey Prime & autos. Pretty sure I have not subbed the prime auto/jsypiece yet ( # to just 5 not sure if I own it can't remember)

Another series that made no sense on ROI purposes was the 2005 SP Collections series. It combined SP Authentic and SPX from that year. It just was not worth the hassle. I purchased all these on ebay and subbed the best of them. Was happy with the results. The SP Collections series only contained the jersey pieces I needed. Again- I weighed cost versus needs. If ROI isn't good- I don't buy. There were 5 total jersey pieces of Clemens in the series- 3 were base items, an auto/jsy # to 5, and the standard 1/1 dual item
Here is all the base jersey items sans the auto's. Grades are good enough I won't be subbing any dupes in.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

More Clemens slabs these are a bit thicker in the box. If you care to lose your mind deciphering a series- 2007 Topps Sterling Game Used is it. I showed the base items earlier on in the week- this is the other part= the jersey items
There are triple, quad, five, six and eight jersey piece items. The last one (8) is in booklet form. For each player there are a series of items you need to get- better consult a checklist and even then best to consult player collectors . No one I know has completed the Clemens. I'm not even near half way. No biggie no ones losing sleep over it we all just plug away
I know I have too many other needs and sets I work on to care much about missing Sterling items

First up will be the "Career Stats Relics" pieces in this box. The way to know what the card is would be to read the backs. See below examples. The first item should be a numeric number that defines the "number of pieces" the item will have ( triple=3, quad=4 and so on). The next two items should be letters that define what card type it is- for Career Stats should say " CS ". After the hyphen will be the card number ( for Clemens varies for the CS series will be card # 32-36 ranges)

Below is the example of the back of a Triple

So its a 3 piece Career Stats item for Clemens for card 34 - read left to right as 3CS-34
Easy once you get the hang of it. You will see another set of letters and numbers above that
Will start WRC ( Clemens full name initials) then another #- that was Topps speak for which jerseys the item came from
I always ignore that as all I cared about is the CS numbering. Just need one example of each type of item- no more
When I initially bought these I wound up with tons of dupes and traded away the dupes. Infuriatingly difficult set drives player collectors nuts. I'd hate to collect Mantle, Ruth, Clemente,Williams, or any other big dogs this series had

Clemens has 3 defined "card numbers" for the Career Stats relics Triple series- 34, 35, 36
And if I wanted to further dive into it- when I eventually get examples of at least one of each type- I can make a real checklist. For now lets look at just the triple- I was able to decipher 2 of the 3. I haven't even looked at quad or more pieces yet

CS34 Triple = Career Wins ( has 348 on front- his wins thru 2006)
CS35 Triple = 2001 Win % ( has .870 on front - his highest career win% when he went 20-3 in 2001)
CS36 Triple = ??

No idea what the CS36 looks like one's never come up for sale on ebay that I have seen ( could have I just haven't looked lately in the last 5 years)

Anyways- see below for whats in the box for my own CAREER STATS examples

He has three examples of the Triple Career Stats series-CS34,CS35,CS36- I own two missing CS36
He has just two examples for the Quad Career Stats series- CS35 and CS36- I own zero sadly
He has three examples for the Five Career Stats series - CS32,CS33,CS34- I own two missing CS32
He has three examples for the Six piece Stats series - CS33,CS34,CS35- I own CS34 missing the other two
I don't do the booklets anyways so haven't looked what they created for those

Without further delay - my CAREER STAT examples in this box of stuff
I'll try and show more as I can I saw the end of the box has some of his Sterling Moments and Sterling Stardom items I'll scan those soon

 

[jam022316]

As always thanks for sharing. I love this thread.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

@jam022316 appreciate knowing someone else just enjoys sharing the hobby

Next up scans wise are my Clemens 2007 TOPPS STERLING MOMENTS RELICS. At least these in the box. These were meant to celebrate key moments in a players career. For Clemens once again we have numerous types depending on the specific amount of inserts. And if that's not enough headache- they threw autos in on a few !

