His name is Clayton Kershaw, he is in the LA Dodger organization and currently pitches for the Jacksonville Suns. When he is called up, he will be the youngest rookie since Felix Hernandez and the third youngest this decade. I don’t like to get all hyped up about a rookie, but when you are featured on the front of Yahoo, and touted as having the best curve ball in the world, well, I have to show you this video. Keep in mind, this guy is 20 years old, a lefty, he has a 97 MPH fastball, and his curve ball, let’s put it this way, I haven’t seen something this wicked since Aaron Sele’s rookie year. Plus it even has a nickname, “Public Enemy Number 1″.
His stat line in the minors this year is 0-3/1.08/1.02 in seven starts, even worse is in those seven starts, he has only given up 4 earned runs. He has struck out 37 in 33.1 innings pitched, so that translates to a nice 10 K/9 IP ratio. I don’t even think this guy was even on the radar screens in February. It didn’t take long for this phenom to get serious action on ebay either. My personal favorite card of him that I have seen is this one:
Which features Homer Baily, Clayton Kershaw and Luke Hovechar all on one beautiful card. Looks like it’s pulling in around $45 when it’s all said and done.
After reviewing Eckersley’s Game Used card, I only find it fitting to show this video of Vin Sculley’s call of the 1988 World Series, in which Kirk Gibson hits a home run. The catch? Well, this story is told by baseball cards. I think you are going to enjoy it. I know I did. I would love to hear your visions of this game. When I was watching it, I just had this feeling in my gut, that Kirk was going to hit it out. I was an Eck fan at the time and I just had this really bad feeling about that at bat.
If you ever stayed up later than 10pm in the 1990s then you know who Don West is. This guy could sell snow to Eskimos. Some of his broadcasts were fantastic and it was real hard not to get pumped up over some of his packages. I personally have gotten bitten by the West bug a few times. My biggest purchase was This mondo set sale he had like 20 sets for $125, I went in on it with my brother. This video below is one of the funnier ones I have ever seen.
The great thing is, he’s such a professional, he never breaks stride. The cards fall down, but Don keeps screaming about Griffey rookies and Jordan college rookies. What a consummate professional, he could have sent the show to commercial while he and his cronies cleaned it up, but no, he gutted it out and instead of picking up all the cards first, he’s screaming out what he finds on the floor. It’s fantastic! Classic Don West, and his attitude of never lose your composure and ABC (always be closing).
I don’t know what the best part of this video is. Could be seeing Bruce McNall not in jail. Or Wayne Gretzky stunned face when he sees Copperfield rip the card. Or maybe it’s Copperfield himself and the fact that he probably has no idea why anyone would pay huge dollars for that card. I’m thinking it has to be a reprint because no one would ever in their right mind take that card out of the Lucite holder and expose it to air. Pretty cool trick (especially how he get’s Gretzky’s autograph off the card.
Now after watching the video, would youever let anyone touch that card? No way and that’s why I think it’s a reprint.
This video is a hoot. Mainly because it’s the same woman who taught us how to grade a card. Now she shares some of her own garage sale finds. Some of which are “very valuable”. What is interesting is that she classified modern cards as those from the 70’s,80’s and 90’s. Saying that all of those cards are overproduced. I mean let’s not pick up any George Brett or Eddie Murray rookie cards, because they are overproduced. Those Clemens and Griffey Jr. cards are worthless as well since they fall in that time frame. But hey a 1959 card of a nobody, now that’s what is worth high dollar. I love when antique collectors try and be “experts” at card collecting.
This is the kind of person Craigslist.org people listen to when listing their cards. They are so paranoid that they are going to give up valuable cards, that they try and get 500 - 1000 dollars for boxes and boxes of worthless cards. To give you an example. There is one person locally that is offering a 3200 card box filled with cards from 1986-1991 Topps. I figured I’ll offer $40 and I’ll have all the commons I need to fill my sets. The person told me the cards are worth between 10 - 20 cents each and she wasn’t going to take anything less than $450. I told her to let me know how that goes. She hasn’t emailed me back yet and I’ve seen it posted on there 4 more times.
I have heard a lot of arguments that the real people who get hurt from pack searching are kids. Of course, that’s all fine and dandy, but what happens when the kids are doing the pack searching? Does that mean they are ruining it for adults? I just think this video of an obviously young kid pack searching is funny, I guess we don’t give them much credit. So who is pack searching hurting now? I don’t condone pack searching by any stretch of the imagination, but when you see a video like this and know it’s kids doing the pack searching, it’s hard to justify why not search the packs.
Ever want to know how to grade a card? Here is an antique expert on how to grade a card. By the way, this is why people on Craigslist.org this that their cards are worth a fortune.
Is your card centered? Snarky remarks only on this one!
Bad Wax is when you go to Walmart or Target and get a wax pack (sports card baseball pack), open it up hoping to find some valuable cards, but instead you get crap or what I like to call an awesomely bad wax pack. I bet you are wondering why I’m calling them wax packs if they are actually in mylar? The term wax pack came from the 70s / 80s when baseball cards came in wax packages (usually with some seriously stale gum).
The site has changed quite a bit over the course of the year and it has gone from a site solely based on wax from 1986 - 1992, to a site which is now oriented towards the collector on a budget. So if you are lacking in the dollar department and want to have a nice collection, read on and take some notes. I also offer my views on the state of the industry and a section or two on rising stars.
