Making the Grade (Dec.): International stars, commemorative coins, talented newcomers, WWE icons, old mags and comics

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 ...

IMPORTED PERFECTION
The Card: Ichiro Suzuki 2000 Upper Deck Ovation Japanese (Nippon Professional Baseball)
The Reason Graded: This set is a favorite of mine among oddball/international releases and while it might look familiar it's not one you found at, say, a Toys R Us store back in the day. This is from a set made for the stars of Nippon Professional Baseball and was sold in Japan and it uses the familiar Ovation MLB design that really does stand out as a unique one from the past with its embossed baseball seams framing the photo. The core of this set isn't huge -- you'll get that part in a typical box -- but there are short-prints in th set that are serial-numbered as well as a number of inserts to chase as well as some MLB player cameos ... but this one is the biggie. It's not super-expensive and it's not a NPB Rookie Card or anything as that's 1993 for this lock of a future Hall of Famer, but this one is from the year before his MLB Rookie Cards arrived. I own two or three of these after opening a couple boxes long ago and one more recently and this one made its way into a bulk lot as my first one or two I graded came up a little short on what I wanted.
The Grade: CSG 10

Reality Check: This time? That's the kind of grade I was hoping for and that alone is a reason this one is batting lead-off this time ... it's not my biggest card in this lineup but it's a nice copy of an oddball card with a historic name attached. This grade has the highest pop but two thirds of slabs check in lower than this one ... it's not a super-easy 10 if you ask me with the soft stock and the embossing perhaps being problematic along with a foilboard (front) and glossed (back) surface.

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

PROOF OF FAME
The Coin: Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative 2014 U.S. half-dollar (early releases)
The Reason Bought: I'll admit I didn't remember this one being in the headlines back when the U.S. Mint crafted it to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., but when I saw it I knew I needed to add a slab. It's a concave design -- a first for American coins -- but I just liked this as a tangentially related MLB slab in my collection as in I have plenty of baseball cards ... you know, a baseball coin slab made sense. There also was a $5 gold coin and $1 silver coin made but this was my starting point as I'm not going all-in with slabbed coins just grabbing some here and there. I may add the silver dollar but the gold is much rarer and pricier. The cool part with new coins is one can look up exactly how much was made -- 434,846 for this one (257,607 as proofs), 399,942 for the slivers and just 50,104 gold coins.
The Grade: NGC PF 70 Ultra Cameo

Reality Check: This grade is as high as it gets for this one and all proofs graded checked in here or a notch lower. These should be grading there since they are proofs. There are also uncirculated versions (not proofs) and then the various modifier notations such as Ultra Cameo. That means "the fields are deeply mirrored and the devices are heavily frosted for bold contrast on both sides of the coin" ... in layman's terms it looks good. (See the scale and notations here.)

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JUST KEEP LIVING ...
The Card: Bo Bichette 2020 Topps Living Set -- rookie-year card (/6,712)
The Reason Bought: I waited to track down this card of the closest thing I have to a PC player for active guys and easily jumped on this top-grade copy for about the old price of a blaster box. I like that it dropped during his RC year, too, to give it a little more appeal. To me the Living Set rookies, while not traditional RC definition, are a niche worth considering as there are a lot of them to chase.
The Grade: CSG 10

Reality Check: The volume here is low -- I suspect they are higher from other grading companies -- but the concentration of 10s is basically as high as it gets ... at least for now.

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SEEING RED
The Card: Cora Jade 2022 Panini Chronicles WWE Certified Red (/199) -- Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Bought: I think Jade's big run is still to come but it's been a bit up and down since her NXT debut in early 2021. This card is one of many RCs (and parallels) from 2022 Panini releases where she's found in almost everything. Most show her earlier super-colorful look with a skateboard that became a weapon like this one, while her more recent cards show the newer all-black heel look with a kendo stick. While the new persona is better, the old one reinforces that these are earlier cards. I've slowed picking a lot of them up -- she got pricey and didn't deliver as well for those prices in the ring if you ask me -- but I still pick some off here and there as I think there's more to come. This, too, was less than the price of a blaster box.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: The lone copy graded ... works for me. I suspect there will be more to come, though Chronicles did have a lot of issues that might deter grading -- that's one reason I didn't grab and slab stuff on my own.

