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

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MY BEAR NECESSITY
The Item: Paul "Bear" Bryant autographed & dated/inscribed (Oct. 18, 1976) 8-by-10 photo (BAS authenticated)
The Price: $219 ... high for me but it's the perfect item for me
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This was a jaw-dropper of a find for me during a random search of Mill Creek Sports' superstore for autographed stuff earlier this year and I've saved it for football season, specifically this month, to present it and tell its story. It's personalized and that makes it perfect for me this time ... and to top that, the signed date -- the legendary Alabama Crimson Tide football coach and football icon who won 323 games dated everything signed like this -- might as well be on Buzz's actual birthday. (It's close ... close enough.) The odds of this existing or one being signed on my actual birthday? Well, I'm sure there were a number of things to sign on this Monday and I'm also very sure he wasn't sitting down to sign requests on a gameday when I kicked things off in the world. So, this is perhaps as close as it can get. The quality and condition of the photo are perfect and the ink is perfectly legible, too. Now, is his autograph really rare? Not particularly, but he died in January 1983 well before sit-down and paid signing sessions were en vogue for sports legends and he's still in high, historic demand despite Nick Saban equaling him and/or re-writing the Alabama record book in more recent years. It's the perfect item at a perfect price and it will always be mine.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but football cards are here.

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Sometimes, you just have to know where to look.

A long-time Detroit-area collector's treasures -- a mix of in-person autographs and pick-ups from the 1980s and early 1990s that were part of a private "sports museum" -- are all up for grabs right now in the Block Auction House "Autographed Sports Memorabilia Auction: Icons of Baseball, Football, Basketball & More."

The selection of 450 lots from the Ferndale, Mich.-based company is live for the next six days. It includes a number of autographs from the Score Board days and many other signing sessions in the years before Upper Deck Authenticated and other companies arrived with stickered/databased sigs. Some top items do have BAS Signature Review and some have UDA stickering, though the collection as a whole might make for some bargain shopping/flipping if buyers later get pieces full third-party authentication. (A number of these lots are simply Score Board pieces where the certificate is no longer a companion to the item.)

Keep reading for a gallery of a few pieces that are live now.

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What: 2025 Topps Tier One baseball cards
Arrives: Sept. 17
Box basics: Two autos and one Relic per four-card box (12 boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here (live soon)

What's buzz-worthy: A new year of Tier One arrives soon with "no fluff, just hits" -- and with one base card in there each time, too, as it delivers "serious weight" as part of what Topps says is "a high-end dive into the heart of the hobby."

Keep reading for more as well as a gallery of images.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading ... so here's this month's grading diary.

NINES ARE FINE
The Card: Aaron Judge 2017 Topps Archives -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: The unique 1960 Topps design always stands out to me. Why? Because one of my first clean vintage cards as a kid was a Gus Bell form the set, which I got since I knew he was a big-leaguer's dad. (Yay, trivia!) So that's perhaps one reason I held this Judge RC instead of letting it go. (Plus, I didn't rip as much of this brand ... so it was the only copy I pulled.) Judge's dominating 2025 season should make you stop and wonder about slabbing any RCs or early/rare stuff you have now ... just because. He and Shohei Ohtani are all-timers playing right in front of our faces now and are as safe as it gets when it comes to grab and slab or buy and hold -- even with plenty of their cards being graded.
The Grade: CGC 9

Reality Check: I knew this wouldn't be a 10 contender with the finicky stock here and the centering being a smidge off by my typical standards for a slab, but, like I said, it was my only copy. Most check in at this grade, so the nine makes sense, too, and the volume below it also shows this card isn't the easiest to grade.

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

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What: 2025 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Grand Slam baseball memorabilia
Arrives: Oct. 1
Box basics: One autographed baseball jersey, one autographed baseball, one autographed bat and one encapsulated autographed item per case
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: TRISTAR's autographed baseball chase lineup goes high-end with this one that guarantees a variety of items and plenty of possibilities from the past and present.

What's the biggest of them all this year? Keep reading for details on those and a gallery of what's in this one.

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Simply put, this one is all about the best of the best.

Baseball's global icon and living legend Ichiro Suzuki takes his spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame later this month in Cooperstown, N.Y., and just one piece of all that's to come with his history-making day is Baseball America's special issue that's precision-crafted with a little bit of everything inside when it comes to Japan's greatest player and an icon among the elite in MLB history.

