Making the Grade (July): Aaron Judge, Jayson Tatum, Ric Flair, Michael Jordan, Ronald Acuña Jr., Billy Ripken's bad bat knob, Chrissy Teigen's Rookie Card, The Big Lebowski's ink & 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 Home Run Challenge Silver #HRCAJ Aaron Judge (/59)
The Reason Graded: Aaron Judge recently returned from injury for the first time since April and that prompted me to lead things off with this rare card I recently got slabbed. I only have this card because I managed to predict one of his homers not long after he returned from injury last year after missing more than a month and a half. Injuries have mounted for his popular slugger the last two years, but I figured this card, given its scarcity, was one worth a slab.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: The pop report is a little iffy on this one -- there could be others not slabbed* -- since the checklist isn't complete on their site for this set this is merely a guess. (Pop report and checklists typically sync up.) I have gotten very few 10s in the last few years, but I thought this would be a contender and it was. Other Judge cards from this set -- there are at least three before this one -- are a lot rarer. Meanwhile, this appears to be the only Judge (of any color) from this set that's been slabbed.

Keep reading for the rest of this month's new grades and additions.

The Card: 2017-18 Panini Threads Dazzle #78 Jayson Tatum (/199) RC parallel
The Reason Graded: You've seen one of these parallels here before, but this one is a Rookie Card and a top guy in the class -- so that's why I felt it would be grading-worthy. It's also a brand that's a favorite of mine since I've had some decent luck with names from these retail-only boxes. When I pulled this, I knew I'd slab it.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I was a little surprised to see that another one of these had been slabbed but it is a good RC parallel and still a relatively rare card. I also had figured it would be a BGS 9 or better and it was.

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The Card: 2017 Star Trek 50th Anniversary Aliens Expansion Autos #NNO David Huddleston
The Reason Graded: This wasn't a pricey card when it arrived on eBay -- I found it for about $10 raw -- but these days it's nowhere to be found as it's one that has clearly dried up. One reason why? It's not Trek -- Huddleston is The Big Lebowski in The Big Lebowski and this is his only certified autograph card in existence. (And, it actually arrived after he had died at age 85 in 2016.) I don't slab a lot of autos because too often they can have imperfections from their handling if they aren't on some type of Chrome stock and I generally slab high-grade fun cards. This is a fun card ... it's Lebowski!
The Grade: BGS 8.5/10

Reality Check: OK, this grade had me as hot as a Malibu Police Chief with a coffee mug and I just didn't see what was up with this card until it was in the slab and in the photo above. I think its centering grade is what it is because it's got a slight tilted cut on the bottom and top. It is off-centered left to right a tad, but it didn't seem dramatic enough to warrant an 8 to me. It must be the cut and you can see it more easily comparing his name line to the bottom edge. I'd be fine if it were a BGS 9 ... but, hey, it's The Big Lebowski. I can't hate this card that much ... even now.

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The Card: 2018 Topps WWE Then Now Forever Blue #158 Peyton Royce (/99) RC parallel
The Reason Graded: Royce is one of two stars making up The IIconics, a totally obnoxious heel tag team who ruthlessly mocks their opponents with the microphone in thick Australian accents with bad puns that often rile up the crowd. The champs also fight like total oldschool heels avoiding contact and dodging their opponents any way they can while still talking big. Why did I pick this card? She's been in WWE boxes since 2016 and has teamed with her partner, Billie Kay, pretty much all this time -- but their more current gear and personas never seemed to match their cardboard until this one arrived. (It had been out-dated photos on card after card for them since they changed looks a few times.) That made this card stand out at first. This parallel came from a blaster box busted here and the blue background on this one looked much stronger than the standard version of her Rookie Card. It also is, I think, from part of the team's entrance routine where they talk smack.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: This one looked like a definite BGS 10 contender to me and I was essentially right as it's a quad 9.5, which is as close as it gets. I know it's not a pricey card -- I just liked this one and it's a nicer card as a 9.5. Royce has just one BGS 10 of all her cards graded -- there are a number of them out there vs. other younger WWE stars so somebody is slabbing out there besides me.

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The Card: 2010 Topps Heritage National Convention #NCC1 Stephen Strasburg (/999)
The Reason Bought: This year's National Sports Collectors Convention is coming and this card might be one of the hottest promo cards from the last decade of the show -- at least in its day. It's not a big mojo hit or anything from a promo pack -- it's just a card of a guy who was the biggest deal in baseball at the time and this card was a limited one that's kind of necessary for a Heritage collector who wants a true master set. I picked one up raw long ago on the cheap but it wasn't in gradable shape -- it had a small line of some errant ink on the surface.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I picked this one up for $15 because that seemed like a solid price for a 9.5. Its centering is definitely off but the price was right -- and not one card graded higher than this. That surprises me a bit, but Heritage stock can be funky and it's easy to land 9s (or worse) on this kind of brittle/soft stock. Strasburg isn't one of those must-watch guys now like he was that summer, but this card was genuinely huge back then.

