What: 2025 Leaf Metal Authentics autograph cards
Arrives: Aug. 29
Box basics: One on-card autograph per box (10 boxes per case)
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Metal is back with nothing but autographs and colorful, rarer parallels in play with a mix of sports and non-sports all in one -- and with multsigned cards (above) and inscriptions (below) also mixed in.

Keep reading for more details and a teaser gallery for this one.

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What: 2025 Leaf Pearl Multi-sport cards
Arrives: August
Box basics: 11 premium cards per box (two boxes per case)
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Leaf's high-end celebration of sport in seemingly every direction arrives for a new edition with some monster 16-auto booklets, a rare cut auto in every box and some of the biggest names in all the games found together right here.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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What's Buzzing: An Exquisite auction, a Superfractor pull, NFL trivia, fake MJ buybacks and 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: 2023-24 Topps Chrome basketball cards (blaster)
First Buzz preview, checklist & odds: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (a few formats)

Keep reading to see a breakdown and gallery of what was in this one.

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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 ...

FROM THE BARGAIN BIN TO ...
The Card: Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Topps Traded -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: I picked up this at the last minute -- literally at closing time -- at a past National Sports Collectors Convention after some digging through a bargain bin where cards were literally bouncing around inside cases in a plastic tub. For just $5 this card (as a raw copy) was mine after one thing jumped out at me -- its back with all that black ink was perfectly cut and its front was super-close to centered. It's not that I needed this card, really, as I picked up about three or four sets from the 1989 JCPenney Christmas catalog -- just $12.99 apiece -- back in the day, but I found the rough back edges to be an issue when revisiting all my copies with the the stars that survived past purges. This one made it into one of my bulk grading subs earlier this year as it was past time to grade one. Yes, it's got a very slight rough spot on the front left -- some extra fuzz as it's some light cardboard -- but everything else here (especially the back) was too clean to not send it in.
The Grade: CSG 10

Reality Check: That's definitely the kind of grade I was going for here, though a lot of them seem to check in at that mark -- about 17 percent of the current population -- which seems high for the era, but, at the same time, these were released as boxed sets and not in packs so they perhaps didn't get handled as much during packaging. Plus, inner cards in the boxes got protected pretty well. I'll take it. This one has always been one of my favorite RCs for this icon ... because I could afford this one and not the other big one that many love. I have them all now, of course (I think), but I'm pretty sure few or even none of my copies from back then would grade like this one did. Not bad for a $5 find and then $10 more to grade it.

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

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What: 2021-22 Topps Finest basketball cards
Arrives: Now via Topps.com
Box basics: One autograph card per 18-pack box
Checklist: Click here
Order: Click here (when available)

What's buzz-worthy: Topps returns to the basketball ranks with a release that's teased to be a colorful stylistic throwback with a relatively meaty mix of names with ink for many of them.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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What: 2020 Leaf Ultimate Wrestling cards
Arrives: Aug. 7
Box basics: Six autograph cards per box (10 boxes per case)
Order: Click here (live soon)

What's buzz-worthy: Leaf offers up the closest thing to an AEW wrestling set -- and plenty of past and present stars from the WWE and around the world -- in a release that's got "an assortment of stars not possible in any other wrestling release."

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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: Big pulls, Project 2020, Dennis Rodman, 2020 Bowman and more in today's edition.

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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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THE CORRECT COLOR OF PRIZM
The Card: Tua Tagovailoa 2020 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Red Prizms
The Price: $20
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I didn't pull anything for this guy in a number of retail Prizm boxes and packs so far this year, so I opted just to grab the parallel I wanted the most -- the one with the right color for his team on this card that should have been found in one of my mega boxes but wasn't. I had an eye on slabbing this one but it has a surface issue that nixed that idea ... so we'll see what happens from here on out. Once new cardboard starts flowing, I'm sure there will be more options out there. Maybe I'll grab and slab one of these ... or maybe something else.
Grab a box right here: 2020 Panini Prizm Draft Picks

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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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: The Last Dance, NFL breaks, Jim Thome's best cards, remembering when, Definitive delivers and "is Babe Ruth really the greatest baseball player ever?" (Yes.)

