Making the Grade (Sept.): The Four Horsemen, Bo, Zion, Patrick Mahomes, Daredevil ink, vintage, epic photos & 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 ...

A COLLEGE CLASSIC
The Card: The Four Horsemen 1955 Topps All-American #68 SP -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: College football is back for another season, so I'll lead things off with a vintage classic. This card featuring Notre Dame quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, halfbacks Jim Crowley and Don Miller as well as fullback Elmer Layden is one that's been on my want list -- albeit very casually -- for a long time. I recently found one at a price that wasn't uncomfortable so here we are. I don't need a high-grade copy of this one -- just one that looks pretty good so I can say I have it. Besides their place in college football history, The Four Horsemen have a place in sportswriting history, too, as Grantland Rice gave them this name early on in what was a perfect 1924 season that ended with a national title. His New York Herald Tribune story started like this: "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below." It's one of those pieces that's often cited when talking college football or sportswriting history and it's often emulated and it later sparked a marketing scenario -- the players would go on to pose on horses in uniform. In a lot of ways, that marketing is still replicated every Heisman season and beyond. This set is a landmark release, especially for college collectors, and this is one of a few big cards.
The Grade: BVG 2.5

Reality Check: Mine checks in low, but it's not the lowest -- there are 18 copies worse than mine and 14 others with this grade. It's very interesting to compare that total and then consider how few cards there are above a seven here.

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

A RETAIL PULL
The Card: Patrick Mahomes II 2017 Donruss The Rookies #7 
The Reason Graded: I've been slabbing up my various rookie-year pulls for the new GOAT of the NFL in recent months and this one was later on the list since it's a foilboard insert that has a slightly rough cut on the left but isn't mangled. (It's just not smooth.) My best stuff went into slabs long ago with a different grading company, but the rest of them will get CSG'd as the price is right for me and my casual and quirky likes when it comes to slabbing. In my mind, the only drawback, since I'm not slabbing to sell, is the pop report that's on the way* but not live just yet.
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: It's likely that left side that dropped me to a nine as there wasn't much more wrong with this one. (I actually didn't remember it being that rough when I sent it -- but I also will admit it sat in a semi-rigid for months.) Once that pop report hits, I expect to see plenty of Mahomes stuff in there though I'm not sure if this would be a low mark or right there in the pack. Either way, I'm still good with this one considering it was a pull from a retail mega box.

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NO MATTER THE COLOR ... I DIG IT
The Card: Zion Williamson 2019-20 Donruss Optic My House! Purple #15 (label mistakenly says Blue)
The Reason Graded: This slab is reflective of an issue that I have had a few times among just over 100 cards graded by the newcomer. Sometimes the details on parallels or other info beyond the basic set name fall off sometime after the input process. I've had about 10 cards where this happened but this is the only one where they caught it and then actually put the wrong color on the slab. The color they listed it as is serial-numbered ... mine is not. (It was a mega box pull.) 
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: I slabbed a few -- but not nearly all -- of my better Williamson and Ja Morant pulls recently and generally had solid results with one bad surprise and then some good surprises with this one right in the middle. The error isn't that big of a deal for me but they recently revamped their input processes so I'm betting it improves from here. The bottom right corner of this one has a minor spot that likely cut me down a tad. (That top edge is clean but the light is reflecting the texture of the cut plastic.) Out of many of the Zion studio shots to make their ways onto Rookie Cards, I like this one a lot more than others ... probably why I slabbed it.

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SCHOOL TIES
The Card: Shaun Alexander 2000 Collector's Edge Masters (Retail) #249 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: I bought a lot of Collector's Edge retail boxes back in the day chasing this guy's cards -- any of them -- so when I saw this one modestly priced I grabbed it. Why? School ties and it's a nice card and a solid grade from his deep crop of RCs and rookie-year inserts. Simple as that.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: This checks in at one of the best copies and there aren't many others, which makes that bargain grab feel better for this collector. (I didn't check the pop report when I grabbed it.) Collector's Edge came up with a lot of weird cardboard late in its NFL run -- way weirder than this -- and you can still find some of them with some hunting.

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HALF-PRICE HERO
The Book: Daredevil #1 50th Anniversary issue (April 2014) signed by Netflix's Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox
The Reason Bought: I picked this up via the Wizard World Vault for half price after a recent promotion -- it pays to sign up for e-mail lists. If you bought $50 in stuff with one order, they sent you a half-off code for your next one -- half off anything in stock -- and I used that to land my first autographed and slabbed book. (I'm intending to have a book here every month.) This cost me less than some of his stickered auto cards out there but presents a lot better -- so the price felt good to me, especially when considering the popularity of the canceled Netflix series. (Could there be a renewed interest if he's in the new Spider-Man movie as Daredevil?)
The Grade: CGC 9.8 (Signature Series)

Reality Check: On new stuff if it's not a 9.8 then it hurts -- and anything higher than a 9.8 seems close to impossible based on what I have read. Go figure. (I'm a newb to graded books and have my first sub in their hands now from my stashed books in the past.) Cox doesn't have the flashiest auto -- and it's consistent -- but I thought it worked for the price.