The Ichiro Baseball America Hall of Fame Commemorative is 50 pages of full-bleed retrospective splendor that showcases all of the memorable moments, rarely seen photographs, historic analysis, other memories and stories from yesteryear, thoughts from opposing pitchers and, of course, it's even got some baseball cards inside.

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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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RETRO RECORD-HOLDER
The Card: Roger Maris 2014 Panini Classics Home Run Heroes Jerseys (/25)
The Price: $30
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I ponied up a little bit for this one vs. my typical range for Maris mem cards since it's a rarer card, has a material (jersey/pants) swatch vs. a bat and is from a brand that packed a lot of potential for big names back in the day. Yet, at the same time, that price was a bargain. Yes, its centering is just slightly off, but otherwise it's clean -- that errant spot on the right side is part of the printed design on all cards here. It was an easy addition for a player I collect and pick off stuff for a few times a year. Those top corners are really clean on this one, which might not always be the case with those bold colors.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but MLB cards are here.

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What: 2025 Onyx Preferred Players Baseball Collection autographed baseballs
Arrives: June 13
Box basics: One signed baseball per box (three boxes per case; 12 boxes per master case)
Final player checklist: TBD
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: This MLBPA-approved product hits the diamond once again with some big surprises in store and a roster of young names who are in demand as well as legends of the game.

Keep reading for more info and a checklist.

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What: 2025 Leaf Lumber baseball cards
Arrives: August
Box basics: Four premium hits (at least one autograph) per box (10 boxes per case)
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Leaf's bats-focused brand arrives with some of the biggest and most-outrageous booklet cards in baseball card history with members of the 3,000 Hit Club, 500 Home Run Club and more inside some of them -- and not just their bat pieces, either.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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What: 2025 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Autographed Baseball Photos
Arrives: July 30
Box basics: One autographed photo per pack (15 packs per display)
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: TRISTAR's autographed mystery memorabilia line offers up a round of signed baseball photos with some big chases in the mix, too, for this release timed to arrive at this year's National Sports Collectors Convention.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading ... so here's this month's grading diary.

STARTING ON A SERIOUS NOTE ...
The Card: Will Ferrell 2015 Topps Archives Will Ferrell Inserts
The Reason Graded: Back in 2015 this comedy legend took to the field for 10 MLB teams and played 10 positions in a single day of real spring training action -- you can see his stats here -- as part of a project with a charity component called Ferrell Takes The Field. Collectors ended up chasing his autographs on 10 different cards in Archives that year -- roughly one per hobby case if I remember correctly -- but, alas, I went 0-for-1 there before those boxes got too pricy and/or vanished ... but I did hit the blasters. There, the regular Ferrell inserts were found one per box -- at least until all of those boxes disappeared, too. It's been a decade since this publicity stunt took place (March 12, 2015), so I figured we could start this new MLB season here on a serious note. These aren't his only cards -- he popped up a few times that year -- but this was the first set and this was the first card -- and one for my team.
The Grade: CGC 10

Reality Check: There's a small volume of stuff slabbed for this card -- roughly all cards here have no more than 10 slabbed copies across the entire set -- and this is among the top marks. This card has full-bleed back edges in bright blue just like in 1965 Topps and when I saw how clean this card was, well, it was a no-brainer. I previously slabbed one elsewhere years ago and this copy will go well with that and a slab of the same photo used on a magazine cover that ended up on a show promo card. A lot of those who likely weren't collecting back then seem to be interested here as asking prices can be steep -- raw or graded -- for Ferrell stuff.

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

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What: 2025 Historic Autographs Uniques Cut Signature Edition trading cards
Arrives: April 24
Box basics: Two encased 1/1 cut autographs per box (16 boxes per case)
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Historic Autographs brings nothing but ink of the cut variety in this one every time ... and there will sometimes be more to find inside its cards, too.

Keep reading for more information.

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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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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading, so here's this month's grading diary.

