30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, September 6, 2012

This must have been a misprint...

Last week, Steiner Sports had a unique offer... spend $250 and receive a $250 digital gift card in return.  I decided to browse their site to see if I could find any good deals.

What I discovered next had to have been a misprint, but I took advantage of it nonetheless.  

See for yourself:


Yep... it's a Pittsburgh Pirates jersey autographed by Dave Parker for $10.  Did you get that?

$10

Don't get the wrong idea.  There are issues with this purchase:


A.  It's not an official jersey.  It's one of those Majestic Cool Base jerseys... possibly a fake.



B.  The silver autograph isn't faded, but it's definitely not bold either.



C.  It's authenticated by JSA, which means that there's a chance it's not legit.

But even with all of these issues... the jersey is still worth $10.  In fact, those fake jerseys you find at the flea market still fetch $30 to $60.

I know... Dave Parker isn't exactly Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams.  But if you grew up watching baseball in the 70's and 80's, then you know who The Cobra is.

Just take a peek at his accomplishments...

1978 National League MVP
1985 Home Run Derby Champion
7x MLB All-Star
3x Gold Glove Award Winner
3x Silver Slugger Award Winner
2x World Series Champion
2x National League Batting Champ

Obviously his numbers weren't enough to get him inducted into Cooperstown... at least not yet.  

And if by chance you need more convincing... take a few seconds to watch this clip from the 1979 MLB All-Star Game:


Yep... that throw prevented the American League from taking the lead in the bottom of the 8th.  The next inning, the National League broke the tie, won the game, and Parker was voted the 1979 All-Star Game MVP.

I'll be the first to admit, I over pay for things from time to time.  But this just might be the best memorabilia bargain I've ever come across.

What about you...

What are some of your bargain memorabilia purchases you've found?

Can't wait to read your responses...  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

12 comments:

arpsmith said...

No bargains but I love yours. The Cobra is one of my favorite players from that era. That throw in the All-Star game is one of my earliest ever baseball memories. Thanks for sharing!

SpastikMooss said...

Wow, that is a great pick up!

My two tops are definitely a Tyronn Lue auto /200 for 75 cents shipped on Ebay (low regarded as he is, autos /200 sell for at least $2 on shipping alone usually, rare to find a deal that cheap) and the time I found a 1973 Mike Schmidt/Ron Cey rookie card at a card show that was marked 75oo but was sold to me for 75 cents. Definitely both good buys.

Although I may have just added a third best. I have a complete list of the last 50 or so Seneca cards I need, with 34 or so that have just never shown up on any website ever over the past 4 years. Like you could google them today for the entire day and you would never find the card mentioned or pictured anywhere on the internet. It's as if they were never made, only the beckett set lists tell me they were (Although even then I've found 2-3 cards beckett list that truthfully were never made).

Anyway, I occasionally search forums for Seneca's name in case anyone listed new cards, and lo and behold some guy listed a huge lot of cards he wanted to move, including a jersey /99. I was willing to pay like $20-25 for this card just to know it existed...the guy wanted $1 plus $1.85 shipping. Yeah I'll do that everyday!

Section 36 said...

So, the frame is worth $455?

ernest said...

I wouldn't be too concerned about JSA. SGC had used them for a long time, but BGS now uses them for grading autographed cards. They have a good reputation on par with PSA.

The Lost Collector said...

Dude $10?!?!

A long time ago I bought a grab box of cards from some sports memorabilia company for $10 and there was an Allen Iverson signed rookie card in there.

Zippy Zappy said...

I don't do well with memorabilia cards as opposed to regular cards (in my case RC's) but my biggest memorabilia bargain might be when I got a Jose Bautista Auto Jersey card (no'd 3/9) from 2011 Topps Triple Threads for $50 on eBay. I have no idea whether or not I overpaid when I look back on it now, but I consider it a bargain since it's one of the biggest pieces of my JB PC and because it cost me less than what a box of the product itself would've cost me.
Another (more personal) bargain find of mine was when I picked up a Robinson Cano auto for $35. I got about $10 off it's Beckett value (for whatever that's worth), and even though Cano's not exactly my most favorite Yankee of all time (in my top 10 though) I just love getting autos of Yankees superstars. Especially homegrown superstars like the Core 4, Robinson Cano & Brett Gardner.
One more (last one I promise) bargain find in my life was when I found a store selling a Roger Maris Jersey card for $10. I immediatly went to the store only to find that it was already sold to someone else. So I didn't get the card but I did find a bargain.
So it seems as though my memorabilia bargain finds are largely personal bargains rather than monetary bargains. Probably because I don't feel like buying memorabilia cards unless the player on it is one of the few players I really care about and that list is harder to get into than the 4000 hit club. And for anyone curious about my non-memorabilia bargains, some of them involve a 19 year old outfielder who plays for the Washington Nationals.

Fuji said...

Yeah... I vaguely remember that All-Star game. But The Cobra was always a star in my eyes.

Fuji said...

Congratulations on finding that Seneca... those are the kind of purchases I live for. As for the Schmidt... are you kidding me? Amazing!

Fuji said...

LOL... thought about that myself.

Fuji said...

Actually, I'm not too concerned. But overall... there will always be a little doubt in the back of my mind in terms of authenticators like PSA and JSA... where it's an opinion.

I prefer to buy from TriStar, UDA, and Steiner, because they've witnessed the player signing. Sure they could be scamming collectors and lying... but I'd hope that wasn't the case.

Fuji said...

Wow... that's an awesome find! Can't wait until Iverson is inducted into the HOF.

Fuji said...

Nice... personal bargains definitely rank higher than monetary bargains. Congratulations!