Making the Grade (October): Ronald Acuña Jr. heaters, Clerks, Ernie Davis, hot ink, Supergirl, Catwoman & real Nuke LaLoosh

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: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Topps Chrome Update #HMT25 Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I only opened a couple of mega boxes for this brand but did land this guy -- and, man, do I wish this card had used the bat-down photo. (What could have been?) I recently revisited a few of my boxes holding the finds of my buys last year and this one struck me as a clean example worth a slab, especially with him having had an elite season coming up just short of being the youngest member of the elite 40-40 Club.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Turns out I was right, though this is a card that's heavily graded with a growing pop report since I submitted this one. There was a 10 grade right after mine in the serial-numbering line and there have been plenty of 9.5s graded since -- and even the 10s aren't all that rare for this one. There's plenty here to feed the demand for a guy who should be on collector radars for years. You'll see more of Acuña here.

Keep reading for more of this month's new slabs for Buzz.

The Card: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Panini Chronicles Status #21 Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I told you you'd see more. This card's simple 1990s Skybox feel with a perfect photo much like his "bat down" Topps Update RC everybody loves made this one a card for me to submit over on the PSA side. The upper left corner has some extra cardboard hanging off and that bugged me from sending it into BGS even though I've been told that extra is not always a negative. I pulled this one from a blaster and figured it was worth a slab for my own tastes, though I could see his dirt-cheap Chronicles RCs being good buys to others. The various sets and designs aren't always perfect out of that brand but this one is for me.
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: That little extra didn't hurt here as I landed a 10 while figuring that I'd get a 9 -- so I'll definitely take it. It's not an expensive card, but I like it more than a lot of his pricier RCs out there. These seem to grade pretty well for standard paper cards, too.

--

The Card: Dante & Veronica "Then Quit" -- 2017 Clerks 37 foil parallel #12 (/37)
The Reason Graded: When this set arrived in the summer of 2017, I turned a lot of my then-red-hot Aaron Judge Rookie Cards and early prospect cards (I had some bulk) into ink from this one rather than ripping into boxes because there were a lot of lesser cast-member autos in this release that wouldn't pay for a pack. While I chased a number of the autos for an actor or two, I didn't land any of these while picking off singles. What are they? These red-foil "37" parallels are a rarer inclusion in this product which chronicles Kevin Smith's self-financed $27,575 film about retail clerks filmed at night by a retail clerk in a store he actually worked at during the day. Dante, a clerk, and Veronica, his lasagna-surprise-bringing girlfriend, are the keys as to the number ... but I can't really get into it more here for this R-rated film, which initially received an NC-17 rating simply because of dialogue. Ok, but why did I get this one graded? Its a rare card for starters, but it's also serial-number is 37/37 ... so it stood out from the others with these two featured. I thought it would be a funny slab.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: This grade was a bummer as everything is a 9.5 except for surface, so I must have missed something obvious or grading might have gotten tougher dramatically. (Ok, not really, but I thought it.) It's still an oddball kind of card I'd slab and I'm fine with nines, but I had visions of a 9.5 or better with this one. I'm actually not the only one to slab a parallel card from this set and the rest -- just five cards -- are autographs.

--

The Card: Sam Darnold 2018 Donruss Optic Red & Yellow #151 Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Graded: So much for the potential here for this card this season. I pulled a number of key names in the Red & Yellow parallel set from mega boxes last year and this one got the slab nod after I received decent marks with others. I held onto this card to present here during football season ... then the whole mono memes kicked in. I can't see long-term love for his cards this season. Beyond that? We'll see.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: The grade here ended up being pretty solid and that gives me a trio of key slabs in the set. I may look for more, though some guys' slabs may not cost as much as submitting so I could go the buying route instead of grading them. Surprisingly, this is the only Darnold graded from that set out of nearly 50 total slabs. Most are of Baker Mayfield and Saquon Barkley -- the guys I already graded. The Walmart mega boxes that were the home to these seem to have dried up some since there's good volume to be had in these boxes. That makes me wonder about long-term power for these in slabs. Could be a popular set down the line beyond what it is now, which is a pretty good one.

