Buzz Buys: Hall of Famer Relics, Coming to America, Star Wars, Mike Trout's selfie, old NFL, American Pickers, WWE & more

Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ...

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TAKE A SEAT ...
The Card: Babe Ruth 2017 Leaf Babe Ruth Immortal Collection Yankee Stadium Seat Red Spectrum (/20)
The Price: About $14
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Yes, I know this is not a bat card -- that's a piece of a Yankee Stadium seat embedded into it -- but I picked this one up since it's on the rarer side of things and also on the affordable side. Beyond that, this also showcases one of a few Ruth photos that always get me to stop and look at a card when I come across it. It's as simple as that, though I do also like oddball memorabilia cards. Chasing Ruth bats will cost more, though Leaf's estate-authorized sets have made them a little more affordable in recent years thanks to a good number of low-volume cards made among a few products.
Grab a box right here: Other Babe Ruth releases

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

REALLY RARE ON RELICS
The Card: Zach Wheat 2002 Topps Tribute Milestone Materials Relics 
The Price: About $22
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This Hall of Famer played his final game of a 19-year MLB career back in 1927 and that is one reason why you don't see him on memorabilia cards all that often -- there just must not be much of his game-used stuff to be had. He appears on more than 250 different baseball cards -- not a large amount, really -- but only five (yes, five) of those are memorabilia cards. They are this card, two parallels, a numbered buyback of this and then the only other one was in a premium-priced Dodgers set in 2000. Parallels of this card are limited to only 25 and one -- and then the buyback is limited to 10 -- and that makes me think even this regular version might be on the rarer side. Had there been more material available, there would likely have been more cards made. 
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... MLB boxes are here

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IT'S CLEO MCDOWELL!
The Photo: John Amos signed Coming to America 8-by-10 photo (via Hollywood Show)
The Price: Around $20
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I was relatively good during the Black Friday weekend this year but one sale where I bit was with a group of affordable autographed photos available via the Hollywood Show website. The convention hosts celebs at a few shows a year and offers signed photos left over from those events (as well as plenty more) in its website's store. While many are stars from the 1970s and 1980s (as well as before and after that) there are many affordable autos to be had there without breaking the bank. Black Friday meant a 25-percent discount on orders so I grabbed a few that you'll see here in this series. This one was a classic photo of Amos behind the desk managing his McDowell's restaurant in the 1980s classic, Coming to America, that has a sequel coming soon. The 81-year-old ultimately faced off with Darth Vader in that classic but he's also well known as the dad in Good Times, a crooked general who dies in a rather memorable way in Die Hard 2 and then in a number of shows and movies -- Roots, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Hunter, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The West Wing and Ballers to name a few. He's also slated to appear in the Coming to America sequel soon ... so that's why this one drops this time. A good photo makes the 'graph in many instances for me and this is one ... even if his Big Mic lacks sesame seeds.
Grab a box right here: Find non-sports boxes here

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WHAT'S A SUPER-SIZED SP WORTH?
The Card: Mike Trout 2019 Topps Stadium Club variation wall art (/99)
The Price: Less than $15 (after promotional discounts via Topps)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: The card version of this is a pricey and pretty rare short-printed variation that has a pretty cool moment from a past All-Star Game -- and you can find this selfie online for some extra cool factor. Topps makes these blank-backed posters to order and I was just the 10th person to buy when I opted for one of these during a Black Friday package where there were double discounts going on. Since it's a 2019 set, this one's days are numbered on the site ... so once they are gone they are gone even if no more are ordered. I wish Topps would announce final print runs. I'm sure a ton (if not most) prints from before this year's bot-buyer market are much, much rarer than 99 copies. 
Grab a box right here: 2019 Topps Stadium Club (when available)

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MOVE OVER, BABY YODA
The Sets: 2020 Topps The Mandalorian Season 2 trailer set (/1,482) plus Topps Now Chapter 11 (/1,459) & Chapter 13 (/1,982) sets
The Price: Direct from Topps (with rewards discounts) 
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Baby Yoda was the cardboard force for the first season of this hit series, but the big demand there actually didn't get me to bite on any of the Topps Now sets made for Season 1. This year? Different story because of some new appearances. The teaser trailer teased WWE star Sasha Banks (her card shown from the set above) so I grabbed that as it's her first of what's likely many Star Wars appearances to come. Then I added the Chapter 11 set where she appeared along with Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff on a couple of cards. Then, the Chapter 13 set was the debut cards of Rosario Dawson in the Star Wars universe ... and there will be a boatload more to come there as she'll have her own series. It all starts with these, though. (And, yes, That Grogu Guy was on a few cards here, too.) I won't be able to pull it off, but it would be fun to chase all of their cards to come ... especially if there's ink.
Grab a box right here: None for these but Star Wars boxes are here

