Patience Pays Off: 2011-12 Black Diamond Sidney Crosby Championship Rings: All-Time Greats

I FINALLY got my hands on something I have been after for months: A Sidney Crosby Championship Rings card from 2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond.

The card has an acetate base with the player photo printed on it, and the rest of it is placed on top in a separate layer to give it somewhat of a 3D effect. It's impossible to show just how great this card looks in person with just a computer scan, but the jewels on the ring (as well as the Upper Deck logo) are done in a rainbow foil that changes color, depending on the angle that the lights hits the card.

This has been one of my most sought after cards for quite some time. It's well over a year old, and the Championship Rings cards were only inserted in every seven boxes, so the Crosby is pretty scarce. Not only that, but by now, I'm sure most of the ones that have changed hands are with people who wish to keep them.

I checked Ebay, and any of these cards that were auctioned off went for $25, on average. The only problem, though, was that for a few months running, nobody auctioned them off. There were a couple of BINs, but they were all listed at around $75, and to make matters worse, somebody actually purchased one with a BIN of $75, and another was $79/OBO, with an offer that was accepted. With prices beginning to inflate, I figured my hope at a $25 Sidney Crosby Championship Rings card was over.

The truth is, I would have even paid more. I'm not a very patient person, and I would have no problem paying $40-$50 for it if I had to. Supplies were drying up and it would have been worth that much to me, just to be able to lock it up for my collection. But $75? No way.

Luckily, I didn't have to make that decision, because sure enough, one was listed a couple of weeks ago with a $.99 opening bid and no reserve. Game on. Someone placed the opening bid, so I put down the minimum $1.04 to keep it on the top of my "Now Bidding" page, and waited. A few days went by, and with the end of the auction coming up and a few more bids having been placed, I put down a bid of $50, just to make sure I would get it, thinking there would be no way it would get that high, and sure enough, the card was mine at a cool $26.77 plus shipping.

Some people say that patience pays off, but forget that. Sometimes patience just saves you a crap-load of money.