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The Card: 1991-92 Skybox #534 Michael Jordan USA
The Reason Bought: Last month I led things off with my matching BGS 9.5 Dream Team lineup puzzle from this release -- a big success in my book since I pulled them all recently in a cheap box. My first pack in that one led off with one of these cards, but mine was badly centered -- and it was the only standard MJ I pulled despite getting a second set of puzzles and as many as three of some Dream Teamers in one box. So that's why I went this direction.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I picked this one up for about $13, which seemed to be a lot lower than asking prices for this same card in this grade when I was looking at the time. That's not much more than what it would have cost me to grade the fresh one I do own -- with no guarantees of it being a PSA 9. This legendary team had a ton of cardboard but the Skybox cards were the best in my mind with the NBA Hoops cards their more-traditional (but still fine) counterpart. With a lot of returning collectors remembering this timeframe, these cards seem like very safe pick-ups in slabs and collecting the team sets could be a solid little project.

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The Card: 2018 Topps 582 Montgomery Club #5 Ronald Acuña Jr. RC
The Reason Graded: This card is from the first set released as part of Topps' membership club and it's a Rookie Card of a guy who I've been picking up cheap slabs for here and there. This one I opted to get graded myself as the centering seemed dead on -- they weren't all that way in my set. It's a risky one as the thick dark stock isn't always the most friendly for grading, but this one looked clean enough to go 10 chasing.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I'm assuming my surface sub-grade is because of the texture of the cardboard here, though I had some worries as this stock looks a lot different under a loupe. I was happy to see a 9.5 and not one has topped that yet, which is cool. I'm not sure I will slab any others from my set, but I may take a second look at them after seeing this result.

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The Card: 1978 Three's Company #11 Three Smart Cookies
The Reason Graded: Pulling and grading vintage cards for high grades is, to put it mildly, a challenge and this brand from the late-1970s is one that's not without its issues as stickers are the main inclusion. They have super-skinny stock and the cutting for the sticker outline also creates extra condition issues at times. I picked off about $10 in packs of this one and was skunked with bad corners, centering and cuts so I turned a different direction and bought a set from a dealer claiming to have built them from vending boxes. I wanted to chase a 9.5 or better on a card with either a main key character or the group that makes up the "three." Why? While I'm not a big fan or regular watcher of the series on DVD or anything, it's a story that was perhaps a bit ahead of its time and Jack Tripper is an iconic character in comedy. I appreciate that and this show was a big hit back in the day.
The Grade: BVG 9

Reality Check: You definitely could see the difference in the condition for vending cards vs. packs but this grade still bummed me. I don't have subgrades to bemoan here since it's BVG, but I shouldn't have been surprised. When I was doing my final pack-ups I noticed there was a small dark spot in the fibers on the back of the card -- notable and un-missable as these are blank-backs -- but I let it go rather than check others I had set aside. Before I noticed that, I had only feared the white spot on his cheek might be seen as a printing spot. The spot on the back was probably the issue but the one on his cheek is not -- I believe it's icing from the cupcakes as it's on all cards I've seen. I wanted to go with the harder grade here to get an impressive card but I may send a couple others off to PSA to chase 10s there, too. The set has a bunch of simple but fun cards. For the BGS pop report, there are just four cards graded from this release and only one is higher than mine, meanwhile it's pretty popular via PSA with more than 650 cards graded.

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The Card: 2007 UD Masterpieces #2 Babe Ruth
The Reason Graded: This is a more traditional name to see in a slab and it's a painting based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of sports photography by The New York Herald Tribune's Nat Fein. He called it "The Babe Bows Out" and it's a scene from June 13, 1948, when Ruth, who was terminally ill with throat cancer, appeared in his uniform to address the crowd. The image, which might be better as a horizontal card to show the facade of Yankee Stadium a little more (click here and scroll down for full view and more of Fein's story), was still a striking one to me here in painted form and it looked to be 10-worthy to me, too. I'm not sure if the photo has been used much on cards -- I need to check and find them if they do. They'll go well alongside this one.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: The stock for this set is very thin and the canvas-like texture on the front also doesn't help, making for soft edges and corners. Despite that, I did manage to land the highest grade on this one along with four others. There are a couple other simple cards in this one I might slab up at some point -- this one had been in my "maybe grade" box for months.

