Gavin Lux is batting eighth and playing second base at Dodger Stadium in his debut tonight.
He'll be just the third person named Gavin to play in the MLB, following Floyd (2004) and Cecchini (2016).
And it's a trip for me because I've been collecting the kid's cards since he was in high school. I generally don't collect such cards, but if you're named Gavin (or go to the same high school I did) and you have baseball cards on the market, I might pick up a few for my collection.
I first posted about him here on December 1, 2015. About 7 months later he was drafted by the Dodgers in the 1st round, which I didn't see coming. From what I read, he was considered a surprise pick going so high, but turns out the Dodgers knew what they were doing.
Anyways, it's very cool that this guy I started collecting in high school because he shared the same first name as me has made it to the major leagues. As a Padres fan, it's a little weird rooting for a Dodger, but I hope he does great. Hey, for one thing, if he becomes a star, those cards I bought in his early days are gonna go way up, which is always nice.
Let's take a look at how my Gavin Lux PC looks today, the day the inscription on the above card came to pass.
These 3 are from 2015 Leaf Perfect game. Base refractor, blue refractor (/25), and red refractor (/5). I really wanted to get a card with the Twitter handle inscription, which is how I hunted down that red one. Kinda cool that it has his autograph both printed and cursive.
And that blue refractor isn't just any blue refractor....
Christmas Card Alert!!
A couple more 2015 Perfect Game autos, these of the acetate variety. The card on the left is a thin unnumbered base auto. The card on the right is a thick "glass" card and is numbered 2/4.
Moving into 2016 now. This and the card at the top of this post are from 2016 Leaf Trinity. Neither is numbered, but the top one has the cool inscription, and this one features a pretty terrific piece of laundry tag.
1st Bowman auto, baby! It's just an unnumbered base, but still an important card for any Lux collection. The First Impressions card from Bowman's Best is numbered 28/50. You might have noticed those signatures look different. Yeppers!
Kinda funny that Gavin Lux changed his signature. And we can pinpoint exactly when it happened: while signing his 2016 Bowman Best autos. About half of them have his full name (as he signed up to that point), other half of them have just his last name (how he's signed since). pic.twitter.com/eCoEWaY68f— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) September 2, 2019
The cards in the tweet aren't mine, but this one is. (BTW, I'm sorry that many of these photos turned out so dark.)
2016 cards here with a Pro Debut and a pair of Bowman Platinum parallels (blue and ice).
2017 Bowman: base, Chrome, and Holiday.
2017 Bowman Draft: base and orange parallel. And not just any orange parallel...
Christmas Card Alert!!
This 2017 Bowman blue refractor is probably my best Gavin Lux card. I just looked on eBay, and wow, it's hundreds of dollars now... whoo! Glad I snagged it when I did (for $46.84 in March 2017). Dodgers always look good on blue parallels.
It's the "James Bond eBay 1/1", numbered 007/150.
Gotta admit it makes me happy that I have several Gavin Lux autos and zero of them are stickergraphs-- all on-card!
But my nuttiest Gavin Lux auto isn't actually signed by him...
"Sign Here"! It's the card the Topps representative used to show Gavin where to sign his cards. I guess either it accidentally got put in the stack of signed cards, or perhaps it was "backdoored" and ended up on eBay. It cost me the most out of all the cards in this post, nearly twice as much as the Bowman blue refractor auto. But you gotta admit it's a unique addition to the collection! One of the coolest, quirkiest "eBay 1/1" type cards I own.
And it's a refractor, numbered 310/499. Seems dumb that the Topps representative chose a refractor to use as his example rather than an unnumbered base card.
Trade Bait Dupes! Any Dodger fan want to talk about a deal for that blue Leaf auto? It's numbered 03/25, and expendable for the right offer for me since I also have the 12/25 card in the print run. But holding onto it is cool too.
You have to have the largest Lux collection (other than maybe his family).
ReplyDeleteYou closet Dodger fan you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a hell of a Gavin Lux collection. I started following him in July when his name was floated as a potential return for Felipe Vasquez. Still wish that happened. Super cool that you noticed when he started changing his signature. Image if you had to sign hundreds of cards... you'd probably do the same thing!
ReplyDeleteI hope he has a career 1.300 OPS against the Padres.
ReplyDeleteDamn. If this guy becomes the next Bellinger, you're gonna be rich! That "sign here" card is really cool. Never seen anything like it.
ReplyDelete