Making the Grade (August): Ronda Rousey's WWE debut, a Prizm NBA gem, The Beatles, one small Altuve and Snake

Note: A break from The National coverage for this month's Making the Grade as Buzz preps to be at the show later today. Look for plenty more from Cleveland here soon.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading and knows that there are many reasons that collectors choose to slab cards. Sometimes it's to enhance the appeal and protect them when selling. Other times it's to protect an investment for the long-term or to protect for sentimental reasons. Or, it might be just for fun or curiosity about a potential grade.

Here's this month's grading diary here on The Buzz ...

The Card: 2018 Topps Now WWE #30 Ronda Rousey (/1,342)
The Reason Graded: Ronda Rousey's WWE card arrival in packs should come soon but until that time this is her only wrestling card despite a pretty high-profile since her in-ring debut at WrestleMania. This card is from that appearance and it's the best-selling Topps Now WWE card in the couple of years -- a set where most cards sell far fewer than 100 copies. I figured I needed to get one of the five I picked up slabbed after seeing how clean the printing has come since my purchase in its first year of baseball cards back in 2016. Why do you see this one here? She should figure prominently in this month's SummerSlam pay-per-view -- the second-biggest show of the year -- and could win her first championship.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: I was a bit surprised to see that only four of these cards had been graded but mine is (for now) the only 10 of the bunch. This was my best card of my five so I figured it might have a shot and it came just a half-grade away from a black label. A BGS 9.5 copy sold on eBay for $115 while a second one sold for $99 so I don't feel bad about this card. (I slabbed it go go into my stash of WWE Rookie Cards.)

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The Card: 2017-18 Panini Prizm Green Pulsar #261 Russell Westbrook (/25)
The Reason Graded: Buzz pulled this one from a Walmart blaster of a Buzz Break a few months ago and really hasn't pulled anything this nice since in a number of NBA blasters that you've seen ripped here. With his dominance on the court and this card's scarcity, I figured it was a prime candidate for a slab as I know people out there love Prizm color in slabs. It's a solid card that I got for next to nothing and the box also delivered a Lonzo Ball jersey -- not a bad blaster. This brand has delivered some solid finds -- with and without ink -- but I don't chase rookies as hard as a lot of you out there. (That's another reason I slabbed this one and not a newcomer.)
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I figured there might be a couple graded already but was wrong -- it's the only one. It's one of those pesky Pop Report 1/1s as well as a meaningless eBay 1/1 as No. 1 of 25 ... but I'll take it.

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The Card: 1991 Pro Set Superstars MusiCards (UK Edition) #8 The Beatles
The Reason Graded: I picked up a few of these boxes in an affordable lot a couple of years ago and battled the bad collation to build at least one set (but not many) out of several boxes. There were a number of cards that I found in decent volume and this one was among them allowing me to seriously inspect what I had to find some gems that were slab-worthy. (Why? Why not?) The UK edition of this important-yet-forgettable release (there aren't a lot of music sets) from an important company (that didn't last long) has a number of stars in it that aren't found in the American release and this is one of the biggest cards. I'm not a big Beatles fan but you can't discount their importance and when I saw how clean this card was -- it certainly doesn't have the typical Pro Set edges -- this one made the cut.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: The centering here seems debatable to me, though it's probably off some horizontally, just like the Rousey card. (You'd think borderless cards would have more flexibility since there are fewer spots to zero in on centering-wise.) Despite that, it's still an impressive 9.5 card and it may not be easily topped. Heck, I'm the only one crazy enough to bother slabbing one.

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The Card: 2017 Topps Heritage Minis #425 Jose Altuve (/100)
The Reason Graded: As I mentioned in last month's item, I've pulled a few notables on Heritage Mini cards in the last few years and opted to slab them up. Altuve is in the midst of a Hall of Fame-caliber run at age 28 and rarer cards like this one seem like safe bets if you don't overpay. (Heritage and Minis are also among my favorites.) The border pattern blinded me a bit to the centering on this card -- I really just didn't see it like I see it in this photo -- but it was still clean enough that I thought it would be a contender for a strong grade if slabbed.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It's the lone graded copy and I'm fine with that based on what this MVP has been doing. It won't be my last Altuve card to make it into a slab.

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The Card: 2001 Topps Archives #49 Ken Stabler (1973 Topps RC reprint)
The Reason Graded: If you saw last month's piece, then you already know why this one is here -- it's a card that was originally owned by Stabler that came from a collection bought when his estate auctioned off a number of his personal belongings. This one isn't quite as cool as a Rookie Card he owned (I own that, too) but it's a high-grade card. I got 61 copies of this card in the lot (likely sent to him directly from Topps as these were very, very clean) but just like the original card the horizontal centering is always an issue. This one seemed like my best shot, so I slabbed it up.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Another card where I'm the only one slabbing -- grading isn't just for Rookie Cards, perfect cards and hits, you know -- but I slabbed it for a reason or two that aren't about cash. Card No. 0010647386 will always go down as one that came straight from The Ken Stabler Collection and into mine.

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