Happy 38th Birthday, Clayton Kershaw!

Today is the 38th birthday of the one and only Clayton Edward Kershaw. Ending your MLB career with back to back World Series titles, a strong final regular season, and one of the most clutch outs in World Series history has to be a tremendous feeling! Clayton will forever be one of the three guys that helped transfer my love of baseball into a love of card collecting (with Matt Kemp and Russell Martin). While I don't collect much modern any longer, I could not resist snagging the below that pairs Kid K with Corey Seager.

Out of 2017 Definitive Baseball, this dual John Hancock Green Parallel is limited to just 10 copies. I may one day slab it up just for protective purposes. I had always wanted a dual of these guys and eBay finally presented a reasonably affordable option almost 3 years ago.

I have a dual of Kersh and Kemp. If they ever come out with a triple with those two and Russ, or add Seager to the group on a generations type of card, I will be there in a heartbeat.

Who Doesn't Love Bowman Chrome Gold? Tracking Down a PC Grail!

Today's card is a major, major addition to a long-dormant PC that used to encompass at least 50% of my collecting life. It's not that I don't still like this player or remember the good times or care. My personal interests have shifted primarily to vintage items over the last 5 plus years and with that change came a lack of searching for modern cardboard and a lack of desire, to be honest. However, some cards pop up and have to be chased no matter the situation....and this is most certainly one of those pieces of cardboard.

Gooooooold baby, sweet sweet gold! When I spotted this 2005 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Auto limited to 50 copies and graded a 9/10 by BGS on eBay, I knew I had to make a run at it. It's about as good of a Matt Kemp rookie as I could hope to land with the Super and Red highly unlikely. His '05 BoChro rookie has always been a favorite of mine when it comes to Bison cards. The seller was parting ways with his own Kemp collection and this was up at $200 OBO. I threw out an offer I fully expected to receive a counter on and much to my surprise and delight, it was accepted. I paid and patiently waited for my PC centerpiece to arrive.

And wait and wait I did as days turned to weeks. The card made it to Los Angeles where I was living as of this spring and then just died on the USPS tracking. I opened a case with the post office and they quickly closed it, determining the card was lost in the ether. I reached out to the seller who refunded me as we both bemoaned the state of shipping and soon thereafter I packed up and moved to Las Vegas. I mostly forgot about the experience of having such a cool and sought-after card simply up and vanish.....

....until a month or so into my time in Sin City when I randomly received a notice from USPS Informed Delivery letting me know a package was due to arrive. I wasn't expecting anything and looked up the tracking only to find, much to my horror, that it was arriving in Inglewood, California -- my former stomping grounds. I immediately knew what it was -- my precious Matt Kemp Gold Rookie Auto, heading to a place I no longer lived and a place that was hundreds of miles away.

I reached out to my former landlord, hoping the new tenants would be kind enough to set the package aside for her rather than throwing it away or opening it and taking the card. In a stroke of good fortune, she let me know the apartment was still vacant and she would head over to see if the package was in the mailbox. As the above pictures indicate, the bubbler was safe and sound in the mailbox and my Mattycakes was available to be sent my way. I paid her for the shipping costs and a few days later it showed up in my current mailbox.

Rare is it that a lost package story ends like this and I'm forever grateful it worked out in the end, albeit with a disappointing three months or so in the middle where I wondered if I would ever find another one at the same price or less. I reached back out to the seller and PayPal'd him the original purchase price including shipping. We were both whole in the end and both happy. This stunner will always reside in my Kemp Collection, even as I have parted with some of it and have more of it I am looking to send off to better homes than mine.

I Bought A Matt Kemp Card For The First Time In Years, And It Felt Refreshing

First -- although I doubt she reads the blog anymore -- Happy Birthday Mom!

My love for Matt Kemp's tenure as a Dodger and his accomplishments -- with his should have been MVP season of 2011 standing at the forefront -- has never dissipated. I loved collecting his cardboard and building one of the best Kemp Collections you'll see....but times and tastes change. I shifted to primarily vintage with a big splash of Archer and Parks and Recreation and my modern cardboard urges waned significantly. But a good deal is a good deal and I can almost never pass those up!

I've begun selling a ton of stuff on Twitter and have immersed myself within that vibrant card community. I need and want to sell and focus all of my attention on that, but I still see the stuff others are looking to move. When the Mattycakes 1/1 Topps Vault from 2010 Ginter popped up for $25 I paid attention. That price was too rich for my new collecting blood but I hoped it would appear again for a price I was more comfortable with.

