Buzz Buys: Kumar Rocker, Shotzi, USA Baseball, college cards, Max Weinberg, wrestling ink & even Buford T. Justice's kid

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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THE NEWEST NEW YORK MET
The Card: Kumar Rocker 2018 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes Jumbo Nameplate (/5)
The Price: Under $40
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This Vandy star was a dominator and was perhaps going to be a top pick in this year's MLB Draft but instead he fell right into a prime spot when slid a bit and went 10th overall. Why do I say that? When it comes to cardboard, being a member of the New York Mets organization is better than being a Texas Ranger, which is where teammate Jack Leiter went at No. 2. He's the son of former NFL player Tracy Rocker and he's got a lot of cardboard thanks to USA Baseball appearances, including some cool cards like this. I don't think I ever pulled his auto -- but I tried a number of times -- but I couldn't pass up this rarity that appears to include the top halves of the "RO" from the back of his jersey. The bottom half of that duo is on eBay with a price four times what I paid. If his college dominance is any kind of a sign, we should see him in the majors quickly.
Grab a box right here: USA Baseball boxes (all years)

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

CHASING NEW WWE ARRIVALS, PART I
The Cards: Rhea Ripley 2020 Rookie Cards and autos (Finest, Undisputed, NXT, Slam Attax and Chrome Refractors)
The Prices: $2 to about $80
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: The first of my trio of young WWE stars I've been grabbing over the last year-plus that you'll see in this edition is this Australian star who started her first main-roster WWE title run with a win at WrestleMania in April. She's since lost the belt after battling with Asuka and Charlotte Flair, so we're now at the point of seeing where things go. (You never know.) All of her 2020 cards should be considered RCs -- you have seen others here if you're a regular reader -- though in some brands the logos were not used. She's only 24 so there should be plenty of time to collect her ... I basically tried to get an auto from each release and actually pulled one of these after tracking down the exact same parallel.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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ONE OF A KIND ... 
The Card: Daniel Moskos 2007 USA Baseball Patriotic Patches game-used flag patch 1/1
The Price: Around $22
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Don't let the serial-numbering on the front fool you -- this is actually a 1/1 card with the flag off one of his jersey's sleeves embedded into it. There were 20 patch cards made per player in this release but only the first one got a full flag patch. USA stuff has always been the home of some nice patch cards for prospects and this release, which has a pair of these sets. Among the MLB players in this one? Drew Stubbs, Brett Anderson, Clayton Kershaw, Dellin Betances, Brandon Crawford, David Price, Sean Doolittle, Pedro Alvarez, Todd Frazier Mike Moustakas, Freddie Freeman, Matt Harvey and Jake Arrieta to name a few. I own a few patches from this set -- and many other standard ones as I bought more than a few cases of these -- and they'll always get a look from me when they get cheap.
Grab a box right here: USA Baseball boxes (all years)

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CHASING PAPER ... ERR, PLATES
The Cards: Nick Swisher printing plates (all 1/1)
The Prices: Varyies between single grabs and some small-lot buys
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This former MLB player I collect doesn't have any new cardboard these days, so I'm stuck trying to find rarities from the past -- there are plenty I don't have when it comes to plates -- even though they don't pop up all that often. Generally, I'm OK with that, too, as it's a lot easier to grab stuff now vs. back when he wore Yankees pinstripes. (These are all before and after that time.) He's likely a common player to many -- not to me -- but I've paid likely no more than $20 for any one of these ... and most were far less than that. Yankees plates still do probably go for a little more here and there.
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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THE MAN IN BLACK
The Card: Aleister Black 2019 Topps WWE Transcendent Collection Blue Autographs (/25)
The Price: Less than $25
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I've never been big on his initial-graph form of an autograph but ... from this premium brand in what I think is the best parallel color at this price? I'd buy them all day. I picked this up around Black Friday last year (no pun intended ... it's reality) but hadn't gotten it in hand until recently. At that time, some of the cards in this set were dipping dramatically and I grabbed a few ... but not ultimately some of the ones I'd have wanted the most. And, generally speaking, since that time these have dried up and even blown up for key names. Now, is he a key name? Well, to a degree right now, yes. He's a new arrival to AEW and is walking in as one of its newest bad guys -- known as Malakai Black now -- taking out Cody Rhodes and Hall of Famer Arn Anderson with matching kicks to the head in his debut moment and his first match coming soon. Black's big persona and array of quick moves (he's not that big) in the past were very watch-able, so there could be some good stuff coming. The cheapest asking prices on his autos from the Transcendent set after this one are $75 and up over on eBay, while a Black parallel of this year (/5) graded a PSA 10 has a much higher price than what I paid. It will be interesting to see how these might move with a new face in a new place.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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SON OF A REBA
The Card: Shelby Blackstock 2012 Press Pass Total Memorabilia Gold Rising Stars Autographed Memorabilia (/99)
The Price: $11.50
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This pick-up was simply due to some trivia -- he's the son of country music star Reba McEntire -- and the fact that this has a pretty nice glove swatch with a piece of a logo that a NASCAR fan might recognize easily to make this even cooler to them. Blackstock appears on just five different cards -- all versions of this -- with two rarer parallels and then one that's easier and then an unsigned base card. He's still racing -- not anywhere near NASCAR -- as of last year, but I'm not sure we'll see more cardboard. This seemed like an interesting card to grab.
Grab a box right here: NASCAR boxes all years