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With the COVID-19 pandemic erasing pretty much everything in the sports world right now, ESPN's decision to launch The Last Dance early is a jolt of nostalgia that's fueling plenty of extra demand for some already legendary basketball cards from the past.

The eagerly awaited 10-part documentary arrives Sunday night at 9 p.m. Eastern and it tells the story of the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls and their final championship run -- their third title in three years and sixth of that decade. It obviously keys upon the NBA's greatest player of all time and its biggest name on cardboard, Michael Jordan. But he's far from alone as the series will present original and new footage from that season as well as interviews from the players -- both on the court and beyond -- back then. We'll also hear from others from around the league who were on the court or covering the team as it commanded attention, won it all and then was forced to go their separate ways.

For Jordan, that meant a second retirement and return with the Washington Wizards three years later -- we probably won't hear a word about that (call it a hunch) -- but we'll be hearing plenty from many involved every Sunday night (two installments per evening) from here until May 17. If you're a new collector wanting to jump on the Jordan bandwagon it's not going to be easy -- you're about 35 years and 13,000 cards too late -- and the asking prices for many a Jordan gem are though the roof more now than ever. However, if you're a fan who missed some of the historic action back then there are still plenty of ways to dabble in cardboard from The Last Dance as it's ultimately a tale that's not just about Jordan.

Keep reading for 12 ways to explore the cardboard for The Last Dance ... both for Jordan and others who we'll see often every Sunday night.

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If you look closely at the Holo parallels of Scottie Pippen's 2017-18 Donruss Optic Retro Series insert cards, you will see something that's a key in a new lawsuit between Upper Deck and Panini America. 

It's a lawsuit that a lot of collectors are talking about over on the Blowout Forums and the player in the background appears to be Hall of Famer and UD-exclusive player Michael Jordan.

In its trademark infringement suit, Upper Deck alleged that "Panini deliberately altered and manipulated Jordan's image into the background of multiple Panini trading cards in two trading card releases to gratuitously lend on the tremendous international brand equity and goodwill of Michael Jordan who is not only one of the greatest NBA players of all time, but a current NBA owner."

Since Jordan is an exclusive spokesman and endorser to its company, Upper Deck said it's an issue.

"Upper Deck is the only trading card manufacturer that has ever had a license agreement for trading cards with Michael Jordan," its lawsuit states. "Yet, Panini recently willfully interfered with Upper Deck's agreement with Jordan in order to generate illicit profit from his image without Upper Deck's knowledge or consent."

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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: 2019 Topps Garbage Pail Kids We Hate the '90s (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (when available)

Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 192
Base set completion: 
153 of 220 (70 percent)
Duplicates: 0

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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: 2019 Topps Garbage Pail Kids We Hate the '90s (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com

Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 192
Base set completion: 
153 of 220 (70 percent)
Duplicates: 0

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There's a new big name among the first wave of autograph signers for this year's National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.

It's Alex Rodriguez.

Once baseball's highest-paid player, he's a member of the 3,000-hit club and a player who hit 696 home runs during his at times controversial 22-year MLB career with the Mariners, Rangers and Yankees.

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Leaf Trading Cards' latest sports card release arrived in hobby shops on Friday and it includes one of the widest arrays of possible finds -- everything from competitive eaters to Super Bowl kings and even stars from sports movies.

Each box of 2016 Leaf Sports Heroes includes three certified autographs with some of the possible surprises inside also being a 27-autograph card of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and a parallel rainbow that includes five types and printing plates for all cards.

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One of the more comprehensive autograph sets in wrestling card history arrived in hobby shops on Friday packing plenty of power from the past for the WWE, TNA, ECW, NWA, AWA and beyond.

The set is 2016 Leaf Signature Series and it includes eight autographed cards in every box with an array of parallels that help add to the chase that's already pretty intensive.

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Dwayne "Pearl" Washington played just three seasons in the NBA, scoring 1,660 points in 194 career games from 1986-89 with the New Jersey Nets and the Miami Heat.

But he was a legend -- a college legend.

"There was no better guy and there's nobody who has meant more to our basketball program than Dwayne Washington," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

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