Cleve's Auction Night: A Relic and an Auto

It has been a long time since I've been able to actually attend one of Cleve's auctions.  I've been limited to write in bids, and with a hectic travel schedule coming up, that won't change any time soon.  I only won a couple of things this past week, but they weren't bad at all:

I was surprised to get this Evan Longoria relic for $2.  I know relics ain't what they used to be, but that's a great pick up!

I have no interest in Joel Hanrahan, but $3 for an on card auto of a colorful player who figures to get a lot more attention now that he's in Boston is another great deal.


Grades: 

Evan Longoria Jersey Card $2:  A     This guys awesome!  I'll take relic cards of him for $2 every day.

Joel Hanrahan auto  $3:  A    This is more trade bait than anything, but even if I can't swap it for something, it's a nice add to my relic/auto binder.

Vacation Auto Post- 2012 Topps Finest

I picked up another handful of 2012 Finest base cards of www.sportlots.com last week and just had to show you:

I guess the "cool" cards to have with Finest are the colored parallels, but these base cards do it just fine for me.  Man, I wish that Cliff Lee card had him wearing a Rangers uni though....

.........Wow....

I don't have a good title on this post because nothing that I would have come up with would have been good enough.   I have been stunned by the generosity of a very good man.  A man you all know as Cleve.

I was in Cleve's today looking around at Tuesday's auction material.  The past couple of times I've been in his store, he told me he had a nice Josh Hamilton card he wanted to give me, but was having trouble finding it.  I thought that was really nice of him and had no idea what kind of card he had in mind.  Today he told me he had found the card and went to the back to get it.  I looked around and a bit later saw him bring out a card that looked incredibly thick.  It was a Josh Hamilton card alright, and when I saw it, I almost passed out.  It was thick because it was a book card.  From Triple Threads.  With Josh Hamilton's autograph.  And jersey relics.  And oh by the way, the other side of the book had Evan Longoria's autographs.  And jersey relics.  And the card is numbered to 9.

Look at this!

I told him I didn't know what to say, and I still don't.  This is just about the best card in my collection now, and it was a gift from someone who had no reason to be so generous with me.   I hope I can think of some way to return the favor to him some day in some way.

If you are reading this, thank you Cleve! You are a special individual, and I am grateful more than you will ever know.

Cleve's Auction Night Part 2: Choke, Choke, Choke...

Yesterday, I covered the first four of eight purchases I made at Cleve's weekly auction.  I had a sense of failure about my overall auction performance after I left the auction, but once I started listing out the cards, I felt a little better.  Let's see if analyzing the last four cards makes me feel even better, or validates my initial feeling of dejection.

It's hard to be dejected about a sweet card like this though:

This was my second Triple Threads 2011 card of the night, and I was thrilled to get it for $4.  Longoria is a stud, and this will either fit nicely in my collection, or perhaps bring something cool in trade.  Speaking of which:

A few weeks ago, I got another Kershaw auto from Cleve's and wound up trading it away to Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle.  There must be a strong Kershaw connection at Cleve's because this week another auto of him was available.   So, I decided to go for it again.   And so did... dun dun dunnnnnn, my arch nemesis.  I made my initial bid of $3 and he went $4.  Last week, he got the better of me 3 times, but I wasn't letting it happen again.  I rolled up my sleeves and gave him a front row ticket to the gun show as I bid $5.  It didn't faze him and he said $6.  I bid $7, but instead of saying $7, I  stood up in my chair, pulled out my switchblade and made a big "7" in the air with it.  Then I slowly turned and mimed the universal gesture of slitting one's throat.  He stopped bidding, and the card was mine. Victory, baby.
There was lots of vintage at the auction, but not much I felt I had to have.  There was a neat Johnny Mize 1952 Topps that I could have had for $15.  I wish I'd gone for it now.  But I did get this little gem:

Eddie Stanky is one of those old ballplayers I love to read about.  Leo Durocher said of Stanky, "He can't hit, can't run, can't field. He's no nice guy... all the little SOB can do is win."   I was very pleased to get this.

I should have ended my night on this high note.  But I was impulsive and bought this as well:

This was a lot of 5 Red Man tobacco cards.  I like this set, but didn't look over the lot before bidding, and didn't see that one card was in it 3 times.  And the Mel Parnell card is in bad shape.  But still, for $4 it's not too bad of a purchase.

Here are the grades for the second four purchases:
 
Evan Longoria Triple Threads $4: A-  Great card of a budding star.
Clayton Kershaw A&G Auto $7:  A  A little pricey, but Kershaw is a bad dude, and I'm glad to get back an auto of him.
Eddie Stanky Bowman $4:  A+  I don't know what the book value of this is and I don't care.  I love talking about cards and players like this.
Red Man Lot $4:  C+  Yeah, I like these cards, but this was unnecessary for my collection, even for $4.

I guess overall, I'm relatively satisfied.  I feel good about 5 of 8 purchases.  If I would have lopped off the three that didn't jazz me, I would have spent closer to $20 and felt like it was one of my better auctions ever.  I'll need to show some better discipline next time.