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CHASING NEW WWE ARRIVALS, PART II
The Stuff: Toni Storm Stardom (Japan) signed promo photo, 2018 Topps Now WWE debut card and then various 2019 and 2020 Topps Attax, Undisputed, Finest Refractors and Women's Division cards. 
The Prices: $2 to $45
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This NXT UK and NXT standout will arrive on the Smackdown roster tonight, so we'll see how that goes. If you're a regular reader here, then you should know how her 2019 NXT autos were scorchers and then she had no ink at all until the 2020 Topps Women's Division set arrived just recently. The Topps Now card actually pre-dates all of her WWE cards but I wouldn't call it a Rookie Card based on how it was released -- but it might be a sleeper as only 239 were made and it's also the WWE debut card for Io Shirai. (Both also have cards from competing in Japan.) Nothing here is "big" per se -- I've shown those off here in the past -- but I figured I'd drop them all here at once since she's now on the main roster. I'm a big fan of that Undisputed card.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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JUST CALL HIM JUNIOR
The Card: Mike Henry 1962 Post NFL 
The Price: About $4
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is a card hand-cut from the back of a cereal box back in the day and it's that last line on the front of the card that is a big key here. Before he died in January at age 84, his career included a number of credits but perhaps his best-known role was as Junior Justice in three Smokey & The Bandit movies as the son of Buford T. Justice, the sheriff chasing Bandit across the country to find him and the bride (Sally Field) who left Junior at the altar. Pops got all the good lines in the movie and you can see a sampling here. Henry played six years in the NFL for the Steelers and the Rams but never appeared on any standard football cards. This is the only thing close to it and the rest of his card-ish items are a Salada coin and two Coke caps ... that's it. I'd totally want a slabbed copy of a card like this -- prices and condition are all over the place, though, with these hand-cut cards.
Grab a box right here: NFL boxes (all years)

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CHASING NEW WWE ARRIVALS, PART III
The Cards: Shotzi Blackheart pre-WWE cards & 2020 NXT, Slam Attax and Women's Division cards
The Prices: $1 to $75
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Sometimes I don't talk about what stuff I really want to find when it's obscure as I don't want to battle others for cards when they pop up, but here's an instance where the stuff is so obscure I'll put it out there hoping somebody might help ol' Buzz out. Like the two other WWE arrivals mentioned here, Blackheart has just recently popped up on the main roster and like them she's got cardboard that's in big demand. The first card here was made by the Sabotage Wrestling promotion in 2019 and it's one of a trio of cards she has in a set. (It also has what looks like the first North American card of new AEW star Thunder Rosa.) The set originally cost just $5 for those who were at shows or knew about them online and, well, I'll say paid more than that for just one card ... and I'd do more. (I also don't have any of the other ones -- I'd want a few sets.) They can't be plentiful as I've not seen any pop up anywhere since I found out that they exist. Since they were promotion-made, there won't be more created in the future. That aspect is why I haven't dabbled with a lot of indy cardboard in the past -- a lot seems readily available and could be re-made or even faked -- and some may not even be authorized at all. The second indy card here is one from a company that made a lot of cards for a lot of people and then I also grabbed one signed -- with a signature style that she no longer uses -- for the high price noted here. The rest are newer releases that I like but they're not in the ballpark of the other cards on my mind at the moment. We'll see how things go from here -- she's now on more autographed cards so prices should soften -- but no matter what happens her journey through the indies means she'll always have fans. Her name, gimmick and look really hasn't changed -- and that's really not the norm.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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COLLECTING THAT TRIAD
The Card: Su Yung/Susan/Susie autographed match-used Impact Wrestling triple-signed table piece (Impact Authenticated)
The Price: $29.99
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is a fun piece to me -- and I contemplated telling its story as a quick Collecting Game-used post -- but instead it's here. My latest pick-up from the Impact Wrestling realm is the piece you see Susan holding above -- that exact piece of a table from ringside action. It's signed by Susan, The Undead Bride Su Yung and Susie -- the three personas brought to life by Vannarah Riggs, who has been Su Yung much of her career in the indies and now in Impact. The trio of characters couldn't be more different and it's all been entertaining to me as I've mentioned before here. How did I land this? Simple ... Impact has an eBay account and on a whim I contacted them and asked if they had that exact piece she was holding. They did ... so that's the one I got. Now, did I neeeeeed a signed piece of table? Perhaps not -- I have some other Su Yung/Susie stuff you haven't yet seen here -- but a photo-matched signed piece of table made this a classic addition.
Grab a box right here: Wrestling boxes (all years)

