Making the Grade (Oct.): Semi-Pro's trio, young Bo, Tom Brady, Hank Aaron, Ronda Rousey, Kurt Cobain, a Canseco RC & 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 ...

EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY!
The Cards: 2008 Upper Deck Semi-Pro #1 Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell), #2 Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson), #3 Clarence “Coffee Black” Withers (Andre Benjamin)
The Reason Graded: I'm a sucker for sports cards with movie tie-ins (Or is it movie cards with sports tie-ins?) and this is a set I picked up long, long ago and then revisited again recently. The set is simple -- just these three cards that were released in a pack around a piece of wrapped gum in advance of this comedy's arrival. They weren't rare back then but they have dried up a bit now, and I always wanted to slab a set but knew that there would be challenges here if you want elite grades.
The Grades: BGS 9

Reality Check: This was my best trio out of a handful of sets I own and I'm fine with a matching set of BGS 9s as there can be centering issues galore here along with corner lifts on the soft stock, surface warping and even color blotches among those white borders on these highly glossed cards. These were my best options so I sent them in for the tougher grading company in my mind and got about what I had expected (while actually potentially fearing worse). As for the pop report, I'm not sure what's up here as all three of my cards actually show a pop of zero. That's perhaps because I'm the first or among the first to submit these, so they're not all linked up correctly in the BGS system. Or perhaps that whole is "It a sports card or non-sports card?" question in there, too.

Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and new slabs for Buzz.

THROWBACK BUY
The Card: Shaun Alexander 2000 Pros & Prospects #96 -- Rookie Card (/1,000)
The Reason Bought: The grade is a little low but the price was right (less than a blaster) so I grabbed this card of a fan favorite in both Tuscaloosa and Seattle who is a Pro Football Hall of Fame nominee for 2021. This was one of his first cards made and a somewhat limited one, too, at least for that timeframe. The photo is pretty solid for a non-posed action/feature shot of him taking the field for what I think was the 1999 SEC Championship Game. It's an iconic card to me (and the image can be found on at least a couple of cards) and helping that appeal is that there were no parallels of this one.
The Grade: BGS 8.5

Reality Check: The volume graded here seems a little high but with very few cards at 9.5 or higher -- that's perhaps what you should expect with cards that arrived long ago. This one's old-style slab makes me wonder whether it would check in at a BGS 9 these days, too, as there have not been any copies graded since 2015 and nothing has checked in at a 10. Essentially all of these cards are graded long, long ago and before Black 10s became a thing.

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THROW BACK BUY?
The Card: Hank Aaron 1974 Topps #1
The Reason Bought: This card is a favorite of mine but it's one that's notoriously sloppy with its printing and cutting ... so a high-grade copy is not a given more times than not. This copy is a little cleaner than most but has all kinds of issues when you see it in hand  -- it looks better than a five in a scan but you see how it earned the mark when in hand. My initial response was that I would have thrown this one back into the cardboard sea had I found it at a show ... but I didn't. That said, I'd still rather have a slabbed copy than a raw one for this iconic card noting his status as the MLB home run leader.
The Grade: BVG 5

Reality Check: My grade is so low, it doesn't even check in on the standard range I normally show above, but it's one of the most commonly received marks with 54 copies checking in at a BVG 5. I picked this one up using some eBay Bucks and a few bucks of my own over a year ago but had set it aside in a box until I recently remembered it never appeared here. It was an OK buy for under $30 because it would cost a good chunk of that just to get one graded and the card is a popular one that doesn't come cheap, especially if it's a clean one.

