Do you ever buy something online, late at night?
Answer for me is yes. In this case, not just one, but two! I'm a NBA refugee. I won't bore you with the details, but I just got fed up with the usually B.S. surrounding the NBA. Mostly the inconsistent officiating & those "super" teams(or "stacked" teams).
So I went back to my first love, the sports I barely knew: Baseball. Already had a favorite team, though I never followed them(because "diehard" Blazer fan). I only collected basketball cards as a kid, but when I saw this cool baseball card art in the Beckett price guide magazine, I bought the card & also picked the Braves as my team:
Fast forward to 2015, 2016-ish: I'm slowly pulling out of NBA. I get MLB.TV & I start watching Braves play. I also like the Cardinals(was my first favorite MLB team) & my American League team, the Red Sox. Without further ado, my late night shopping prize #1:
This is the game model baseball bat autographed by Brave's super hot rookie Ronald Acuña Jr. One of the coolest thing I've ever bought. I've always been skeptical of "game used" or autographed sports memorabilia, but MLB has this authentication method, which I really trust. This autographed bat was $262 on sale, and I wasn't nervous spending the money. I really like this player & I know the autograph is real.
Tamper-proof authentication hologram. You can go to MLB site & type the numbers in to prove its authenticity. The Fanatic hologram sticker above, I had heck of time finding the authentication page: Fanatics Authentication
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| From their authentication page. |
Idea for item #2 stems from a baseball movie I was recently encouraged to see. The Sandlot. In it Babe Ruth autographed baseball makes appearance & I'm not gonna lie, I started wanting one.
Unfortunately, they are really expensive, but that's not even the worst part. From little research I've done online, many Babe Ruth autographs are fake. Babe's been dead forever, so authentication on his autograph, at least by my impression are crap. So I went with another home run king: Hank Aaron. He may be no Babe Ruth, but here's a guy who is a historical figure in the sports of baseball, very well respected.......... and he also happens to be a Brave!
This one was $360. A fraction of the cost of Babe Ruth autographed baseballs which may, may not be authentic. Also has tamper-proof hologram sticker which makes its authenticity verifiable online.
I've yet to put it in the case, but here's the stock photo of the one it shipped with. I'm very happy with the MLB, Fanatics(operator of the online MLB shop) & these sweet items, but there was one weird thing. After placing the order, I get a email & voicemail left simultaneously from a guy who claims to be handling my Fanatics account, and wants me to call him at 954-507-6928. He says he has good news for me, also wants to make sure I get the best deals. For me it sounded like, worst case scenario, a scam, best case scenario, an attempt at an upsell.
Bottom line, I'm the kind of person who doesn't want sales calls from a business I just bought stuff from. My idea of "good news" is I paid for something I wanted, make sure my toys arrive safely.
I ended up just emailing him back asking if I really had to call him to get the order processed. Answer was sort of "not exactly", so I just left it at that. Just a heads up.
If you are baseball fan, I strongly recommend these memorabilia. There are so many cool game used items, or autographs on the MLB Shop/Fanatics online, and they are for real!
