1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A sealed sets once owned by Jerry Lawler
Dpeck100
Posts: 10,912 ✭✭✭✭✭
It has long been known that Jerry Lawler owned a number of 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A sets direct from the manufacture in 1982. At wrestling conventions he has said that he had a bunch of them and so I always wondered if they would ever surface.
A week ago a friend of mine who is big into the Memphis wrestling scene contacted me and said his friend was selling a loose set of the cards and wanted to see if I was interested in buying them and that they were given to him by Jerry Lawler. I said sure but they must be shipped in protective sleeves. My friend said no problem he had some and would get with him and then he would ship them to me. I said great. He couldn't find them and so it took an extra few days and in between I said listen if you ever find any more wrestling cards let me know I am always buying.
I was out grabbing take out and saw a message on my phone with a picture that said I found some of these. I was like oh sh++. We messaged back and forth over the next day and landed on a price. He was having dinner that night with The King and shared his good fortune with him. Jerry had no issue with him selling them and was happy to hear how much he was going to get for them.
A few days passed and he connected with my friend and then with these my only request was lots of bubble wrap and they were shipped beautifully. I waited outside for the Fed Ex delivery and it came four minutes before the guarantee.
One of the packs has a tear in the cellophane and so the cards look a little more aged on the side but the other two are simply pristine. The raw set was in decent shape and the Hogan is very nice with just a touched upper left corner and top to bottom centering issues.
This is one of those days that makes the constant hunt for cards worth it. I love the history of this set and it is very special to know these cards came from The King himself.
He believes there are more and so I am hoping that if so I am able to purchase more. He also believes he has a set of the 1979 Rax Roast Beef cards so we shall see.
I have never left one thing sealed. I am curious how long these will stay sealed! Haha
Comments
Wow! Congrats brother! You HAVE to leave at least one sealed right?
Awesome find. I love reading about these treasures!
Stop D**king around and open them its been 5 min.
Come on dude
I demand you start day drinking
Man, where is the value here? Keeping it sealed? Busting and subbing?
I have seen enough of these breaking shows where cards go from the pack to a sleeve to PSA and still come back only mid grade.
So, I would guess the whole sealed from Jerry Lawler’s personal collection angle would make them the most valuable.
Bobby24
Get out of here.
Dpeck hit this
You know whats in them. You have plenty loose, why open them?
As for future provenance, i would had Jerry sign them and write a note on the back saying “my personal sets” or something.
Open the one with a tear. The 3 front cards look to be identical centering wise. And I bet all 3 are centered differently but Identical to each set. If the Hulk is nuts centered. Bust them all and get that 10!!
I just ripped them all. Going to scan some and will update shortly.
damn.... just speechless with this score. Eagerly awaits more pics!
I have never left any of my purchases sealed and because I am constantly in search of nice cards from this set I had no choice but to go to rip city.
A couple of thoughts first. One when opening packs like this it further reinforces to me just how fortunate I have been to buy many of the cards I have over the years and why there are so few in Gem Mint condition. So far there are just 67 copies to ever achieve that grade with PSA and that number is never going to balloon like I have said from the very beginning when I began posting about these cards.
The raw set was in decent condition and the Hogan, Flair and Andre were pretty solid. It turned out he only sent me 30 cards so and one of the cards missing was the Lawler and I guess he just didn't have a complete set. No big deal because the price I paid wasn't through the roof and I am certainly pleased with the big three from this set for the price.
I wasn't feeling that great yesterday and so I wasn't ready to rip them but was doing my morning duty in the restroom and said lets do it.
The first pack I opened was the one with the rip. I was a little nervous looking at the cards because where the tear was they looked older from age once ripped you can't tell what so ever. This pack had the worst of the three Andre's and then produced some solid cards. The Flair is very nice and has a solid shot at a 9 and the Hogan is probably in the NM range and that is a great card.
I moved to the second pack and both looked identical. The Andre was better than the other pack that delivered some very nice cards and so I opened it up and set it flat to pull from the top. I get to the second cards and I said F there is a little corner ding in the lower left. I moved to the next card and it ran through the entire pack. Blazing mint cards in many cases with a crushed corner. This is the second time over the years the exact same thing has happened. You cant' tell sealed. I was bummed as I put the cards in the card savers and complained to my wife and she said see Dave I told you to leave them sealed. I said I am going to leave the other one sealed I guess. The good news is the cards have moved up a lot of price and so they present well and so it is hard to say how I will do money wise on this one but it is the risk you take.
After shaking my head in frustration countless times as I put the cards in their protective sleeves I said we have to go for it.
I gently cut a piece of the plastic wrap off that is super tight and got them loose and once more set the brick down with Andre facing up. He looked solid and I moved to card two and said yes we are in business. My heart was absolutely pounding as I moved to the Hogan and I am with a raised voice saying I see some lower border. The Hogan is very solid but I think the corners are going to hold it back from as high of a grade as I wanted. A very solid copy and none had the ink dot. I moved a few more cards in the deck and bamm The Nature Boy was staring at me. This is a monster copy and the best card I pulled. It is a lock for a 9 and could 10. A beauty.
I kept moving forward and laid my eyes on this Ernie Ladd. So far there are no 10's as most have bad centering and lots of fish eyes on them. There is the tiniest one over his right shoulder but I don't think that will keep this from grading very high. A really sharp copy.
I kept moving through the deck and putting the cards in the sleeves. Overall I am very pleased with the results. It isn't every day you get to rip open fresh material like this and I got some very nice cards overall. I scanned the ones I plan to get graded and there may be some others in the lot I do as NM and up copies are really doing well graded but this batch is just for the standouts.
