1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A 2013 PSA Set Registry Winner!!!

[pnft17]

Interesting story on the Gino. Is cool finding out info on how hard it is to find legit autos from some of these guys. You gonna try and get in psa slab?

[sthoemke]

The Gino Hernandez auto looks legit. The ink shadow is consistant with the pen stroke. Some pens can leave a "tracing effect" depending on card stock, pen angle, and pressure.

Nice pick-up.

[dpeck100]

I might send it in. I don't believe PSA has ever authenticated one and this example doesn't have good pen flow.

Once I got the card I tried signing a random card with a sharp tip pen and it completely alters your ability to sign something in the same manner. The pen gets stuck and you are more tracing what you plan to write.

Another board member on the PSA forum pointed out something that I think also could be the case. Once these guys get on the blow, their signature either changes or the pen looks like it is piercing the paper. He had a specific example. Obviously everyone knows Gino liked his blow.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[sthoemke]

Here's one in a Beckett slab (found image on google)

[wrestlingcardki]

Originally Posted by dpeck100

I might send it in. I don't believe PSA has ever authenticated one and this example doesn't have good pen flow.

Once I got the card I tried signing a random card with a sharp tip pen and it completely alters your ability to sign something in the same manner. The pen gets stuck and you are more tracing what you plan to write.

Another board member on the PSA forum pointed out something that I think also could be the case. Once these guys get on the blow, their signature either changes or the pen looks like it is piercing the paper. He had a specific example. Obviously everyone knows Gino liked his blow.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think you would be wasting your money by sending it in. With the bad pen flow I would have a hard time in seeing it pass..........

[dpeck100]

I am really pleased with this card.

[dpeck100]

I just got this program in the mail yesterday to add to my site. Here you have The Nature Boy in all of his magnificence.

The program is from 1981 and the contents on the inside introduce Ric Flair as the new World Heavyweight Champion dethroning Harley Race in St. Louis.

You have got to love one of the wrestlers names inside. Porkchop Cash. Haha

[dpeck100]

I had two in my fifteen card renewal submission that didn't grade so I am sending in these two.


I am really intrigued by this card. The Sheik is arguably the greatest heel in wrestling of all time.








I was partying one night when I was in my early 20's and someone said they had a sealed set. We drove to his house and I bought the factory set that night. I had this one in a lucite display holder with a penny sleeve for years.










My friend Erik is a huge autograph collector of all genres and helps promote the wrestling signings. I just got these back in the mail today. It works out great since I have the cards and he is going to the shows. My stack is getting pretty big. It is nice to add another dimension to my collection.





This is a great shot of The Brain.









This came out great.








This is the 1987 Wonderama Test Issue header card.








This guy has a few crazy claims to fame other then being Randy Savage's brother. Google him.















Mike Rotundo was a big deal in Florida when I was growing up. It is exciting to see his son Bray Wyatt doing so well in the WWE.















I have always thought this was a cool looking card. The original photo is of him flexing his guns and they are insane.





























I can remember to this day walking into the Video store in 1986 and seeing a WWF VHS tape cover with his image on the front. I couldn't believe a man looked like that. Putski was seriously jacked at this point in his career.








This was an auto card but obviously it was to late.








Both of these signatures came out great. My 1983 Wrestling All Stars didn't come out very well so I will probably try and get another signed. Erik said his daughter is running his booth with him.

[dpeck100]

I finally got around to scanning these two cards with a black background.

[pnft17]

Sweet cards dpeck. Love seeing those 1985 All Stars getting signed. Dusty and Putski look cool.
Booby Heenan is a great shot.
Great PSA grades as well....

[dpeck100]

I am thrilled to hear the news that Brock is staying in the WWE.

Here is one of my PSA 10's I self submitted.








I was really impressed with how Sting performed last night and on a bigger stage he is just a bigger star. I got this back from PSA a few months ago.

[dpeck100]

I just got it in the mail. It definitely is creased in a number of places but will look great on the wall.

[SumoMenkoMan]

Very nice. I love it when this stuff gets preserved and not cut up or discarded. Great save and nice piece!

[scoball12]

Congrats on the getting this. Creases or not, that's a nice jewel for any collection. Do you know if an uncut exists for the 1983 set?