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A FAVORITE THROWBACK ...
The Card: John Johnson 1971-72 Topps -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: This vintage RC is one I own dozens of times raw and a few times in slabs and, well, this was a no-brainer of a buy for me no matter the price. I would have paid double to land this one vs. what it cost me.
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: It's the highest-graed copy via CGC and I don't know if it might be topped as, well, all my copies of this one reinforce how much can and does go wrong with this set ... and it's a more cleanly made set vs. stuff made later in this decade. Elite-grade vintage is so tough and I consider 8.5 or higher elite with some sports and some decades where printing, cutting and materials got quite sloppy.

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KEY CARDBOARD, DESPITE MISTAKE
The Card: Trish Stratus -- 1999/2001 Cardinal WWF game (label has wrong year) -- rookie-year card
The Reason Bought: This is a gaming card issued in the same year as her in-pack Rookie Cards but it's from a somewhat obscure set and, from what I have seen, her cards have diamond cuts way more often than not. That's totally what is going on here and likely the main reason this one checks in low. Only after I grabbed it did I realize the slab has an error -- it's not from the 1997 set as stated -- but that's fine as it's a fixable mistake if I ever bother ... I didn't own this card raw, let alone graded, and it was priced like a raw copy despite it being the highest graded of this botched version.
The Grade: CSG 8.5

Reality Check: This is the highest of two with this slab error -- she wasn't a WWE employee until late 1999 -- but three others have been graded here so the total* is for all copies. (Plus, there's definitely some confusion as to the origin of these ... as I've seen them come out of games carrying a 1999 copyright yet they got cataloged as 2001s.) The others are a nine, an 8.5 and and eight ... so only one tops this copy. While her records have been topped by the new generation of NXT-produced stars, she is right up there with the Hogans and Austins of the world for the women's side of things if you ask me and I don't think fans are really realizing that the top stars of the last 20 years are now seen as being among the all-time elites. Some cards are pricey but I think everything could get more attention as stuff isn't as easy to find as some might think.

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ANOTHER PAST FAVORITE
The Card: Shaun Alexander 2000 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects -- Rookie Card (/1,000)
The Reason Bought: This guy was the unquestioned superstar of the Alabama Crimson Tide during my time there and when he was a late first-round pick in 2000 he was the team's last first-round pick until 2009. (These days, they often have multiple first-rounders a year.) This card was one of his earlier arrivals and it was a biggie as so few were made (a low number for back then) and definitely not found on the regular. I also liked it as this image came from a final appearance in the SEC Championship Game where the last TD of the game was his, too.
The Grade: SGC 96 (Now SGC 9)

Reality Check: This season had a lot of card-makers making a lot of cards and a lot of those weren't in college uniforms so stuff like this wasn't that big of a priority once the pro stuff started flowing. This is the highest-graded from SGC and it's an old slab where you can see on that bottom edge how the card may be touching the surface. Hopefully that won't result in damage if I were to ever upgrade the slab or cross it over elsewhere. (I won't but this is the kind of clean and iconic -- t0 me at least -- card where I'd consider it.)

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SOME SIMPLE FILLER
The Card: Bo Bichette 2021 Topps
The Reason Bought: I grabbed this slab since it was only $6 -- and that's probably high -- but back when I was looking (this was very early 2023) it was still cheaper than a lot of his slabs where the volumes can be abnormally high. This isn't one of those (go look up his pop numbers for his Topps RC the year before ... that's crazy) but for a second-year base card of arguably little value that's still a lot of slabs. This design will probably go down as one of my least-favorite looks in a long, long time, too, but since it's Bichette I still grabbed it.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I didn't check the pop report for that price but with the split between the top two marks pretty close I probably should have kept shopping. It happens ... just a filler slab.