And appear again it most certainly did. The same seller re-listed it maybe a month later and dropped his price to a very doable $10. I jumped as I still enjoy seeing Kemp stuff, with the added bonus being 2010 Allen & Ginter is what got me firmly planted as a card collector. I love that product and this will now have a good forever home in my Bison PC!

On a side note: I am moving some of my Kemp and Russell Martin PCs to better focus funds on the main areas of my collection. If anyone would be interested, drop a comment and we can do some business!

Clayton Kershaw and His Only Homer!

One of the cooler sports moments I recall watching came on April 1st of 2013. The Dodgers faced off on that eventful Opening Day against San Fran and I believe I was taking in the game with my pops. It was a nail-biting experience as neither offense got much going. When all was said and done, one single run crossed the plate and that runner did so in the most unexpected of ways....

Clayton Kershaw walloped his first and to this day only career home run off of reliever George Kontos in the 8th inning to provide the sole support for his sixth career shutout. He struck out seven while allowing four measly singles to the Giants. With the DH now in both leagues, the chances he hits another are sliiiiiiim.

Kershaw completed his Maddux in style and when I began collecting tickets I knew I had to pick this one up and add it to my Kid K PC. I've acquired a few over time -- a pair of PSA 8s and one PSA 6. All were bought raw and sent in for the slab treatment. My favorite, of course, has Clayton adorning the face of the ticket. Snagging one with Matt Kemp on it was an added bonus.

Do you have any memorable moments in the regular season burned into your brain? This game and Kersh's no-hitter are almost certainly my Top 2.

22 All Around For Clayton Kershaw

When you have a collecting addiction you find the weirdest stuff on late-night eBay hunts. The pandemic only added to the amount of time I had at home and that combo is how you end up searching for a ticket to the 22nd career victory for Clayton Kershaw. The symmetry is nice, no doubt, but is there a need?

While it's a unique item to search out, looking at Clayton's line in the contest and who adorns the front of the ticket makes it a super cool pickup in my eyes. Kid K went 8 strong innings, whiffing 12 Cubs and allowing just two runs in a one-run triumph on July 8th of 2010. PSA gave it a lovely 9 and my other Dodger favorite, Matt Kemp, makes an appearance to sweeten the deal.

A fine find for my collection of fulls and stubs!

A Ticket That Warms My Heart: Kershaw and Kemp, Back Together Again!

My love of tickets is not always limited to the specific players I collect, but it most often focuses on a select group of guys so I don't stray too far off course and bankrupt myself. Clayton Kershaw will always be high on my list of targets as I could watch the man pitch every day and twice on Sundays. When I spotted this on eBay, I could not resist adding it for a couple of reasons....

An August matchup with Milwaukee in 2008 yielded a very good Kershaw rookie start: 6 innings, 1 run, and 6 whiffs. Getting a rookie ticket of Kershaw's would be enough on its own if it were not for the fact that it's even better than that with the addition of Matt Kemp hitting his 32nd career dinger.

It returned from PSA as a 5.

I Can Still Be Tempted

Though I've severely narrowed down my collecting interests when it comes to what I actually pull my wallet out of my pocket for, I can still be swayed by something that catches my eye. This usually means two things: the card is of a guy I seriously used to collect, and the price is essentially dirt cheap.

Both of those attributes were met when the above Matt Kemp card popped up on eBay recently. It's not that I still don't love Mattycakes; I always have and always will. But his cardboard became much more affordable, I have a ton of it and one of the better Kemp PCs out there, and I decided I'd rather focus on (mostly) vintage quality than quantity and some guys had to be moved aside to make that happen.

This beaut -- numbered 06/25 -- was only $6.70 delivered and is not just a new addition to my Bison PC. It is also a new addition to the 2008 Upper Deck Heroes rainbow I'm sort of kind of not working on but have a good portion of.

BWTP's Secret Santa Goodies

I participated for the second year in Bob Walk's Secret Santa shenanigans. I recently received a bubbler from Captain Kirk which hit on a number of my current collecting interests. There was more than what I scanned but, short on time, I focused on the best stuff.

Kirk knocked off the remaining two needs from the Dodgers' portion of 2001 Topps American Pie. This appealed to me back in the day because it's such a nice looking set and I'm glad I'm finally done with it after all of these years.

