1981 Popy Hulk Hogan MOC signed and the 1981 Marusho at the Hogan's Beach Shop in Orl

[Dpeck100]

I have been giving some thought to getting the back of the 1981 Popy MOC Hulk Hogan signed and was on the StairMaster this morning and said I am going today. Hulk was signing at the Hogan's Beach Shop in Orlando. I got my stuff ready and drove over there and it was sweltering outide.

When I parked I thought I don't know if I can do this. The line was wrapped around the building and the heat index is 105 and just scorching. I went inside to buy my tickets and saw Ron who runs it and said will Hulk sign these. I opened my Lucky's Market paper bag and said yeah it is the holy grail and one of Hulk's most rare wrestling cards from Japan. He said OMG and signaled to someone to come over and check it out.

I indicated that I wanted 1981 Ichiban Hulk Hogan signed on the back and he said no problem but it would be a super premium item. I said no issue but I am not waiting in that line and I need to skip to the front and be able to sit inside in the AC. He said I have guys out there spending $1,000 and I said too bad I am not waiting in that line in the heat. He said no problem.

When I got to the booth Hogan was like WOW. I have only seen a few of these and I said with the card and he said yeah my Mom had one. He had never seen the Marusho card and really stared at it for a while. I got him to sign it in a silver pen and when he signed it I was so pumped. He wrote Hulk Hogan on the left and Ichiban on the right. When I got to my car it was easily 120 inside of it and I reached into my bag so excited and the ink was melting and sticking to the card saver. I was like NO!!!! Thankfully I had a red solo cup with some melted ice and was able to wipe off the Ichiban part and salvage the item.

The Popy came out amazing and I couldn't be happier to have it signed and for Hogan to see it in person. Money well spent!!!

Here are the pics.

[Dpeck100]

Pics

[Dpeck100]

More photos

[Dpeck100]

1981 Marusho

[Dpeck100]

1981 Popy Hogan

[samosa4u]

What a good read! We need more threads like this on here.

It really sucks about what happened to your Marusho card. The damage is pretty evident, especially on the last two letters of "Hogan." I don't think PSA/DNA is going to give this one a green light now, but hey, you could always send it to Gary Moser and he'll fix this one up for you.

The Popy looks amazing. You made the right decision by getting him to sign the back. If you had gotten him to sign that plastic on the front and you were to take it outside in the Florida heat - yikes! It would have been a mess! I definitely think you should get it encapsulated by one of those toy grading companies - AFA? Is that what they're called?

[Bored5000]

Interesting read. Definitely cool that Hogan can still draw such a crowd in 2019.

David, what is the background or details of the Marusho card? I am not familiar with that Hogan card. How does the value and rarity compare to the Popy card?

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

What a good read! We need more threads like this on here.

It really sucks about what happened to your Marusho card. The damage is pretty evident, especially on the last two letters of "Hogan." I don't think PSA/DNA is going to give this one a green light now, but hey, you could always send it to Gary Moser and he'll fix this one up for you.

The Popy looks amazing. You made the right decision by getting him to sign the back. If you had gotten him to sign that plastic on the front and you were to take it outside in the Florida heat - yikes! It would have been a mess! I definitely think you should get it encapsulated by one of those toy grading companies - AFA? Is that what they're called?

Yeah the damage is clear on part of Hulk's signature for sure but was no where near as bad as the Ichiban side. I went from being on top of the world wooooo as I got in my car to F!!!!

I had no interest is getting the front signed as many do. I see no reason to cover up Hulk's face and no reason to cover up the figure. I posted it on my FB page and someone said I should have had him sign the bubble in pink. Yeah no. Had I don't that it would have been a disaster with the heat. Lesson learned on my part. I just didn't even think about it.

In my view the back was perfect because it was a big canvas to have him sign on and I really wanted the inscription.

AFA is the grading company you are correct. I have done a little investigating and they only have one in the pop report and it is the Mil Mascaras. This will be the only Hogan/Hogan example so I do intend to do that at some point. I have my best cards displayed and loose LJN's so this will look killer.

Thanks for checking out the thread and the comments.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Interesting read. Definitely cool that Hogan can still draw such a crowd in 2019.

David, what is the background or details of the Marusho card? I am not familiar with that Hogan card. How does the value and rarity compare to the Popy card?

Here is the info on the Marusho set. A great thread from CU introducing them and tracking them.

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...-wrestling-set

I don't believe a complete checklist exists and PSA at this time doesn't grade them. It is a mini card like the Yamakatsu's and smaller than the Popy. I would say generally speaking the card is going to be less valuable than the Popy but is still really cool. This copy has a dinged upper left corner and now a little bit soft right corner from the water. They are by no means easy to find and little is known about them so going forward if one surfaces on EBAY it certainly could do well. If PSA grades them at some point then the price will move up significantly. As I stated Hulk had never seen one so it certainly is extremely rare.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

David, what is the background or details of the Marusho card? I am not familiar with that Hogan card. How does the value and rarity compare to the Popy card?