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SOME MiLB MADNESS
The Card: Ozzie Canseco and 2000 Citation Graphics Newark Bears team set 
The Price: $14
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This oddball set was one I hadn't seen before -- it was released by the team and not one of the MiLB card companies -- and it includes cards for Jose Canseco's twin brother as well as Barry Bonds' little brother, Bobby Bonds Jr., who had perhaps one of the better years of his MiLB career this year. I grabbed this one for the Canseco for sure. Fun fact: They all have facsimile autos that almost look like the cards are signed -- even the mascot.
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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A DOCTOR AND THE HAMMER WALK INTO A STORE ...
The Card: Dwight Gooden (with Hank Aaron) 1985 Renata Galasso Dwight Gooden Dr. K
The Price: Under $3
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This pick-up was admittedly for the Aaron portion of the card but this one is interesting as it shows some oldschool card history. Renata Galasso was the maker of this card set, which was all about Gooden, and making card sets was an offshoot of years of successfully selling card sets as a mail-order dealer. That's the front of the Renata Galasso offices behind Gooden and the Hall of Famer. Their business began in the 1970s building sets and selling them and then they made cards into the 1980s during some of the simpler days of licensing and then were around beyond that. Why were they there? Well, the back doesn't tell you -- it only presents Gooden's reaction.
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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IT'S BATMAN!
The Card: George & Amal Clooney 2018 Topps Royal Wedding (1,134 copies made)
The Price: $1.75
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This card is one of a few from the 20-card Topps set released online to commemorate the most-recent royal wedding that includes a few celeb cameos beyond all of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle cardboard one would expect. You can find him, of course, on Batman cards,  but I believe this is her only card. Others of note in the set include Oprah Winfrey, Elton John, David Beckham and Posh Spice, Pippa Middleton and then more royals. Graded copies of this one have sold pretty well and the asking price out there on eBay for one of these is more than 100 times what I paid -- probably won't sell, but they, too, believe this is a unique card.
Grab a box right here: Non-sports boxes (all years)

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IMPRESSIVE PATCH
The Card: O.J. Howard 2017 Panini Unparalleled Rookie Stitches Orange Patch (/49)
The Price: $3
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: He's a guy who I'll occasionally add to my stash since there are school ties here, but that patch is so insane I would have added this card at this price no matter who was on it. That's a showcase of five layers -- quadruple tackle twill atop jersey fabric? -- and, well, what else do I need to say?
Grab a box right here: NFL boxes (all years)

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THE LAST OF THE SQUAD
The Card: Liv Morgan 2019 Topps WWE Undisputed Orange parallel (/99)
The Price: About $5
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Morgan is the last remaining member of the three Riott Squad on the WWE roster and it seems that she may be getting a push now. That's always a good thing to see -- people in new storylines -- and that may be good for some cardboard. This one? Perhaps not -- she has earlier, rarer and pricier stuff. I'm not sure why I picked this one up awhile back other than I do dabble with her cards here and there -- and I do know this brand historically grades pretty well. That might have been why ... I wouldn't be against slabbing a card like this one if a top grade appears to be in play.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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WILL WE SEE MORE?
The Card: Dan McGwire 1987 Iowa Hawkeyes Team Issue 
The Price: About $4
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: The NCAA's new NIL policies -- Name, Image, Likeness -- allowing players to make some money from their likenesses will mean new autographed items and cards from some and that new development reminded me of this card in my recent additions pile. He's Mark McGwire's little brother and he was a first-round pick in the 1991 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks. He didn't do much in the NFL and that's not what got my attention but what did was this card shows him with his first school, Iowa, while all of his draft picks cards showing with San Diego State from years later. This is from a card set released by the school and these kinds of sets happened more than a few times back in the day around this timeframe ... but selling them was nixed at some point and they were only allowed as stadium giveaway items. (These may have been giveaways ... I don't know. I know my school had a few sets like this that were sold back in the day.) Maybe with the new rules we might see some college football team sets loaded with future draft picks that are off the radar a bit vs. the normal stuff.
Grab a box right here: NFL boxes (all years)