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SAFE SLABBING
The Card: Tom Brady 2013 Topps Archives 1970 Glossy #23
The Reason Graded: Like Mike Trout, this guy is one you can easily consider for grading as pretty much all cardboard can be turned into a financial winner as long as you land a decent grade -- either now in the short-term but more realistically more in the future. His standard early stuff isn't all that expensive unless it's a Rookie Card -- I have one of the best ones but jettisoned the rest of my RCs years ago -- but I have plenty of stuff made in the years since and for some reason this oddball insert from Archives that is a nod to Topps' NFL past was different enough that it got me to bite for grading.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: These cards are highly glossed on thicker oldschool Heritage-esque stock so there can be chipping and surface issues easily with all that color. But this one looked very clean and well-centered to me, so I sent it in back in the day (when he was still on that team) and only got it back recently. I was right on the grade. Over time, stuff like this will dry up a bit -- it's not super-rare or anything right now -- but the key in my mind is that the boxes are drying up and getting too pricey for what was a lower-end brand. After those are gone, fresh copies will be, too, so whatever pops up pops up. These were only found four per hobby box as well. I'm not saying this is a long-term only card, its just a simple card that could be appealing. Two copies on eBay right now have asking prices of $70 and $80. Should they get that? I don't know but anything seems possible these days with the biggest names out there. That's the key.

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TOUGH CARD?
The Card: Ronda Rousey 2018 Topps WWE Then Now Forever #101 -- wrestling Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: This card is an annoying one to me -- I have ripped a ton of these packs in pretty much every form made and very, very few have made worth-grading status. Why? That dark border and super-skinny stock that is so sensitive you can actually easily damage cards pulling open the seal on the pack (bottom back edges). I probably own 25 copies of this card but only a couple would be slab-worthy. The corners take most beatings here but the lower-right edge and the top left edge also seem to come right out of packs with wear. I went with PSA on this one instead of BGS because of edges. This one is clean but as you can see how this one photographed the top edges can sometimes be irregular for whatever reason. It's not damaged but you can see how something with the cut or packing machinery could have touched the edge to make it not as smooth as other spots under light from above. (In hand it looks fine.)
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: It took home a top mark like five others when I had been figuring a PSA 9 was possible. I'm fine with that and while I'd like to see how I could do with a BGS slab there just weren't any copies in my stash I was totally confident in between corners and edges. I do have some parallels I'll slab at some point for this one. Why? It's an important card, though, not necessarily a pricey one. (It would help if she returned to WWE ... but who knows on that front.)

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NEVERMIND ON THAT NINE
The Card: Kurt Cobain 2011 Topps American Pie #170 -- "Rookie Card"
The Reason Graded: I use the phrase "Rookie Card" loosely here as this one is the first appearance for the Nirvana frontman in traditional pack form from a major card-maker. American Pie selected a number of memorable stars from the past and notable moments in pop culture and Cobain was among them. Buzz was in high school at the time of this news -- it was the day before I took the SAT -- and this band, while it wasn't my favorite then, was huge and most later stuff has stood the test of time. Like the Rousey card, these are not ideal for grading -- they have skinny paper stock and all that black ink does nothing but showcase potential flaws easily.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: I submitted this one with an eye on a high-grade novelty card of sorts to go alongside some of my other musical slabs. I was surprised that nobody else has graded -- it's not an expensive card but easily one that could get you $20-30 or maybe more if somebody wanted it bad enough. Mine is staying in my stash and there are others similar to it I'd want to slab. We'll see. As grading prices rise and services seem to slow more and more for those advanced prices, smaller cards money-wise are being squeezed out. Over the long term, you'll have boatloads of some guys' cards graded (and many should be) but those won't be as unique as cards like this. If you remember the generalities of the 1980s up to the mid-1990s, there was a lot of money made with the standard card sets but the stuff that can really surprise now is the stuff that was oddball and off the radar of many. It's a lot easier to find a lot of 2011 baseball boxes than this one.