The difference between the two is this: the Popy is a trading card and the Marusho appears to be a game card.

It looks like these Marusho cards came with this Tiger Mask board game.

[Bored5000]

Thanks, guys, for the information about the Marusho cards. PSA not grading them is probably one of the big reasons I was not familiar with the set.

[wrestlingcardking]

I was able to bring the Hogan Popy to light with the card collectors and there is no doubt that people recognize this as a Hogan rookie. It has exploded since more knowledge has been brought to the surface. Dpeck has an amazing item by having the Hogan figure/Hogan card combination. It is really interesting that most of the figures have the Mil Mascaras as the header card. This is a 1 of 1 item now and will continue to be low pop even if someone tries to duplicate Dpeck's efforts. This item is truly epic!

[Dpeck100]

Thanks Rob.

You definitely were the first to discover the Popy Hogan.

[maniac_73]

Small world as I already commented on this on instagram (Hulkamaniac4ever) good to see you are a Net54er as well!

[Dpeck100]

Thanks again guys for the comments.

Life is funny because you are always learning new things. The reason I wanted Hulk to add Ichiban is because I knew that is what they called him in Japan during this period. Someone asked me what it meant and I had to honestly say I don't know. It turns out it means #1 and hence why he put that next to it.

My only regret from this visit is not asking Hulk if he knew why there were so few of the cards. When I was next inline my heart started racing and I just went with the flow when Ron introduced me and the items. The one thing you know when you are close to Hulk is he is a living icon.

It would be interesting to know what came of the figure his mom owned.

[Dpeck100]

For those that don't read CU here is the thread where Rob shows off the first known copy of the Hogan Popy.

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...-and-1981-popy

[Exhibitman]

I'm still digesting the heat thing. So hot it makes the ink melt...wow.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I'm still digesting the heat thing. So hot it makes the ink melt...wow.

The little Japanese wrestling cards have a semi gloss finish and it was totally fine in the store but I think what happened was the heat caused it to get wet again and stick the card saver. Not sure if melt is the perfect word but go from dry to wet. I was literally drenched in sweat within a minute of getting in the car. My face was dripping like I just got out of the pool. HOT!!!

The only saving grace was I had the remnants of a sugar free Red Bull and Tito's and a towel and thankfully was able to take the smeared Ichiban off. The Hogan side for whatever reason wasn't as bad and the item still presents fairly well.

Thankfully the back of the figure is just old cardboard and so the large sharpie was no issue and did just fine.

[wrestlingcardking]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I'm still digesting the heat thing. So hot it makes the ink melt...wow.

I can totally understand for not accounting for the ink bleeding off the card...... that is just crazy. It must be nuts to deal with the heat index "warning" when normal hot and humid days take me out on travel to the East Coast.....

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

The difference between the two is this: the Popy is a trading card and the Marusho appears to be a game card.

It looks like these Marusho cards came with this Tiger Mask board game.

That's my box purchased a few years ago, but I didn't get a Hogan.

[wrestlingcardking]

ever find a Hogan Steve? Any extra Andres?

[sthoemke]

I don't have any Marusho Hogans. I have a few Andres, but don't care to sell them.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

That's my box purchased a few years ago, but I didn't get a Hogan.

How do you know that it wasn't searched? People search through boxes all the time and have even found ways to reseal packs without it looking obvious. Hogan is a global icon and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody in Japan went through it.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

How do you know that it wasn't searched? People search through boxes all the time and have even found ways to reseal packs without it looking obvious. Hogan is a global icon and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody in Japan went through it.

I don't know if they had been searched or not. The packs were stapled, and it didn't appear that someone previously unstapled them to search the packs.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

I don't know if they had been searched or not. The packs were stapled, and it didn't appear that someone previously unstapled them to search the packs.

The packs were stapled? Yikes!

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

The packs were stapled? Yikes!

That is how they originally sealed the packs. There are known cards that were stapled in the process.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

That is how they originally sealed the packs. There are known cards that were stapled in the process.

I understand that sir, but the reason why I wrote "yikes" in my previous comment is because staples are very easy to mess around with. I remember as early as elementary school my friends and I would mess around with them (cheat on school projects) and my teachers had no clue what we did. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody searched your packs for the Hogan card.

[sthoemke]

I've never assumed they were unsearched, but the packs showed no evidence being opened.

[wrestlingcardking]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I understand that sir, but the reason why I wrote "yikes" in my previous comment is because staples are very easy to mess around with. I remember as early as elementary school my friends and I would mess around with them (cheat on school projects) and my teachers had no clue what we did. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody searched your packs for the Hogan card.

I believe it is a short print like other Hogan items from Japan at that time.