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 pack: DC Comics & IDW Publishing 10-pack comic bundle
Where to buy: Retail hunting for these ... BlowoutCards.com for non-sports cards
First Buzz preview: N/A

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery for what was in this one.

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Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ... 

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I CAN'T LAND THE CARD, BUT ... THIS IS EVEN BETTER
The Item: Paige autographed 2012 FCW Summer Slamarama 12-by-18 promotional poster
The Price: Pricey ... but probably less than your new WWE hobby box
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: So, what is this? It's a piece of 2000s WWE history that ultimately would only surface regionally (in Florida) and is one of few collectible options for the company's developmental ranks in the years before NXT was on TV every week. Florida Championship Wrestling was NXT's predecessor with it being broadcast on regional TV only (and sometimes weeks after events happened ... not live). Meanwhile, many of today's current stars got their starts there with different names than you might know -- and the only "stuff" that might be found now for this summer in particular are a single in-demand (and counterfeited) card set, potential programs/magazines, tickets and maybe a calendar ... but FCW wasn't like NXT is now in a lot of ways. It wasn't uncommon for the stars of now to be taking money for tickets or helping the crowd members find their seats before a modest small-venue show. This is a large poster that uses a version of Paige's card from that set of the same name -- a pricey one that's eluded me due to price and the fakes (I'd only buy graded) -- and this auto is an early, full-letter signature unlike her few card autos. It came from a Florida-based collector who went to an FCW show on June 8, 2012, in Punta Gorda, Fla., and landed it at a signing to kick off the regional Summer Slamarama Tour that year ... and that was the first event. Supposedly only 300 fans per stop (while they lasted) got card sets -- that also shows why those are pricey (if they survived). This stop had six FCW stars in the set signing these posters and Paige is the biggest of them by far -- and she had only signed with WWE as an 19-year-old and made her FCW debut that January. How many of these are still around now? I have no idea ... but I've never seen another.
Grab a box right here: Land WWE stuff at BlowoutCards.com

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ... a mix of newer pick-ups and some retro/oddball finds.

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A SIMPLE VARIATION
The Card: Bryce Young 2023 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Variations Silver parallel
The Price: $9.99
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This one caught my attention out there in the world with it being the antithesis of a lot of draft cards these days -- a helmet-less studio portrait -- so I bit. It looked clean and potentially slab-worthy but after how his rookie season went I might wait and see if others go the slab route and I'll pick theirs off rather than sub this one. Or, over the long haul, maybe this will make its way into my submissions -- but it's not a priority at the moment. We'll see. Either way, I like this card and no matter what he does in the NFL he's always got a spot of some sort in the school ties part of my collection.
Grab a box right here: BlowoutCards.com

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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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 pack: DC Comics & IDW Publishing 10-pack comic bundle
Where to buy: Retail hunting for these ... BlowoutCards.com for non-sports cards

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery for what was in this one.

Continue reading →

Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ... 

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HER TIME IS NOW ... 
The Cards: Rhea Ripley 2020 Topps Transcendent WWE (/50) -- Rookie Card
The Price: Less than some of your new boxes out there
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This one is more of a long-term buying project for me as I think Ripley has the potential to be an all-time great in the WWE's women's ranks. She's only 26 and has literally been wrestling half of her life, already has held WWE gold and this is her premium-brand Rookie Card (gaming cards don't count in my world) that has an iconic pose and is limited to only 50 copies. This one also is easily among the priciest of the unsigned cards in this pricey set that was made to be broken up. Only three of these are new additions for me but I had to take a pic of all five together as a bit of a brag -- I don't do that a lot and I don't like to give the prices when I spend big on stuff -- but this is a card I like ... and I'm definitely not done yet. She has other Rookie Cards (with logos ... this set didn't use them) from 2020 but this one will always be the best in my book and we know exactly how many exist and that it cost plenty for somebody else to land one. She's got another WrestleMania match against an all-time great, Charlotte Flair, here soon and I don't know exactly how that might go ... but I do know she's definitely worthy of a long and dominating title reign and a smackdown of a great would solidify her place. I think her time is now.
Grab a box right here: WWE boxes can be found here

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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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 pack: DC Comics & IDW Publishing 10-pack comic bundle
Where to buy: Retail hunting for these ... BlowoutCards.com for non-sports cards
First Buzz preview: N/A

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery for what was in this one.

