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Tim TroutFiled under: Autographs, BGS, Beckett Blog | Tags: autograph, beauty, BGS, Bosworth, carpool, DFW, environmental, Kate, mail, map, scam, senior grader too, senor grader, slow idiots in the fastlane, stupid politicians
I am a carpooler.
Not for any noble reason, I do it because I would like to send my daughter, Reagan, to college someday (and still be able to bust some wax in the meantime), but this $4 gas is kicking my rear end.
Sharing the driving really saves gas and helps the ever-so-slim budget I have, especially considering I literally drive across the DFW area (from FW to D and back)…just to work at Beckett. (It wouldn’t matter if I carpooled or not, I’d still do it.) Ok, brown-nose, but I am just showing the folks how much I love the place.
My carpool partner (that sounds bizarre) is my friend Eddie Brandon, a senior BGS grader, who is quite possibly the biggest [CONTENT EDITED FOR SMALL CHILDREN] in the entire world. Thing is, before I was in grading, I honestly used to think I was. Regardless, we carpool. I meet him at his house and we switch off driving to Beckett from there.
Eddie is a huge autograph hound, not to the point of using children to get autographs from unsuspecting and good-hearted athletes (believe it or not, there are those kind of folks around DFW), but huge nonetheless.
At my constant badgering urging he and another grader who does the same thing finally agreed to start writing a column about their through-the-mail autograph attempts.
Well, today after work, as I was getting into my car to head home from his house, he went to the mailbox and pulled out this…
A signed 8X10 of Kate Bosworth…not too shabby, Eddie, not to shabby at all!
Keep your eyes peeled for Eddie’s columns in coming issues of Beckett Baseball, Beckett Football, and of course, BSCM.
Filed under: Guest Blogger, Upper Deck | Tags: card show, Center, eBay, Expo, Fort Washington, good pull, Mark McGwire, Redemption card, signing, Upper Deck
Big pull of Big Mac
Do you remember your first major card pull that made you jump in the air screaming MOJO?
In March 2003 I was a junior is high school and I took my second trip to the Fort Washington Expo Center card show. I remember preparing the night before because this was a large show. I had to get my wallet, hat, and a few cards out that I planned to take for grading.
That day I wasn’t really looking for anything special. I just wanted to see what the dealers had and open up some wax. When we got there we went over to one of the dealers that owns a local shop where we live to say ‘hi” and check out what he had for sale.
After a few more moments of browsing I came across a dealer that had a huge wall full of boxes. I refered to it as the “Wall of Wax”. I saw that they had packs of 2002 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts baseball cards, which I was familiar with because a few months back I pulled out a Mark McGwire game used bat from that product.
I decided to purchase a few packs and go over and eat lunch. After we ate lunch I started to open the five or six packs I bought. When I was a few packs into the break with nothing but base cards I noticed something a little different. This one card stood out to me.
On the back it said ”Redemption Card” in big bold letters, and on the front it said “Priority Signing Mark McGwire”. I wasn’t too familiar with cards like this and almost threw it out because I thought it was just an advertisement.
When I was done ripping through the remaining packs we put the redemption card in a penny sleeve and top loader and took it over to the dealer we knew and asked him if he knew anything about it. He, his wife, and other collectors took one look at it and started going crazy.
He told us that if we scratch off the front and get the code we could send in any item we want to Upper Deck and they would have Mark McGwire sign it. He also said that the card was worth probably $500.00 – $1,000.00.
That was the day I had my first MOJO card pull. I never redeemed the card. A few weeks later I sold it on eBay. Never in my life did I think that I would pull a card so rare and valuable.
Filed under: BGS, Beckett Blog, Beckett HQ, Shipping | Tags: BGS, Contest, endless delays, fine print, Free grading
It is not official quite yet, meaning all of the “small print” has not been hammered out completely. You know, the stuff nobody actually reads unless something goes wrong…
I can tell you this, the prize will be 10 free card gradings at the 10 day service level. We will cover the return shipping and up to $1000 insurance. Not a bad prize at all!
I hope to have the actual announcement up this afternoon…
