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.

Babe Ruth Pickup: 1927 Spalding Guide

Playing-era Babe Ruth stuff is not cheap but when it is I am like a fly to honey or vinegar or whatever flies like. The more oddball, the better. Spalding Guide pages have quickly become a favorite of mine over the last couple of years, so this 1927 double-sided offering was easy to tuck away into my Ruth PC.

Two images of Ruth from the 1920s and an advertisement for an essential baseball piece? Count me in. I like advertisement pieces so that added bonus to just having Babe's picture was a welcome sight.

This is the exact type of piece I'd like to frame up for cheap and put on the wall, but then the awesomeness of it being double-sided sort of prevents that from occurring.

A Ron Swanson Parks and Recreation Inscription Autograph: MAPLE. (!)

My collecting has really changed over the last couple of years as I have started to sell off about 90% or so of everything I own. For various reasons I came to the conclusion that condensing my collection into what I really love and want would be the best idea. Frankly, it's long overdue. While I am selling a lot and plucking more every day to list, one thing will always remain a collecting staple: Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson autographs!

The 2013 Press Pass Parks and Recreation set remains an absolute collection centerpiece and love for me, always and forever. Parks is one of my all-time favorite shows and outside of the set not including signatures from Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, and Rashida Jones....it's perfection in cardboard form.

When this Offerman inscription auto popped, I had to make a play for it. Nick only inscribed 29 cards, and with Ron Swanson being so damn popular, they have always commanded a ton of attention. It took me a decade to land one and I will basically snag any going forward within monetary reason. That is, until I get a sugar momma and can buy them all!

I sent it off to SGC as it was cheaper to go with them than keep the consistency of using PSA as I did the first time around. I don't remember a specific reference to maple on the show (I'm old, my brain only works so well) but I assume it's related to Ron's love of woodworking and his belief that maple is a superior type of wood.

Flashing Back To The Cryptozoic Archer Box Break That Started It All

I stay ready to snatch up 1/1 Archer Sketch cards from the Cryptozoic release of a decade plus ago. They truly don't appear often, and recent sales data shows they are going up in price. Considering the wax dried up and there are only but so many to begin with (about 3600 in total from what I've read) that is not all that surprising a fact. I am just fortunate they were affordable for as long as they were. A bunch recently hit eBay and I was lucky enough to secure six of them.

Four came in one purchase and two of those are from the hands of the same artist -- Josef Rubinstein. Joe is the artist I pulled from my first box break of the product, so he gets a lot of credit for helping me fall head over heels for the product and the sketches specifically. I had yet to add another card from him to my collection, but two in one fell swoop isn't such a bad way to make up for lost time. Malory Archer and Pam Poovey are amazing characters in every sense of the phrase so picking up likenesses of them is always a welcome sight.

I'll be posting the new sketch pickups in pretty reasonably quick fashion so I can have them ready to go up on my Archer Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/archersketchcards

An Insanely Rare Roy Campanella: 1956 Meiji Seika Caramels Postcard!

Today's post is of an item I not only did not think I would ever own, but one I did not know existed until I stumbled across the auction about two and a half years ago. When I did find it, my research indicated it would exceed my monetary limits and simply be too popular as it's dumb rare and Roy Campanella has a lot of collectors.

Somehow the Cardboard Gods were smiling upon me that day and I was able to secure a truly phenomenal oddball piece straight out of 1950s Japan. Playing era Campanella items are the only ones I care about. If you add in the general awesomeness of Japan and the Dodgers tour there, well.....I am all in like McLovin at a party before the cops show up.

From the auction house website, as Prestige Collectibles can sum it up far better than I can:

"This is a truly rare item with a beautiful photo of the immortal Roy Campanella on the front, along with an ad for Meiji Caramel. The lucky holder of this postcard was entitled to receive a ticket to the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. All Japan game played October 28th in Utsunomiya. Furthermore, if his or her lucky number was called, he or she would also receive a signed baseball of a Dodgers player. The lucky number 0099 is located near the bottom right on the front. The round stamp on the back indicates this card was indeed redeemed for a ticket.

This ticket invitation card is slightly different than the two others we have seen before. According to stamped text on the back, this invitation card is specifically for elementary and junior high school students only. Moreover, the other examples were for the game of November 3rd played at Koshien.

The Dodgers beat the Japanese All-Star team on October 28th, 1956 by a score of 6-3, thanks in part to a Duke Snider home run."

Here's the back of the sweet postcard. It will forever remain in my Campy PC!