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PICKED THIS ONE FOR ME
The Item: Mike Wolfe (American Pickers) autographed Antique Archaeology souvenir license plate
The Price: Free (with $59 purchase on their website last month)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This recent addition is an oddball for my autograph stash as Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz and Danielle Colby's adventures on American Pickers are always interesting if you're a collector or wheeler-and-dealer of stuff. While Colby had ink in a past Allen & Ginter set -- or you can find signed photos on her personal site -- the main guys on the road haven't done a lot of signings from what I have seen. (You can find signed items but they aren't sold on the site.) This plate is well-done -- it's fake rust -- and it's straight from the source, which makes it being fake rather unlikely. I used the order as Christmas gifts for somebody who's a regular watcher, while this pick is mine.
Grab a box right here: Find non-sports boxes here

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ONE ODD MEMORABILIA CARD ...
The Card: Angela Fong 2020 BenchWarmer Vegas Baby Vegas Strips Hair Cut card (/3) 
The Price: A little too much ... but I wanted to get closer to finishing my project 
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I recently brought up here how I planned to pick up a few different card types for this former WWE and Lucha Underground wrestler and this is one of the oddities I wanted to add to my stash ... a hair card. Why are these made? Well, I don't know ... but I do know they are popular with historic figures in some brands (Allen & Ginter) so the demand there is perhaps why they were tried here and have stuck. I ponied up a bit for this one (priced like a couple of blasters) because it was a card type I hadn't found yet and I figured there wouldn't be a lot of new ones to come ... but I forgot about there potentially being parallels. (And there are a number of them.) The foil color around the hair capsule is what changes on the various parallels and a number have sold on eBay for around $20-25. I still have at least one card type to chase for her at some point but the rest are simply sitting on the Buzz Buys tarmac to present here in the coming months. This is easily one of the weirder cards I own ... and I like weird memorabilia cards. You'll see some of them in the coming months, too.
Grab a box right here: BenchWarmers boxes (all years)

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A CHEAP GO-TO PLAYER (EVERYBODY NEEDS ONE)
The Cards: A.J. McCarron ... various Rookie Cards, RPAs and patches
The Prices: Pocket change up to $15 or so (most are under $8)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Everybody should have a cheap (common) player they can collect and with football this guy is probably one of my main go-to players in that regard. The priciest cards here are actually a couple of patch autos that aren't all that colorful compared to others -- and a colorful patch might be the only benefit of picking up Cincinnati Bengals cards. I grab these regularly for the heck of it, especially when they get really cheap, and this is probably a year's worth of the better ones with some RCs thrown in. (I'm a sucker for cheap Spectra.) He'll always be a notable college star -- he won multiple national titles at Alabama -- but hasn't done much in the NFL other than a stretch with the Bengals when Andy Dalton was hurt. That's OK ... I'm just picking these up for cheap thrills to experience how some deluxe cardboard looks without breaking the bank.
Grab a box right here: 2014 NFL boxes are here

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PERFECT PARALLELS
The Card: Lacey Evans 2020 Topps WWE Undisputed Blue parallel (/25)
The Price: About $7
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I put in a low bid on this one not expecting to land it but I did. Why was I interested? It's a strong example of things that make this year's Undisputed set among the best releases in the five-year history of the brand. The parallel designs add color to their clean look and the blue here is a perfect match with Evans' retro-styled gear on this card. The set's parallels are only topped by the strength of the photographs found here -- there are a ton of strong images in this one and their HDR treatments accentuate pretty much all details. There are some really nice cards in this one -- so much so I'll be grabbing a set at some point. It's a solid one and the parallels are some of the best cards I've seen for WWE in the last year even with Chrome and Finest bringing some muscle. You'll see more from this release in this series in the coming months.
Grab a box right here: 2020 Topps WWE Undisputed

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A LEGENDARY NEED
The Card: Ray Perkins 2012 Upper Deck Alabama autographs 
The Price: $14
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This former Alabama football coach died in December and I'll admit I wasn't sure if I had his autograph in my stash or not ... so I grabbed one. Since he was a former player -- a receiver for Bear Bryant whose QBs included Joe Namath and Ken Stabler -- he had autos in this crisply done UD set that has dried up a ton since its arrival after once being pretty cheap. Perkins took over as Alabama's coach when Bryant died in 1983 and later moved on to the NFL where he had a few card appearances as a coach. He also briefly played in the NFL but never had any Topps cards and his only signed cards are from this release. This was an easy one to pick up unless I went with something that was signed in-person and then authenticated.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... football boxes are here