Four more Want List needs followed with these additions to my 1975 Fleer Pioneers of Baseball Set. It's still one of my favorite sets and is full of so many interesting players.

Captain sent along four brand new additions to my Clayton Kershaw Collection.

Somehow this Matt Kemp didn't already reside in my Bison PC, which honestly stuns me as I feel like I had numerous copies of this at various times.

Finally, three of my all-time favorite Dodgers.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

When Andrew McCutchen Hit Number 200, I Won A Bunch of Cool Stuff

Brian of Collecting Cutch fame held a contest a while back to predict when Andrew McCutchen would hit his 200th career dinger. I managed to somehow guess the exact day and found a bunch of goodies in my mailbox shortly thereafter as my contest winnings.

The main draw of Brian's contest with this slick-looking autograph of Hall of Fame hurler Bob Gibson. It is my first John Hancock of Gibson and is numbered 96/100. I was not and am not at all familiar with these Historic Autograph Originals but I do like that it came pre-slabbed.

Here's a fantastic Matt Kemp 1/1 Yellow Plate from his 2006 Updates & Highlights rookie card. I'm always happy to add another sweet hit to my Bison Collection.

Three new additions to the Minotaur PC.

Two more Mattycakes cards I was previously without.

ManBearSeag! Hope the elbow heals up fully over the offseason.

Finally, random goodness and three of my favorite Dodgers ever.

Brian, as always, you are too generous! Thank you my friend!

Collecting Cutch Moves My Matt Kemp PC Beyond The 500 Unique Card Mark!

Which, considering I've put very little effort into picking up Kemp cards over the last year plus or so, is actually somewhat impressive. I still love Matt and he'll always remain one of my favorites and I'll still love picking up new cards of his. However, as I've readjusted my collecting strategies I've really focused on just a couple of new players and picking up autos of them and completing as much of my Campy and Wheat PCs as I can.

This beauty is the 1/1 Black Prizm Parallel of The Bison out of 2013 Panini Select and the Select Team subset. The shot itself of Kemp is pretty cool but the warm-up attire, I could do without.

A couple of variant cards of Mattycakes are up next. Brian dubbed the first a "zombie" parallel which I think is quite fitting. The high five photo variation is simply fantastic. Matt was always extremely nice the few times I met him.

Collecting life is always better when Corey Seager makes an appearance. Tagging along were a couple of new additions to my Russ Martin PC.

Thank you as always for your generosity Brian! My eyes are always open for anything McCutchen or Morton for your collections!

2012 Topps Five Star Booklet Dual Auto-Patch /10: Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun

Here is a card that has been sitting in a box, un-scanned and unwritten about, for years. For whatever reason I never got around to posting it and eventually it just slipped my mind. I recently dug it out of hiding and without further adieu here's the "latest" addition to my Matt Kemp PC.

From 2012 Topps Five Star, this Booklet Dual Auto-Patch offering pairs Kemp with Ryan Braun. It's numbered 09/10 and features a pair of pretty patch pieces to go along with the hard-signed John Hancocks. I do love the photo Topps chose to use for the should have been 2011 MVP.

The Penguin Brings The Bison Love

My good friend Matthew of Dodger Penguin fame passed along a handful of awesome cardboard the last time he dropped off a BGS submission I had sent in with his stuff. Every single card features one of my all-time favorites and a PTSiA legend, Mr. Matthew Ryan Kemp.

So much beautiful color! There's a lot of low-numbered goodness in that scan, with cards ranging from /15 to /199 and just about everything in-between. The mini is even numbered to his jersey at a cool 027/100.

The final two new additions among the 10 new Kemp cards. That brings me oh so close to 500 unique pieces of Mattycakes' cardboard.

Thanks as always amigo! I truly appreciate the generosity!

Matt Kemp, 2017 Topps Series 2 Base

I was happy to nab Matt Kemp's base card from 2017 Topps Series 2 without any work or cash being spent. Many thanks to my good buddy Jonathan for passing it along after pulling it from a pack at work.

Kudos to Topps as well on an excellent choice for the photo as Kemp tracking the ball into his glove is exceptional to look at.

Mike Provides The PC Pickups.

A quick shout-out to my good buddy and coworker Mike who recently passed along some awesome additions to four of my main collections.

A brand new Kersh and a great-looking card of Corey Seager.

A pair of fantastic Mattycakes' cards.

And finally, four new Russ Martins.

