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 it's a bit heavy on autographs I've picked up over, say, the last year.

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TURTLE POWER!
The Card: Kevin Eastman 2019 Topps The Art of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Green Artist Autographs (/99)
The Price: Around $30
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is an autograph from one of the original creators of the TMNT franchise that has been seen in countless comic books, video games, movies and other stuff out there in the world for years now -- a franchise among franchises. I'm not sure how rare his autograph is out there in the comic book world -- typically, artists do signings somewhat regularly -- but for trading cards he signed about 30 different options in this release that included one artist auto and one sketch card along with a very nice premium-style set ... and I think that is it for his cards. Poke around here on The Buzz and you'll see how these sets look and how I did pretty well opening a couple of them in the past. Why? The prices dipped rather dramatically in the year or so after they arrived but they have picked back up price-wise and aren't the cheapest of ripping options now -- but the sketches can be nice enough to pay for it all sometimes. I figured this auto was a key one in the long run, so I added this to go with my others. And, if you want to add some more pop culture trivia here, Eastman was the editor and publisher of Heavy Metal magazine as well as married to Julie Strain, a model and "The Queen of B-movies" who has appeared in BenchWarmer sets and helped create other card sets herself.
Grab a box right here: 2019 Topps The Art of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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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 ...

GRADING MORE GOATs
The Card: Patrick Mahomes 2017 Panini The Rooks #RO-PM
The Reason Graded: Just like I've mentioned in past months, I've made it a focus to get most -- if not all -- of my Mahomes rookie-year cards slabbed up since I actually had amassed a few from that year. (That was mostly because I was hitting the retail clearance bins pretty hard.) This one is an insert from the stone cold -- at least back then -- Panini NFL set that was a relatively simple release and had a hit in every box yet really sat everywhere for a long time. (Why? The border designs felt pretty heavy to me but for others it may have just been too low-end.) Not that long ago, I slabbed his basic RC from this so I figured I needed to get this one into a case, too.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: It was pretty clean just like last time as it earned one of the tougher grades from CSG. I figure once a pop report comes (sometime soon*) this should look like a pretty solid card. I don't see there being a large number of 10s coming with this paper stock and I figure a lot of these cards were probably graded in BGS or PSA slabs long before I got around to doing mine.

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

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