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REMEMBER THESE?
The Card: Ben Washburn 2001 Topps Reserve Graded Autographed RC (only 555 slabbed) -- PSA 8
The Price: Under $2
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Not all ideas work out over the years and this might is probably one of them ... an uncirculated card where the flip in the slab is what was autographed and the card's grade is noted on the back. Washburn only appears on about a dozen cards and only two of those are autographed ... but I bought this to show off the type. So, who's in this one? Well, Albert Pujols is among the lineup here -- he signed flips, too -- while other heavy hitters included Greg "Toe" Nash, Deivi Mendez, Casey Fossum and Travis Hafner (who was actually pretty good). These were box-toppers along with a signed baseball -- Washburn signed those, too -- and as much as I think box-toppers seriously need to make a big, big comeback I'm hoping it's not these.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... MLB boxes are here

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LOOK CLOSELY
The Card: Tom Dempsey 1973 Topps 
The Price: Under $1
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This former NFL kicker died from COVID back in April and as I saw the posts about his story -- and his unique place in NFL history -- I looked up his cards. I didn't pony up for one of his Rookie Cards (it's a glorified mug shot in 1970 Topps), but instead I grabbed this fourth-year card for pocket change that shows off what made him different than others in the game. Dempsey was born without toes on his right foot or fingers on his right hand and that helped him become a prolific kicker. He held the NFL record for the longest field goal -- 63 yards -- in 1970 and that stood until 2013. He doesn't have a lot of cardboard and only a handful of autos, but this one is unique enough for my stash thanks to the photo.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... NFL boxes are here

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THIS DUDE TOOK SOME BEATINGS ...
The Card: Brother Runt (Spike Dudley) 2010 TRISTAR TNA Xtreme Memorabilia (/199)
The Price: $10 total
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This guy wasn't big -- just 5-foot-5 in a world of giants -- but he was must-watch as he could be a glutton for punishment with (or against) The Dudleys in ECW and then WWE. Despite years in the game, he never had a certified autograph (and had very few memorabilia cards) until he arrived in TNA Wrestling for a short run. He had 10 memorabilia cards in this release and only two in others ... and I liked how these jumbo swatches looked with his tie-dye in play here. His cards in this set have some strong asking prices -- the cheapest for this card being $20 right now -- but I bought these in the past with the intention to just stash them. I never chased his ink as I picked up a cheap signed photo from one of the wrestling dealers out there in the world long ago, but those are also getting pricier in this set. Why? When's the last time you saw any sealed TNA hobby box? They have really dried up.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... WWE boxes are here

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CAN YOU CALL IT A ROOKIE CARD?
The Card: Don Shula (Colts' Play of the Year) 1964 Philadelphia 
The Price: 99 cents
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This Hall of Famer and legendary coach didn't appear on a ton of cards during his career but this was among his first to be found in packs of 1964 Philadelphia football cards. The only things that he can be found on before that are some Baltimore Colts team-issue sets and those same types of cards were the only place to find him after this one all the way up to his "Rookie Card" in 1989 Pro Set. That's the card that formally gets that nod but I genuinely think this one should -- he's shown there, his name is used and it's probably a play he came up with.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... NFL boxes are here

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ALL AT ONCE
The Card: 2001 Fleer WWF The Ultimate Diva Collection Divas In Hedonism insert set (15 cards)
The Price: $15
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: These short-printed subset cards were one in four hobby packs within this release (numbered part of the base set), so building a full set would take a few boxes -- and I never even saw hobby boxes where I lived at that time. With a few iconic stars of that time (WWE Hall of Famers) in this one, I bit for that price. (It was lower than it could be as some sellers try to get $5-10 for some names.) This set includes Debra, Terri Runnels, Lita, Trish Stratus and Jacqueline on three cards apiece. I grabbed this with thoughts of perhaps grading some names but the soft Fleer stock used back then nixed those ideas, though these were still quite clean.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... WWE boxes are here

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FIRST ONE DONE
The Card: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2019 Topps Transcendent Franchise Favorites Reproductions (/100)
The Price: $16.50
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I probably won't ever pony up for any of his Transcendent Rookie Cards -- too pricey for me even though I dabble with his stuff -- but I didn't mind this card from his second year for the price. I think these premium releases could be serious cash cows in the future with anybody who has the means to stash away unopened cases potentially making serious bank. Just compare the starting price difference here vs. the early years of Exquisite. Now think of auction results for that brand's stuff in the past year. (Yes, comparing MLB to NBA isn't the easiest thing to do but I definitely know if I had any Transcendent RC autos of key guys beyond the Cody Bellinger rookie auto I have I would be holding.) I think the biggest crazy value will be for sealed cases. Why? Think about it ... how many Transcendent boxes every year (for any sport) get busted for group breaks? Or, to ask that a different way ... how many aren't?
Grab a box right here: All Transcendent releases are here

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