A college basketball icon and a future No. 1 draft pick has a new team -- Panini America.

Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark has signed an exclusive autographed card and memorabilia deal and it was revealed Wednesday morning by the Irving, Texas-based company. It's the first exclusive deal with a female athlete for the company, according to Panini.

"Caitlin is a generational talent, and it is natural that she should be our first multi-year exclusive female athlete," said Jason Howarth, Senior VP of Marketing and Athlete Relations in a prepared statement. "We’ll have a range of products and memorabilia featuring Caitlin that we believe fans will love."

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: LeBron James hits 40K, Caitlin Clark eyes history, 2024 Topps, MLB pulls and more in this Sunday edition.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: WWE chatter, new pulls, 2024 Topps and more in this Saturday edition.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Big pulls, Royals demanded a change, PSA parent company buys SGC, 2024 Topps and more.

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LIV Golf is coming to cardboard.

Panini revealed its newest licensing seal on Thursday morning with a wave of six-card team sets for the company's teams via Panini Instant -- $19.99 per regular set and $34.99 for a set with one randomly selected parallel card for each of 13 teams in the first collection.

It launches "a multi-year partnership" that will be an exclusive as Panini ventures into golf cards for the first time.

"LIV Golf is thrilled to partner with Panini, a global brand committed to connecting with fans around the world through the love of sport," said LIV Golf Commissioner and CEO Greg Norman in a prepared statement. "Just as our league continues to innovate and bring professional team golf mainstream, our partnership will introduce new products to the market for millions of passionate fans and collectors to enjoy."

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Update (Feb. 16) -- Pre-ordered copies of this one are shipping today.

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It's almost time for a ThunderCats reboot ... and it's one that will include BlowoutCards.com.

Set to arrive next week, Dynamite Entertainment's first issue of the legendary series is set to arrive with a number of variant covers in play (see some of the others here) as part of a launch that's already pre-sold more than 170,000 copies. That's the biggest-selling new arrival for the comics industry in years.

Blowout will be part of that array of arresting artistic odes to the heroes of the lair with a limited series of ThunderCats No. 1 exclusives that are an homage to not just one but two iconic and best-selling comic books from the early 1990s all rolled into one -- with exclusive artwork from an iconic creator of that era, too.

There will be four single covers and a fifth collecting them all -- and if you weren't around in 1991 to collect 'em all and to already know what that means, we'll reveal them all right here, right now.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Press Pass is returning, inside a Stadium Club case, an iconic Mike Trout RC, the Super Bowl is set and more.

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Did somebody say "ThunderCats?"

They did and that one got The Boss' attention at Blowout Cards as Thomas Fish is a serious collector of original comic book art that includes the original pen-and-ink debut panels and/or covers for iconic characters such as Wolverine, Ghost Rider, X-Force and Deadpool. If you didn't know, he also owns the entire issue's worth of original artwork from Jim Lee's X-Men reboot in 1991 ... the No. 1 issue remains the best-selling comic book issue ever with more than 8 million copies sold across five variants. (He's got all of the covers, too -- click the image here to see 'em all up close.)

But ThunderCats? That one checks in as his favorite series ... which leads us to right here, right now today.

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After months of speculation, LeBron James' move to a new team is finally official.

James' career as an exclusive signee with Upper Deck ends with Fanatics now being the home of his autographed memorabilia and for his cards.

His Topps autograph debut will come in boxes of 2023-24 Bowman University Chrome where a dual-autographed card with his oldest son, Bronny James, will be among the potential finds beginning later this month.

"Our goal is to push the envelope of where the hobby can go and are excited about how our collaboration with one of the best athletes in the world will continue to ignite fan and collector passion," Fanatics Collectibles CEO Mike Mahan told CNBC.

As part of the reveal, James recorded a message as part of a video, which you can see below.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: LeBron James is changing teams, NFL postseason chatter, new pulls, the college title game and more.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: College football chaos, NFL chatter, collector reactions, eBay and COMC team up plus more.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: New NFL and Ginter pulls, collector thoughts, NFL Week 3, Jackson Chourio and "What's the cost of nostalgia?"

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Jackson Chourio gets huge payday before MLB debut, NFL Week 13, collectors have their thoughts and more in today's edition.

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Today's the day MLB reveals its MVPs ... and that means the beginning of the Topps MVP Buyback Program this year as well.

What is that? For the second year in a row, participating hobby shops including Blowout Cards - The Fantastic Store in Chantilly, Va., will give collectors store credit in exchange for their MVP cards -- as many as they can collect -- found inside boxes of 2023 Topps Chrome and 2023 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition.

Blowoutcards.com will not be accepting MVP Buyback Cards through the mail this year, but please note that our hobby shop, The Fantastic Store, will be accepting cards for the program for in-store customers only.

However, as an added incentive to visit our store and participate in this exciting promotion, we are offering reimbursement for travel expenses on larger submissions.

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There's one autograph perhaps at the top of many collectors' want lists for any new WWE signers -- and that ink is apparently coming soon from Leaf Trading Cards.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hasn't signed a certified autograph on a wrestling card since 1998 -- not for Fleer, Topps or Panini America in all those years since, but for the short-lived Comic Images run with the WWE (then WWF) license.

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Panini America's new exclusive NBA signer is as big as it gets in San Antonio -- and he's a Hall of Famer who hasn't signed for years.

