By Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

WWE Hall of Famer Chief Jay Strongbow, a colorful and decorated performer during his nearly 50-year-career in professional wrestling died on Tuesday. He was 83.

Strongbow, real name Joe Scarpa, retired in 1994 but still appeared in WWE card sets in recent years. In all, he appears on 32 cards in the Beckett.com database (click for a full checklist or OPG) with just two certified autographs, both from Topps.

His debut autograph came in the 2005 Topps Heritage set, a card that typically sold for $30 or less before the news, while his other autograph came in the 2006 Topps Heritage Chrome release.

Like many stars of the 1970s and early 1980s, his first card arrived in the landmark 1982 Wrestling All-Stars release (he’s in Series B) and he made his first official WWF/WWE card appearance in the 1985 Topps and 1985 O-Pee-Chee WWF sets.

He was a four-time tag champ for what is now the WWE but held titles in several territories. He joined the WWE Hall in 1994 and became a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | BSCM Editor

Friday is Canada Day up north, and In The Game‘s latest release will celebrate the country that will be doing some celebrating.

In The Game Canadiana will include a 100-card base set comprised of notable Canadians while the insert lineups will include autographs and memorabilia cards from notable athletes from all sports as well as celebrities from the country.

Among the signers? Pamela Anderson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Michael J. Fox, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Manon Rheaume, William Shatner, Trish Stratus, Donald Sutherland, Larry Walker, Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon and many more.

It’s an eclectic mix and some will be first-time signers — Fox, for example, has never had a certified autograph card. (Or at least if one exists it’s not in the Beckett.com database.)

Originally scheduled for release on Friday, the set has been delayed until later in the month as one key signer did not return autographs in time, according to ITG. Each pack will include an autograph, a memorabilia card and an additional insert to make up for the delay.

See more images from the product after the jump. (Click on the images for a closer look.)

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | BSCM Editor

Former WWE world champion Randy “Macho Man” Savage — who was known for his colorful ring attire, successful career in the heyday of the 1980s professional wrestling explosion and at least one very memorable commercial endorsement — died of an apparent heart attack while driving in Florida on Friday. He as 58.

Savage, born Randy Poffo, was a two-time WWE heavyweight champ, and his match with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania III is considered one of the greatest matches in the history of wrestling’s premiere event. He was a high-flying main event performer alongside Hulk Hogan in the late 1980s glory days of the WWE (then WWF) with his wife and ringside valet Miss Elizabeth often by his side.

Before he was a professional wrestler, he briefly played minor league baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds organizations before he turned to his family’s business after an injury. His father, Angelo Poffo, was a wrestler and his brother, Lanny, also was a WWE performer best remembered as “The Genius.”

While Savage never appeared on a baseball card in the Beckett.com database, he does appear on 103 different cards as a wrestler. He has two certified  autographs — a 1994 Action Packed autographed promo card limited to just 500 copies and a card in the 1999 Topps WCW/nWo wrestling set, which typically sells for $150 or less.

One of his memorable commercial endorsements came outside the ring was for Slim Jim snacks where his gravelly voice and high-energy personality made “Ohhhhh yeah” and “Snap into a Slim Jim!” a part of the cultural lexicon.

Savage had not performed for the WWE since 1994 when he moved to Ted Turner‘s World Championship Wrestling where he was a four-time champ. He has largely been out of the wrestling spotlight completely since 1999. He did appear in the first Spider-Man movie — as a wrestler — and had made several appearances on television shows and low-budget films after his career ended.

Because Savage has largely off the wrestling radar — he just recently signed a deal to appear on toys with the WWE — he hasn’t appeared on any trading cards since 1999. Because of that, he has zero memorabilia cards and a limited amount of memorabilia available.

Despite the new WWE deal, a Topps official confirmed on Friday afternoon that Savage will not be appearing on any new WWE cards at this time.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Baseball Editor

Visit any sports card and collectibles forum and you’ll likely see one of these types of posts — a recap of what arrived into a collector’s possession that’s one part “Check This Out!” and one part bragging. It’s one part a reflection of a hobby and, perhaps, a reflection of the madness that is what we do as collectors.

It’s the mailday report.

I tested the waters of live online video to a select few Twitter followers late Monday afternoon with a UStream mailday report after I received a big ol’ box of goodness from CheckOutMyCards.com at lunchtime. The video was one part to show a curious few the end result of how that sales site works and to examine my stuff — a stash that had been amassed over the last few months of buying — while subtlely showing off — ok, maybe not so subtlely — what I collect. (As if you didn’t know, as a regular reader, already …)

This time, though, it was a little less Swisheriffic. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of Nick Swisher — and Jose Canseco on Topps Tiffany cards (a recently completed kick) — but the big guns were something else. It was a selection of cards that caught my eye for one reason or another. A couple were cards I had always wanted and the specimens presented themselves, while a few others were just good buys or unique cards that grabbed my attention. I did some spring cleaning of sorts in the ol’ collection recently — something long overdue — and turned some not-so-wanted cards into these you see here (and more).

So, here’s a rare mailday post from me. (Do you have a cool mailday to report? Start a thread at the first link above or comment below.)

