Making the Grade (January): Acuña, Apollo, The Fiend, vintage, Eddie Vedder, Tool Time, Tiger, Drax, Dream Team, XFL & more

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 ... a super-sized edition with 20 cards to open 2020.

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SO CLOSE TO PERFECTION ...
The Card: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Topps Chrome #193 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: This one looked very clean to my eye and I figured getting some of my past Acuña pulls slabbed was a good move considering his almost-40/40 showing last year. Some of his cards are heavily graded to the point where they can be had for not much more than a typical cost to slab if not in top grades. Meanwhile, others aren't as plentiful and some can typically grade very well. I went with this one since it's not as heavily graded and it does tend to grade well. Plus, I just liked the photo here compared to others -- and those I already own slabbed.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: This one surprised me a bit -- just one half-subgrade away from a BGS Black. Only 14 cards have gotten the perfect mark and this one is among an also-small population. Most cards here check in at 9.5s -- a solid mark and a perfect card to bat lead-off for this first MTG of the year. I expect big things from Acuña this year and I'll be slabbing him often.

Keep reading for more.

A CLEAN AND SOLID RETAIL PULL
The Card: Kawhi Leonard 2012-13 NBA Hoops #236 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: He's won NBA titles with a pair of teams and could be a contender to do it again in a new spot, so that's why a lot of people are paying (and have been paying) big money for his stuff. I'm just a dude who likes the Spurs and this card jumped out at me among my leftovers from a past blaster break because it looked absolutely perfect -- something a little shocking since it's a card with zero semblance of gloss and on standard paper stock. I had visions of a BGS Black slab with this one, knowing that it's easier thought than done.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It got what I consider an elite grade and I was happy with it in this instance. Meanwhile, it turns out that this is a card that's often cleanly cut -- nearly all of them check in at this grade. Interestingly, only one 10 exists and no perfect BGS Black ones. I don't do a ton of NBA slabs via submission -- most I just buy since I don't need a super-high grade to enjoy a card -- but I'm happy with this one.

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ALL-AMERICAN RARITY
The Card: Apollo Creed 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Red Mini #56 (/40)
The Reason Graded: These Red parallels were only found in one-per-case box-topper packs and I was lucky enough to pull a couple of those that year. Most weren't all that impressive finds -- Ginter has its share of common players and obscure non-sports names -- but I kept a few of the notables and this iconic Rocky foe was among them. I'm a sucker for slabbed minis and this one is on the rarer side, so I sent it in with some oddball stuff last year.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: It graded better than I thought -- some very minor roughness on the card back scared me off of sending it to BGS, so I had figured a PSA 9 here. This one the only copy of this card graded until just recently but it's still a rare one on the pop report. I won't track down a Sylvester Stallone auto from this release but the look and feel of this parallel works just as well for a tiny, tiny sliver of the price.

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IS IT SAFE TO BUY/SLAB AGAIN?
The Card: Baker Mayfield 2018 Donruss Optic #153 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I graded one of my parallels here awhile back, getting a good grade (9.5), and then I pulled this one ... so I figured it would match grades based on a comparison of the two. I also sent this one in before this season started so there was a little more heat behind Mayfield slabs at the time ... not as much now after a season that ended with the coach canned the night of the final game.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: I'm fine with nines but this one surprised me a bit -- and it's also surprising to see how few of these have been graded and how they have shaken out. The gold slabs are the most-plentiful grades here, but only a few out of nearly 100 have been a top mark with none of them absolutely perfect. I'm sure that rarer parallels and autographs are getting most of the attention here, but high-grade copies of stuff for this guy and a few of the other key rookies seem like safe bets -- even through the ups and downs. Next year will be the key for Baker Mayfield and his cardboard.

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ALWAYS A HALL OF FAMER
The Card: Ozzie Newsome 1979 Topps #308 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: I found this solid-graded Hall of Famer's RC for less than $15 because other than its centering this card looks very,very solid. The corners are sharp save for some fuzz on the bottom left one and the printing is otherwise clean for a card from a decade where this grade can not even be expected from a freshly unopened pack. It's not the greatest photo, but Pro Football HOFer RCs can make for some really cheap pick-ups and the elite-grade stuff simply shouldn't exist.
The Grade: PSA 8

Reality Check: This is the most-common grade found for this card but this still feels like it's a quality 8 that could have been a PSA 9. For the price I had to pounce, though he fits in with my seasonal school ties collecting habit, too. (I buy more during football season.)

