You should know by now that Shohei Ohtani is having another historic year with dominating performances on both the mound and at the plate ... it's stuff that could only be called Ruthian -- and yet Babe Ruth didn't do it all at the same time.

Right now, on June 28, he leads the league in homers (28), RBI (64), slugging percentage (.654), total bases (200) and other offensive stats, while also having. 7-3 record on the mound with 127 Ks in 95 innings and a 3.02 ERA ... in short, he leads his team in pretty much everything. This kind of showing could mean serious headlines by year's end, too, with that home run pace alone.

The Japanese icon and pitcher-slash-DH's 2018 Rookie Cards are ones you should be thinking about right now as there's been a serious uptick in interest -- and it was already high. But, thanks to there being plenty of sets that year and with him in most of them, there's still a lot to choose from that's not priced out of many collectors' budgets. Things do get quite interesting with basic cards in slabs, too. (Prices should surprise you ... they did for me just prepping this.)

Ohtani, who had a ton of cards during his career in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan starting in 2013, appears on literally thousands of unique baseball cards -- he'll probably hit around 15,000 by year's end or this time next year. More than 3,000 of those are from 2018 alone. His time in MLB releases started almost immediately as he never needed MiLB time and arrived in almost everything in the 2018 lineups from Topps, Panini America and elsewhere -- Rookie Cards, parallels, autographs, memorabilia you name it he's had it all since then. And there will be plenty more to come, perhaps making those earlier cards feel more unique to some ... especially if they missed out.

For simplicity's sake here, we have carved out all of his Topps Now and several other small-set cards sold as online releases as well as Panini America's meaty lineup of Ohtani (about 30 basic RCs and tons more when it comes to hits and inserts). We've also punted all autographs and Relic cards to make this a starting point with the widest affordability and accessibility possible, though there are plenty of high-dollar cards in this roundup.

Keep reading for a rundown of Shohei Ohtani Rookie Cards ... and it won't even be all of his stuff you could dabble with from that key year as there are plenty of cards with RC logos that don't fall under the definition.

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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 ... 

HE'S BACK!
The Card: Tiger Woods 2001 Upper Deck No. 1 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: Not that long ago I unearthed my stash of these heavily produced but in-demand RCs and sent off a couple to be graded. Since that time Woods returned at The Masters and fared relatively well considering where he was little over a year ago. While he's got plenty of high-dollar cards -- and stuff that pre-dates this with non-traditional distribution -- this one is the propellant that brought back golf cards to the masses and it has been slabbed thousands of times between all of the grading companies. I amassed a number of them because I used to rip this on the cheap whether it was repacks, hobby boxes, retail boxes or whatever. This wax was cheap for a long time and had a few formats -- for example, I opened a case of this one for somewhere between $75 and $125 (I want to say it was the lower number) probably 15 years ago ... and did better than I expected for hits (that's why I was ripping). Now? A single box would cost more than what I paid.
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: Even this newcomer to grading has taken on a ton of Tiger RCs with only a dozen grading higher than this -- and with their new slabs/scale, this copy would be a CSG 10 now. (Gem Mint is now a 10 with Pristine 10s nixed and Perfect 10s still in play.) I may send off a few more from my stash to see how the new top end of the scale looks on my others. (All of my submissions came back just before the change.)

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 mix of buys/submissions over the last few months.

MY RAINBOW IS COMPLETE ... I THINK
The Card: Nick Swisher 2015 Panini Prizm USA Baseball Black Finite Prizms #6 (1/1)
The Reason Bought: So, Buzz hasn't gotten his hands on as much wax as normal out there in the retail wild these days -- I'm just not camping out at 5 a.m. -- so that's actually been a good thing for when rarer cards present themselves. One example is this 1/1 card that popped up slabbed recently and I grabbed it because I think it completes my rainbow (I'm not organized enough yet to know for sure but I'm 99-percent sure) and, more importantly, it's one of a few instances where I own game-used memorabilia seen on a card. That jersey? It's in my stash ... though he didn't play a lot that summer. (The No. 11 jersey was sold via Hunt Auctions in a bulk lot of USA stuff from several years in several groups long ago and I found it a few years after that.) Oddly enough, there's a decent chance that this card cost me around the same amount as the jersey ... actually, the jersey might have been cheaper.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: It's the only card that's in existence so the pop report shows that and won't ever change. What I'm not sure of is whether any of the autographed cards for him on the checklist from this release were ever actually made -- or are they might all be out there in a box or two mis-packed. Not one has ever surfaced. (You never know.)

