1887 N28 Allen & Ginter Mike "$10,000 King" Kelly, PSA Authentic (Altered)!

Today's post features what might be my all-time white whale I never thought I'd actually own. This was my "when/if I get rich" bucket list item but thankfully patience and timely eBay searching paid off. I spotted the below raw and for auction and decided to take the plunge and hope it was the real deal. My top acquisition of 2016 (on January 17th....I'm slow people) is easily....

We will get to the realness momentarily but let's just bask in the glory that is a Mike "$10,000 King" Kelly 1887 N28 Allen & Ginter card! The seller mentioned that the card had been sent in to Beckett but they wouldn't holder it due to the damage you can see right near Kelly's right shoulder that runs to the left border of the card. I was confident I could submit it through work assuming my boss thought it was real and have PSA encase it for all eternity.

My boss did think it was real and I figured PayPal, eBay, or my credit card company would back me if it came back as a fake. I sent it in and thankfully I inquired as to its status before it came back as I was told PSA would not slab it.

So we made a call to our rep and I told him I would happily take the card in an authentic holder with a qualifier. It was real and that's all that mattered to me, so if PSA felt the same then slap an Authentic label on it, qualify it however you please, but please don't return the card in a flimsy protecto.

So much thanks goes to our rep J. This is easily one of my top 5 favorite cards and would probably crack the top 3 if I sat down and gave it real thought. It will remain top 5 for the rest of my collecting life.

I find King Kelly to be one of the more interesting baseball characters. He's credited with popularizing the hook slide, the catcher backing up first base, the hit and run, the double steal, and players signing autographs for fans. He got his $10,000 nickname after being sold for that sum by the Chicago White Stockings to the Boston Beaneaters.

I first recall hearing about King Kelly in a history class at UCLA when my professor played us the song Slide, Kelly Slide! which is considered the first "pop" song in American history by some.

The back didn't scan in all that well but it is clearly a clean back which is fantastic. Original Ginter backs are awesome for the simple fact that I just enjoy looking at the various subsets of athletes featured, from pugilists to oarsmen to rifle shooters.