Buzz Buys: Project 2020, original SportKings artwork, Goon, WWE autographs, Star Wars, DC movies, old classics & 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 ... and this time around there's a little bit of everything.

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REEL BIG FISH
The Card: Mike Trout 2020 Topps Project 2020 -- Artist: Ben Baller (/34,950 made)
The Price: Factory cost from Topps (bought bundle of five)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: It's probably no secret that Project 2020 is the runaway winner already for Set of The Year with most cards selling thousands of copies a pop at $20 apiece and a number of those re-selling for far, far more than $20. (This one, last I looked? Add on a zero.) Some of the prices are as volatile and logic-defying as it gets if you're looking at things from a cardboard-volume perspective -- rarer ones that weren't that popular at first are now very-pricey ones -- but that's just one part of the equation. The players have fan bases, the artists have fan bases -- and prices for their art may not be as soft as collectors might think them to be. In other words, a style you might not like could have thousands of people wanting them because they know their work elsewhere. (Ben Baller, for example, has more than 260,ooo Twitter followers and 1.4 million on Instagram. Both dwarf most hobby industry accounts and definitely tops them all.) The set has garnered a lot of mainstream media attention, too, meaning non-collectors are buying cards up, too. As I type this, the Trout here is still the No. 1 best-seller but others have come close. This one was the first break-out card volume-wise and is my favorite of the bunch so far this year. Even if others sell more, it will likely remain my favorite unless something to come really wows me.
Grab a box right here: No boxes of this one ... but MLB boxes are here

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

A CLASSIC SET
The Card: 2019 Cryptozoic CZX Super Heroes and Super Villains complete set
The Price: $15
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This high-end release probably isn't thought of first for its base set -- it's got some amazing hits -- but some people are apparently ripping boxes in bulk despite the high-end price and letting the sets go on the cheap side and this pick-up is proof. It's not a huge set -- 54 or so cards -- with not a ton of them in a box, but it's a classic to me. Why? These thick-stock glossed cards revisit many of the DC films all in one place. Not that long ago I picked up the card you see here for around $5 but couldn't help but grab the set for this ... I want to slab a couple of cards in this one but the surfaces seem like they can scratch easily and can make that a challenge. Either way, I still dig this for the price. 
Grab a box right here: CZX Super Heroes & Super Villains (when available)

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PREMIUM LATER ON 
The Card: A.J. McCarron 2014 Panini Flawless Rookie Autographs Pink (/14)
The Price: $13
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Remember when Flawless briefcases arrived helping re-define high-end cardboard? Well it's still high-end -- nothing's really changed there other than there are more releases like it -- but over time some of the young NFL players (and others in other sports) don't always pan out meaning you can find bargains. I routinely pick up cards of this guy and grabbed this one on the cheaper side. He's got nice stuff in this release -- and quite a few options -- but a lot of them are out there with prices like he's an NFL starter or something.
Grab a box right here: Panini Flawless football boxes (all years)

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ONE-OF-A-CLYDE
The Card: Clyde Drexler 2019 SportKings Originals 1/1 Art Masterpieces artwork
The Price: Less than a box
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: These boxes have some big potential as all of those legends who made the cut for that packaging design (link below) are in there along with a number of other legends from all around the sports world in a release that is all about original artwork used to make past SportKings sets. Each box simply has a piece of original art inside. I've wanted to rip into one but the fear of landing somebody I wouldn't want has perhaps scared me off a little bit ... but I did find this one for less than a box. I'm not a big fan of "The Glide" but for the price I bit. I have a couple of cards I've picked up that used this artwork that I had hoped to show off along with this one but pandemic delays have slowed some things down. I'll put them in a future Buzz Buys piece. I'll do one of these boxes eventually -- some can be big, big winners if you land a key name.
Grab a box right here: 2019 SportKings Originals 1/1 Art Masterpieces