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A 1990s ICON
The Card: Drew Barrymore -- Movieline, July 1995
The Reason Graded: This 1990s icon has a number -- a ton, really -- of past magazine covers to choose from as, well, there were plenty of magazines back then and back during the pandemic power-shopping days I dabbled a lot with non-card genres to stockpile a lot of stuff I'd want to slab. This is easily one of those ... in fact, it's an issue I ended up with two or maybe even three copies as the dark ink here on some soft/light and heavily glossed paper was an issue. This was the best of my copies, so once the CGC backlog was cleared I sent this in with some other stuff.
The Grade: CGC 9.4 (Universal)

Reality Check: This is the only copy of this -- and the only issue from this magazine that was a national publication for 20 years with a boatload of celeb covers that could all make for clean and simple collectibles beyond some of the publication stables such as Sports Illustrated or Playboy that many collect rather heavily. Had I gotten this one pressed, some of the minor issues it has probably would have smoothed out and landed me a higher grade. After a long wait for submissions, I didn't want to wait on pressing.

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BARGAIN BUY
The Card: Gary Carter -- Sports Illustrated, Oct. 6, 1980 -- first cover appearance
The Reason Bought: This isn't a high-grade copy or some hidden gem, but it is a first cover for a Hall of Famer with some dedicated and big-spending fans out there. Not this time, though. It cost me just 99 cents ... though the shipping wasn't cheap as these aren't easy to mail with both weight, size and packing materials needed to ensure slabs aren't cracked or flat-out broken in transit. I still didn't mind it as issues from more of the vintage years (early 1980s and before in my mind) still are appealing in lower grades here as, well, higher-grade stuff is less and less likely to exist vs. stuff from late in this decade where people were saving everything a lot more. In short, yes, it's a lower grade but it still looked pretty good.
The Grade: CGC 7.0 (Universal)

Reality Check: The CGC pops are being reworked for Sports Illustrated right now (I think) as I had to backdoor into my info on this one by looking up this issue number and then finding its stats instead of just searching the title. (I think some clean-up might be happening with issues with newsstand vs. subscriptions. Maybe.) Why do I say that? A previous split for this one showing this as a highest subs copy of only a few graded if not the only one graded (I don't remember) no longer came up -- just an overall pop number as you see here. If these stats are right, this isn't the worst copy but it's close. That's fine ... just a decent filler for me and it really presents better than a seven though the bottom right and top left corners have some obvious bends/dents that knocked it down. Lower marks like this I can live with within a certain age/era as long as the main subject and the main headline are clean.

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A FORGOTTEN ROOKIE CARD?
The Card: Mickie James 2006 Topps Heritage WWE -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: This future WWE Hall of Famer has done a little bit of everything a little bit of everywhere and for years I didn't actually realize that this was a RC. Her first Heritage card came in Chrome, which was modeled after the set that arrived late the year before this one in its basic cardboard form ... but since Chrome arrived early in 2006 just like this one they are both RCs. After going through a lot of my stuff, this one just jumped out at me as a super-clean copy as H cards from WWE releases can often have problematic corners (when it comes to grading) on almost every single card in some years. That's thanks to either the stock, cutting or packaging processes. There are some debuts for a lot of names I'd want to grade from these years, but I don't want any low-grade surprises coming back.
The Grade: CSG 10

Reality Check: This was a good surprise as it was a top mark and I wasn't totally expecting that as the retro-styled cardboard here can always be funky in all kinds of ways, especially when examining them under a loupe.

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SEEING RED AGAIN
The Card: Tiffany Stratton 2022 Panini NXT Red -- Rookie Card parallel (/199)
The Reason Graded: One of my first cards from the CGC years of cards was one I picked up via COMC and then submitted for grading there ... letting them do all the work. With this set that can be really risky as this super-saturated RC home is one where the card backs and corners/edges can be funky thanks to the traditional stock used ... but I was pleased with this one. The color parallels here seem to be a little safer for the quality control -- but they can still have issues -- and this debut card for a recent NXT women's champ was worth the risk of a grading sub as it looked really good.
The Grade: CGC 9

Reality Check: A nine is fine for me here -- in fact, I don't necessarily know what dropped it down -- but this is one of those releases where I don't think too many 10s will exist -- at least where they'd be unquestionably strong/unquestioned 10s. There are a ton of newcomers in this set who will be around for years ... and stuff is so cheap. This is the only Stratton from this release that has been graded by CGC.

