1974 Japanese ANDRE THE GIANT rookie card stash

[wrestlingcardking]

#25 (slam): 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, and 5 (MK) (redeemed winner card, rare insert)
#29 (profile): 9, 7, 6, 5, 5, 5, and 2.

I do have most of the cards graded 5 or higher if you look at the pop reports.

I consider a 5 to be a good grade for these.

[Dpeck100]

That is a very impressive stash of early Andre's you have there.

Nice work.

[Bored5000]

I know from this board, eBay and other boards that each of you guys really know your stuff with regard to wrestling cards. Could you weigh in on which Andre card is the one to have between the two Yamakatsu cards and the Wrestling All-Stars card if you could only have one of the three cards.

I know the Wrestling All-Stars set is iconic and much more mainstream, but the Yamakatsu seems more scarce and is nearly a decade earlier.

Is the Andre profile card considered preferable to the action shot in the Yamakatsu set? Thanks for any opinions.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

I know from this board, eBay and other boards that each of you guys really know your stuff with regard to wrestling cards. Could you weigh in on which Andre card is the one to have between the two Yamakatsu cards and the Wrestling All-Stars card if you could only have one of the three cards.

I know the Wrestling All-Stars set is iconic and much more mainstream, but the Yamakatsu seems more scarce and is nearly a decade earlier.

Is the Andre profile card considered preferable to the action shot in the Yamakatsu set? Thanks for any opinions.

I think it is really personal preference. In recent years there have been efforts to discover older wrestling issues specifically from Japan and those efforts have yielded the 1972 Gong Magazine card and both of the 1974 Yamakatsu cards and a few others from the late 70's.

None of these examples are close to standard sized trading cards so if one likes a more traditional card these won't appeal as much as the 1982 Wrestling All Stars card.

You also have the 1973 Wrestling Annual and once again this is not a typical trading card and is a paper cut out from the magazine. The cover references them as wallet sized photos of your favorite stars and subsequent magazines from 1978 and 1981 refer to them as trading cards and PSA will grade all three.

In my view I would rather a trading card with a front and back that was offered in pack form. The 1982 Wrestling All Stars came in sealed cellophane packs and have two versions that we know of. One with The Chrusher on the back and the other with The Destroyer. Neither have the cards in numeric order but in all cases Andre is the first card making the corners and surface extremely susceptible to damage. All cards from the set have centering issues and the Andre card also has printing problems where his Afro is.

There has been no other card that I spent more time and resources to acquire the highest graded version possible of. I bought countless high grade BGS examples in an effort to secure what appeared to be strong copies. I tried crossing them in the holder and eventually cracked them all out but always fell short of the elusive PSA 9 grade. Once the opportunity presented itself I jumped at the chance. Since then there have been two BGS 9.5 examples surface and I personally do not think they will cross over to a PSA 9 and certainly have no chance at a PSA 10. There will never be a PSA 10 Andre from this set. Period.

For me I would rather the Wrestling All Stars card but I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. Clearly the Yamakatsu card came from a pack and was issued at a much earlier date. That said the Wrestling All Stars are the first true hard stock wrestling set ever issued in the United States and that is one of the things that I find so appealing about them.

If you choose to go with the Yamakatsu I think most if not all would agree that a profile shot is better then an action shot if available and since it is that would be the one I would suggest is the best.

I don't specifically view all wrestling cards as just wrestling cards. Many of the performers are pop culture icons and Andre The Giant was one of a kind. Adding a nice Andre card to any collection in my view is a great idea.

Good luck which ever route you choose.

[Bored5000]

Thank you for the amazing reply, Mr. Peck. I have visited your website and read your posts on other boards about the Wrestling All-Stars set when I have done Google searches about wrestling cards. I am mostly a pre-war baseball/Jim Thorpe/eastern Pennsylvania sports collector. But as I wrote in wrestlingcardking's autograph thread on here, I grew up on the W(WWF) and was a regular attendee of WWF television tapings in Hamburg, Pa., and Allentown, Pa., as a kid in the late 1970s and early '80s. I have posted on the wrestlingclassics.com message board since around 2000 or 2001.

I have been waffling back and forth on what Andre card to buy for a while now. I had previously ruled out the 1973 Wrestling Annual option because of it being a black and white paper cut out from a magazine.

Thank you again for your opinion.

[wrestlingcardking]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Thank you for the amazing reply, Mr. Peck. I have visited your website and read your posts on other boards about the Wrestling All-Stars set when I have done Google searches about wrestling cards. I am mostly a pre-war baseball/Jim Thorpe/eastern Pennsylvania sports collector. But as I wrote in wrestlingcardking's autograph thread on here, I grew up on the W(WWF) and was a regular attendee of WWF television tapings in Hamburg, Pa., and Allentown, Pa., as a kid in the late 1970s and early '80s. I have posted on the wrestlingclassics.com message board since around 2000 or 2001.

I have been waffling back and forth on what Andre card to buy for a while now. I had previously ruled out the 1973 Wrestling Annual option because of it being a black and white paper cut out from a magazine.

Thank you again for your opinion.

I apologize for the delay in the response. Dpeck responded in a clearly thought out way on the subject. I will list a few things about each of the cards mentioned. The 1973 annual card is hand cut. I used to be a little concerned about the stock of the card, but once the card is hand cut and in a slab, then what does it really matter at that point? I think the slab does wonders for that issue. I'll always keep an annual Andre in my collection since it is traditional card size and his first issue known. Then you have both Yamakatsu issues with the profile shot and the action shot of picking up an opponent and slamming him. These were both pack issued in Japan and have a card number on back of the card. The writing on back of the card is in Japanese. I do have more love for cards that have some type of writing or numbering on the back of the card over blank backs. While I really despise the action shots of wrestlers in sets like the 1985 Topps, the Andre slam card does not seem to be "too busy" for me. Overall I do think that the profile shot of Andre is the one to have, but the slam issue should not be too far behind. All of this leads to the wrestling all star issue of Andre the Giant. While the all star is a classic known wrestling set, by no means would I be calling this Andre's rookie. It will retain value, but I can think of about a dozen cards that were released prior and even a Gong bromide from 1972 where he is listed as Monster Roussimoff. I did not list this card as it is oversized and features another wrestler on the back of it. I am simply avoiding this issue by having one of each but I think having an XRC of the Yamakatsu profile shot and the All Star would be good picks.