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

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IT'S ALWAYS TIFFY TIME
The Card: Tiffany Stratton 2023 Panini Immaculate Collection WWE Ruby Memorabilia Autographs (/25)
The Price: A meaty amount (for me)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Much like Rhea Ripley rookie autos in 2020, I've focused on trying to find one card from each of the lineups for Stratton's first year of ink in 2023 (RCs in 2022) with cleaner/full sigs on them and this brand was one of my targets for a while. I finally found one that looked good for a price I could pull off. Why chase? Stratton has delivered and figures to do so for some time with her latest big landmark moment being a bruiser of a win over Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania. "Buff Barbie" is an informal nickname here so far -- they're avoiding trademark claims -- but they're also playing into that more and more with her Wrestlemania debut entrance having a Barbie Dreamhouse/packaging feel before a brawl that left her, in her own words, "looking like a broke down Barbie." That spectacle of an entrance and the match were both proof that the meteoric arrival and win over an all-time great at the biggest event of the year is just the start and the WWE is still fueling that rocket. I've been buying (this was a pre-Mania pick-up) and will keep looking for more somewhat selectively -- since stuff is at times pricey.
Grab a box: WWE cards are here.

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Game-used collectors have been seriously spoiled since the arrival of the MLB Authentication program back in 2001 (I'm one of them), but there are still items that are fully authenticated that require more research for their full story to be known.

This is one of those pieces.

Sometimes, items can't be photo-matched to photos or videos because there are no obvious features or personalized touches that can make them stand out from others. However, for my final item of the year in this Collecting Game-used series, I present to you an item that I recently found that needed a little more research despite it having the coveted MLBA sticker -- but it has those obvious features. In fact, it's a piece that has so many unique features that I was able to track those touches and decipher its lifetime of use. (Well, at least as much as one can without official word from a player to know their uniform habits or info from an equipment manager, who would have been responsible for inventory and replacement of pieces when requested.)

In the case of this Cleveland Indians batting helmet, it was authenticated merely as a "team-issued" piece by MLBA in April 2014. However, the obvious use it shows is from continued play and a distinct lack of maintenance and cleaning (as likely requested by the player). It turns out to be from the entire previous season -- and that was a successful one for the team as it made it to the postseason for just the third time during the 2000s at that point. This helmet's grass, chips, impressive layers of pine tar and other marks can be documented in photos before it was taken out of storage and into collector hands.

Keep reading to see the details ... and the item in action.

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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 Today: Big breaks from around the collecting world, preparing for The National and NFL investment sleepers?

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