Ichiro Suzuki’s 2001 MLB arrival didn’t just change the game on the field — he helped feed growing international demand for baseball cards via plenty of new premium brands that helped pave the way for the ultra-deluxe stuff of today.

-

A legendary career and baseball journey on two continents makes its final stop this month in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Hall of Fame and there’s a lot that can be said about that in several directions. 

Ichiro Suzuki changed the game with his arrival in MLB, eschewing the longball in favor of speed and hits — lots and lots of hits. But, “hits” are also the story of all those years when it comes to baseball cards with the prized rarities found in packs with autographs on them — or pieces of memorabilia in them — being an unstoppable force in those years. 

Of course, hits didn’t start with the Japanese star’s arrival, but many of his cards in sets alongside another now-legendary 2001 rookie, Albert Pujols, helped change the cardboard world even faster. Demand for their stuff prompted several new brands from several companies making MLB cards back then to try new things, capitalizing on their new stars who could move packs and boxes of cards -- just like they could move players around the bases and move butts into seats to watch games. One could argue that 2001 was in part a big piece in the evolution of what we see in today’s sports card landscape -- a focus on rarities with small print runs and with premium prices that weren’t like the wax paper-wrapped pocket-change treasures of not that many years before. 

Now, what’s to come here is absolutely not a definitive list of top cards — and it’s not one purely based on volatile values or one limited solely to Rookie Cards. Why? There’s a lot to choose from for Suzuki on all fronts — there could be several ways to take on this challenge. He has more than 50 different Rookie Cards between his 1993 Nippon Professional Baseball and 2001 Major League Baseball debuts (depending on how you want to argue about RC definitions) and he had roughly 500 cards in 2001 alone. Many of them are rarer cards where it is impossible to own them all thanks to small print runs and rare serial-numbered versions. 

In all, he appears on more than 19,000 different cards made over the years between NPB and MLB -- and even though his playing career ended in 2019 his cardboard career has not. He’s got a place in the game in seemingly every new baseball card set on the way and that figures to be the story for the rest of cardboard eternity. He’s not just a Hall of Famer … he’s an international icon.

Here’s a small sampling of 25 Ichiro Suzuki cards that are both fun and notable.

Continue reading →

Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

--

LEGENDARY INK
The Card: Ichiro Suzuki autographed 2001 Topps Rookie Card (BAS 10 auto)
The Price: Not as much as you might think ... but also not that cheap.
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Clean copies of this iconic Topps flagship Rookie Card are not easy finds in general with the boxes and sets likely bricked now if they remain unopened -- that means the gloss will be snowy if you're lucky to peel the cards apart at all -- and then the dark green border and high-gloss on soft stock here is always going to be problematic. When I spotted this card among many where Suzuki has signed for literally years (Mill Creek Sports) without a premium price, I bit on this just before his Hall of Fame results hit. (We all knew he was going in ... but I didn't know if his prices were going to rise.) This copy is super clean vs. many cards out there with some very light roughness on maybe one edge and a light touch on the bottom-left corner ... but some of what's seen in my photo is just how the light is reflecting. I generally don't do a ton of bigger buys for my collection, but this one's cost wasn't that much more than some of the hot and plentiful new release hobby boxes. I went with a safe and iconic bet for my (for me) premium spend and went with the sure thing on an iconic card for a living legend. I pulled his ink once from an unlicensed release -- and it was in one of my earliest Making The Grade posts here -- but a signed RC means I'll likely never need to sweat his stuff again. (Might window shop, though, or bite if price is right for a nice certified.) One more fun part of my card? If that label had a simple added line of Beckett/Fanatics witnessed instead of signed for Mill Creek and then slabbed, the price likely would be double what I paid. I wouldn't pay that -- and this one is a win in my book.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but MLB cards are here.

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

Continue reading →

Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading and knows that there are many reasons that collectors choose to slab cards. Sometimes it's to enhance the appeal and protect them when selling. Other times it's to protect an investment for the long-term or to protect for sentimental reasons. Or, it might be just for fun or curiosity about a potential grade.

Here's this month's grading diary here on The Buzz ...

SHINE LIKE MINI-DIAMONDS ...
The Card: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Edition Rose Gold Mini-Diamond Refractors (/75)
The Reason Graded: Generally, I only do Chrome stuff in any kind of volume when it gets cheap -- and in this case they were as I found a run of mega boxes of this one priced less than blasters and that got me to bite. (They're all Buzz Breaks so go check the archives.) One of my better finds in those boxes was this card, which is a super-sparkly take on the 1952 Topps design that, in my mind, does work while a lot of the basic Chrome takes found in this set just don't. (There were a lot of quality control issues with this release.) In this case, since it's a top name, a rare card and a crisp and cleanly centered copy I put it into a bulk sub. Why? I like it and the player ... and I felt like it had some good potential.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: It's the lowest of two copies graded by CSG (now CGC) with the other one checking in where I had hoped to be. No biggie ... I like this card no matter what and all of his stuff -- Rookie Cards, hits and rarities -- should be getting looks as he could become baseball's newest 40-40 Club member -- and might even push higher if he gets really hot with the bat in the second half. With him you never know.

Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and new slabs for Buzz.

Continue reading →

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: Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker, Jasson Dominguez, showing off 2000s MLB inserts and plenty more.

Continue reading →

What happens when Topps selects 20 artists to re-imagine 20 iconic baseball cards from the past?

A new set called Topps Project 2020. 

The first two cards arrived today with Ichiro Suzuki's 2001 Topps Rookie Card and Sandy Koufax's 1955 Topps Rookie Card getting the nod from artists Ben Baller and Jacob Rochester.

How does it work? Keep reading for the details.

Continue reading →

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 Today: Black November sales chatter, Myles Garrett's suspension, Braves get a reliever, pondering A-Rod autos and more.

Continue reading →

It started with the idea of doing a retro Buzz Break in search of an iconic Rookie Card from not that time ago since Ichiro Suzuki is a player on the verge of making history.

It became a reminder of something else -- that not all older wax is made alike.

A $25 retail box of 2001 Topps Series 2 -- less than $1 a pack -- seemed like a fun Saturday pastime. You know, something to do on a rainy day that might provide more than standard cardboard and the basic inserts guaranteed inside. After cracking the first pack, though, it was apparent that there wouldn't just be rain in June -- there also would be a snowstorm.

Continue reading →

He's been a legendary hitter in MLB since arriving in a Seattle Mariners uniform back in 2001, and he's now 42 years old and on a tear with 10 hits in his last three games for the Miami Marlins.

He's Ichiro Suzuki and he's just 40 hits away from the 3,000 Hit Club as a major-leaguer. (Throw on 1,434 hits in Japan and, well, that's a career mark even Pete Rose should appreciate.)

Even if you're a deep-pocketed collector, chasing Ichiro cardboard isn't easy. He's been in high demand since his legendary Rookie of the Year/MVP season and there's plenty of cardboard from that year alone. There's also been plenty since. And there are also plenty of collectors from around the world who are watching his cardboard just as intently as they are watching the box scores right now.

Continue reading →