He's Tim Duncan and his new deal with the company was revealed today ends a streak of not having any certified autographs in almost 20 years. He will debut in 2023-24 Panini Crown Royale early next year and then in 2023-24 Panini Impeccable.

"It’s been years since I’ve had an autographed trading card," Duncan said in a prepared statement. "I felt it was time to return to the industry so fans could get the chance to get cards with my signature. Trading cards have come a long way since I last signed them. Panini America has developed some really cool cards and brands while taking the popularity of NBA trading cards to a whole new level, so it made sense to partner with them."

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Aaron Rodgers goes down, Jasson Dominguez chatter continues, two big Chrome blasters, autographed books/CDs, big NFL losses and more.

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Panini America's football team has another quarterback.

The Dallas-based company revealed on Thursday night that it has signed University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to an exclusive multi-year deal for cards and more with his debut online now as part of the new Panini Instant college football card line.

"Michael has clearly emerged as one of the country’s top football players and is a natural fit to join the growing Panini athlete roster," said Jason Howarth, Senior VP of Marketing and Athlete Relations. "We look forward to working with him and offering his exclusive products to fans."

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Panini America's baseball team has four new members.

The company revealed this week that it has signed deals with the No. 1 overall pick in this year's MLB Draft -- former LSU star Paul Skenes who went to the Pirates -- as well as the No. 6 pick Jacob Wilson (A's), No. 16 pick Bryce Elridge (Giants) and No. 17 pick Enrique Bradfield Jr. (Orioles).

"We are continuing to add tremendous talent to our athlete roster, and this group of elite baseball players are the latest great additions," said Jason Howarth, Senior VP of Marketing and Athlete Relations. "We are pleased that fans will have the opportunity to collect their initial products as professional athletes."

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Mike Trout, Ozzie Albies, Stephen Strasburg, Topps Chrome chatter and licensing/lawsuit reactions in this Sunday edition.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Brian Gray steps down as CEO at Leaf, Trey Lance to the Cowboys, new MLB pulls, collectors react to the big news items of the month and more in this Saturday edition.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Some unique cross-company MLB-NASCAR error cards, Jasson Dominguez, Bazooka is sold, lawsuit and licensing reactions plus more.

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NFL Players Inc. has killed its trading card deal with Panini America effective immediately, according to a memo sent out to agents on Monday evening.

The move gives Fanatics -- the owner of Topps -- the exclusive right to create cards using NFLPA players effective immediately and years ahead of its contracted entry into the realm for the 2026 season.

"Effective immediately, Fanatics has the exclusive right to make NFLPA-branded trading cards," read the message, which you can see below. "This decision has no impact on any individual players' contractual agreement(s) with Panini. If you represent any player(s) with an existing Panini agreement, the NFLPA recommends that you encourage the player(s) to fulfill his contractual commitments to Panini."

The move comes as both companies have lawsuits pending against each other for a number of topics, including anti-trust and employees' mass exits in recent months as an apparent attempted purchase by Fanatics previously failed.

Panini football's 2023 releases previously revealed and scheduled to come include Luminance (Wednesday), Prizm Draft (Aug. 30), Elite (Sept. 1), Plates & Patches (Sept. 8), Mosaic (Sept. 20), Black (Sept. 27), Gold Standard (Oct. 4) and Origins (Oct. 18). The 2023 editions of Legacy, Chronicles Draft, Mosaic Draft, Select Draft, Immaculate College and Score already had arrived.

We'll add more here once it's known or companies issue statements on the issue.

Update -- A Tuesday statement from Panini America: "We believe this was a totally unwarranted and improper action by the NFL Players Association in conjunction with Fanatics, especially in light of the unprecedented sales by Panini of NFL trading cards. Panini has grown the category of sports trading cards by over 1,000 percent since 2009 to the benefit of all concerned. We believe the only party who benefits for this action by the NFL Players Association is Fanatics, and not the players, the leagues or consumers. We note that in addition to the NFL Players Association license, Panini has licenses with the NFL and over 360 individual players. Panini will honor all of its contractual obligations."

Later in the day, filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association according to published reports.

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From The Forum: Collectors react & try to chew on licensing issues as they stand now.

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Blowout Cards issues statement on NFL licensing developments

Blowout Cards is closely monitoring the situation following the recent announcement by the NFLPA.

The demand for NFL cards has experienced a significant upswing in the past few years, and all eyes are on the 2023 rookie class, which is anticipated to be among the most exciting in recent memory.

In light of the current uncertainty surrounding upcoming releases and the unprecedented surge in demand within the past 15 hours following the announcement, we have taken the step to temporarily suspend pre-orders for forthcoming Panini America NFL items. This decision has been made to ensure that we can provide accurate information and a clear direction regarding the situation.

Furthermore, we'd like to bring to your attention that we've experienced an overwhelming influx of orders and inquiries related to NFL items spanning the years 2017 to 2023. Given the substantial volume of interest, we have made the careful choice to limit sales for these particular items. This measure is intended to manage our inventory levels as they have been steadily depleting.

We greatly appreciate your understanding and patience during this dynamic period. Our commitment to providing you with the best service and products remains unwavering. We will continue to keep you updated on any developments and changes as they arise.

Thank you for your continued support.

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Bobby Witt Jr., Ozzie Smith, the Club and more in this Sunday edition.

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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are a few threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: NFL preseason chatter and pulls, breaking down four Pop Century cases, Rick and Morty and more in this Saturday edition.

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