My Most Wanted Card Is No More! I Finally Own Clayton Kershaw's 2005 UD USA Baseball Junior National Team Rookie Card!

It was always top three on my Most Wanted List, and slid up to one after a couple of other White Whales were acquired. It's not a Dodgers card, but it is the True Rookie Card of my favorite pitcher, second favorite Dodger (they're really 1A and 1B), and the man who makes up my second most important PC. So it was a must-have, clearly.

I picked it up from a guy who was selling a bunch of them on eBay, and it was a couple of bucks and some change, with free shipping. Which meant it arrived sans penny sleeve. Grrrr. That really grinds my gears. I fully intend to eventually pick up a mint copy (perhaps graded just for the hell of it) and pay more, but for now this is plenty fine in my book, especially for the cheap price I acquired it at.

I liked it so much, and it was so cheap, I went back to the well and grabbed another copy for an even better price. From the same guy. He did use a penny sleeve the second time around, so perhaps my feedback suggesting that got through to him. The second Clayton does have a bit of a dinged corner, but such is life (neither copy is flawless, actually). Another card I badly wanted in the books, and it brought along a twin.