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REPRINTING HISTORY
The Book: X-Men No. 101 (facsimile edition)
The Reason Bought: Awhile back, I did a few time-based searches for old comics wondering what covers looked like for some long-running titles back in certain times -- think January 1980, July 1976 and so on ... just timeframes. Why? I was more curious about prices and eras as much as looks and feels for slabs as I don't mind something lower-grade if it's old enough and the price seems reasonable. This book -- or at least the original -- popped up on one of those era searches and, well, that price wasn't right for me as the original here is not a cheap book at all. This one's original arrived in July 1976 with a cover date of October 1976 and it was the debut of one of the core X-Men these days if you ask me, Phoenix, who overtook Jean Grey. It's an origin that's been revisited/explored in more than one of the X-Men movies and this premium reprint edition from this year got me to bite. Why? Clean and crisp colors on modern paper with plenty of them slabbed ... it's a good fill-in for a pricey and iconic older book I would never spring for price-wise even with Phoenix among a handful of characters in the X-Men group that I like.
The Grade: CGC 9.8 (Universal)

Reality Check: Nearly all copies of this one check in at the top mark ... so any price here above a certain point might not be all that smart -- they should almost all check in there. I paid about the same price that it would have cost me to find a copy and slab it myself.

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FOLLOWING UP THE ROOKIE CARD
The Card: Maki Itoh 2019 BBM True Heart (Japan)
The Reason Graded: As I noted in a Buzz Buys, this is a second-year card that was too cheap to pass up, so I grabbed a pair of them and slabbed one. Why? I have a few of this Japanese star's cards and have pondered trying to do a basic run of her BBM stuff in slabs. There's not an absolute boatload to chase from what I have seen ... though some can be pricey among the slightly rarer "Secret" variations. Why? She's popped up in a few American indy promotions doing deathmatch kind of stuff and had added an in-ring pizza cutter to her array of middle fingers and merch that accents some of her perfectly profane English vocabulary at times. (It's quite the spectacle ... but nothing as totally gross as some of the matches out there.) All of it is also in a steep contrast to the presented character/visuals here. In short, she's amusing and a little badass.
The Grade: CSG 8.5

Reality Check: Behold ... it's the worst copy graded! I must have missed something ... either a surface spot or one of the back corners was perhaps a little more nicked up than I thought -- I remember my backs here being a little rougher than the norms for BBM cards -- but since I did pretty well on BBM cards in the past I probably just blew it off and sent it anyway. I'll survive. Like the Cora Jade card, the gear here indicates it's an earlier card for this star ... and I'll admit it's not among my favs. I graded it since it's early and, well, you have to start that run of slabs at some point if you're going to do it ... right?

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A PREVIEW OF SORTS
The Book: Previewing Excalibur -- Marvel Age No. 60 (March 1988)
The Reason Bought: This title is one that was more of a preview comic for what was to come from Marvel back in the day, running from 1983 to 1994. While it was occasionally the home of previews, first appearances (kind of, though probably not in canon) and other stuff that might not be found elsewhere, I'm sure Marvel Age is not that popular despite issues might not being as easy to find as the standard titles. Some of that logic was why I grabbed this slab for around $40 as Excalibur was the only title back in the day where, over time, I ended up grabbing them all. (That was 125 issues spanning from 1988 to 1998 ... from before I got into comics and definitely well into the years after I was no longer bothering. In later years I'd just grab a bunch of issues at once with bi-annual visits to a shop on a bored off-day.) In this case, I also had never seen this issue in-person (I didn't own it) despite it being a pre-series preview that arrived on the heels of a one-shot graphic novel that sparked the title the year before. The main series arrived a few months after this issue.
The Grade: CGC 9.6 (Universal)

Reality Check: With this being a poster-like cover from my favorite artist for the series with the core group of characters that I liked the most back then (they added a lot more names later), I had to bite when I happened upon this one ... especially with so few graded. I figured if I passed it up finding another might be tough. I also figured buying a raw copy to slab would be just as costly likely with lesser results, too. Do I need a higher-grade copy with an even higher (doubled plus some) price? It popped up on eBay recently ... but I haven't bit yet.

