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 ... 

GOOD AS GOLD ...
The Card: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin 2022 Panini Select WWE Gold Flash (/10)
The Reason Graded: If you recognize this card, well, there's a reason. Just a few weeks ago, I pulled it from a blaster box and thanks to CSG's quick, budget-minded services I turned this around fast and, well, this rarity pays for itself. This retail-only card is rare -- only nine others like it exist -- and it came back with a top mark since even the horizontal centering was clean. (That's not the norm from what I have seen with this release.) This is a pricey card right now so that was my main reason for slabbing, and now it's that much better.
The Grade: CSG 10

Reality Check: It's the only one that has been slabbed so far. How many might still be sitting in packs? Generally speaking, Select is a strong release worth your look in any format -- and I have other stuff here I intend to get graded.

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

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If you hadn't noticed, our fourth wave of Black Friday boxes with discounted prices have dropped right now right here as BlowoutCards.com is bringing a wave approach to today's sales.

There's one more wave of discounted boxes to come later in today's big sale ... so keep watching.

Here are five boxes/cases that caught this collector’s eye in this wave.

2017 Panini Chronicles baseball hobby box
Sure, the two Chronicles releases since this one pack a lot more oomph, but the rookie crop in Chronicles is one that includes some notables with some selling power -- Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Andrew Benintendi and Alex Bregman for example. They can be found on a number of signed cards in this one and a number of different "brands" all in one place. The 2017 boxes aren't as crazy of a rip as this year or last year but when there's a pretty decent box discount this is the time to try for something big. You get four hits and eight numbered cards per box here and a lot of low-volume cards have some hefty prices even if not inked based on one recent search I made. There also can be some oldschool memorabilia finds here for the likes of Mickey Mantle and Harmon Killebrew, giving it a scope that's beyond just rookies.

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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 ...

The Card: Dak Prescott 2016 Donruss #362 Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: It takes a pretty good deal for one of my buys to lead off here instead of one of my newly submitted grades, but this one was just that. This is one of those cards that is relatively available if you want to chase one down and slab it for some fun or profit. My cost? About $22, which might seem high generally speaking but isn't for its grade -- this was about half the price of the other cards in the same grade where I was looking at the time. They are even higher now.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: This one is just a half-grade away from a perfect BGS Black slab and the percentage of cards to get this mark is pretty low vs. the overall total. That's what surprised me here more and prompted the pick-up. It's a relatively heavily graded card, too, which you'd think would have resulted in more 10s. (Paper stock can be more pesky than Optic stuff when it comes to grading, though.)

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

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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 ...

The Card: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 2019 Topps Living Set #179 RC
The Reason Graded: While I own a few Topps Living Set cards the arrival of this second-generation MLB star in this weekly release sparked my first purchase from this popular brand that's clearly popular with flippers. I ponied up for 10 copies of the card --solely with potential grading in mind -- but didn't receive a single perfectly centered card in my batch, which was a bummer. After some grumbling, I picked out this one from the batch and sent it in.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It graded as well as I thought it could -- maybe better -- so I wasn't unhappy with the grade and it appears that I'm perhaps on the luckier side with just two 10s out there better than it via BGS ... for now. This is a card that will likely be graded more and more often so those won't last but but it appears that this one is arriving between 8.5 and 9.5 more often than not. I have a second one I'll submit to PSA at some point with my sights set on a 10 there. We'll see sometime later this year.

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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: The NFL season is almost here -- so we're heavy on football in today's edition.

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The annual All-Star snub hot takes are blazing after the MLB All-Star teams were announced on Sunday night and there's one guy who's having a break-out year and didn't make the cut.

But, don't worry, he's used to that on cardboard, too. His name? Max Muncy.

The 27-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder has hit 20 homers in 67 games so far this season, which is his third in the bigs. He's an unlikely slugger as he had five homers for his career entering this year. Last summer? He was in Oklahoma City all season after being released by the Oakland A's -- and even that time as a Dodger down in the Bible Belt didn't appear to be a given at one point.

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We got a preview of the possibilities of the postseason last week when Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/utility player Enrique Hernandez smacked three home runs in Game 5 of the NLCS.

His few baseball cards suddenly had a lot more interest and that's something that David Freese, Andruw Jones, David Eckstein and many others can relate to. The postseason and the World Series is where new stars are born, especially on cardboard.

Hernandez played his first MLB game in 2014 -- and was drafted five years before that, ironically by the Houston Astros, who he'll face in the World Series beginning tonight -- and through all that time he'd barely appeared on 100 different baseball cards, got just one Rookie Card and one certified autograph before a rainbow of Topps Now cards arrived last Friday.

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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 five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing Today: Nothing but a mix of interesting box breaks today.

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com's Black November Wave 2 hits today.

Many of the discounts were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of the boxes and cases -- and here are five boxes that caught this collector’s eye.

2015 Topps baseball Mega Box case
This is the only place to find cards from the 50-card 2015 Topps Chrome Update set and buying by the case is probably the best way for a shot at key rookie parallels and autographs/Relics. Among the notables here? Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor. Statistically there should be at least one Relic per case but the real chase are those key players and their parallels. You get five packs of standard Topps Update and only two packs of Chrome Update but it's worth it if you buy by the case here -- though there is a limit.

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For all the hobby firepower on the field for Game 1 of the World Series last night, leave it to the light-hitting catcher with just one anonymous Rookie Card to grab the spotlight.

The catcher is Cleveland's Roberto Perez and the only place to find his cards is in packs of 2015 Topps Update.  

He doesn't have an RC logo on his lone Rookie Card. He doesn't have a single prospect card from the Bowman realm (or any other of the countless brands from other companies) and all he has is a base card and parallels in Update save for a few team-issued minor league team sets here and there.

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and break down the results here. Like this and want to see more -- or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The box: 2015 Topps Update/Topps Chrome Update baseball cards mega box
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com

Packs per box: 7 (five 2015 Topps Update/two 2015 Topps Chrome Update)
Cards per pack: 8 Update/4 Chrome Update
Cards in this box: 45
Base set (Update) completion: 
33 of 400 (8 percent)
Duplicates: 0
Base set (Chrome Update) completion: 
4 of 50 (8 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notable names pulled on base cards: Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Bryce Harper, Carlos Correa

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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 five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

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The Rally Squirrel returns as a Philadelphia Phillies squad member on this photo variation card found in packs of 2015 Topps Update, which arrived last week.

While this year's appearance comes as one of the 25 photo variations in the product, it's clearly not as hot as the original Rally Squirrel who led the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series title in 2011 (after an appearance in Philly) and before a Topps card in 2012. This year's card properly identifies the rowdy rodent -- its name is on the front, not a player -- and it's sold for as much as $40 in eBay auctions.

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Pete Gray is one of Major League Baseball's more unusual finds in the record books and now he can be found in packs of 2015 Topps Update as a player in its Pride & Perseverance insert set.

It's a 12-card set showcasing past and present players who have had obstacles in life that didn't stop them from appearing in a big-league game.

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New this week are seven products for three of the four major sports along with the latest MMA release and one non-sport set.

Leading the way is Topps' third and final installment of its flagship baseball card set as 2015 Topps Update arrives on Wednesday. This 400-card release includes all of the parallels and inserts collectors have come to expect from the first two releases as well as a few surprises. Standard hobby boxes will include one autograph or Relic, while HTA Jumbo boxes will include an auto and two Relics.

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