The biggie, was a Roger Maris 1958 Topps Rookie Card in PSA 4 condition. It’s not the prettiest specimen, as seen above, but I’ve seen worse-looking copies — in lower condition with higher prices to boot. Unlike many of you guys out there, dropping $500 on a single card just isn’t an option here — but a lesser-grade guy, one that’s pretty well-centered and free of a heavy dose of 1958 Topps “snow” (white spots in the photo) was. To top that, I got it for roughly the price of a PSA1 or 2 after making an offer to the previous owner. Yes, it’s still a rough copy … but I won’t be able to top it without a firesale from someone who deals in higher-grade vintage. (When’s the last time that happened?)

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The second biggie was another long-term want — a copy of an early Rickey Henderson minor league card. This 1979 TCMA release pre-dates his 1980 Topps RC but isn’t his first MiLB release. It is the earliest one I could ever afford, though. I made an offer to the seller, which turned out to be a deal. This one cost me far less than the roughed-up and ungraded copy on that site right now.

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My third biggie wasn’t really a card that I had been targeting at all — my run of Roger Maris cards basically focuses on 1958-61 — but this card just looked too good to pass up. It’s not a perfect specimen, but it’s very close. It looked good enough for me to buy and I’ll consider getting this 1966 Topps Maris graded by the BGS crew. Better yet? I got it for $20 less than high book price after making an offer.

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This is a card that I’ll readily admit that I probably slightly overpaid for … but it looked pretty darn good, too. I’m not a member of the Donnie Baseball Fan Club by any means, but the O-Pee-Chee print job here looked very, very clean — much brighter and crisper than its ungraded Topps brother already at home. Was it worth the price of two blaster boxes? Maybe not, but I took it. Or, maybe I had been working on the upcoming 1980s issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly too closely and thought it was 1985 all over again …

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This next one might have scared off a few potential buyers with a scuffed up BCCG case, but the card inside — an autographed Trevor Cahill 2007 Bowman Chrome card — looks pretty solid to me. It’ll likely get upgraded to a clean BGS case someday … though I’ve had a stash of cards I’ve been aiming to send in grouped together since roughly 2004. (It’s like that 2004 Topps 205 Series 2 mini master set I’m working on … slowly but surely … I swear.)

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You had enough Oakland and pinstripes, right? (Just imagine if you had seen all 40 cards I had shipped … the entire video was full of them.)  Well, this buy — a 2010 Topps National Chicle printing plate — was a complete late-night impulse buy. Why? The price was right — about the price of five retail packs of that red-hot 2011 Topps Heritage. Not a Tim Wakefield fan at all, but that painting was cool enough I put it on a Beckett Baseball cover last summer. Now, I own one of four plates that helped make the card.

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There were 30-some other inclusions in my mailing, but this one was one of the more unique ones — something I just haven’t seen often. It’s an obligatory pro wrestling inclusion (especially if you know my Tweeting habits) — a 1998 Topps WCW/nWo autograph of a pretty memorable WWE referee also known as “Lil’ Naitch” … a piece of trivia that prompted a quick discussion about the origins of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair‘s nickname that prompted a miniature lesson, err, discussion, about the history of pro wrestling and “The Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. The card cost me a couple the same as a couple of packs at retail but the ability to spark a story about something — one of the reasons I bought such an odd card — was priceless.

Perhaps we’ll bring you more maildays — or more live video/chat sessions — soon.

Until then, keep on collecting.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Editor

Topps is ready to get in the ring once again as it unveiled it’s latest World Wrestling Entertainment card set on Wednesday morning.

A new line, Topps WWE Champions, features full-bleed photography — but no blood because that’s not kosher in the WWE these days — and highlights from notable matches throughout the WWE years.

Set to arrive in early June, Champions will include 100 base cards in the set and Foil Champions insert cards one in every three packs. There also will be autograph cards to be found, though they will be rarer as odds were not mentioned on the sales materials.

See more images from the set after the jump.

By Chris Olds | Editor

After seven years away from the world of professional wrestling, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson returned to a World Wrestling Entertainment ring on Monday night in Anaheim, Calif., as he was unveiled as the guest host for WrestleMania XXVII in Atlanta.

His 20-minute in-ring promo capped Raw, with his attention particularly focused on John Cena, prompting a few to believe that he might be up for more than some host duties for the April pay-per-view. That got us thinking — there might be a few collectors out there looking for the star’s trading cards and memorabilia.

The Rock presently appears on 254 cards in the Beckett.com database — just one of them a certified autograph as a wrestler. (He does appear on non-sport autographed cards for The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King and Doom.)

Johnson’s earliest trading card appearance comes as a member of the University of Miami football team. He was included in a school-produced set in 1994, and that card can sell for $50.

His 1998 DuoCards WWF Autographs card books for $60, though it can trend higher — and likely will with his return. Would Topps work him into the mix on upcoming products? It’s likely, though that ultimately would depend on the length of his WWE return and his signing fees. In all, he has appeared on just 15 cards made by Topps, his last in 2007.

He appears on 22 (wrestling) memorabilia cards and just five cards that are serial-numbered — with a total value of all cards just $1,192.95, or $4.69 per card, for those that aren’t too scarce to track.

Rock’s memorabilia card offerings are much more varied, with the most-expensive card being a $75 2002 Fleer card that he shares with Trish Stratus that is limited to 25 copies.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.