1985 Topps #1 Hulk Hogan Autograph Value

JimMeant

Hey guys, I just wanted to share a long story about a great experience I had this summer at the National in Chicago.
Over the years, my good friend and I have been identifying rookie cards to get autographed in person by famous athletes at The National. Then we eventually get them slabbed by PSA.
It took me awhile to get used to the idea, but they have really grown on me. Kinda like little pieces of art IMO.
We’ve had good success getting the likes of Bob Gibson, Rickey Henderson, and Cal Ripken Jr. to name a few.
This year we decided to go a different route and pick up a 1985 Topps #1 Hulk Hogan card to get autographed. Pro wrestling was such a part of our youth and entertainment as we watched Hulk Hogan time and time again on our TV screens. We each spent months searching high grade copies on eBay and finally picked up what we wanted.
When the time finally came for the Hulkster to autograph our cards in early August he was incredibly gracious and appreciative. It was so cool for us to meet him and see a part of our childhood up close & personal.
To wrap this story up, we recently submitted both of these cards to PSA under dual service to grade the card and authenticate the autograph.
When the cards popped, we were pleasantly surprised to see 2 beautiful Mint 9’s as our results. We were so pumped!

It’s my understanding that it’s a pop 3 card with no Gem Mint 10’s at the moment.

I know wrestling cards are a bit of a niche market but we couldn’t be happier with our results.

Would anyone have a ballpark idea on a price estimation for this card? I’m a collector at heart so I’m not planning on selling but I’m still very curious as to what we might have in terms of value.

Here are a few pics of the entire process.
Thanks for checking it out!

TheDetroitCollector

I like to go on EBAY as see the sold results for something I'm selling. Looking at something like this I would say $1-2K. The fact that it graded a 9 is very good.

RufussCkingston

@TheDetroitCollector said:
I like to go on EBAY as see the sold results for something I'm selling. Looking at something like this I would say $1-2K. The fact that it graded a 9 is very good.

That's the value WITHOUT the auto.... I guess the question is what value does the auto add in tandem with the PSA 9. If I was going to sell it, I'd probably do a BIN with a $5k OBO asking. But in reality, maybe it adds $1k? What is the market like for high grade, non factory auto'ed cards?

dontippet

I have no idea as to value, but I would think an addition $1K is high. How much did it cost to get it signed? He's still an active signer. If it added that much, I think people would do what you are doing and get their own one signed.

Batpig

@dontippet said:
I have no idea as to value, but I would think an addition $1K is high. How much did it cost to get it signed? He's still an active signer. If it added that much, I think people would do what you are doing and get their own one signed.

The problem with that is that you have to
1) Crack the card.
2) Give it over to the person to sign - a person who may be in a hurry and won’t necessarily treat your card like you’d hope while signing.
3) Hope it regrades at or above the original grade even if it made it through steps 1 and 2 without new flaws.

There’s an awful lot of risk in that whole process.

RufussCkingston

@Batpig said:

@dontippet said:
I have no idea as to value, but I would think an addition $1K is high. How much did it cost to get it signed? He's still an active signer. If it added that much, I think people would do what you are doing and get their own one signed.

The problem with that is that you have to
1) Crack the card.
2) Give it over to the person to sign - a person who may be in a hurry and won’t necessarily treat your card like you’d hope while signing.
3) Hope it regrades at or above the original grade even if it made it through steps 1 and 2 without new flaws.

There’s an awful lot of risk in that whole process.

Thus why the adder could be significant, it is like winning a parlay! Too bad the auto wasn't graded a 10 too!

JimMeant

@RufussCkingston said:

@Batpig said:

@dontippet said:
I have no idea as to value, but I would think an addition $1K is high. How much did it cost to get it signed? He's still an active signer. If it added that much, I think people would do what you are doing and get their own one signed.

The problem with that is that you have to
1) Crack the card.
2) Give it over to the person to sign - a person who may be in a hurry and won’t necessarily treat your card like you’d hope while signing.
3) Hope it regrades at or above the original grade even if it made it through steps 1 and 2 without new flaws.

There’s an awful lot of risk in that whole process.