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TOLD YOU I'D SLAB IT ...
The Card: Eddie Vedder 2018 Pearl Jam The Home Shows #NNO (batting pose)
The Reason Graded: I ripped into a number of packs for these band-produced trading cards in a past #Buzz8in8 marathon. The packs were made for and sold at a series of key concerts in 2018 and include a number of cards for each member of the Rock Hall-honored band. In each of the three sets, the members were shown posing in the home team MLB uniforms -- these being for the Seattle "Home" Shows. I pulled and graded a couple of the Vedder cards in uniform because they are just classic cards to me -- the 1990-91 NBA Hoops design is re-created here well and the cutting and printing might be better than the original release. I only pulled one copy here so I couldn't be picky about what I submitted. I figured they would grade OK.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: This set was not part of the BGS database before I sent this one in, so the pop report didn't get updated(*), but I can bet with a decent amount of certainty that it's the only one graded -- at least for the short-term. The first Pearl Jam card sets -- pricey, popular and rarer -- were heavily graded by some people in the past ... so anything is possible here.

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TWO (BLUES) OF A KIND
The Card: Billie Kay 2018 Topps WWE Then Now Forever Blue #111 (/99) -- Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Graded: In a past Making The Grade, I slabbed and showed off the Blue parallel for her tag team partner, Peyton Royce, after I pulled it from a blaster box. This one was an eBay pick-up so I could slab -- not the norm for me -- but I didn't pull one in many boxes. I thought it would be a fun pairing since I like the set, the look of the Blues and the team is an obnoxiously entertaining one. These photos are also among better portraits of the past champs captured on cardboard.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: This one checked in a smidge lower than I had hoped -- matching 9.5s was a goal here for the duo -- but I'm fine with nine and up. Everything was a solid 9.5 here on subs except surface, which got me -- there must have been something on there I missed. These aren't expensive cards, but you only get one numbered parallel per hobby box from a number of shades, so parallels aren't always the easiest to track down (just like hobby boxes for this series).

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A VINTAGE SURPRISE
The Card: Robin Yount 1978 Topps #173
The Reason Bought: This card just screamed at me when I saw it and I really couldn't figure out the ST (stain) qualifier at all from an online glance as the back is as clean as it gets. I also couldn't pass it up for the price -- less than $6 -- and I was more than pleased when I saw it in person.
The Grade: PSA 9 (ST)

Reality Check: The wax stain is on the front of this card but you can't even see it without tilting the card to see light directly on its surface. I don't note the half-grades and qualifiers in the PSA tables above, but there are only 30 other qualified PSA 9s out there. Not an expensive card -- it just looks good and it's of a popular player on just his fourth Topps base card of his Hall of Fame career.

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MEMORABLE MISTAKES
The Card: Juan Gonzalez 1990 Donruss #33A (reversed negative error) -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: Want a collecting challenge beyond getting a perfect 10 from some releases around this time? Try pulling an error card and then try to get a perfect 10 grade ... I'd bet good money it's just not possible in many instances. While more than 1,300 corrected copies of this RC have been graded -- and 65 checked in at a 9.5 there -- there are no 10s for that far-easier find. This error one? They barely exist at even a BGS 9.
The Grade: BGS 8

Reality Check: I picked this one up cheap (likely under $5) probably a year ago as I was pondering trying to see if I could pull some key error cards and grade them. It's not easy to do -- you can't just go buy a box or case and expect to find errors every time. Meanwhile, it's not easy to get clean cards from this release in general from most formats. Cello packs might be the best place to chase high-grade samples -- and I'll have something on that later this year as I did try chasing one memorable but cheap card in this set. (Not even an error.) Some cards in high grades here (mostly PSA) can have interesting asking prices on eBay.

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A FAVORITE OF THIS FAN
The Card: Shaun Alexander 2000 Topps #371 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: Topps Chrome RCs from this year are limited to 1,650 copies for base and a crazy-low 150 copies for Refractors -- and both of those things are reasons I don't even I have them. (I mostly collect this guy when he's cheap and I do that in volume.) This pick-up was under $10 (still perhaps a little high since it's not Chrome) but it still didn't seem too bad. Why? Cards from both releases just don't seem that plentiful -- raw or graded -- these days and that seems unusual for a flagship-style set.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: Those blue borders showcase flaws easily, so chasing raw copies isn't all that realistic, either, unless you have a volume to choose from to slab. That's probably another reason I went this route. This grade is the most-common mark, though there are a number that have checked in below that.

