Making the Grade (July): A Shohei Ohtani pull, a little Mookie, Ken Stabler's personally owned Rookie, 'He Hate Me' & 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 here on The Buzz ...

The Card: 2018 Topps Heritage Minis #330 Mookie Betts (/100)
The Reason Graded: I've had a run of big-name Heritage Mini pulls the last few years and I decided that a few of them were slab-worthy because I'm a sucker for minis in a few brands. These aren't easy pulls and since there's plenty of Heritage and it's a big set your odds of pulling any particular star aren't easy and there's a good chance that some are still out there in wax if they're not on eBay or in personal collections. It doesn't hurt that he's seemingly gotten even better since the time when I submitted this -- he leads all of baseball with a .352 average, has 23 homers and, of course, is on an always-collected team. This one just felt right.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It's the only one that's been graded, which seems surprising to me but maybe the diehard H collectors just don't do slabs unless there's ink involved.

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The Card: 2018 Bowman Blue #49 Shohei Ohtani (/199)
The Reason Graded: I hit Bowman hard earlier this year chasing this guy and was fortunate enough to find this one in a retail pack -- the Buzz Break is on the site here somewhere among the many rips -- and I figured this one should be slabbed despite a couple of light corners showing very minor specs. The rich color of the borders make these obvious when they're not perfect but this one still looked strong enough to get a BGS 9 in my book. He was dominating and dazzling many when I submitted this -- he's slowed since -- but it was still a highlight among recent pulls worth a slab.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: It's looking like this grade might be the typical one with this card as there haven't been many submissions but only three ended up stronger than this one.

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The Card: 2013 Panini Golden Age Tip Top Bread Labels #9 Kelly Leak (aka Jackie Earle Haley)
The Reason Graded: Buzz is a big fan of oddball graded cards from baseball movies and I had a few options I wanted to try for fun. I couldn't decide on whether Squints or Benny The Jet could get the nod from the Topps set from The Sandlot DVD so I went a different direction with this nod to The Bad News Bears from Panini. I only had a pair of cards to choose from for this one -- oddly a rare pull for me despite many boxes busted (some here) -- and I knew that this one might be a challenge with not just four but eight corners to potentially destroy my grading dreams. A couple of the corners have a little extra fuzz to my eye but they were enough to knock it down a bit -- but overall this card is a gem to me and a Gem Mint to BGS.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It wasn't surprising to see that this one was the only copy graded. I didn't check the autographed set of The Bad News Bears from this one because they've all got a rich colored border that shows off any kind of flaws easily, but I bet that's not the case there and at least a couple are graded. (I have them all but probably won't grade them.) This one is the only Bears card in this particular insert set and it's the only one that uses the character name vs. the actors' names. I might consider slabbing for a couple of the basic cards at some point -- again, just for fun.

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The Card: 2001 Topps XFL #70 Rod Smart (It's an XRC, right?)
The Reason Graded: The comeback of the XFL is still a ways away but the legacy of the short-lived league can be revisited in its only card set from Topps back in 2001. There were a lot of regional/college stars in the set as franchises placed an emphasis on names from their areas but the biggest national name might have been this guy simply because of the name on the back of his jersey that we don't see here -- "He Hate Me." Smart later played five seasons in the NFL for the Eagles and Panthers, but he'll forever be known for his nickname. He's also got NFL cardboard (Rookie Cards in 2002 as XFL seems to be treated like minor-league cardboard) but none are as good as this one if you ask me.
The Grade: BGS 9.0

Reality Check: "He Hate Me" must be the name of the grader on this one as I got a 9 on corners and I just don't see it -- time to go get that loupe I need. The surface 9? I probably missed something. No biggie overall, though, as a BGS 9 is probably my comfortable minimum on slabbed stuff -- a nine is fine to me -- and this is actually the highest-graded copy of this card. I still have a couple of others that might make the cut in the future.

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The Card: 1973 Topps #487 Ken Stabler (Rookie Card)
The Reason Graded: You may be wondering why this one's here given its obvious condition issues, right? Well, I thought it might have even been an altered card (diamond cut and a spot on the lower left side) but even with that this one was still getting slabbed no matter what. Why? It came from a collection of cards actually owned by this Hall of Famer. If you're a long-time reader of The Buzz then you might know the story -- but two summers ago Stabler's family opted to sell a ton of his personal memorabilia via Phoenix-based Pristine Auction. There were a few card lots in the auction that had a mix of stuff he had held onto -- some including basic everyday cards, one including a run of his in-career vintage cards, some including clearly from-the-company post-packout leftovers given their volumes and others with some odds and ends. I opted for a cheaper lot (see at link above) because of a huge volume of Rookie Card reprints and this actual RC was tucked into one pile with a couple of other vintage cards. (You couldn't see it in the auction photo that fanned all of the cards out, but it was in there. It was a great surprise and I needed it slabbed no matter what.)
The Grade: BVG 5

Reality Check: My card was not altered, but it's so low it doesn't even make the modified chart we use here. There are almost 200 copies of this card graded higher than mine but it doesn't matter -- this one came straight from Snake himself.

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