Thus why the adder could be significant, it is like winning a parlay! Too bad the auto wasn't graded a 10 too!

It’s funny you bring the potential autograph grade up. My friend and I definitely considered doing this.
However, we were concerned about how PSA would grade our respective autographs.
-My friend’s copy (1st picture above) has the autograph where it bleeds into the top of the border of the card.
-My autographed copy has a unique thing where Hogan signed his name and then added an underscore type mark underneath his last name. I’ve looked at many Hogan autos and haven’t seen any others like that.

So the big question was, would PSA dock the autos for those respective issues? I guess we will never know.
In the end, we just decided to play it safe by grading the card and authenticating the auto.

RufussCkingston

@JimMeant said:

It’s funny you bring the potential autograph grade up. My friend and I definitely considered doing this.
However, we were concerned about how PSA would grade our respective autographs.
-My friend’s copy (1st picture above) has the autograph where it bleeds into the top of the border of the card.
-My autographed copy has a unique thing where Hogan signed his name and then added an underscore type mark underneath his last name. I’ve looked at many Hogan autos and haven’t seen any others like that.

So the big question was, would PSA dock the autos for those respective issues? I guess we will never know.
In the end, we just decided to play it safe by grading the card and authenticating the auto.

I don't believe the auto going into the card border would matter as the auto grade is strictly the grade of the auto, not in relation to the item it is on. And the added line would not matter either. It is more the quality of the ink and flow of the signature.

wrestlingcardking

Congrats on the great grades on these signed Hulk Hogan cards. I love high grade autographed cards but realize that some collectors simply do not care for autographs so there is a segment of collectors that you are eliminating. On the other hand there may not ever be a signed 1985 Hulk Hogan rookie in PSA 10 so you may have a top pop collectible. I have over 20 signed Hulks from 1985 Topps, OPC, and Scanlens. None of them are PSA 9s so yours is appealing to me, but on the other hand so many of these are signed I would not go crazy on the premium. Thanks for sharing your great score here. I love it.

@JimMeant said:

@RufussCkingston said:

@Batpig said:

@dontippet said:
I have no idea as to value, but I would think an addition $1K is high. How much did it cost to get it signed? He's still an active signer. If it added that much, I think people would do what you are doing and get their own one signed.

The problem with that is that you have to
1) Crack the card.
2) Give it over to the person to sign - a person who may be in a hurry and won’t necessarily treat your card like you’d hope while signing.
3) Hope it regrades at or above the original grade even if it made it through steps 1 and 2 without new flaws.

There’s an awful lot of risk in that whole process.

Thus why the adder could be significant, it is like winning a parlay! Too bad the auto wasn't graded a 10 too!

It’s funny you bring the potential autograph grade up. My friend and I definitely considered doing this.
However, we were concerned about how PSA would grade our respective autographs.
-My friend’s copy (1st picture above) has the autograph where it bleeds into the top of the border of the card.
-My autographed copy has a unique thing where Hogan signed his name and then added an underscore type mark underneath his last name. I’ve looked at many Hogan autos and haven’t seen any others like that.

So the big question was, would PSA dock the autos for those respective issues? I guess we will never know.
In the end, we just decided to play it safe by grading the card and authenticating the auto.

TheDetroitCollector

@RufussCkingston said:

@TheDetroitCollector said:
I like to go on EBAY as see the sold results for something I'm selling. Looking at something like this I would say $1-2K. The fact that it graded a 9 is very good.

That's the value WITHOUT the auto.... I guess the question is what value does the auto add in tandem with the PSA 9. If I was going to sell it, I'd probably do a BIN with a $5k OBO asking. But in reality, maybe it adds $1k? What is the market like for high grade, non factory auto'ed cards?

There are a number of 85 Topps autograph cards that sold in the $1K range, but none of them were graded a 9. They were just graded authentic, which is why I said the 9 is very good. Im guessing it would boost it into the $2K range

wrestlingcardking

There has been one on ebay that is listed for $2500 but there were no takers at that price.

picklepete

The auto going off the card would absolutely stop it from a 10 auto..
I get my autos slabbed & some auto grade.
I've been told off card, no 10..