Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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GOING FOR THE GOLD
The Card: Shotzi Blackheart 2022 Panini Select WWE Gold Wave Prizm (/10)
The Price: Around the price of a blaster box at arrival
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This brand is my favorite of the Panini years for WWE, and in the case of this star who I collect I have seemed to found her rarities on the affordable side at times with this release. This is a perfect example of that with it being one of the rarest parallels in there but it cost me not much more than the price of a retail box. It was arguably underpriced, so I grabbed it quickly when I spotted it. Will I grade it? It's a possibility, though this release's centering issues can create some surprises (that aren't totally surprises) as I found out with a different parallel of this card. Poke around in Making The Grade last month for an example.
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Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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PARALLEL POWER?
The Card: National League Wins Leaders (Spencer Strider, Zac Gallen, Justin Steele) 2024 Topps True Photo variant & Gold Foil parallel
The Price: About $11 total
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: The concept of this one is simple and it's striking -- knock off the border of a base card completely, using just its photo -- and I think it works. But there's also one thing here that's striking -- and not in the best way. These are arguably too rare to make that big of an impact with me and I think perhaps other collectors who might not bother to grab their players or even think about a team set or full set. How rare? They are one in 677 hobby packs and I'm confident they'd be more popular if people could reasonably collect a team run or set. Why? Because they're something dramatically different and you can compare the regular card and this version side by side. I also grabbed a Gold Foil parallel for this one this time after I bit on the variant ... just to say I had one. Even paying $10 for this was a stretch for me ... and those odds and that price might say that these aren't as popular as they could/should be. These are one in basically every third hobby case.
Grab a box right here: MLB cards are here.

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Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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LEGENDARY INK
The Card: Ichiro Suzuki autographed 2001 Topps Rookie Card (BAS 10 auto)
The Price: Not as much as you might think ... but also not that cheap.
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Clean copies of this iconic Topps flagship Rookie Card are not easy finds in general with the boxes and sets likely bricked now if they remain unopened -- that means the gloss will be snowy if you're lucky to peel the cards apart at all -- and then the dark green border and high-gloss on soft stock here is always going to be problematic. When I spotted this card among many where Suzuki has signed for literally years (Mill Creek Sports) without a premium price, I bit on this just before his Hall of Fame results hit. (We all knew he was going in ... but I didn't know if his prices were going to rise.) This copy is super clean vs. many cards out there with some very light roughness on maybe one edge and a light touch on the bottom-left corner ... but some of what's seen in my photo is just how the light is reflecting. I generally don't do a ton of bigger buys for my collection, but this one's cost wasn't that much more than some of the hot and plentiful new release hobby boxes. I went with a safe and iconic bet for my (for me) premium spend and went with the sure thing on an iconic card for a living legend. I pulled his ink once from an unlicensed release -- and it was in one of my earliest Making The Grade posts here -- but a signed RC means I'll likely never need to sweat his stuff again. (Might window shop, though, or bite if price is right for a nice certified.) One more fun part of my card? If that label had a simple added line of Beckett/Fanatics witnessed instead of signed for Mill Creek and then slabbed, the price likely would be double what I paid. I wouldn't pay that -- and this one is a win in my book.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but MLB cards are here.

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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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DOGPOOL'S DEBUT
The Book: Prelude To Deadpool Corps No. 3 -- first Dogpool appearance
The Price: Under $8
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This was an impulse/curiosity buy once I saw Dogpool -- a character that I'm admittedly not that familiar with -- on this cover of Empire in advance of the Deadpool & Wolverine movie to come as well as in a preview trailer. Why? Well, one reason I grabbed this was that the lone graded copy of this book on eBay at that time had an asking price of $400-plus. While I know that's high, you never know what people might grab if the that pup steals the show or at least picks up some headlines alongside Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds when this one hits. (Weird thing have happened with Baby Yoda and Star Wars' Porgs in recent years.) This comic cover isn't exactly the same as what we're getting on the big screen dog-wise, but with the movie figuring to generate a lot of buzz and perhaps include a lot of cameos I've been looking at stuff here and there ... and I really need to go find that magazine, too. It's actually got higher asking prices on eBay than this book and has sold for more than $20. (It's a UK mag ... so it's perhaps not as easily found just yet.) The comic has had CGC 9.8 sales of $85 and $299 in recent months, too, so there's definitely some speculating ... and there should be. This movie will be huge.
Grab a box right here: BlowoutCards.com for non-sports cards

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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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THIS SET IS A CLASSIC
The Card: Tua Tagovailoa 2023 Panini Luminance Gold (/250)
The Price: About $5.50
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This set was among many recent NFL releases on the high-end spectrum when it comes to box price, so, well, I'm not ripping it ... but when this one popped up in an online search I did some scrolling and I quickly realized that this set just might be one of the best photo-editing jobs done in all of modern football card history (view a lot of them here). I scouted listings and opted for this clean parallel of a top guy in the NFL this season and this one arrived so clean that there's a very good shot this will end up slabbed and in a future Making The Grade ... that's how much I like this card. The base set is full of strong images. Strong, strong images.
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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 low-and and higher-end finds as well as some non-traditional things people might like to collect. 

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MY HERITAGE SLEEPER SET ... 
The Card: Hank Aaron 2023 Topps Heritage Puzzles (announced /500)
The Price: $17.99
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This oversized box-topper set isn't huge at just 20 puzzles on the checklist but they don't drop all that often, either, from what I have seen -- one per case at most (and maybe not at all). It's one that I knew I liked immediately back when Heritage dropped with its lineup of mostly current names but also with some past stars all in one spot. What are they? Literal puzzles shrink-wrapped to a cardboard backer placed atop the packs in some boxes. A total of 13 active players (two rookies) are here along with seven Hall of Famers -- but some obvious names like Shohei Ohtani didn't make the cut ... so I suspect we'll see more in the second series later this year. I liked a few of the options in this one but waited for prices to dip and they really haven't as much as I had hoped they would. (Why? They're on the rarer side of things compared to a lot of stuff in this one.) This one presented itself on more of the affordable side more recently so I bit. These are just oldschool cool if you ask me -- something that feels a bit anti-2023 but also not totally part of a rigid Heritage formula that's been going for two decades plus now. I like surprises -- and this set felt like one.
Grab a box right here: 2023 Topps Heritage

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