--

The Card: Ernie Davis 1961 Nu-Card #143 pre-Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: Remember me? I picked up a single pack of this interesting vintage brand late last year and landed the absolute best card in the set on the top of the pack. (Had I realized that the Heisman Trophy winner was on the top of the pack before I had opened it, I might not have.) This card's surface has some staining from the aged paper wrapper, but it ultimately looked pretty good so it went in the get-graded stack with an eye for the football season. So, here we are. The No. 1 pick in the 1962 NFL Draft as well as the AFL Draft, Davis never played either league as he died from leukemia in the spring of 1963. This card is from his college days and predates his only other card made during his lifetime, his 1962 Topps Rookie Card. He's a member of the College Football Hall of Fame as his Syracuse days were legendary and a film, The Express: The Ernie Davis Story, arrived in 2008.
The Grade: PSA 7

Reality Check: This graded better than I had expected, though it looks like it's a vintage card that typically grades very well. I'm rarely bummed with vintage grades because even eights can be challenges. I also like this one since I pulled it myself.

--

The Card: Heating Hendrix 2017 Garbage Pail Kids Battle of the Bands Classic Rock Puke parallel #9b
The Reason Graded: If you're a regular reader, you might know how I dabble here and there with music cards and then Pro Set stuff. This one is a companion of sorts to a card I previously dropped right here -- but this one is a little more comical as it's a Garbage Pail Kid taking on one of Jimi Hendrix's memorable moments in rock n' roll history. I didn't need to grade a parallel, but this one was centered so well (and better than my regular card) that I figured I could take on the BGS challenge with an eye on some high-grade heat.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I got just that here as this one went 9.5s across the board and then a 10 on surface. These stickers can arrive with centering issues and their corners can lift pretty easily from their skinny stock, so a 9.5 here is almost as equal as a high-grade for that other one I have in my Hendrix stash. Right? (Ok, maybe not that tough.) This card is one of a kind and there are only about a dozen cards from the release in slabs -- all parallels or sketch cards.

-

The Card: Famke Janssen 2000 Topps X-Men Movie Autographs #NNO
The Reason Graded: I don't grade autos often as they can present disappointments when they are on-card sigs -- meaning they were handled more before heading into packs -- but I made an exception for Jean Grey aka Phoenix. I pulled this auto in my first and only hobby box of cards for the original film in the X-Men franchise years ago and never really thought about a slab here. I did a double-take at the card when I looked through my autos box recently, though. This card looked razor-sharp despite its dark edges and handling for on-card signing.
The Grade: BGS 9.5/10

Reality Check: This one was razor-sharp with quad 9.5s and a 10 auto, making this solid pull an even better one in an elite slab. The volume of cards graded here surprised me -- it seemed high, but, then again, this is a landmark kind of set -- and there are none graded higher than mine. This set is pushing 200 slabbed autos, which seems high for BGS non-sports, with Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) slabbed 58 times and Sir Ian McKellen (Magneto) 24 times. They are the only signers slabbed more often than this one.

--

The Card: Helen Slater & Melissa Benoist "Mom's in town!" 2018 Cryptozoic Supergirl Season 1 Rainbow foil #13
The Reason Graded: Halloween is this month so there's been a bit of a costumed/pop culture theme here -- but the cards to come should make it a little more obvious after this one. Why this card? Well, it's a rarer (but nowhere near impossible) parallel from the popular Supergirl set from last year that has an Easter Egg that should be obvious. This card features the current Supergirl, Melissa Benoist, as well as Helen Slater who played the iconic character in the 1984 film. In the TV show, Slater plays mom ... at least on Earth. This fun card looked clean enough I put it into my PSA stack as I thought it might arrive back with a solid grade. (And it might grade a lot better than anything I might pull from an old Topps Supergirl pack.)
The Grade: PSA 10

Reality Check: It graded better than I had thought, which is cool ... at least to me. This is the only card from this product graded by PSA that's not a hit.

--

The Card: Steve Dalkowski 1963 Topps #496 Rookie Card (with Fred Newman, Jack Smith, Carl Bouldin ... all RCs)
The Reason Graded: The slab notes the only player that matters to me here -- Steve Dalkowski, a minor-league legend who struck out players at an insane clip down on the farm and made it onto this MLB card ... but never actually made it to The Show. Unlike "Dalko," there was a different rocket-armed guy with a nickname and strikeouts galore with just as many control issues who did manage to make it to the big-time. That was Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh from Bull Durham -- and Dalko was the guy he was based on. “In his sport,” Durham creator Ron Shelton (a past minor-leaguer himself) once wrote, “[Dalko] had the equivalent of Michelangelo’s gift but could never finish a painting.” This was Dalkowski's only card for decades until TRISTAR included him in its 2010 Obak set.
The Grade: BVG 3

Reality Check: I didn't care about the grade here as this was a higher-series card I actually landed in a vintage grab bag. It's got a horizontal crease across Bouldin's nameline but is otherwise clean beyond the obvious things you can see. I figured I'd slab some vintage stuff here and there this off-season (and maybe a little more in general), though a lot of my key guys (guys like Aaron, Mays, Maris) I traded for when I was younger will grade a lot closer to this than anything else here. This one is not that cheap of a card in general but it's still a gem to me. I'd have a hard time passing up other copies if they presented themselves to me but this one is the only one I have seen. My card is the worst grade of the bunch -- a modest 14 total cards -- graded.

