“I have to go out spend like a grand or something on a ring, but you don’t have to get me a thing?? I should get like one of the cards I want the most or something.” She looked at me, laughed, and then something crazy happened, she agreed to it. This moment began a few month effort to find the right card. The cards bantered about, and then bid on, then lost were some of the following, Tom Brady SP Authentic Rookie, and Tom Brady 2000 Fleer Masterpiece 1 of 1. Those were the two big ones we went after, but there was one other card I had in mind as it was the number one card of my favorite baseball player with out any question. The Brady rookies were great, but there were other Brady cards that could be debated as his best rookie and since I already owned his 2000 Contenders autographed rookie they didn’t completely stand out from the rest.

So we waited for a bit, I had the money for a ring, she had the money for the card. Then in the summer we found the right card. Now we just had to win it. It was a PSA 10 Graded David Ortiz Donruss Signature Rookies Century Marks. David Ortiz is my all time favorite Baseball player. Growing up it was always Roger Clemens, but rift between him and the Red Sox, him going to the Yankees, plus the fact that David Ortiz hit the ball twice in 2004 on occasions that account for two of my top 10 happiest moments in life put Clemens down a few pegs.

The day the card was ending was when my fiancée was actually away visiting friends in upstate New York. I didn’t know about Snipe programs at the time, so we sat there on the phone as I put in my bid on the card at the last possible minute, and watched hoping that no one came in at the last second and blew me away. But on this occasion I didn’t lose, we had our card. It came in a few days later, and she would proceed to taunt me with it for quite some time.

Then one day she went away again for a few days, and left the card and the envelope it came in on my bed with a little note. We knew we would be getting engaged sometime soon, but I did not expect at all for her to do this. So I tore it open as fast as I could. I reveled in the sight of the card that truly was the top card that I could get. I couldn’t believe she would just leave it for me to have at that time. So I instantly called her to talk about it.

Well turns out she didn’t mean for me to have the card yet, and said she had taped it shut so I didn’t open. I didn’t notice any tape….. But I had my card, and on September 30th of last year she had her ring.

The card turns out to be her favorite I have as well, soon after I got that card I took her to her first Red Sox game. During that game David Ortiz hit a grand slam off the Angels, and became her favorite player as well. We have bought a good number of Ortiz cards since then, but to this day the Century Marks still is, and always will remain my favorite card.

Also as a side note to end this, at the time of our purchase of this card the PSA Population Report on it was one. There has been one other graded a 10 but it came out of Mooresville, North Carolina so I still feel good about mine being the only legit PSA 10.