My Holy Grail-Contest Entry

**KingAlbert1** · 07-23-2010, 11:42 AM

It was sports card trading night at my neighborhood sports shop Jersey’s Cards and Comics in Gloucester, Virginia. It was about five o’clock when my mom dropped me off there. I brought some jersey cards to trade. For example I brought my Mark Texeira, Derek Jeter, and Bill Mazeroski cards. My Albert Pujols jersey card, though, would come in handy a little bit later.

I was specifically looking for some Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols memorabilia cards, but since my favorite team is the Yankees anyone on the Yankees would do. After I walked in, I asked for the memorabilia card box, as usual, and began looking at the baseball cards. I came across lots of game used, some autos, and a couple of patch cards, even a Marilyn Monroe relic dress card. This amazing bat card crossed my eye along the way. The card was a 2001 Topps Traded Albert Pujols ROOKIE bat card!!! Even though I forgot my price guide at my house, anyone in their right mind knows an Albert Pujols rookie card is worth something!! Especially if that rookie card has a piece of his bat on it! The problem was the most expensive card I had to trade was that other Pujols jersey card, and that was only worth twenty bucks!! I decided I would try to trade for it anyway. I handed the card to the manager, Jon, and he started to look over it for quite a while. You know what, though, it was definitely worth the wait.

After my mom picked me up from the shop at 6:00 I was practically kissing the card, worshiping it basically. When I got home I saw my dad watching the Yankee game. I immediately went to my room to get the price guide. I brought the price guide and the card to the living room to show my dad and to figure out how much this card was worth. I show the card to my dad first and then started to look for it in the price guide. So, I began to flip through the pages and went to the year 2001. After I went to Topps Traded, and then finally went to the rookie relics. I look through the player list and guess who’s on top. ALBERT PUJOLS BABY! And the grand total is… $175!! Score! Of course it was in mint condition or else it would’ve been $100. The funny thing was the second most expensive card was a Wilson Betemit bat card. And that was only ten dollars! I was in shock. My dad, who has been a 20 year baseball card collector, didn’t believe me himself. He had to double check for me. I didn’t blame him. Still in shock, I went to my computer to look on eBay to see how much the card sold for. Sure enough it was selling for $175 buy it now. I couldn’t believe it!! I got one of my favorite baseball players and as a bonus his rookie card. It was my first hundred dollar card. I started thinking, why in the world did Jon trade me a $20 card for a $175 dollar card. I know he wasn’t stupid, but I wouldn’t say I ripped him of either. I’d just say it was a good trade. For me at least.

I figured out later that the rookie card wasn’t worth as much as the other Albert Pujols relic rookie cards in 2001. There were some worth $200, $500, and one card was worth $4000!! I didn’t care though. I still made a great trade and that is all I cared about.

Well at the end of the day I know I was definitely happy. This card has definitely changed my life and in my baseball card collecting. Since then I’ve acquired a Lou Gehrig and a Prime Cuts Albert Pujols bat card. I admire this card so much, and I never let this card out of my site. I will keep this card until Pujols retires, and hopefully this card will boost up in price when he makes it to the Hall of Fame [because you know he is]. This will be my most prized possession for a very long time. Better yet, it's my Holy Grail.

Example