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YOWIE WOWIE ...
The Card: "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt 2019 Topps Now WWE #46 -- Rookie Card for this persona
The Reason Graded: This WWE veteran is blazing a new trail with an unusual character that's a bit of a split persona -- a hyper childlike twist on Mr. Rogers playing with his puppet friends in the "Firefly Funhouse" during video promo segments and then a demonic clown known as "The Fiend" who wears a Tom Savini-designed mask while wrestling in the ring. It's a viral-moment-spawning twisted little metaphor that you just have to pay attention to when it's on. It's just weird and has plenty of the unexpected going on every single time. It's also a merchandising machine -- think Baby Yoda but twisted and for wrestling fans who might be bored with the formulaic norm. This is anything but that -- and this card his first appearance with this new look. That made a few of them my first Topps Now WWE buys ... though I have been tempted many times.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: I picked off a small batch of these and sent in one that looked like it was the best of the bunch and it was solid -- just one subgrade short of a perfect BGS Black slab. This was the first graded and is the only one so far -- a little surprising as it did sell pretty well via Topps Now. Just 234 were printed (perhaps high for WWE Topps Now) but subsequent cards for the character haven't been as popular, though they have had better photos. We should see some "Fiend" cards in upcoming WWE releases in pack form at some point soon. They should be popular.

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IT'S 'TOOL TIME!'
The Card: Tim Taylor & Al Borland 1994 Skybox Home Improvement #S1 -- promo card
The Reason Graded: I picked a small lot for this promo card on the cheap (like $3) a year or so ago, thinking it would make for a funny and unique slab and figuring that the volume of my lot (like 25 cards) would give me the chance to pick out a clean copy to chase an elite grade. Well, the seller didn't package the lot all that well and a number of them suffered corner issues on their way to me (merely in a team bag thrown in a padded envelope) ... but a few others looked good enough to make a pick, though it was still a challenge.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: These gloss-less cards are on a a chip-prone stock similar to Pro Set or Pro Line cards of around that time, but they were a little more cleanly cut and it's the backs here where issues pop up. The front of this one looked -- and still does here -- razor sharp, so it made the cut. It's not a big priority, but I might try sending another clean one to PSA at some point and it should contend for a 10. I think oddball promo cards in high grade could interest people more than conventional thinkers may believe as they can be a little tougher to find than standard cards. (Not that there are a boatload of people looking for these. Looking for Blue Chips and Kazaam maybe ... kidding. Or am I?)

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ON 'TOOL TIME,' TOO ...
The Card: Pamela Anderson 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition #100
The Reason Graded: This is a baseball card -- the Baywatch star and 1990s icon is shown as a fan of the Pepperdine Waves baseball team -- and you can read all about the card's origins here. It's a fun story and a cheap card where the autographs and the parallels still get a lot more attention, but I thought this one would be a decent slab if in an elite grade. I submitted knowing that foilboard can be problematic and this card had one potential problem spot.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: Behold ... the worst-graded copy of this card in existence. (That's probably why this sat in my ready-to-post queue since last February.) I didn't pull it but rather picked the card off for less than $1 online but submitted anyway knowing that some bottom back edge issues might hurt it a bit. They did -- but not catastrophically. I would have preferred a 9.5 or higher but maybe I'll do that route with a parallel or ink at some point if the cards present themselves on the cheap. It's funny how cards that are barely a decade old can be tougher to find now. Boxes of this one aren't cheap when you can find them, either.

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DRAX'S WWE RC
The Card: Batista 2002 Fleer WWE Royal Rumble #67 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: You might know him as Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy but Batista had a pretty long run in WWE before testing the waters of Hollywood. He's going into the WWE Hall of Fame this year after his final match at last year's WrestleMania, so I figured I'd get his only Rookie Card slabbed up since it's from a set with a number of key debuts. The main newcomers in this set don't have a lot of RCs, either, meaning the focus will be on the cards here as wrestling RCs seem to be growing in interest (though you wouldn't know it by the BGS pop report for this one).
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: Fleer's WWE stock can have issues even fresh from packs -- if you can manage to find boxes -- and this set is no exception with gloss spots, chipping and soft stock all creating obstacles that have prevented anything graded higher than BGS 9 from happening. A look at the PSA pop report shows 14 slabbed and just four of those being 10s -- so it's not happening easily over there, either. This is his only in-pack card issued in 2002.