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IICONIC INK
The Card: Peyton Royce 2016 Topps WWE NXT Autographs Bronze (/50)
The Price: $15
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Royce and her IIconics teammate, Billie Kay, are back after several months off WWE TV and that made me work her into the lineup here -- and there could be some break-up or other side drama to come with that return, too. Will that mean more card value? Nah, but I grabbed this since it's from her first year of WWE cardboard and has an on-card auto. The stock is super-skinny so high-grade cards are tough here but this one was relatively clean. For the price and the scarcity, I bit as these boxes (one auto per pack in this year) have really vanished and more than doubled since the last time I ripped into them.
Grab a box right here: No boxes left for this one ... see WWE boxes here

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HOW 'BOUT THAT PATCH?
The Card: Matt Barkley 2013 Bowman Sterling Jumbo Rookie Patch (/171)
The Price: $2.50
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This box-topper card isn't anything special, it's simply a card I grabbed because that patch is ridiculous and it was dirt-cheap. It's not hard to do these kinds of cards these days with photo-shoot Relics, but they still get my attention.
Grab a box right here: Bowman Sterling football cards (all years)

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THE BIG RASHEED WALLACE FAN
The Card: Craig Kilborn 2019 Goodwin Champions Autographs
The Price: $1.25
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Goodwin is the home to a ton of cheap and unique autograph and memorabilia cards and this former ESPN personality and TV host/actor/comedian doesn't have much cardboard. I think I had one of his other cards in a past Buzz Buys ... they're just so cheap and different that I'll bite.
Grab a box right here: 2019 Goodwin Champions

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SHOP NOW, NOT LATER
The Card: Austin Riley 2019 Topps Holiday Rookie Card
The Price: Under $1
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This guy was a scorcher early on last year and he's a super-cheap option now as we await the sophomore seasons for him and a number of others who were big deals last summer. Now's the time to be shopping for all those guys -- out of sight out of mind -- though his place in the Atlanta lineup may not be as rock-solid as other rookies on other teams from last year. I'm not sure why I picked this one off back when Holiday dropped -- maybe because I didn't pull it or the one I did had a corner issue -- but for the price I'm not that worried. The Chrome card using this same image probably was on my grading radar last year and this one might have been, too -- but he cooled off hard last year and never made the final cut. I still dig the simplicity and the tighter crop here -- it looks good for a standard base Topps release where many cards often have distant images.
Grab a box right here: 2019 Topps Holiday

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AUTOGRAPHED PIECE OF THE GAME
The Card: Kerry Wood 2002 Topps Reserve Jerseys Relics
The Price: $1.75
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: He was such a big deal in baseball not that long before this card was made and his autograph is a simple one I'll always remember as I got him though-the-mail after reading a simple Sports Illustrated piece that mentioned how the then-rookie was behind answering his mail but going to get to them. (He did for me.) That's definitely a piece of his autograph -- part of the the "erry" with that bottom line part of the "y" in his sig. I grabbed it for this trivial reason -- I'm sure I have other Relics for him.
Grab a box right here: No boxes of this one ... but MLB boxes are here

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ALREADY HAD A TIGER 'GRAPH
The Card: Cheyenne Woods 2014 SP Authentic Sign of the Times
The Price: $2.25
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This Woods wasn't on the course this weekend, but I already had That Guy's ink. She's Tiger's niece and in the past her few autographs were pricey ones as people had high expectations. They probably weren't met but there's still some good trivia here ... so I grabbed the card.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... click here for golf boxes

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BRITAIN VS. AMERICA
The Card: Captain America No. 305 -- 2016 Upper Deck Captain America 75th Anniversary Comic Cuts (/56)
The Price: $8
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: The scary part of this one? I guarantee I paid less for the whole comic book that this panel was cut from back in the day. This book was made in 1985 and I probably grabbed one in 1991 as the artist for this one was a favorite who brought one of his signature characters, Captain Britain, into town for a showdown with that 'Merica guy. These cut comic panel cards can be interesting in that they are different. Sometimes they are from beat-up legitimately rare and pricey books and then other times they aren't ... either way they are just different so they get my attention.
Grab a box right here: No boxes for this one ... click here for Marvel non-sports