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by scoball12

Congrats on the getting this. Creases or not, that's a nice jewel for any collection. Do you know if an uncut exists for the 1983 set?

It is believed that no 1983 uncut sheets exist.

[dpeck100]

When I first started researching the sets there was a reference on Wrestlingtradingcards.com about the 1982 A and B having a known uncut sheet in existence.


I can only assume it was referencing these two I purchased from the same collector.


I can't see why Bob wouldn't have gotten a 1983 set if it existed. He got them directly from James Melby and he said they were the only ones that existed. There was an additional sheet that was discovered when Brian from Wrestleprints.com who purchased the inventory and rights to the photos from Norman Keitzer found a 1982 B in a box.

[dpeck100]

The Funk Brothers

[dpeck100]

I have had both of these cards for a while but wanted to have them scanned with the black background.

Two of my favorites.

[dpeck100]

Things have been pretty slow on my end.


I have been working on finding a nice copy of this Rocky Maivia card. It comes in a board game and in a big cello pack. This is from 1997 and his first appearance on a singles wrestling card.








I didn't have any nice raw copies of the 1985 Wrestling All Stars card so I got this one signed.









Jushin Thunder Liger is said to be a tough auto. I like how these turned out.

[dpeck100]

The last few months have been pretty slow for new pick ups.

Here are two recent acquisitions.

I am always trying to find the nicest examples from the sets I can. Here is a very strong Ivan Koloff.







A nice signed copy of Harley Race.

[dpeck100]

I got a Carnation pack in the mail today and cut it open. The cards are very nice. The colors are so vibrant and there were no wrinkles on the back.

[dpeck100]

I saw this article on Facebook this week.


Hulk Hogan Rookie Card Tops 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A

[wrestlingcardki]

How did it go?

[dpeck100]

So this is really a crazy situation and I can't believe it is soon to be a reality. Last Friday night I was sitting on the couch and saw a Ric Flair post pop up on my Facebook page. I had a few chances to drive to events over the past few years to see Dusty Rhodes and procrastinated not really thinking his time on this earth was limited. With his sudden passing it got me to thinking I would jump at the chance to meet Ric Flair.


I decided to contact his agent and see if Ric did private meetings and to inquire about the cost if he did. I explained I live in Orlando, FL and that his daughter was obviously performing for WWE in NXT and perhaps sometime he would be in town. Late Monday afternoon I was in training for a new software roll out and got a message back from his agent Melinda. She said Ric was in town visiting his daughter and to give her a call. Needless to say we put together a deal and I am meeting him tomorrow night at 5PM for an hour. My wife and I will be heading out to the hotel he is staying at and will get to spend an hour with him and get five items signed and take some pics.


During our emails back and forth I sent her pics of one of my copies of his 1982 Wrestling All Stars PSA 10's and the page in the SMR that I have wanted to get signed. I have already had Hogan sign his card and Ric is on the opposite page and said I wanted to show Ric a copy of one of his best cards and apparently he is excited about the meeting.

I am still in shock that this is happening and can't wait to spend some time chatting with my main man The Nature Boy.

A few years ago JWeiston got some Wrestling All Stars signed for me in Chicago and I don't have any I want to crack out so I went through my other Flair related items and I narrowed it down to these five and here they are in no particular order.


As I said above I want to get his card signed in a copy of the SMR that came out in 2012 and features his card from the 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A.










This program is from 1981 and came out right after he won his first NWA world title from Dusty Rhodes. You will also notice it is the photo used for his card.










This is an over sized disk that came from Japan and I believe it was released in 1983.










Ric's home territory was Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling and this is the magazine that came out right after he won the title announcing him as the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.









The first and only time I have met Ric was backstage at TNA wrestling in Orlando a few years ago. I got him to sign a copy of his 1986 Carnation Major League Wrestling card. I just cracked this out tonight from a PSA 6 holder. When I first opened the package a year or so ago I thought I had struck gold until I turned it over and saw a lifted edge on the lower reverse.










I am taking one of my PSA 10's and want to get a pic with Ric holding it up. I just think that will be super cool and she said he will love it.











Once I get back from the meeting with him I will update the thread and post some photos. I am really excited about this!