--

The Card: Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman 1992 Topps Stadium Club Batman Returns #93
The Reason Graded: Earlier this year, I went on a non-sport kick, picking up a few super-cheap wax boxes from the past for tiny fractions of their original prices with an eye on getting some cheap but iconic characters' cards into elite-grade slabs. This is one of those times but there was an advantage in picking this brand over others. The second Batman movie got a Stadium Club release in the big pack (10 cards) and box (36 packs) format of its time despite it being a small set of just 100 cards. These full-bleed and glossed cards can stick, making a rip a slow and tedious task but that format means you get several copies of cards from a box. I got more than I should have for this one (like six or seven copies) if you do the math and ruthlessly inspected them all for the best copy of arguably Pfeiffer's best card as Catwoman.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: I think I did as best as I could expect as there is always something that could go wrong with cards from this era. I probably missed something where this one had a 9.0 on corners -- or that was the lesser of all evils when I was choosing. This grade surprised me because I knew it wasn't an easy challenge to take on -- skinny stock, sticky gloss, fast printing -- but I think it made for a slab that looks pretty good. Yes, it's not an expensive card -- that should be obvious -- but high-grade iconic cards from the past could surprise you when graded if selling. Just six cards from this release have been graded -- my card and five copies of card No. 1, which shows Michael Keaton as Batman. Four of those graded like mine and one checked in at a 8.5. The non-Club version of a Batman Returns set from Topps might make for easier grading -- or maybe present different challenges -- and boxes are just as plentiful these days.

--

The Card: Charlie Sheen as Hap Felsch 1988 Pacific Eight Men Out #10
The Reason Graded: Years ago, I found somebody with a case of 20-some factory sets for this Pacific release at like $1 apiece and ripped them all, holding onto the key actors' cards from what is really a pretty good set for its time. This is one of those key cards in the set though Sheen had a relatively modest role in this memorable baseball film about the Chicago White Sox throwing the 1919 World Series. Sheen still got card time and an actor card (not everybody did) and I picked this one from the bunch for slab time. The cards have dark colors and soft stock -- one that often has extra fuzz that will scare some people off -- and the sets were simply stacked in a box with a flip-top lid and stock just as skinny as the cards, if not skinnier. So it's not that easy to land those top marks even if you rip in volume.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: I didn't get much love here from the grader but I'm fine with a nine. The centering on these is a little funky -- or it at least bugs my eye -- as the borders have elements of the banner that are wider than the photo frame. I may revisit more of my cards from this one at some point but it's not necessarily cost-prohibitive. This card has been graded just twice and the other one checked in the same as mine -- just graded way back in 2012.

--

The Card: Hailie Deegan 2018 Panini Prizm #30 Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: The NASCAR season marches on -- it ends in November -- and it seems like forever ago where I had my parallel version of this card graded. At that point I mentioned why I graded two -- check that one out at the link -- and this was my safety card/wingman. Deegan has picked up three wins in NASCAR's lower levels so far and there is still plenty of potential for her cards, especially her autos, found in relatively cheap boxes from 2018.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Ultimately it's the same grade as last time but with this one being an all-9.5 card. It's the highest-graded card for this set and there's actually nothing higher among 20 Deegan cards graded from all releases.

--

The Card: Kairi Sane 2018 Topps WWE Blue #45 (/99) 1ST NXT Card parallel
The Reason Graded: I think I've mentioned this international superstar from the WWE here before -- if not, it was in a Buzz Buys piece -- but I'll say it again ... while her pirate gimmick may offer up one aesthetic here, she fights with a reckless intensity not seen by other competitors twice her size. That makes me a fan. The Blue parallels in this set from last year just jump out at you compared to the others and I've had a few slabbed since they are striking.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: Another card with three 9.5s but one 8.5 to trump them and bring it down to a nine. Slight bummer but I still like the card and I'm OK with this grade. (Lower and I'd be truly bummed.) The back corners here might have had a lifted spot somewhere as this one looks pretty good on the front. There are a few of her cards graded out there but they're all pop report 1/1s right now with none of them grabbing a BGS 10.

--

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy cards on BlowoutCards.com.