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REMEMBER ME?
The Card: Ozzie Canseco 1989 Upper Deck #756 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I'm pretty sure one of these was the first Upper Deck baseball card I ever owned since the low series just never showed up in the small town where I lived then. And Little Buzz was shocked -- in disbelief -- that his favorite player had a twin brother who also appeared on a baseball card. I pulled a trade as soon as I could and I'm sure that same card is sitting in one of my albums somewhere all these years later. This copy is a fresh one pulled from a bulk lot of high-number sets I shredded for somewhere at less than $1 apiece. (Literally like $20 for 30 sealed sets.) This was one of the fresher copies I found -- and I pulled out other players I'd want to slab -- but, wow, was that idea a disappointment for grading purposes.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: I was pleased this one checked in as a 10. While I ripped into sets that had come from a sealed case break of 100 boxes, the way these were packaged and handled at some point didn't do anybody any favors grading-wise when slabbing became a thing years later. (A simple corrugated box that folded around a stack of cards that was then shrinkwrapped.) That's got to be one reason why so few copies of many cards have been graded despite this one having to be a popular one with registry-minded collectors. The corners, rough edges (especially backs) and centering can all be landmines with this set. My centering here probably wouldn't have done me any favors via BGS so I sent this one to PSA --my best ones are still awaiting a future possible submission.

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VINTAGE BUMMER
The Card: John Johnson, Bill Cartwright (SL), Dan Issel 1980-81 Topps
The Reason Graded: I cherry-picked this card out of a cheap bulk lot of about 35 copies (maybe more as it was long ago at this point) with some high expectations. The centering is just barely off here and the scoring for potential separation is almost perfectly centered, too,  but something got me as to why this one didn't make it to at least a PSA 9 or maybe a 10. Johnson is a guy I collect from the era -- some school ties -- and my goal was to chase some solid grades.
The Grade: PSA 8

Reality Check: Considering my bulk lot buy (not expensive per card but cumulatively it added up) and then the slabbing fee, getting a PSA 8 here was a fail. I don't see how it didn't get a 9 -- and ironically that grade is the most-plentiful mark here. It's a card that, for whatever reason, probably looks good right off the sheet more often than not in general from this popular release. It also probably doesn't hurt that it has a Hall of Famer (Issel) and a Rookie Card of a guy who was on a popular dynasty team later in his career -- those are likely reasons so many have been graded.

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LIGHT MY FIRE
The Card: The Doors 1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #7
The Reason Graded: Just like last month, this one comes from my ripping of some jumbo packs in the last year or so where I opened with some volume and was fortunate enough to find copies that don't have the awful chipped edges and horrid cuts that derail many of this company's best stuff when it comes to grading.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: Like my Soundgarden 10 from last time, this one also has a single dot on the border but that didn't hurt it enough overall to get this one a lesser mark. I knew this one was strong as I own soooo many copies of every card here with soooo few even being worth the thought of slabbing. I sent some of my better ones to PSA and held some of my best (though not a dramatic difference here --  if they are good they are typically good ... because the rest are so bad for slabbing) for possible future BGS slabs. We'll see. I can live with this one in this mark and it wasn't alone in what I sent in. The metallic-bordered Legends subset in this one is loaded with good names and there are a number of newer bands and performers I wouldn't mind in a slab -- this one is super-cheap but pretty good for music sets -- but the stock and the cutting are atrocious if you're looking to grade even straight out of freshly opened packs, boxes and cases. (Yes, I've opened a case plus more here ... it was so cheap.)

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BEFORE HE KNEW ...
The Card: Bo Jackson 1986 Donn Jennings Southern League All-Stars #13
The Reason Graded: I picked up a small lot of cards from this set -- a dealer had three or four copies of this guy and a few other notable players for less than $20 -- years ago. I grabbed them not with any notion of grading in mind but rather just because these cards aren't everyday finds and the lot had some volume to it. (Most people don't break up the team sets -- how these were released -- so getting volume of a player isn't that easy.) I recently re-discovered what I had left of these cards and this one looked clean enough to slab, figuring it would be a cool card to have graded compared to a lot of Jackson's other easily findable 1986 and 1987 stuff that you can just buy already slabbed.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I'm not sure what knocked me down from a 10 here but anything is possible with these gloss-less cards that can have rough back edges and surface spots since they are just simple paper stock. At a glance I didn't see anything wrong and still don't but, as I've said many times here, I'm fine with nines.

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