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SCHOOL TIES ...
The Card: Mac Jones 2021 Panini Chronicles Draft Picks Prestige Pink -- Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Bought: Here's hoping the Freezing Cold Takes Twitter account doesn't go looking for Mac Jones stuff one of these days as I thought Jones was going to have a strong season thanks to some coaching changes ... but that's not happened. That's OK for me, I'd be a buyer anyway in some affordable instances and this was one at $7. Why buy? He's firmly part of my school ties stash in my collection, though I haven't gone in hard in anything of his really due to the prices out there being paid by those who saw him as The Next Tom Brady before he ever took a pro snap. (At least I didn't predict that.)
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: This is a cheap card raw -- and it was cheap as a slab -- so I grabbed it. The split in the stats is interesting as these are 10s or they aren't ... but the way this year has gone neither one is going to matter.

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THIRD TIME FOR GOLD
The Card: Trish Stratus 2001 Fleer WWF The Ultimate Divas Collection Gold -- Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Graded: My run of Stratus Gold parallels here comes to an end (for now) with this one ... my third of her nine or 10 cards in this set but I think at some point I will pull out my others and slab those, too, to have a full run no matter what they might grade. The first three I sent were either ones I thought would grade best or were ones I liked more and they've all proven to be tough or impossible 10s with the soft, fibery stock here that's also at times chippy (backs) and high-glossed.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: It's the only one graded, so it stands alone for now. I'm not sure 10s are going to happen here as the set I landed was likely never packed out and was likely cards left over from the Fleer auction back in the day. The sets were not that easy to build and this one was very, very clean ... yet not 10-worthy on any so far.

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YEP, MORE RED ...
The Card: Bo Bichette 2018 Topps Pro Debut Red parallel (/10)
The Reason Graded: This rarity comes from the MiLB ranks and I pulled it before Bichette was on my collecting radar as heavily as he's become as a big-leaguer with a pair of All-Star appearances and a .299 career average five years into the league. I'm sold and if you look at the numbers, well, I see plenty of potential as he's only 26 next year. Compare his career and per-162 numbers to say, Juan Soto, and it's interesting ... or more comparable than one might expect. (Granted I'm sold ... but I think there's still potential for more.)
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: This card is early for Bichette -- there's no flow -- and it's not his first in the brand (and Bowman Draft beats that by a year) but the stance is there and this card is clean. The stock here is a little stiff and can be chippy but it's the very minor hint of white on a couple of those corners that likely dropped this down (or something on back edges) but it still looks good and is so rare that I didn't care. Like his Heritage stuff, I also want to do a run of his MiLB cards there, here in Pro Debut and from team sets. I have more of them than I don't ... it's just a matter of subbing them.

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ANOTHER FROM THE ARENA
The Card: Jose Canseco 1993 Score
The Reason Bought: As I previously mentioned in a past Making The Grade, I did some light dabbling over in the Derek Jeter slab universe known as Arena Club and I grabbed a handful of cheap slabs just to see how the standards looked since the prices were clearly right for some exploration. How cheap? Well, this cost me just $2 ... and only one of the cards I landed among maybe five had a trait or two where I pondered what happened. Most seemed right in their assessments to me. Why this one? Well for whatever reason, this release -- a glossless and pretty plain edition for Score -- was one that never popped up in pack form where I lived back then, so this super-simple card of my player back in the day has always stood out to me. Another reason? This was among his first cards as a Texas Ranger after he was traded -- a move that shocked Little Buzz to his core back then. I think his 1993 Topps card and one Upper Deck insert card out there that also showed him early into his Texas run are perhaps better favs and all of them I wouldn't mind in an elite-grade (higher than this) slab ... but all are so cheap that I wouldn't risk the submission cost for a lower-grade miss.
The Grade: Arena 9

Reality Check: Miss or not, doesn't matter ... this is the only Arena 9 for this card. For the price, well, that's right. And, spoiler, I think my best Arena find will pop up here next year.

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