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TOUGHER TIGER
The Card: Tiger Woods 2001 Upper Deck VIP Promos #TW -- promo Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: In the big picture, these promo cards are pretty rare -- and they are immensely rarer than the standard version of the Tiger Woods Rookie Card that was put into packs and looks just like this but with a different photo. For comparison's sake, consider that the standard RC has been slabbed more than 27,400 times as of this writing -- it's among the most-graded cards in BGS history. Only 88 Black slabs exist on that one and more than 12,000 have graded a 9.5. It grades easily. I picked up this card since I never had found one for around the price of a couple blasters (I don't remember the amount) and figured it could grade very, very well when I examined it. It's razor-sharp and as clean as it gets.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: Clearly surface is my grading nemesis as this card was an easy 9.5 save for some surface issue I clearly missed. It might have been on the back as I know I gave the front a solid look -- I still don't know what happened here. I always say I'm fine with nines but this one had me a little red. Despite its scarcity, they generally grade well as seen above.

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THREE OF A KIND ... ALMOST
The Cards: The Dream Team -- 1991-92 Skybox USA Basketball #544-546 puzzle
The Reason Graded: If you collected back in the day and are returning to the hobby now, then these cards might hit a sweet spot as The Dream Team was a very, very big deal both for the global aspects of the NBA and its expansion back then (a big deal when you think about today's cards) and its cardboard. Every player here is a Hall of Famer and all but one was on the NBA at 50 squad. I scored two sets of these puzzles out of a single box of this product awhile back and sent in my first-stringers to BGS where I scored well. Feeling good about those, I figured these might be worth making the grade on the PSA side.

The Grade: PSA 8 (No. 544)

The Grade: PSA 9 (No. 545)

The Grade: PSA 9 (No. 546)

Reality Check: The eight is a bummer but I probably missed something obvious on the surface there, while the other two are OK at nines but not what I was aiming for after my BGS successes. As you can see with the grades on the pop report, these tend to grade somewhat easily as long as you inspect them closely. (I might not have to tell you the truth.) The glossy stock on these can create issues in a few ways and the corners can pay the price for the packaging of the time. The middle card is typically the strongest value-wise and might still be for a PSA 9 ... but I didn't slab these for cash.

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VINTAGE SURPRISE
The Card: Tony LaRussa 1964 Topps #244 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I picked this one up raw and it looked razor sharp to me beyond the ink blotch on the left edge of the photo down into the bottom border. It's also slightly off-center but nowhere near as bad as cards can be from this set, so I opted to get this Hall of Famer's RC graded. (It wasn't a super-pricey pick-up for me despite its clean look so it could still be a profitable card if I was worried about flipping. I'm not.)
The Grade: PSA 8

Reality Check: This one surprised me -- I had figured a PSA 7 or some type of card with a qualifier for the ink blotch -- but I'll take it. It's the most-common grade but marks above it are very rare based on the stats -- so this one feels like a win.

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HE HATE ME? NOT THIS TIME ...
The Card: Rod Smart 2001 Topps XFL #70 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: The new version of the XFL arrives in February and just this week Topps revealed that it will be  taking the field on the XFL cardboard front in 2020 just as it did back in 2001. That first set isn't quite legendary (or is it?) as it's the only one that was made for the short-lived league the first time around. There were autographs, there were memorabilia cards -- hobby-only inclusions that make unopened hobby boxes tougher finds now. But, unless you land a Tommy Maddox auto or a mem card with some red and black from one those memorable footballs, I'd say that this base card is the highlight from the release as it showcases "He Hate Me" ... a guy who actually ended up on NFL cardboard the following year and played parts of five seasons for the Eagles and Panthers.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: I previously sent one of these into BGS in the summer of 2018 but the grader clearly wore a "He Hate Me" jersey that day as I got a BGS 9. This time around after using loupe inspection -- because who doesn't use a loupe on iconic and pricey (kidding) cards like this one -- I landed a top mark.

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See more monthly Making The Grade posts here.

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