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CLEAN VINTAGE
The Card: Rudy Tomjanovich 1974-75 Topps #28
The Reason Bought: I always liked the look of this vintage NBA release -- a set with vertical team name a decade before 1984 Topps took on the look -- and the grade here seemed pretty solid for the era, too. It was also a bargain price (under $10) for a Hall of Famer. Not a lot of other deep reasons for this grab.
The Grade: BVG 7.5

Reality Check: I didn't check the pop report, but this is the highest-graded copy of this card. It's not an RC or anything, so that's probably why the volume is low -- and I suspect PSA might have more action in its pop report. There also may not be a lot of them graded since anything can be rough even straight out of packs (if you can find one and dare to rip) from throughout this decade.

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HIGH-GRADE APPEAL?
The Card: Wilbur Wood 1975 Topps #110
The Reason Bought: This card is very clean -- so clean it grabbed my attention as an example of the cardboard you just don't see all that often out there ... elite-graded 1970s vintage. It's an older BVG card so there are sub-grades to see here -- that's helpful -- and surface isn't really something I can decipher all that well on stuff. (I always get nicked there.) Perhaps the black ink didn't flow as well as they think should be expected? I see only one magenta dot in the red that might hurt it (though it blends) -- perhaps there's a surface issue on the back?
The Grade: BVG 9

Reality Check: This is the highest-graded copy for this card -- not surprising to me -- and it's interesting that the other comes up right behind it. Perhaps this is one of those cards that's often found clean within a release for some odd reason? I did't really look but this card struck me as interesting with those raz0r-sharp corners and everything else ... not the norm if you dig through 1970s cards.

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BACK TO MODERN ...
The Card: Bo Bichette 2020 Topps Future Stars Club #2 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: If you didn't sign up for the Future Stars Club (a monthly subscription service for kids launched last year) then you probably don't know this card. But you should know the player and the photo as it's also seen on his 2020 Topps Rookie Card. As you know if you're a regular reader here, Bichette is a player I'll pick off when affordable or it's a card that I like in a slab.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I saw no dramatic flaws with this nine so I grabbed it. I figured it might end up being more on the obscure side of things for his RCs ever the long term vs. standard stuff, too. It was priced like the ones where there are likely hundreds if not thousands of freshly graded copies coming as the PSA backlog is chipped away at.

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HUGE IN THE PAST
The Card: Kerry Wood 1997 Bowman Chrome #183 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: I found this one on the cheap -- $8 -- or at least it seems like that as a collector who was around back when this card was a monster in any form. He struck out 20 hitters in a game as a rookie in 1998 and that instantly launched his stuff like this into elite territory. At that time he had just minor league and draft picks stuff and then his MLB Rookie Cards in Bowman, Bowman Chrome and Bowman's Best. Now? They're all still around but they're not so lofty price-wise -- but raw copies can still have higher asking prices than what I got this for. Higher-grade copies can still be pricey as one could argue he'll always be a pretty high-profile Cub after his 14-year MLB career that included the Rookie of the Year award, All-Star nods and more than 1,500 strikeouts.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: This card is a heavily graded one for a reason or two as I mentioned and the pop report is perhaps more toward what it should be with 10s being substantially tougher. Finding cards that are not turning green might also make these numbers a little less of a reality -- collectors who have greening cards are probably having a tougher time moving them. Or, conversely, there might be a little more paid for high-grade cards that are truly clean and not green.

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MY GIMMICKY SUB GOES WRONG
The Card: Howard Cosell 1994 Action Packed Monday Night Football #64 -- Rookie Card? 
The Reason Graded: I love me a high-grade novelty card and this one was subbed with that in mind as it's one of a few cards of this broadcasting legend when he first was found in NFL packs. (Technically ... Rookie Card?) I could have gone with some in-booth or portrait cards from the set -- he has a few -- but instead I went with the weirdest one that shows him in a Miami Dolphins uniform. 
The Grade: CSG 7.5

Reality Check: This wasn't a grade I expected but I went with my copy that had the fewest issues on the front and corners among the few I pulled in a box. But it seems like I missed a minor crease in the smaller folded edge on the back where these embossed cards are glued shut. The front here is perfectly clean -- others I had had curled or pressed edges -- so I stuck with this one. (At least it looks better.) Since I paid bulk price, I can handle the sting here. It's still the prototypical kind of cheap card I'd want to see in a 9.5/10 ...