Thanks as always Mike!

Golden Bison, French Getzlaf

Mike passed along a couple of new additions to my Kemp and Getzy PCs.

That Kemp is called a Golden Moments parallel. You learn something every day.

Thanks as always amigo!

Don't Neglect The X

I somehow neglected to post three cards sent by Matt of Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits in our most recent trade. They were mixed in with all of the Ginter set help he sent along and I recently stumbled upon them as I was placing the aforementioned set help into their proper sheets and binder.

Man, I love me some Ginter X. Thanks again Matt!

Long Overdue Thanks To My BB4L!

Dennis from Too Many Verlanders fame sent along a great package of cardboard and non-cardboard during the holidays. Yes, I'm slow and well behind on things but I wanted to properly thank him for the awesome stuff he sent along.

Brand new additions to my Kemp, Kershaw, and Martin PCs kick things off.

Another new Mattycakes, who is matched with Martin and PTSIA favorite Chad Billingsley as well as old friend Hiroki Kuroda. Four Angels' swatches are on the back, but I wasn't wasting my time scanning in Halos. The most notable would be Long Beach State Dirtbag Jered Weaver and former Dodger Howie Kendrick. It's numbered 154/200.

A sweet quad relic, numbered 22/50, popped out next. Most notable among the Ducks are Hampus Lindholm and Emerson Etem, whom I saw drafted in-person and used to collect heavily.

The final card I scanned in features Dodger and Bruin Chase Utley. It's a gold parallel numbered 0297/2016 out of 2016 Topps Series 1 and I love that Chase is ending his career where it could have begun had he signed rather than choosing the collegiate route.

Thanks BB4L!!

My First Matt Kemp Braves' Card

A customer brought back most of a box of 2017 Topps Series 1 he purchased from us and told me to do whatever I wanted with the box of base cards. I've given half of the box away already to kids but I couldn't resist asking my boss if he'd let me keep one card. He obliged and I now have my first card of Matt Kemp as a Brave.

I didn't realize until scanning it in that it's a League Leaders card so I suppose there will be another Kemp to add to the collection once Series 2 drops later this year. A classic shot of Matty is much appreciated, and I do like the colorful backs (a little Dodger Blue, perhaps....).

I'm okay with the design of the front. Not in love with it, but it could be worse. I always, always, always prefer full-bleed photography though.

Collecting Cutch & My 1st SuperFractor!

A while back I got a really great bubbler full of cardboard from Brian, formerly of Pirates Treasure Room and now the proprietor of Collecting Cutch. He sent a ton of great stuff and I've highlighted my favorites below.

My first SuperFractor! This beaut is the Super for Russell's 2009 Bowman Chrome offering, which just so happens to be one of the best Russ cards out there in terms of the photo they chose. Play At The Plate would be proud. Here's the full shot of that play between Martin and Nyjer Morgan, commemorated on Russ' 2009 regular Bowman card and seen on this 1/1 Black Plate I picked up eons ago. I might get this graded just for giggles.

Gorgeous! This sweet logo patch-auto, numbered 3/5, hails from 2011 Topps Marquee and the Acclaimed Impressions subset. I'm always thrilled to add a high-end Bison John Hancock to the collection. If it also brings with it a sweet piece of the "Los Angeles" from a Blue Crew uniform, it's icing on the already sweet cake.

Here's a triple auto, numbered 19/25, out of the sticker dumpster fire that was 2012 UD SP Signature Edition. It also features Andrew McCutchen and Shane Victorino; I don't think I'd ever use the word "superstar" to describe Victorino. Really good to great for stretches, yes. But superstar, nope.

Three more new additions to the Mattycakes' PC.

Brian added a cool 10 cards to my Kid K PC. The above jumbo is my favorite.

The Sega CardGen with the old-school Brooklyn throwback is just nails.

ManBearSeag! I dig the 1967 Topps set so the Heritage is right up my alley.

Vintage Koufax! There is literally little better. Drysdale came along for the ride too!

A Gerrit Cole auto appeared. (Go Bruins!)

As did a cool Gil Hodges numbered out of 99.

And some miscellaneous Koufax cards, with the silver GQ mini #'d /199.

A pair of less super-fractor-y Russ cards. That Martin Konami Mini is awesome.

And finally, a lot of random goodness. Look, that famous Campy pose again.

Red-themed Kenley and Duke Gypsy mini are the highlights.

An endless amount of thanks Brian!