Below are what I have in this box I'm sure I own more but missing at least 8-10 variations I'm sure
I have been able to decipher just a few of the items as I'm missing the others

SM 42 celebrates his 7 Cy Young awards
SM 43 and his SM47 Auto celebrate his 20K Games
SM 46 celebrates his 1.87 Career Low ERA

Scans below of whats in this box- will scan his Sterling Stardom stuff in a bit

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

The final two Sterling Moments items I found scanned below. Almost as many autos as base items on the Sterling Moments apparently

The four below are from the Sterling Stardom sub-series which celebrate different career highlights of the subject matter.
Different than the Sterling Moments which celebrate career accomplishments
These also mixed the Red Sox, Yankees, and Astros pieces in so it was a mish mash of a sub-series

So I have examples of the triple, quad, five, and six pieces each different numbers in this box

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

A bunch more Clemens scans to satisfy insurance folks then will show a few new Garciaparra registry and Finest set slabs before back to back scan project for insurance again

A few in this box from 2008 UD Heroes. This set came out when I was moving cross country so I didn't break much. I bought all 7 of these online at some time or another. Read somewhere online where the charcoal jerseys were retail only so knocked that one off when I saw it. The patch and auto came soon after. No clue when I got the light blue version. Have not really looked for the rest of the jerseys or base items yet. Although I know I have more around including raw base items ( somewhere buried in the move items in storage)
Think I am missing just the red # /100 and purple # / 5 jerseys with a bunch of patch/jsy # /10 items also
So figure 7 of 12 possible jersey/auto items down. Never ending series as typical of the 2000-2008 proliferation of products. I'll sub base items much later always getting the jersey/auto stuff down first I can slab base stuff down the road

Great info as always at baseballcardpedia on packs odds and insertion ratios
baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/2008_Upper_Deck_Heroes

The unnumbered Charcoal retail pull, the Light Blue/200 , the Beige Patch/10, and Navy Blue Auto/Jsy also/10 are below

And I'll need to locate these 3 somewhere to re-scan them for this newest inventory
Can always tell prior years scans I had the cover down on most
Below are the Black /125, the Navy Blue /50, the Emerald /25 buried that need new scans

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

Looks like this box has a few Sweet Spot items. This series is horrible = production problems, faded autos, damaged items directly from boxes. Never bought a single box . ROI is also horrible. Some folks loved it. I hate it . I always used that $$ on Ultimate boxes instead. This being said if I see an item cheap, or its rare enough, I'll buy it and bury it. This way said autos stay sharp. I remember the 3 below because the 2006 Blue Ink item # to 5 I bought a damaged one ( with help) , then 6 months later this one appeared. The Black Silver Ink barrel had help from @Pinbreaker. The dual was one that I overpaid and I had good reasons.. It appeared in Korea. Bad pics for the auction. Seller wasn't known to me. But I went big as it was the only redemption version I'd seen. Overpaid for it ( $200 is overpaying) but to date haven't regretted buying it. Strong autos . One of these days I'll look at the various years. Will hate every nickel I spend to fill the holes. Just isn't my type of sets due to the above noted issues.

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

This next one is one that's for one of my 1990's Finest set runs. Still working on some basic stuff but pick up refractors when priced good. Made a few sales last week so I targeted 1 card I saw with bad scans. I'm going to guess the seller has an All-In-One scanner. The top picture is the only scan that was in the auction. So if someone wanted to buy- had to go on that one picture. The bottom is what it looks like in reality. I took a flyer as everything checked out. I completed all but 2 of Bagwell so moving on. I can then target the next star /semi-stars I need a bunch of and knock a few out when I make sales there.
This one will have to wait to get a new slab holding off subbing anything as holidays has lots of docs and bills


SELLERS PICTURE (showed just this)

REALITY ( my scanned copy of it)

 

[Therion]

HUGE difference!

 

[2014BESTSERVICE]

HUGE difference!

Lol = ya think Billy ??

OK a couple new Nomars for the PSA registry scanned , another Pink VIP card, and a Thomas back from re-slabbing
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Also scanning 4 more Clemens for the insurance people. The 1992 US Playing cards Baseball Aces came in a base set and a more expensive one with silver lining. This is just the base card. The Church's Chicken came in the more common Gold foil version and the less common non-foil. Your basic press proof silver die cut and a standard insert Diamond Dominance from the 1999 UD Black Diamond series
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