eBay – 2014 Bowman Chrome Kris Bryant Top Prospects

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.

National Baseball Card Day

So today, August 12, 2017, was proclaimed national baseball card day by Topps. We don’t have any local card shops in town so I wasn’t planning on being able to participate in this event. I did contact a local card shop in Normal, IL to inquire about this event, but unfortunately they were not participating. I didn’t discover until the event was over that there were several places I could have visited to get free cards.

We were out of town for most of the day and decided to hit Target in Normal, IL on the way home. I was hoping to find more Topps Chrome or at least some 72 card hanging packs, but they didn’t have any. I haven’t been very impressed with Topps Series 2 so far, so we got 4 packs of Topps Series 1. (maybe another Judge RC?)

Clayton Kershaw showed up with a base as well as a Then and Now Bowman card which is pretty neat. I also got the Don Mattingly and George Brett Rediscover Topps cards. The Jeff Robinson 1987 card has the Rediscover Topps stamped on the card.

The only gold card I found was Brian McCann. Then there are the rookie cards including: Alex Bregman, Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi and there he is, Aaron Judge.

Cubs were plentiful in these packs. For some reason I really like the Cubs team card and World Series highlights card. The W flag in the background of the team card along with the fans makes it a great picture! The Kris Bryant Then and Now Bowman card is nice.

So no local card shop visits today, but still was happy to pick up some cards at Target. Supposedly there was a hobby shop in Champaign that had them, but I have yet to confirm. (they were on the Topps list anyway!)

For more info on the event, check out the Topps website:

https://www.topps.com/blog/in-stadium-giveaway-dates-for-national-baseball-card-day/

Topps hanger packs at Meijer

My wife and I hit the grocery store (Meijer) early this morning to beat the rush. We stopped in the toy section to check out the cards. I picked up a 2016 Topps Update and a 2017 Topps Series 1 hanger pack.

The Topps Update pack came through as I snagged both a Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora RC!

Landed a Nomar Mazara RC along with a few other nifty cards.

I came across this Cody Reed RC but it looked different to me. I had to do some digging to discover that this is a gold card.

On the back I noticed it had a serial # on it. 0121/2016 That’s pretty cool that there are only 2016 cards made of this particular gold card.

The 2017 Topps Series 1 didn’t disappoint either. Aaron Judge, Andrew Benintendi and Alex Bregman RCs were found.

Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Schwarber and Jason Heyward rounded out my Cubs from this pack.

I really like these retail hanger packs. Sure it’d be nice to buy a hobby box but that’s out of my price range right now.