eBay

eBay – Kris Bryant Rookie Cards

by

Sometimes I spend a long time just browsing eBay for various cards to get an idea what is out there and how much things are. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been trying to acquire some Kris Bryant rookie cards. However, I have very few dollars to allocate towards the expensive autographed cards right now. I’m happy trying to acquire the base cards and whatever is affordable to me.

One of the cards I’ve wanted the most is the 2015 Topps #616 Kris Bryant card. They seem to average around $13-$20 on eBay in raw form. I put in a search for it and they seemed about the same price. I came back to it a little later and a new listing popped up. It said $4.99 buy it now with free shipping. Say what? Obviously I thought it was too good to be true, so I looked at the photo and description and it seemed to be in great condition. Since it was a new listing, I pulled the trigger before anyone else snagged it up. There’s no way it would be around very long!

I was super excited to have purchased it for such a great deal. Just for kicks, I looked at the seller’s other listings in case there was another good deal to be had. I noticed there was a new listing for a different card in there so I figured this person was online right now adding items. I reloaded a few minutes later and more cards appeared. All of a sudden, there were 3 more Kris Bryant cards that I wanted that popped up for a great price! I added them to my cart and bought them ASAP!

Here’s what I ended up with:

2015 Topps Kris Bryant RC #616
2015 Topps Update Kris Bryant Home Run Derby RC #US78
2015 Topps Update Kris Bryant All Star Game RC #US242
2015 Topps Update Kris Bryant Rookie Debut #US283

Now even though the #US283 card says RC on it, I think it’s considered more of a rookie debut and not an official rookie card. However, it’s one of my favorites because of the background of clouds and blue sky.

The cards arrived a day early and I was quite impressed with the packaging. A bubble mailer was used for the outside package. Inside the package I found the cards wrapped in a piece of cardboard taped with handles for easy opening. After I opened the cardboard, the cards were in a plain-white envelope. Inside I found 4 cards in penny sleeves that were tucked away in a 138pt top loader nicely sealed with a team bag. They even wrote thank you on the envelope! Very well done and I hope to do business again with them in the future should they have more Bryant or other Cubs cards that I am interested in.

eBay – 2014 Bowman Chrome Kris Bryant Top Prospects

by

I was bored one evening and was looking at pre-rookie cards for Kris Bryant. I searched around and found a 2014 Bowman Chrome Kris Bryant Top Prospects card (CTP-62) with about an hour to go in the auction. There was one bid at $1.99, so I bid $2.24. My August 2017 Beckett had it priced between $5 – $12, but we all know how prices vary in the card world. I kept expecting it to go up at the last second, but as the countdown struck zero I was the highest bidder. Sweet! That $2.24 also included free shipping, so that was a nice touch.

It arrived this week in a plain-white envelope (PWE). (For the price I paid, I didn’t expect a bubble mailer.) I opened it up and the card was in a penny sleeve inside of a top loader with a piece of scotch tape to hold it in during shipping. They even folded the tape so there was a place to get a hold of it to open it up. The card was in perfect condition. I noticed on the envelope there was a red “Non Machinable” wording. The postage stamp also mentioned “Non-Machineable Surcharge”. I did some digging on the USPS website and discovered they are 70 cent stamps. The SKU number is 119504 if you want to order some.

I did replace the penny sleeve and top loader they sent it in as it had pricing info written on it and the tape residue was bugging me, but not a big deal for the price I paid. I’m just happy the card arrived in great condition.

This card doesn’t appear to be an official rookie card even though some eBay sellers are labeling it as such. It’s not listed as a rookie card on Beckett or Cardboard Connection. That’s fine with me as I just wanted another one of Kris Bryant’s cards for my collection. I don’t have the budget for the autographed cards right now, so I’m going after the cheapest cards I can find.

eBay – Contreras / Almora / Schwarber RCs

by

I ordered a few cards from eBay for my personal collection and they arrived today. I got the following cards:

2016 Bowman’s Best – Albert Almora – #2 RC
2016 Bowman’s Best – Brian McCann / Willson Contreras – Mirror Image
2016 Bowman’s Best – Kyle Schwarber – #64 RC (not pictured)
2016 Bowman’s Best – Willson Contreras – #51 RC
2016 Bowman’s Best – Willson Contreras – #51 RC Refractor Parallel
2016 Topps Update – Willson Contreras – #US266 RC Gold Foil Parallel #1421/2016
2017 Topps Series 1 – Ryne Sandberg – #87-85 1987 insert