The question above says it all and I need to know what others think on this Wednesday afternoon.

Why? Well, one player inside this set has a unique career and has had a dominating season so far, too. And, his enigmatic journey is one that has just as odd of a cardboard résumé ... one that sparks said question.

This is the 2018-19 Panini Instant NBA Finals box set -- a relatively plentiful release with 49,286 sets ordered in the wake of the Toronto Raptors' first championship. A number of those sets are found in this colorful team-adorned box -- it's a cheap set, too, by the way, when you can find it -- while other copies that were ordered directly on the Instant site arrived without the packaging but every card in a sealed top-loader as you can see here.

I grabbed the set back in the day and recently landed one still in the box -- I have no intent to open it because it's the super-rare instance where I wanted one sealed since even the box shows the player I collect.

So what's the deal? Keep reading.

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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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