Elroy Face

Making the Grade (March): A Ken Griffey Jr. RC, Bo Bichette, Sandy Koufax, bargain vintage & a new 1982 Topps Blackless?
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 ... it's a bit heavier on MLB and some vintage edition as I'm still awaiting deliveries.
CLASSIC BATTING LEAD-OFF ...
The Card: Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Topps Traded #41T -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: I'm fine with nines and when I saw this one for $17.50 with no obvious substantial flaws despite its grade I grabbed it. Why? Slabbed early cards of all-time greats like him from the 1980s and 1990s are destined to be moving as slab-hungry buyers want more and more as the obvious other bigger cards just keep rising. I, myself, am not all that interested in chasing Griffey's Upper Deck RC at a meaty price in a high-grade slab (I have a couple around/below this mark and a few raw not worth slabbing) but this one always has a little more appeal to me since it's cheap ... and I actually had a few way back then.
The Grade: BGS 9

Grade 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 B10 Total
Population 9 32 53 137 421 1,792 3,013 2,111 2,170 47 0 9,875
Reality Check: This card isn't the easiest grade with weird surface roller lines, centering and back edge chipping issues always possible based on what I've seen. While a BGS 9 or 9.5 isn't all that rare, I'm fine with it for the price -- a 9.5 will definitely cost more and the most-common grade is actually lower than this. That population of 10s is surprising but I'm not that surprised there are no truly perfect copies. I don't think its possible here.
Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and new slabs for Buzz.
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This entry was posted in Baseball, Basketball, Football, Errors & Variations, Making the Grade, Vintage and tagged 1960 Topps, Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, 1962 Topps, 1982 Topps, Bart Giamatti, Bo Bichette, Errors & Variations, Making the Grade, Sandy Koufax, 1971 Topps, 2017 Bowman's Best, Keston Hiura, John Johnson, 2019 Bowman Chrome, 1989 Topps Auction blank-back proof, 1990 Donruss, Steve Swisher, 1989 Topps Traded, Billy Walk, 1971 Topps proof, Elroy Face, Hoyt Wilhelm, 1979 Supersonics Police, Wally Moon, 1982 Topps Blackless, Paul Giamatti on March 1, 2021 by BlowoutBuzz.

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Baseball (all dates subject to change)
Oct. 1 - 2025 Panini Three & Two
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Football
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Hockey
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Other/Multi-sports
Oct. 1 - 2025 Topps Triumphant Tennis
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Non-sports
Oct. 1 - Topps Chrome Spongebob
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Oct. 15 - Historic Autos 15th
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Oct. 15 - Topps Disney Wonder
Oct. 17 - Pieces of Past Royalty
Oct. 30 - Decision Color Cut SE
Oct. TBD - Keepsake Bob Marley
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Gaming
Oct. 10 - Pokemon ME Build & Battle
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Oct. 24 - Pokemon Trainer's Tool Kit
Oct. 24 - Pokemon Gengar/Diancie
Oct. TBD - Pokemon S&V Pri. Ev. PFC

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