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ESPN & WWE INK
The Card: Charly Caruso 2019 Topps WWE Raw Autographs (/99)
The Price: $6.55
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: If you watch WWE, then you know her as Charly Caruso. If you watch ESPN where she occasionally appears, you know her has Charly Arnolt. She's been with WWE since 2016 and is now on the top show, Raw, doing interviews and might have more of a storyline presence, too. I picked this one up awhile back since she doesn't have a lot of ink -- under 20 autos in just three products. This is the newest one and its easiest version is just 99 copies.
Grab a box right here: 2019 Topps WWE Raw wrestling cards

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I PAID WHAT?
The Card: Hank Aaron 2000 Topps Hank Aaron Chrome Reprints Refractor
The Price: $7
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This card came among a late-career and post-career Aaron card kick of mine and I grabbed it with visions of maybe slabbing. That's perhaps the only reason I paid that much ... and I really don't remember doing that. I'm a big fan of this original card -- a very tough one to find in an elite grade and a card that's pricier in general than you'd think for a card from 1974. I've picked up more than a few versions of this one.
Grab a box right here: No boxes of this one ...but MLB boxes are here

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ICONIC MOMENT
The Card: Introduction to Royalty (Princess Leia) -- 2013 Topps Star Wars Jedi Legacy Magenta
The Price: Under $1
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is a classic sci-fi scene that appears on many cards from the past -- the geek-minded ogling moment -- and yet Princess Leia turns that genre cliche on its head by insulting Luke Skywalker who has come to rescue her. "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?" she asks of his disguise. I went with a parallel version of this one with the possibility that I might slab it -- it's clean and I think unique moments on non-sports cards make for good slabs as long as you land an elite grade (BGS 9.5 or higher or a PSA 10). That can make a $1 or less card into a pricier item -- and there won't be a lot of competition as many people are busy slabbing up prospect and Rookie Cards that have been slabbed hundreds if not thousands of times.
Grab a box right here: Click here for other Star Wars boxes

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A SEQUEL TO A CLASSIC
The Card: 2017 Upper Deck Goon: Last of the Enforcers eight-card set
The Price: Under $10
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: If you ask somebody what their favorite hockey movie is, odds are they'll probably say either Slap Shot or Miracle, but for me -- a non-hockey guy -- those honors go to a stupid comedy from 2011 called Goon, which is all about telling the story of minor-leaguer Doug Glatt, who's more of a fighter than anything else. I vaguely remembered there being a sequel to it one years later and that apparently got a hockey card set showing eight of the key characters. Once I found out about that just recently, I grabbed them all ... still haven't seen the sequel, though. There was no cardboard (that I know of) for the original so this is as close as it gets for collecting that movie.
Grab a box right here: Click here for real hockey boxes

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BEFORE THE ROOKIE CARD ...
The Card: Chipper Jones (and others you should know) 1990 Classic Update Yellow Travel Edition
The Price: Under $1
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This pick-up was solely for that 1990 Chipper not-a-Rookie-Card even through it pre-dates his RCs and shows him in an Atlanta Braves uniform. This card dropped one per set -- these came packaged with a board game -- and used to be super-easy finds for most years they were made (1987-1993sh). They're still findable now, too, but perhaps not as cheap as these 1990 cards have hit the 30-year mark.
Grab a box right here: No boxes of this one ... but MLB boxes are here

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BEYOND WWE
The Card: Michael Cole 2018 Topps Legends of the WWE Autographs Silver (/50)
The Price: Under $5
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This guy had the task of following in the shoes of Jim Ross as the main voice of WWE commentary a few years ago, and, while he was an acquired taste (and I'm fine with him now), that's not why I grabbed this. Cole, real name Sean Coulthard, has been with WWE since 1997 in a few roles, been abused by more than a few wrestlers, had a (bad) WrestleMania match and even helped handle the real-life on-the-air heart attack for his broadcast partner, Jerry Lawler, during a live episode of Raw. Before WWE, though, he was a journalist for CBS Radio covering presidential politics and other news events including wartime in Yugoslavia as well as the Oklahoma City bombing and the Branch Davidian standoff. I didn't know all of that (just recently learned about it) and thought it was interesting, and then remembered he has only a few different autographs so I grabbed one. He appears on fewer than 20 different cards in just four releases with nearly all of them limited to no more than 99 copies. (And five of them are 1/1s.)
Grab a box right here: No boxes for this one ... other WWE boxes here

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