Here are the the rest of the scans.
Thanks for sharing. Always fun to watch people open things up that were sealed for years. Your grading stack looks very strong.
Save grading fees, i like that Muraco! :-)
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Great back story. Nice cards. Huge balls not leaving one sealed. Sounds like a fun rip. Would love to see a set in a psa cello pack slab.
And now they are just regular copies!
This story just gets cooler. I spoke with the guy and Lawler earlier for a few minutes after he sent me some copies of unused sketch cards he had for the WWE products. I said sure I would love for Jerry to draw me a card and I want him to do a sketch of his 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A card. I said just figure out what Jerry thinks is fair and we will go from there. It turned out he did have three more sets and I said look I would really love to buy those. He said let me think about it and I said sure no problem.
He sent me a message back on FB and said how much Jerry would charge and I said that was fine. A little while later he sends a message he will sell the sets for the same price. I sent the cash and then called him.
We spoke for about half an hour abut the cards and Jerry's career and he said they found an uncut sheet of his original cards. It is indeed an uncut sheet of the super rare cards Rob found that were sold in Memphis at the merchandise table. We ended the conversation with Jerry agreeing to create the card and sign it on the back to me.
I will update the thread on Tuesday with pics of the next three sets. Unfortunately they only found two of the Rax Roast Beef cards and they were trampled looking like most and not stars.
The King is very nice and I am really looking forward to getting the fresh packs and at a later date the card. It is on Topps card stock so maybe PSA will holder it.
Round two arrived. These are going in my safe. Going to sit on these for the time being.
Congratulations on the great cards, David.
Glad to see a true fan/collector getting those items.
Will PSA grade or at least slab those packs?
Thank you.
Very pleased to have been able to get to do this.
It is really fun tracking down cards you are excited to get.
@daltex
I believe years ago someone tried and they wouldn't. Not exactly certain why. Perhaps they will now.
I had fun ripping the others and pulled some really nice cards but I am not going to press my luck and keep these for now. Normally I am itching to rip but in all honesty no desire what so ever at the moment and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Great cards. Great story.
Always looking to buy or trade for Andre the Giant autographs
psacard.com/psasetregistry/non-sports/famous-personage/andre-giant-master-set/alltimeset/180400
I am getting ready to ship these out this morning. I am doing the two Flair's express and I bought two more CC Platinum memberships to sub the rest.
Good luck on the subs. Can’t say it any better than Knapp did just above.
You should get them to put the Jerry Lawler Find on the certs.
Beautiful cards! Good luck on the subs
I like where your head is at. The name of the set is quite lengthy and I am not sure there would be any room.
I am not certain what the definition of a find is but in wrestling card circles this is as close to one as you can get.
You will see in the pics I sent in two Lawler's and one has a little bit of corner issues and the other is off centered but I had to get a few graded to commemorate him.
Thank you very much. Very hopeful on a few of these they will grade very high.
Thank you! I sent them overnight and the two super nice Flair's I subbed express so hopefully those get logged in early this week and the clock starts ticking.
For some reason I’m itching to see a sealed set slabbed.
Your posts and your collection highlight the very best of the hobby. Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Line # Item # Cert# Description Type
1 1 48669932 1982 WRESTLING ALL-STARS SERIES A 27 RIC FLAIR
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Card
2 1 48669933 1982 WRESTLING ALL-STARS SERIES A 27 RIC FLAIR
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Card
The Nature Boy's are in for grading. I was hoping my two collectors club platinum subs would log too but so far they have not since this was entered yesterday.
Both got 9's
Line # Item # Cert # Grade Description Type
1 1 48669932 MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 27 Ric Flair Card
2 1 48669933 MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 27 Ric Flair Card
Great story and congrats on the “find.” Just read this thread for the first time. That first Flair on the left looks like a 10 all day. Might have to resubmit that one in the future. Congrats on the grades. Keep those three sets sealed...they look awesome in your safe!
Woooooooooo! Very happy for you! What is a 9 worth? Enough to buy a Rolex? Alligator shoes? A custom styled suit from Michael‘s of Kansas City?
Thank you very much.
The card on the left is the highest end 9 that could ever be. I think it is a 10. I own 2 of the 5 and it is a stunner.
Either way they will stay in my collection so nice to sub some really nice copies.
Haha
Love the post. I can quote the Nature Boy all day. Woooooo!!!
I am not sure what a 9 goes for these days and honestly the one on the left I think with perfect centering would sell for a premium based on eye appeal.
Recently a PSA 7 went for $915 so it is really hard to tell. The last 9 went for $1,100 but it is a stale sale in a raging market.
The vintage wrestling cards are going vertical in price so we shall see where this goes. It is defiantly exciting to see them get their due and I love adding blazing copies to my collection.
Those look flawless (and awesome)... does PSA tell you what the issue was that prevented a potential 10 grade?
You get no commentary and just grades.
These are very strong copies that is for sure.
I was inline at the post office shipping the two cards I just sold and checked my email and both of the 15 card voucher submissions I sent in with the Ric Flair's that were logged on July 30th had logged. It is an uneasy feeling having the cards sitting there in limbo but obviously PSA has this down to a science. Cards are logged on September 12th so the clock is now ticking! I have my 137 card bulk order in grading and it has been there all week and then the other 15 card renewal sub I sent in that was logged on 8/22 is just in research and ID. I should add the bulk sub was logged on June 8th.
Jerry just sent me the pics on Twitter of the card he made for me. Just incredible!!!!!