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Knowing where to look for new items in your collection can be a challenge at times -- if you shop where many others do, you might not find rare gems and you might find plenty of things from one genre of collecting that you might not want or need.

But sometimes you might be surprised by what you can find via auction houses, which used to be the home of mostly vintage treasures. Not any more.

The 15 items you see above (click for a closer look) are from a wide array of the collecting world and they're all up for grabs right now via Crazy Uncle Auctions, a Harrison, N.Y.-based auction house.

Keep reading for a deeper look at five of them.

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Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ... and this time around there's some variety as well as some Father's Day nods.

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VOLATILE FISH
The Card: Mike Trout 2020 Topps Project 2020 -- Artist: Andrew Thiele (/13,199)
The Price: Factory cost from Topps
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This was just the second Trout card made in the set that's generating more attention than most releases this year, and Thiele's allegiance to the original 2011 Topps Update Rookie Card got me to bite here a lot faster than the first one, which is far more abstract. This isn't my favorite Trout of those released so far -- that nod still goes to Ben Baller's version -- but I do like it. I'm not buying Project 2020 cards to sell -- many of you out there are -- but now that the big wave of mainstream attention that has come and gone there should be more cards with print runs closer to this number (not for Trout as each of his cards to come has a shot at autographs). This one leads off here as a reminder that this is a set that needs to be watched closely. Only about 285 more cards to go!
Grab a box right here: No boxes of this one ... but MLB boxes are here

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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It's not a Flerken ... it's the Mile High Comics mystery box guardian known as Cambridge. (Something like that.)

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.

Disclaimer: This one's definitely a different kind of Buzz Break ... just for fun. 

The box: Mile High Comics Five-pound Mystery Pack comics box
Where to buy: Via Mile High Comics ($29.95)

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Making The Grade is a monthly department here on The Buzz that ran all year long in 2019 -- its first complete season so far. Its a place where newly slabbed cards and a few pick-ups get the spotlight -- a little show-and-tell to get people talking and thinking about cards beyond "What's it worth?"

Sometimes I picked cards for fun, sometimes I chased 10s, but other times I slabbed with some longer-term "investment" thought -- and I don't even do that often. (My go-to is to simply slab stuff that I like.) The card you see up top? You can firmly place it in the red-hot fun file. The card at right? You can put it in the long-term keeper stack along with the guy below him, who had plenty of appearances in the series this year.

As one of a couple of 2019 retrospective posts I have planned -- they're at least on my to-do list at least until other work pops up -- here's a look at the series where I talked about 158 new slabs this past year. You can see them all at the links below.

January -- Making the Grade: Patrick Mahomes, The Mick, Tommy Chong, Whitney Houston, botched cardboard & more

February -- Making the Grade: Patrick Mahomes, Bo Knows, Wendy Peffercorn, Tom Brady, Super Bowl stars & more

March -- Making the Grade: Young MVPs, iconic Hall of Famers, Silent Bob, March Madness, a Future Superstar & more

April -- Making the Grade: Vince McMahon, Steve Austin and WrestleMania icons plus Ronald Acuña Jr. & more MLB stars

May -- Making the Grade: Baker Mayfield, JLo's Rookie Card, Joe Cool, Nuke LaLoosh, Hailie Deegan & more past gems

June -- Making the Grade: The Dream Team, Ronald Acuña Jr., Bart Starr, Mike Trout, Deadpool, Kelly Hu's rookie & more

July -- Making the Grade: Aaron Judge, Jayson Tatum, Ric Flair, Michael Jordan, Ronald Acuña Jr., Billy Ripken's bad bat knob, Chrissy Teigen's Rookie Card, The Big Lebowski's ink & more

August -- Making the Grade: New Vladdy, Acuña, Rally Squirrel, Undertaker, Juggernaut, Michael Jordan, Paige, Kurt Cobain, The Bad News Bears' ace ... and Keith Comstock's beanballs?