[dpeck100]

I had planned to add some pics last night but after a few minutes of being home some neighbors came over to see how it went and we kept partying until after midnight and I had to call it a night. Here we go.


I really had no idea how this visit would go. Literally none. My approach was I didn't come with a game plan or specific questions to ask and was just of the mind set let Ric take the ball and where ever it goes it goes.


We were set to meet Ric in the hotel lobby and Michelle and I got there a little early. Traffic in Orlando can be really unpredictable and it was raining when we left so I wanted to make sure we had no chance of being late.


When we pulled up and told the valet we were there to meet Ric Flair he said awesome and parked my car right up front. I had gotten it washed earlier in the day so it would be looking good. Here is Michelle waiting in the lobby.






We were about fifteen minutes early and the nerves were building. Michelle said here he comes Dave. I could hear Ric say there is a guy with white shorts it must be him but it was just a guy walking by and I said Hey Ric it is Dave and he immediately came right up to us with his girlfriend Wendy. I had been told Ric wasn't drinking much and asked his agent if that was the case and she said he might want to have a glass of wine but let him make the call. I said cool. The first thing out of his mouth was you guys want to get a drink I am buying. I said hell yeah.


We walked over and sat on a multi seat couch and got acquainted. Ric is a super personable guy and it didn't take long for me to lose the nerves and just get comfortable. I was promised an hour and couldn't believe he hung out with us for 2 hours and 22 minutes. It was a little nerve wracking about forty minutes in when his daughter Ashley called and said she had gotten into a fender bender and Ric had to console her. She was supposed to be coming to have dinner with them so this may have worked out in my favor in reality.

We talked about anything and everything. He kept saying Dave you can ask me anything I just tried to keep it normal and not all wrestling.


Ric really liked my watch and said let me see that. I then asked him what the 24 was on his watch and he said it is the watch that Shawn Michaels gave him after their match at Wrestlemania 24. I told him we went and it was such a great match. He asked Michelle what she thought and was thrilled to hear her say she had a great time. He took off the watch and said check it out. I asked if I could take a pic and he said hell yeah anything you want Dave.






Ric you can tell is a generous guy. Some fans approached and Ric said hey I am with some private fans and the guy quickly piped in he was in the military for 30 years and his wife was dying to get a pic. As soon as he heard that he yelled over to the bartender these guys drinks are on me. They were losing their minds. The same couple came back about an hour and half later and I took pics for them on their phones. She had already posted the first one on Facebook and said that everyone on her friends list back home were dying.


I told him I grew up watching Championship Wrestling from Florida and asked him about working in the Eddie Graham Sports Stadium and if it was a dump since there are no pictures online of the exterior. He said it was the hottest wrestling arena he had ever worked in because it was essentially a barn with a tin roof. He said he lost over 11 pounds in a match there and Eddie always wanted them to work long matches so it was tough. He thought it was cool that my dad had gone to the matches there. I asked him how he could keep up the pace in the heat and he said you just went out there and did it. We talked about some of his key bumps and said if you thought about it you were done. I told him his face plant was amazing and that only Greg Valentine had potentially as good of one. He said have you seen my daughters with a huge smile.

One of my favorite moments was talking about the Slick Ric Youtube video and the words I have spent more money on spilt liquor in bars from one side of this word to the other then you have ever made. We laughed and Wendy piped in its true. I told him my favorite part of the interview is the end when he says what is causes all this...intensified beef products all man. He turned to Wendy and said I would like to give you some intensified beef product. Haha I then went on to tell him how I had been in Puerto Rico on vacation a few weeks earlier and spent about 75% of the time I was awake drinking and said that is all right and I was driving Michelle crazy with the Flair lines and I must have said intensified beef products 25 times. He thought it was great.


We talked about the current wrestling product and Ric agrees it is really confusing what they are doing. He said Vince is being weird and he and Hunter are at odds. The biggest difference is that Vince apparently changes his mind all the time and didn't used to. I said I thought it was a huge mistake to keep making the fans smart to the business and he said it is nuts that they keep filling them in even more. I said when you took the pile driver on the table from Terry Funk it was great because even smart fans back then were like OMG that looked real. He said Funk almost broke his neck.