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The Card: 1989 Upper Deck Promo #700 Wally Joyner (Hologram at Bottom) — PSA 9
The Reason Graded: I picked this one up raw long ago and knew it wasn't perfect, but it was among my first batch sent to PSA along with my Ben McDonald error card you saw last time. I knew this wouldn't be a 10 -- and I would have been ok had it checked in at an 8 given the challenges of cardboard from that time -- but it was one I felt is different enough to slab. Why? They're not impossible finds but also not something you see every day.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I was surprised by this grade but even more surprised how few were graded given the bigness of the set it was made for. (This is the easiest version of the promos to find so it does have a higher pop than other versions.) I picked up a cleaner one in the time since I sent this one in awhile back, and it, too, will be slabbed any day now and back in my hands for a future MTG. I have higher expectations for that one and I submitted it alongside a DeWayne Buice -- the only other guy to get promo treatment all those years ago. I'll revisit that story then and report my results on both cards. Stay tuned.

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The Card: 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter #68 Chrissy Teigen RC
The Reason Graded: I've been a big fan of Ginter since Topps reintroduced it in 2006 and I've slabbed more than a few cards to satisfy my extra need for fun cardboard since all those key autographs have eluded me from packs. Typically -- and almost all -- my Ginter slabs are minis, but in this case I simply didn't pull one of this hilarious tweeter who's got her place in pop culture more than a few directions. This is her Rookie Card, which surprised me a bit since the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue has had cardboard in the past -- I guess it was all just before her arrival.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I was a little surprised I was the only one to grade here -- PSA typically has a pretty good volume on a lot of main brands -- but, hey, that makes me the trailblazer here. I wasn't too surprised by the PSA 9 as this card was in a box with plenty of other Ginter cards not even penny sleeved for years. (And I only had a couple to choose from.)

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The Card: 1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken FF error
The Reason Graded: This was one of two copies of this truly big card that I pulled from a cello box of 1989 Fleer about a year ago. The first went to BGS for a 9.5 and I sent this one off to see how it would fare from PSA. Both were clean but this one seemed a little more off-centered to be a BGS 9.5 contender to me.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I was a little surprised by the PSA 9 -- I had delusions of a 10 -- but it's OK as I'm still way ahead after landing two in one box. (I was shocked to land them at all.) Not quite as surprising was the pop report on this one -- way higher than I had expected and it's grown dramatically even in the last month. It's also way higher than any other version of the card and those two things show you the lasting power and interest in this one. I'd bet that some of the volume on this grade is higher for cracked out and re-slabbing attempts at a 10. Why? The prices on those can get crazy.

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The Card: 2018 Topps Chrome #150 Shohei Ohtani RC
The Reason Bought: I found this one for just $6.25, and, while it doesn't have sub-grades, I was fine with the grade for the price. His Rookie Cards aren't tough finds right now and he's had his injury struggles, but there's always a chance they might be in higher demand in the future.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: I was a little surprised that there were so few in this grade -- I didn't check the pop report before buying -- but Chromes can grade well from some years.

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The Card: 2010 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects #BDPP95 Alex Bregman
The Reason Graded: The Little Baby Bregman you see here was just 16 when this card arrived in a pack of Bowman Draft and he wouldn't arrive in the majors until six years later. I'm a big fan of early cardboard, whether it's USA Baseball or MiLB team sets. Topps only had USA Baseball rights for a couple years around this time, but there are some notable big-leaguers to be found beyond Bryce Harper who was all the USA rage that year.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I knew this one was solid condition-wise but also know that Chromes can kick back at you from time to time with small things you might miss with all their flash. I didn't do a ton of Draft that year after over-doing things on regular Bowman, but I did land a few of the notables from the USA checklist in this one. You'll probably see more USA cards here at some point. I was surprised to see how many have been slabbed, though it shouldn't be that surprising ... it's Chrome.

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The Card: 2011 Panini Americana Retail Platinum Proofs #6 Ric Flair (/10)
The Reason Graded: We'll finish with a rare card I pulled from a bulk lot I bought right here -- and a card that's a highlight from a set that has a number of big names but isn't necessarily the flashiest when it comes to the design. This is a rare parallel only found in retail packs and it's of a wrestling legend so that works for me on a few fronts -- that's why it got a slab.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Woooo! I had feared a lower grade given the fact that I pulled it from a bulk lot -- I simply figured I'd have missed something obvious as packs in lots can sometime get handled like they were in a wrestling ring -- but this one came out like a champ, wearing a big-gold-belt-style slab. Even better? It's the only one graded.

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