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BIG FRANK
The Card: Cincy Clouters (Gus Bell, Frank Robinson & Jerry Lynch) 1960 Topps #352
The Reason Bought: A third-year card of a Hall of Famer for a good chunk less than a blaster box with the only obvious issues showing being the centering? I'm sold. I dabble with Frank Robinson somewhat regularly here and there and this one jumped out at me -- this card could have had a higher asking price if you ask me.
The Grade: PSA 7 (MC)

Reality Check: This one is one of 37 overall with qualifiers -- seven with this grade -- that aren't seen above. Overall, it's a tough card to find above an eight, while most check in around six to eight. Combo cards and leader cards are cheap ways to find Hall of Famers on the cheap and this is a prime example. And, really, the centering is not that awful here ... probably another reason I grabbed this slab.

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STARTING MORE SLABBING ...
The Card: Liv Morgan 2018 Topps WWE Women's Division #15 -- Rookie Card (label dropped set info)
The Reason Graded: I hadn't really included much WWE stuff in my recent submissions as I typically would send my favorite wrestling cards to BGS, but this Morgan was a bit of a test as to how thin-stock stuff might be examined by this newcomer to sports card grading. This graded out well -- I didn't see any flaws -- but there was a Botchamania moment with this slab as CSG once again had info drop off the submission and they didn't catch it. This is labeled as if it's from the flagship set and not the Women's Division set ... a totally different release. (I ripped plenty of both and will likely slab some in the future once I get a WWE-heavy sub back sometime soon.) 
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: With the pop report still to come, there's not as much to say here ... but I think anything above a nine is good with the skinny stock that's used on pretty much everything WWE (save for a couple sets) around this time.

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A LONG-TIME FAVORITE OF MINE ...
The Card: Julius Erving 1996 Topps Stars Finest parallel #115 (label dropped parallel set info)
The Reason Graded: Yep, another label with dropped info ... this is the Chromed-out parallel for this historic NBA release that coincided with the NBA at 50 team back in the day. The Finest parallels are on Chrome stock and have embossed stars in the background as you can see there and then they also had Refractor versions. The backs of these cards, at least in my experience, have a lot of super-minor surface scratches but I still sent my cleaner of the two I own (one of each) to get some NBA stuff into a slab. This set really kind of launched my interest into past NBA stars around this time as a small store had packs of this for a long time and that let me dabble a lot before they vanished. (Stuff like Fleer Ultra was cleared out instantly since, you know ... Rookie Cards.) This card's photo is one of the best ever to grace any cardboard in any sport. It was taken by Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer in 1974 -- he's the same photographer who got the iconic Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston shot. 
The Grade: CSG 8.5

Reality Check: Label botch is no big deal here as I'm not grading to sell, but I had hoped for nine or better.

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REMEMBER ME?
The Card: Keith Comstock 1989 ProCards Las Vegas Stars #14 (label dropped team info)
The Reason Graded: Not that long before this infamously funny card got re-visited by the mass media and then spiked in demand, I had grabbed a stash of them -- fresh from cheap sealed team sets -- with the hopes of getting the best ones graded. In past Making The Grade pieces here, you've seen the first BGS copies -- a pair of 9.5s -- and then the first PSA 10 ... so to go with those I sent this one in to get in on the early action with this card via CSG. 
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: I was hoping for a higher grade -- a perfect score would be an epic touch for an epic card -- but a 9.5 is nothing to scoff at, especially with the skinny stock and all that blue ink and no gloss to help it stay on the cardboard. Will mine check in as the first or highest once a CSG pop report hits? We'll see ...

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AN EMBOSSED BUMMER
The Card: Ichiro Suzuki 2000 Upper Deck Ovation Japan #41 -- pre-MLB card
The Reason Graded: I always liked this pre-MLB Ichiro Suzuki card made by Upper Deck using its Ovation design of that time but with the stars of Nippon Professional Baseball on the checklist. (Inserts included some guys like Ken Griffey Jr. by the way.) I've opened boxes of this one more than once on the cheap -- they have dried up in recent years or gotten pricier -- and have at least three or four of these in my possession. (One I think was already graded here in the past but I could be wrong ... I'm just not organized enough to tell you.) This one was an easy pick to send in with a bulk sub, though, as a memorable card from a loaded set.
The Grade: CSG 8.5

Reality Check: I wasn't expecting below a nine here, but I think this might have been due to a line in the embossing of the photo that's found on some cards but not others. I gave these a relatively close look at these before I sent this one, but somehow only noticed the line on two cards but not one of my others ... I had assumed it was on all of them. (It's about all I can see that could have dropped it to this kind of grade.) I like the embossed seams on the cards in this design and all that can also create condition challenges, too. There's a chance my other one(s) might get graded at some point. It's a slightly pricey card but not super-expensive since these are relatively findable -- you might land a couple of them if you rip a box. His Japanese RCs are in 1993 releases and he had a lot of cardboard between that time and 2001 when he arrived in MLB but this one stands out as interesting to me since it's among few made by American companies before he became an MLB staple.

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