CLOSE TO PERFECT
The Card: Shohei Ohtani 2018 Topps -- Rookie Card
The Reason Graded: Ohtani's historic 2024 season had me assessing all of my cards from my 2018 stash -- mostly lower-end stuff that's heavily graded -- but not graded by me. Why? I don't grade the heavily submitted stuff because a lesser mark wouldn't be as worthy of going through the process and, really, in most instances a card can always be found already graded if it's needed. But, with his 50-50 season being so big, I opted to slab a few basics and this is one that made the cut. The stock used in 2018 is almost as thin as it gets and all that dark ink definitely showcases flaws, but I picked a pair of cards I thought were perfect from my stash and sent them in.
The Grade: CGC 10

Reality Check: I don't know where I missed a perfect mark here but I'll still take a 10 ... less than half check in there and I think it's really harder than that -- people are examining their stuff harder before sending them in. The fact that these have checked in as low as a seven show how this one isn't easy sledding when it comes to slabbing. And as for my perfect aspirations? Well, it doesn't exist.

Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and 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: 2023 Topps Heritage baseball cards (mega)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (a few formats)
First Buzz preview & checklist: Click here

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

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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 Heritage High Number baseball cards (monster box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
First Buzz preview, SPs & checklist: Click here

Keep reading for a breakdown of what was in this one ...

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What's Buzzing: NFL Week 15, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, a big pull, allegedly fake patch cards and pondering 2025 Topps.

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What: 2024 Topps Luminaries baseball cards
Arrives: Jan. 3, 2025
Box basics: One encased autograph or autographed Relic card per box (six boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here (live soon)

What's buzz-worthy: This high-end line returns for an eighth time with every card a hit as it celebrates stars from the past and present via traditional autos/Relics and booklet cards.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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What's Buzzing: Bowman Draft has 'em talking, NFL Week 10, a completed vintage project and more in this Thursday edition.

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What: 2024 Onyx Rips Baseball Collection baseball cards
Arrives: Nov. 29
Box basics: Five autos per 16-pack box (six boxes per case)
Checklist: See below
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Onyx ends the year with a new line that includes base cards, autographs of NIL standouts, current prospects as well as recent stars and Hall of Famers -- and also cut signatures for a number of legends from the past.

Keep reading for more info and a gallery of images.

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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 AIR UP THERE ...
The Card: Michael Jordan 2009 Goodwin Champions
The Reason Graded: This is one I pulled from a pack of this Ginter-style rival throwback brand back when it arrived, and it's got an obviously appropriate background for Air Jordan. It's that simple touch (and it being a dunk shot) that makes this card -- in all its versions -- in some demand. This one had been in my "maybe grade" pile for literally years and I finally worked it into a bulk sub since the NBA season is here.
The Grade: CGC 10

Reality Check: It checked in higher than I had expected, though I tend to punt cards where the centering is just slightly off ... but those can still land a 10 like this one did. Ultimately I was good with any mark as, for me, this is more of a novelty slab -- about the only Jordan collecting I do is his baseball stuff. Interestingly, most copies of this card have checked in here -- that's surprising to me -- but with that overall volume still low that could change easily with time.

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

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What: 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards
Arrives: Oct. 30
Box basics: Three hits in every 24-pack hobby box (12 boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Allen & Ginter arrives once again -- this time after the season -- with all the eccentricities, plenty of baseball players and a new retro design based on some of the 1880s tobacco card designs that helped bring some of the first baseball cards to the masses long, long ago.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of 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 ... and this time there's a bit of everything in there.e--

FINALLY FOUND A FISTOGRAPH ???
The Card: Otis 2021 Topps WWE Undisputed Fistographs (/25)
The Price: About two Prizm WWE blasters (plus tax)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This box-topper from Topps' best release not named Transcendent back in its WWE days was not a regular kind of find. These days some of these are expensive and some are not, but the ones I'd want tend to have more dollars attached. While this literal big star -- a power and comedy guy -- isn't really on my radar, this was as a perfect example to own one of these cards for any name when I found it on the cheap. Now, what is it? If you haven't figured that out, that's a print from his right hand balled into a fist dipped in what looks like some light black paint and then pushed onto the card. The thumb touch blends in with his hand in the photo a bit but the rest is obvious, and it's a unique kind of card for a fighter.
Grab a box right here: Click for WWE cards

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What's Buzzing: Aaron Judge, Chrome basketball opinions and pulls, NFL chatter, Caitlin Clark and more.

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What: 2024 TRISTAR Signature Series Live Edition
Arrives: Sept. 27
Box basics: Four autographed item per case
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: TRISTAR's Signature Series vault-style big box is back with a wide array of sports finds all in one spot and with four items in every box.

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