PART THREE: Mail Day
It took a little longer than expected, but both of our cards have finally landed. Our original purchase of Card #2 was canceled and refunded by the seller on CollX — which, honestly, worked in our favor. We locked in a replacement at a much better price because we actually paid attention to the shipping methods.
The new total for Card #2 (shipping included) is $15.77, bringing our running average down to $18.21 per card.
Here’s where the plan stands:
Purchase 2× raw Red Ice Buzelis Rookie Cards before season tip-off.Inspect both under good light and choose the best candidate to submit for grading.
Flip the lesser copy if he starts trending up before the All-Star break.
Unless he’s making a legit MVP-type leap or the Bulls are shockingly top-seeded, we’ll look to sell both before or during the break (assuming we get the graded one back in time).
Let’s take a closer look at what we got.
On Court Performance
So far, our prediction is holding up nicely. The Bulls have come out swinging, sitting at 6–1 to start the year with wins over quality teams like the Knicks and the Sixers.
Buzelis has looked the part in his starting role, averaging 14.9 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 1.1 APG. His best outing so far came in Sacramento, where he dropped 27 points and hit 4 threes.
He’s also torching the arc early—averaging two threes a night and shooting around 42% from deep. Expect Chicago to start scheming more ways to free him up beyond the arc.
Inspection
Fresh out of their envelopes, both cards look sharp. Solid centering, clean surfaces, good overall eye appeal. But when you’re thinking about grading, “good” isn’t good enough.
Since PSA’s fees aren’t exactly dropping, we want to make sure anything we submit has a real shot at a 9 or better. So, we ran both cards through our usual pre-check—using a centering tool, a jeweler’s loupe, and a bit of healthy skepticism.
Card #1
Card #1 pops right away. The slanted design makes eyeballing centering tricky, so we broke out the tool. Turns out, it’s slightly thicker up top than bottom—but nothing wild. Even 60/40 centering can still gem up.
Corners looked sharp, but under the loupe, we found a tiny nick along the bottom edge that could knock it down a peg.
Flipping it over revealed some roughness along the back edges too. Not a deal-breaker, but definitely something to note.
Card #2
Card #2 had similar centering and overall eye appeal.
Interestingly, we noticed a nearly identical nick in the same bottom-edge spot. Since these came from different sellers across the country, that’s likely a production flaw—something PSA tends to be more forgiving about.
Better yet, the nick on Card #2 is far less noticeable.
The back edges look cleaner overall, though there’s a little fuzziness on the bottom left corner. Nothing we could spot from the front, but still worth flagging.
Our Pick
After a quick side-by-side, Card #2 gets the nod for grading. The minor edge nick up front combined with the rough around the edges back of Card #1 feels riskier than the faint fuzziness on #2’s backside.
Next week, it’s off to the upgrade shop. We’ll clean, prep, and maybe even overthink our way through the PSA submission process. Stay tuned!
Table of Contents
Need to catch up or refresh yourself on the series?
You can find all the installments below 👇
Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Dropping Dimes
Part 3: Mail Day (You are Here)
Part 4: Coming Soon
Disclaimer: The content in The Hobby Wire is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Commentary, analysis, and opinions on sports cards, rookies, and the hobby are not financial, investment, or professional advice. Collectors should always do their own research before buying, selling, or trading cards. Market values are volatile and can change rapidly—past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Unless specified, all pricing references are based on the Prizm/Refractor parallels of an athlete’s Chrome rookie card, with prices from alt.xyz & 130pt.com.
Any odds mentioned were derived from DraftKings Sportsbook.