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: Inside an insane collection, please read some details, Topps Chrome delivers, future cardboard trends and more in today's edition.

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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 ... a super-sized edition with 20 cards to open 2020.

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SO CLOSE TO PERFECTION ...
The Card: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Topps Chrome #193 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: This one looked very clean to my eye and I figured getting some of my past Acuña pulls slabbed was a good move considering his almost-40/40 showing last year. Some of his cards are heavily graded to the point where they can be had for not much more than a typical cost to slab if not in top grades. Meanwhile, others aren't as plentiful and some can typically grade very well. I went with this one since it's not as heavily graded and it does tend to grade well. Plus, I just liked the photo here compared to others -- and those I already own slabbed.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: This one surprised me a bit -- just one half-subgrade away from a BGS Black. Only 14 cards have gotten the perfect mark and this one is among an also-small population. Most cards here check in at 9.5s -- a solid mark and a perfect card to bat lead-off for this first MTG of the year. I expect big things from Acuña this year and I'll be slabbing him often.

Keep reading for more.

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You should know by now that Ronald Acuña Jr. is having a historic year with the 30-30 Club already set to appear on his 2020 baseball cards -- and there's a serious chance he could become the youngest member of the elite 40-40 Club before the season is over, too.

But it's The Atlanta Braves outfielder's 2018 Rookie Cards that you should be thinking about right now as there's been a serious uptick in interest -- and there's still a lot to choose from that's not priced out of many collectors' budgets.

Acuña appears on more than 3,500 unique baseball cards since he arrived in prospect and minor-league sets back in 2016 and that number has gotten there rather quickly. Amidst his arrival and National League Rookie of the Year award-winning season last year, for example, he appeared on more than 1,700 new cards and more than 1,000 of those were made by Topps just last year.

For simplicity's sake here, we have carved out all of his Topps Now and several other small-set cards sold as online releases as well as Panini America's meaty lineup of Acuña RCs (those could be their own future rundown ... and likely will be). We've also punted all autographs and Relic cards from last year to make this a starting point with the widest affordability net possible -- though ink and parallels in the sets where he has basic RCs will get mentions. That said, even with this starting point, there's still a good mix of high-end and low-end cardboard -- and even the low-end stuff can generate some good Acuña Cash when professionally graded.

Keep reading for a rundown of Ronald Acuña Jr. Rookie Cards.

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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: 2018 Topps Home Run Challenge Silver #HRCAJ Aaron Judge (/59)
The Reason Graded: Aaron Judge recently returned from injury for the first time since April and that prompted me to lead things off with this rare card I recently got slabbed. I only have this card because I managed to predict one of his homers not long after he returned from injury last year after missing more than a month and a half. Injuries have mounted for his popular slugger the last two years, but I figured this card, given its scarcity, was one worth a slab.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: The pop report is a little iffy on this one -- there could be others not slabbed* -- since the checklist isn't complete on their site for this set this is merely a guess. (Pop report and checklists typically sync up.) I have gotten very few 10s in the last few years, but I thought this would be a contender and it was. Other Judge cards from this set -- there are at least three before this one -- are a lot rarer. Meanwhile, this appears to be the only Judge (of any color) from this set that's been slabbed.

Keep reading for the rest of this month's new grades and additions.

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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 MLB chatter and NFL pulls and cards in today's edition.

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Have you seen the latest cool or interesting items on eBay? If not, you just might see some of those here every week as we're launching a weekly version of our eBay Buzz pieces that pop up from time to time. We’ll spotlight some items that have a story or just wow us with how much interest it might have — and we’re not just talking baseball cards, either.

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ONE SUPER PULL
The Item: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Topps Chrome Superfractor autograph
The Price: $3,050 after 19 bids (more than five days remaining)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is one of the biggest cards possible in this year's Rookie Card parallel lineup without the name Ohtani attached -- and even with that this should be one of the bigs -- and this one is on the auction block as an auction via an eBay seller with a heavy buyer list and a huge presence. How big will this card go? We'll find out in a few days -- and it was big enough my plans to not have an eBay Buzz this week hit the bench in favor of this Friday-night edition.
Similar Pieces: Other Ronald Acuña Jr. autos on eBay
The BlowoutCards.com Hunt: Click here for 2018 MLB boxes

Keep reading for four more interesting items in this week's roundup ...