Ric was pounding down the red wine on ice and literally every time I set my drink down another one appeared. I had six vodka on the rocks and was getting really buzzed and just couldn't believe what was happening. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought one day I would get to party with the Nature Boy. He never treated us like fans who were paying to see him. He said it blows his mind how many events he gets paid to do. He said did you see me at the finals? I said yeah. He said he was the guest of Lebron James and Wendy showed us a pic of her and Kevin Love. He said he couldn't get the guy to stop talking about wrestling. He said people just love the old stuff and I said no doubt. Dusty Rhodes name came up so we pulled up the clip of Hard Times. He said Dusty was jealous he was getting to go to the finals and was dead two days later. Apparently he had been sick for 10 months and dropped 80 pounds but wouldn't check himself in to see a Dr.


When I get drinking I start flexing my muscles and so does Ric. He has guns. The pictures do not do them justice.




















When Wendy stepped away to use the rest room I told him about the first time I had met him and showed him the Carnation card and the story behind the signing backstage. My neighbor got us backstage and I had pounded a few Coors light tall boys in the parking lot. Bill and I were waiting in the production building and the wrestlers were walking by. Out of no where I felt a churn in my stomach and said oh no. I raced to the bathroom and blew it up. As I am walking out beyond embarrassed in walks Ric Flair. I waited for him for about 10 minutes outside and then asked if he would sign the card and did. He was laughing about the story. Here is a pic of the Carnation card he signed last night. He wrote Woooo on it and I said Ric I have never seen that on a card before. He said I only do that for friends. He said he hated working for TNA and the money was great for what he did but quit because he couldn't take it anymore. The tapings were fine but the house shows drove him nuts.






I waited until about an hour and a half in and said he Ric will you sign these items and he said for sure. He signed the Carnation card first. The next item I showed him was the program with the photo used for his card. I asked him how long he knew he had a card and he just said he had seen them for a while. He thought the pic wasn't as old as it is because he said he had bought that robe to wear at Starcade 83 to face Harley. He saw the date on the program and seemed confused but acknowledged it was obviously older then he thought.








Next I had him sign the Mid Atlantic Magazine and you could tell he loved seeing an old pic from the time when he won his first title. We both agreed silver would look best.








Next I had him sign the disk from Japan. He said he didn't recall ever seeing one and loved the pic and said man look at all of that hair. He said lets do that one in blue. It will look good.










The final item I had him sign was the article. We flipped through it and he looked at the pics. He said hey Andre is only an 8. Then on the next page he said oh good Dusty is a 10 too. He loved seeing the collection in the pics.








Some of the other wrestling related questions I asked him was if Kerry Von Erich and Fritz knew he would only hold the belt for 18 days. His answer wasn't entirely clear but he said they were so disorganized and that the kids were messed up at all times. He said the match in Texas Stadium was horrible and that Kerry was completely messed up. He did say Kerry was a terrible worker and that he had wrestled him for an hour when he had done a lot of drugs. I asked him if he had ever seen Harley Race really kick someone's a++ and he said oh yeah. He said Ming was the toughest hands down and mentioned the nose biting incident and poking guys eyes out.


Ric was super cool about taking the pics near the end.






















This visit couldn't have gone any better. He made us feel like we were friends and said several times Dave thank you for being so respectful. It means a lot to me. He loved my shoes and said had he known he would have worn some better ones. He loved my necklace and I said I wore it because I thought he would like it. He said oh yeah and had bought the same one for his deceased son. Some people from the hotel had come and sat down and they were ready for dinner so we were getting close to being wrapped up. I asked him if he had seen the Poodle Face Youtube videos and he said no. We watched both and you could see it in his eyes that he loved seeing the old clips. I asked him if he liked them and he said no, I didn't get paid for them with a grin. We stood up and he gave me a hug and said he wanted to hang out with us next time they were in Orlando. He said let me give you my number. I said seriously. He said type it in and call me. It was his number. I am so glad this worked out and I am thrilled I went through with it. On the drive home we text him thanks and he wrote back right away. Ric Flair is the man. Plain and simple. I am now a bigger fan than ever! This is just a synopsis and naturally I am leaving some out but these were most of the high points. On the drive home Michelle and I were losing our minds. It was that cool!