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ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS
The Card: Seth Rollins 2015 Topps Heritage WWE Money in the Bank 2015 Turnbuckle Relic (/25)
The Price: About $10
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This grab wasn't because I'm some fan of The Man's man. What I thought was odd here at first glance was the swatch -- it looks like a piece of black NXT canvas instead of gray WWE mat. It's actually supposed to be a piece of a turnbuckle pad. (To be honest, it looks like a botched card with NXT canvas to me.) Otherwise, other than that bottom label on the card, it's identical to all of his other Relics from the set. Those cards aren't all that rare and I probably have one in my stash somewhere. This one? Definitely not. In fact, it might be my only turnbuckle card other than the ones in last year's debut edition of WWE Fully Loaded. Will we get more? Probably and I'll be looking.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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INTERNATIONAL ICON
The Card: Sadaharu Oh 2013 BBM Giants Legends
The Price: $1.99
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This card of the world home run champ -- 868 of 'em -- and Japanese baseball icon looked interesting enough at the price that I threw it in with two cards of former MLB players with school ties for me who also played in Japan and appeared on BBM cards. You probably don't know them but you need to know Oh. He's got a good amount of cardboard out there and a lot of it isn't all that expensive with retro-looking cards and then some when he was a manager. I think everybody should add one to their stash. It's a simple, affordable get. I probably had some ideas about a cheap slab in mind, too, but that bottom left corner is a little spotty.
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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ACK-ECK! ECK! ECK!
The Card: Dennis Eckersley 2021 Topps Project70 by Alex Pardee (7,969 made)
The Price: Direct from Topps
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This artist's creature-inspired cards in this year's set are among the best-sellers every time they drop and this one crosses the streams with a nod to Topps' Mars Attacks! cards that arrived in the 1960s and had a star-loaded movie in the 1990s and then plenty of cardboard since, too. This is a classic that brings those memorable movie aliens back to life in place of the Hall of Famer. While they say "ACK" quite a bit (think "I am Groot"), this time around it's "ECK." I like the flying saucer touches, too.
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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IS THAT YOU, TOLBERT?
The Card: Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) Major League Funko Pop!
The Price: Under $10
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: These toys arrived some time ago and I never got my hands on them but this one a recent add. It was, admittedly a free-shipping add-on (at least how I found it ... searching for something to put me over the top) but it was a no-brainer for me. The other toy in this series was a Ricky Vaughn (with a glasses chase figure) but none of them were licensed to show Cleveland's MLB name or logos. Since Taylor is wearing gear here, I see no issues with this one. (I'll grab the others at some point ... this was just the start.)
Grab a box right here: MLB boxes (all years)

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I NEED A GEM MINT 10!
The Card: Don West 2004 Pacific TNA Wrestling 
The Price: Pocket change 
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This former Shop at Home host is an icon when it comes to cardboard when you think about it -- I mean, he was parodied on Saturday Night Live and played by Will Ferrell -- but it took his turn toward being a wrestling announcer and merch man for TNA Wrestling in the early 2000s to get him some cardboard. He's actually got quite a bit -- around 70 cards thanks to the various TRISTAR sets and their parallels -- and this was first. It's not a rare set but it's not easy to find all these years later thanks to some key first cards in this release (CM Punk) along with some legendary autographs such as Dusty Rhodes. As you can see here, this is not a perfect copy so my plans of subbing to get a Gem Mint 10 were thwarted -- I do have one I originally pulled way back in the day, though. That's what I really want ... Gem Mint 10s!
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes (all years)

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A MOMENT FOR CHUCK YEAGER
The Card: Chuck Yeager 1954 Topps Scoops 
The Price: Under $10
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: His life included plenty of historic moments and this card is, oddly, one of only a few for him in any kind of traditional card set (not that there were that many for this area of history around that time). I think that's one reason why I grabbed this one after he died in December. I haven't seen any other cards from the set before -- at least none made it into my stash -- but this seemed like an easy add. He is depicted on the card back (not the best likeness) that has a makeshift newspaper and headline front to explain what's what.
Grab a box right here: Non-sports boxes (all years)

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IN THE YEAR 2000?
The Cards: Max Weinberg 2018 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Splash of Color Autograph & Dual Memorabilia card
The Price: $43 and $1.25
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I dropped a nice (yet cheap) memorabilia card for this legend from this set here in this series long, long ago and this pair pretty much finished off all I think I needed for him. (My other card was a drumhead relic with a part of the manufacturer logo.) Depending on your age, you probably know this Rock & Roll Hall of Famer either as one of Conan O'Brien's band leaders or Bruce Springsteen's drummer in the E Street Band. His only card appearances are all in this release.
Grab a box right here: Goodwin Champions boxes (all years)

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