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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: Two "bonkers" cases of Heritage High Number and big pulls from around the collecting world.

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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: New York Yankees autographs, big pulls, football season is here and more from around the collecting world.

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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 impressive football and baseball breaks in today's edition.

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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: 2018 Topps Chrome baseball cards (blaster box)
Where to buy: Click here for jumbo, hobby & blasters

Packs per box: 8 (seven standard, one Sepia)
Cards per pack: 4
Cards in this box: 32
Base set completion: 
20 of 200 (10 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Corey Seager, Gary Sanchez, Yoan Moncada, Noah Syndergaard, Jose Altuve, Matt Chapman, Stephen Strasburg

Rookie Cards (7) – Rhys Hoskins, Jack Flaherty, Sandy Alcantara, Clint Frazier, Brandon Woodruff, Jen-Ho Tseng,  J.D. Davis

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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: 2018 Topps Chrome baseball cards (mega box)
Where to buy: Click here for jumbo, hobby & blasters

Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 4
Cards in this box: 96
Base set completion: 
70 of 200 (35 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Aaron Judge, Clayton Kershaw, Carlos Correa, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew Benintendi, Francisco Lindor, Buster Posey

Rookie Cards (19) – Ronald Acuña Jr., Miguel Andújar, Scott Kingery, Parker Bridwell, Andrw Stevenson, Chance Sisco, Anthony Banda, A.J. Minter, Max Fried, Francisco Mejia, Amed Rosario, Harrison Bader, Paul Blackburn, Greg Allen, Willie Calhoun, Raudy Read, Felix Jorge, Garrett Cooper

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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: Huge pulls like this Tom Brady 1/1 autograph lead the way as we work toward the weekend.

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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 packs: 2018 Topps Chrome baseball cards (five value packs)
Where to buy: Click here for value packs and value pack cases

Packs per pack: 4 (three standard, one Pink Refractor pack)
Cards per pack: 4 standard, 5 Pink
Cards in this lot: 85
Base set completion: 
44 of 200 (22 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Manny Machado, Justin Verlander, Anthony Rendon, Max Scherzer, Yoan Moncada

Rookie Cards (14) – Rhys Hoskins, Walker Buehler, Rafael Devers, Scott Kingery, Dustin Fowler, Lucas Sims, Nicky Delmonico, Zack Granite, Jen-ho Tseng, J.D. Davis, Brandon Woodruff, Brian Anderson, Jack Flaherty, Luiz Gohara

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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: National hauls, chasing Michael Jordan rarities, retail wowsers, Pop Century rips & more.

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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: 2018 Topps Chrome baseball cards (mega box)
Where to buy: Click here for jumbo, hobby & blasters

Packs per box: 12 (10 packs plus two X-fractor packs)
Cards per pack: 4 per standard, 5 per X-fractor
Cards in this box: 50
Base set completion: 
31 of 200 (16 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notables on base cards – Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Alex Bregman, Miguel Cabrera, Josh Donaldson, Jon Lester, Andrew McCutchen

Rookie Cards (10) – Scott Kingery, Garrett Cooper, Andrew Stevenson, Francisco Mejia. Chance Sisco, Dominic Smith, J.P. Crawford, Jackson Stephens, Tyler Wade, Tyler Mahle

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Via @joeorlandoPSA ... This might be the coolest story of the #nsccshow so far. While live on the #GA_Collectibles show, Leighton Sheldon opened a PSA-certified 1955 Bowman baseball pack. Inside he found this beauty. It graded a PSA Mint 9. Incredible.

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: National post-show chatter, big pulls and more as Buzz recovers from the NSCC.

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 What: 2018 Topps Chrome baseball cards
Arrives: Aug. 1
Box basics: Two autographs in every 24-pack hobby box (12 boxes per case); Five autographs in every 12-pack jumbo box (eight boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Topps Chrome returns with jumbo boxes as an option once again as the rainbow of rookie autographs is on-card and some new inserts are also worked into the flagship-redo -- and it includes the top MLB rookie of right now, Shohei Ohtani.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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Shohei Ohtani autographs are on the way and there's only one question left for Topps to reveal.

Which one's first?

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