1974 Japanese ANDRE THE GIANT rookie card stash

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by wrestlingcardking

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.

Thank you so much for the informative post, WCK. I have been doing a lot of reading in recent weeks about the different '70s/'80s wrestling sets and trying learn what I can. I grew up on wrestling of that era, but never gave much thought to wrestling cards until recently.

I have learned a ton of information from reading the posts of both you and DPeck.