Fast Five: Items you might consider exploring right now

Fast Five is a basic list of five items that could be fun for a starting collector or a new way to add to a stash that might already seemingly include everything when it comes to cardboard. For some of you, it's probably common sense. For others of you out there, it's perhaps something to ponder.

This time? Five items Buzz would be grabbing right now.

AUTOGRAPHED & AUTHENTICATED ROOKIE CARDS
It seems like more and more collectors love their slabbed Rookie Cards -- to the point where some popular RCs' pop report numbers seem nutty. But what's a natural thing to try and round up once one has 'em all in whatever grade suits their budget? Well, to me, a run of autographed and authenticated/slabbed Rookie Cards would be compelling in some instances if it's do-able for a player. Certified autos are easy to find for a lot of guys if you just want ink of any kind, but signed RCs like the one you see above are impressive, too. Years ago people often said "no" to cards like this but I think those hesitations have vanished with these after-market autos when found in slabs. (This example isn't cheap, but it's nice.) If you collect a player who does signings, then amassing ink on RCs and then getting them slabbed and authenticated yourself also can make this a collecting project more than just a commodity.

Keep reading for four more making up the list this time.

SIMPLE GAMERS
For collectors today, there are a ton of possible new game-used pieces you can collect now that one couldn't as easily do even a decade ago thanks to MLB Authentication and then the various places you can find said items. (MLB Auctions, eBay, team mailing lists, etc.) For example, my main player I collect who retired just six years ago has MLB stickered items out there -- and plenty more pieces that never got that but might have had team letters -- but they don't pop up now because a lot of the basic, simple gamers didn't have player names linked to them as much in the past. This ball, for example, is a Bo Bichette foul ball from last year and the pitch came from Masahiro Tanaka. It's not a super-cheap item but it's certainly not as pricey as a lot of his cards -- yet it's a game-dated precise 1/1 piece (though by saying that every ball is one of a kind ... and they are). Collectors of current players can find all kinds of stuff now and see it all in action -- and not everything is pricey. If you have a collector you like, find a ball. Call it a starting point.

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ITEMS FROM ELSEWHERE ... 
I went with the obvious baseball visual here (and it's not a cheap one right now) but my general thought with this one is that value can be found where people aren't looking right now and that that surprise later ... especially if it's something that they can't easily find. You can find Ohtani slabbed MLB RCs easily but his Japanese BBM stuff is arguably not as easily done. (Thanks to eBay you can find them, of course.) But really the thought here is imports -- cards made elsewhere with either Americans who have opted to compete elsewhere or stars from elsewhere coming here. Baseball has a decent amount of crossover as does wrestling on cardboard from Japan, Mexico and even WWE stuff (they're global, of course) that was made for collectors elsewhere like Topps Slam Attax for the UK and elsewhere. There are a lot of different card sets out there -- and a ton of non-sports stuff collectors never see -- from the past and present.

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STUFF WITH CROSSOVER APPEAL
I'll readily admit my TV consumption is very limited to a handful of directions -- I just don't DVR -- but sometimes I latch onto stuff and that gets me looking elsewhere and then I end up grabbing stuff. (I suspect people who use their Netflix or Disney+ accounts a lot more than me who can consume series in binges also can be drawn in hard, too, as I used to do that with DVDs.) So, what's my point here? When new series are announced and they might be based on something from the past, there could be surges of interest in those works. One example? The Walking Dead. It started as a comic book (2003) ... became a TV series (2010) and spawned countless card sets and other pieces since. Imagine having grabbed some of the earlier books early on vs. grabbing them later. My visual here? Resident Alien was a comic before it was a TV show. While I liked the show and its style (alien at right), the art on the books wasn't really my thing aesthetically but it got me looking. This book? It sold for more than $100 on eBay. There are likely a lot of examples of where this might be possible to pull off "investing" like the card commodifiers do. It just takes some research and paying attention to pop culture headlines. (And it already does happen a lot with key Marvel and DC books -- sometimes particular issues -- when hit series/films/characters hit the screen.)

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THE QUICK-FLIPPER STUFF
What are people talking about at the moment sparks a lot of selling and buying and that can be in any arena of collecting. This weekend? Wrestler CM Punk returns to the ring for the first time since 2014. Next week? Derek Jeter and Larry Walker head into the Hall of Fame ... there are many things one can always watch beyond just stats on the field. Oh, and that NFL stuff starts next week, too. (We'll have a lot more of that to come here this season.)

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What would you want to see in a future Fast Five? Let Buzz know on Twitter or email.

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

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