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 ... a mix of new slabs and some recent pick-ups.

BIG RETAIL PULL NOW VS. THEN
The Card: Christian McCaffrey 2017 Crown Royale Platinum #88 (/49) -- Rookie Card parallel
The Reason Graded: With the NFL season (perhaps) finally coming, I'll let this guy kick things off since it's a rarer card and one that I figured would grade well but did have some fears about with one of the back corners showing some funk. I pulled this one from a mega box (or whatever it was called for this one) while sitting in a snowy Walmart parking lot back in the day only to be bummed that my autograph guaranteed in the box wasn't there ... it was Panini Rewards points. I was more hung up on that than appreciating this card back then, but he's been a playmaker in the league -- so much so I actually got rid of my Donruss and Optic RCs of him without getting them graded. Instead I decided to slab this one.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It graded better than I had expected -- I was thinking probably a 9 but optimistically a 9.5 -- and I consider this one a win. It's razor-sharp and clean except for that one corner and on the back it may not hurt as much. Either way, I'm good with this one. Only 12 total cards of McCaffrey from this release have been graded and this is the only for this parallel. There have been nine copies of his standard RC graded and only four cards overall equal this one with nothing higher.

Keep reading for more of this month's 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 ...

A BIG BLASTER PULL
The Card: Shohei Ohtani 2018 Topps #700B hand on helmet SSP photo variation
The Reason Graded: Not that long ago, I pulled this card from a Series 2 blaster box and decided that it needed a slab since these SSPs appear to be relatively rare -- and I was even more surprised to see how they didn't grade all that well on the pop report. Meanwhile, mine looked very clean ... so I had to do it.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Only one card graded better than mine and four others have equaled it while eight cards have checked in at a BGS 9 or lower -- that seems pretty low for a modern card, though the skinny stock here clearly could have issues after these cards hit packaging. I'll admit that this was a pull while Ronald Acuña Jr. hunting in Series 2, but this feels like a win on top of a win with it grading so well after being pulled from a discounted box. Here's hoping his third season is as strong or better than his first two, which are remarkably similar from the batting side.

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

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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: When a repack delivers big, tracking Superfractors, chasing Ronald Acuna, the Supreme Court ruling on sports gambling and plenty more in today's edition.

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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: Nothing but interesting breaks and big pulls in today's edition.

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices right now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com is in the midst its Black November sales now.

Wave 8 is here -- and it's a huge "mega wave" of more than 170 products -- and 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/cases that caught this collector’s eye.

2011 Wheels Element hobby boxes (and cases)
Chase Elliott is an established young star in NASCAR these days but back when this one arrived he was one of the "Undiscovered Elements" newcomers who got the nod for their first card appearances and first autographs. Elliott, the son of Hall of Famer and former Cup champ Bill, was just 15 at the time. He signed two cards in this release -- a standard limited to 225 copies and a red-ink version limited to 25. Atop this, he didn't have any other ink until 2014 when he arrived with a hot start that included a pair of NASCAR victories before he had even graduated from high school. At that time, his autos were easy $100 bills and people paid as much as $500 for the Red. They've settled down now -- and he's got plenty of ink since -- but these are still the first and among the most-unique cards he'll ever have. (There's a Rookie Card in the standard set, too.) There are plenty of other highlights here but this one's the closest thing to awesome ... at least that's what some guy named Bill from Dawsonville said.

Keep reading for more from this weekend's big wave.

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Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today's your day then as we launch 12 in 12 -- a series of a dozen breaks of past wax boxes and wax packs in a dozen hours. We'll post one every hour on the hour all day long today ... this is Hour 7.

The case: 2016 Topps Heritage WWE blaster box case 
The cost: Click here

What's inside this one? Keep reading ...

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of cases with dramatically discounted prices this weekend over on the mothership and they were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of them.

So much so here are five that caught this collector's eye.

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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: Nothing but breaks from baseball, football, basketball and WWE.

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What: 2016 Topps WWE Heritage wrestling cards
Arrives: August 3
Box basics: Two autographs or Relics in every 24-pack hobby box (12 boxes per case)

What's buzz-worthy: Topps brings its 1986 baseball card design to the world of World Wrestling Entertainment with the latest Heritage brand set to arrive late this summer.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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