September -- Making the Grade: Joe Namath's ink, Dak & Jerry Rookie Cards, Saquon Barkley, Lonzo Ball, 1990s NFL classics, high-grade vintage, The Four Horsewomen of NXT & more

October -- Making the Grade: Ronald Acuña Jr. heaters, Clerks, Ernie Davis, hot ink, Supergirl, Catwoman & real Nuke LaLoosh

November -- Making the Grade: Dak Prescott, Luka Doncic, Magic Johnson & John Cena rookies, Robert Mueller, the first perfect Keith Comstock, Meghan Markle's MLB card & more

December -- Making the Grade: Rare Shohei Ohtani, Star Wars, Pete Alonso, Tim Duncan, vintage, several WWE stars & more

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Need even more? See previous months' Making The Grade posts by clicking here (scroll down)

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy cards on BlowoutCards.com

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: Ronald Acuña Jr. 2018 Topps Chrome Update #HMT25 Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I only opened a couple of mega boxes for this brand but did land this guy -- and, man, do I wish this card had used the bat-down photo. (What could have been?) I recently revisited a few of my boxes holding the finds of my buys last year and this one struck me as a clean example worth a slab, especially with him having had an elite season coming up just short of being the youngest member of the elite 40-40 Club.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: Turns out I was right, though this is a card that's heavily graded with a growing pop report since I submitted this one. There was a 10 grade right after mine in the serial-numbering line and there have been plenty of 9.5s graded since -- and even the 10s aren't all that rare for this one. There's plenty here to feed the demand for a guy who should be on collector radars for years. You'll see more of Acuña here.

Keep reading for more of this month's new slabs for Buzz.

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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: 2017 Cryptozoic DC Comics Bombshells
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com 

Packs per box: 24 plus one Golden Goddess vinyl figure
Cards per pack: 5
Cards in this box: 120
Base set completion: 
64 of 64 (100 percent)
Duplicates: 3

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Sometimes you just get sidetracked by an email.

That was the case Friday morning when the latest images from Sideshow Toys spotlighting its newest (and some past) Premium Format figures arrived in Buzz's inbox.

They're premium in size -- in the case of Deadpool here 24 inches tall and 14 pounds -- and premium in price. But, most importantly, they're premium in appeal as they are ridiculously detailed in their varying forms.

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The iconic stars of the DC Comics universe are coming to the toy aisles once again with additions to three lines from Funko arriving next month.

There will be new Funko Pop! toys, a new line of Mystery Minis and new Dorbz -- some with glow-in-the-dark capabilities -- on shelves very soon.

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A set of nine promo cards for the recently released DC Comics Justice League trading card set from Cryptozoic will only be available at San Diego Comic-Con this week.

The cards will be available at three different booths at the show while supplies last.

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San Diego Comic-Con is almost here and the crew at Funko has prepared more than 70 different toys, T-shirts and more that will only initially be available at the show this week.

There will be pieces from Star Wars, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, The Walking Dead and so much more in the company's Pop! line, Dorbz and, well, so much more.

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They're coming to full-size vinyl. They're coming to pennants. Now, they're coming to packs.

Cryptozoic's line of DC Comics Lil’ Bombshells vinyl figures are coming collectors in blind-wrapped tins in miniature form in August, but they'll first be found at San Diego Comic-con.

Inspired by 1940s pinup art with a cartoon twist, the first series of these miniature vinyls will include Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Batwoman among the 10 characters found inside.

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We're less than a month away from the arrival of Cryptozoic's DC Comics Justice League cards and the company has been busy teasing the sketch cards to be found in the product.

There will be two types of sketches to be found -- standard and diecut cards cut to look like the Hall of Justice.

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