Sometimes your moves as a collector may not make sense ... and they really don't need to if, you know, you're a collector

For years now, I've said that every card has a story ... but, every once in a while, a celebrity's meandering tale has chapters you might not even know about and, in a few really rare instances, there might even be some cardboard to go with it.

That's the case for me with this card this time -- I'm a grizzled veteran collector who's seen plenty, forgotten even more and collected all kinds of directions as players come and go in the traditional sports realm. TV shows and movies come and go on other cardboard, too, and times just sometimes change for collectibles ... just like my sometimes-meandering tastes. But this one? It was something that's right in my wheelhouse as a Shotzi Blackheart collector and it's totally new to me so here we are. She's a pro wrestler and a unique, self-made character if you don't know -- find her in WWE boxes here.

Not that long ago, I spotted a set that had me doing a spit-take, then a double-take -- and all of that was followed up by picking up my jaw off the floor, a click to buy and then hoping that the stuff would actually arrive. In short, it was something I'd never, ever seen before -- or even seen in a photo anywhere at any time. It's a card set for Creepy KOFY Movie Time, a watch-along late-night TV series that ran several years on KOFY Channel 20 in San Francisco that celebrated the retro horror movie genre with a surf music-serving house band called The Deadlies, as well as regular characters for bits, guests for other segments and then a regular go-go dancer ensemble on stage at all times called the Cave Girls, which marked Blackheart's TV debut. The series came to an end just as her indy wrestling career was taking off and eventually took her around the world with WWE.

The card set is from 2013 -- the year before Blackheart's pro wrestling debut in the indies with Oakland-based edgy and irreverent promotion Hoodslam where she was aligned with the Stoner Brothers (a parody of a famous team) under a Missy Hyatt-inspired moniker for a debut match on ... April 20. (Get it?) This name, though, which she has used otherwise for the rest of her wrestling career and to this day post-WWE, originated before that -- "Shotzi" comes from a nickname based off a character in a musical called Starmites (and her role in a high-school production) and "Blackheart" was an ode to Joan Jett and her band, The Blackhearts.

That's here captured in this set with some eccentric characters that you'd expect to find with the genre. It was a show broadcast from a "cave" under the TV studio with a demon (Balrok) and a zombie (No Name) as its hosts. This card set came two years before her attempt at WWE fame as part of its Tough Enough reality show -- she made it but then didn't when they found she had a health issue -- and then seven years before her eventual arrival on WWE cards (2020) as an NXT star. In between was a busy indy wrestling run where "The Ballsy Badass" left her red hair behind in favor of her trademark neon green and crafted her horned-helmet, tank-driving ways that she rode right into WWE unchanged.

Now, what's my convoluted headline and that Tom Cruise cameo all about?

Sometimes you just gotta say ... you need 60 sets.

The show started back in 2009 -- and it's all chronicled to a degree in A Freak's Guide To Creepy Koffee Movie Time -- and it ran until 2014 with more than 130 episodes celebrating B-movie attitude with plenty of jokes, horror homages and more. The show was a Venn diagram of sorts that, according to the book, covered the worlds of geeks, science fiction, punks, horror, industrial, goths, freaks, burlesque, cyberpunk, steampunk, convention life and more that one probably wouldn't be surprised to find on no-budget TV in a major market. It was a popular one-of-a-kind time-filler (Or is it time-killer?) on Saturday nights -- one where Shotzi was a horror fan who got herself into the mix on a permanent basis during its seventh season in 2012 and for every episode until it was all over. The show spawned horror movie convention panels, appearances and more -- and I'm sure this was all fertile soil for planting some of the seeds that helped launch her in-ring career, too, as there are some minor wrestling segments among the shows noted in the book.

This card was one I knew I needed more of the minute I got one in my hands -- it's like a Rookie Card but way, way before that. It's way more unique, way more obscure, way cooler and yet it's still Shotzi Blackheart. It's from the start of the start of a story that's unique and has a lot of chapters already with plenty more still to write now post-WWE with her back again working perhaps everywhere in the indies. (I have a feeling she could write a book based on her journey with all of its unique characters -- and there's probably a good story on several levels -- beyond just wrestling.) So, after I forked over a small chunk for a small lot of sets, I inquired about more -- insert that Cruise movie line right here -- and make that a lot more. Even when the second batch arrived and I went through all of those and cased them up for a permanent cache in my collection -- and then picked out a few for grading to go with my deep and ever-growing stash of Shotzibilia that you've seen here previously -- I knew I needed even more.

A mere 60 sets just wasn't enough.

It's a set I accidentally found after looking for a comic book made for the show -- also released late in its run -- and then one thing led to another. I wondered whether Blackheart even knew about the set, but I later spotted that somebody out there in their CKMT world had a signed set ... so, yes, she knew. Meanwhile, this card had never surfaced on her socials since it was just so long ago. The set, which can be seen in the gallery below in full, is 18 cards showcasing the hosts, some of their regulars -- including one named Slob, who created it and has worked as an artist for Topps' Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids lines (it's a small world) -- the band and then the Cave Girls. The set has a glow-in-the-dark spot gloss on the fronts to add some extra creepy to their feel and the backs simply depict various old horror movie posters on each card. By the way, the show's spelling change for the book also is for whatever might be to come in the future as its creators now own the property instead of whatever broadcast conglomeration now owns KOFY. On May 31, a documentary about the show was big-screened in the Bay Area -- so there's always a chance at some revisiting things ... and Shotzi might even be able to revisit it in some way, too, without a WWE schedule/overlord to worry about.

I'm told I got the last of the sets with the bulk buy I made -- my goal was to have a big chunk of an estimated print run that was mentioned when I asked about that -- but they're apparently long gone after my moment. Do fewer than 1,000 copies of this card even exist? That's quite likely and that would be a normal (maybe even high) volume for a project like this. My aim was to own 100 sets but I'm still well under that -- unless the creators somehow conjure up a new version. If they do, I hope they try an alternative color border for a new wave from the cave (and maybe note the name change) as the bright purple on these cards showcases flaws perhaps too well. They've also got glossed and somewhat skinny stock that also makes card-grading a challenge atop the centering and edges. (I've gone there with grading my best copies of this card already -- but that's a story for another day.)

So, yeah, the deep-pocketed collectors can hold onto their 1/1 autos and Superfractors and those other high-end auto-memorabilia WWE rarities -- I have a few, but definitely not all, of those. I've missed on landing many of them as some out there can -- and will -- pay very well for her rarest cards. (I don't blame them.) I'll keep adding all kinds of cards to my stash and picking off ones I've missed as long as I can afford to land them. I have a feeling we'll see more indy cardboard -- or more -- at some point, too.

But this card? It's unique in a different way -- it's got to stand alone as her first -- with her name today in play from all those years ago showing how her story is unique and unlike many stars of the ring. It's a card that, in the big picture, has to be off many a collector radars -- but it's firmly on mine -- and it's one that this collector simply can't get enough of. It doesn't have a toy tank or a horned army helmet ... but doesn't need 'em to be badass. Her tale is just that, too, and where it all goes in the wrestling realm from here we'll all see more of very soon. On cardboard, it all started here.

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