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 ...

MAMI'S HOME ...
The Card: Rhea Ripley 2020 Topps Chrome WWE Gold Refractor Autographs (/50) -- rookie-year auto
The Reason Graded: I picked up this one a few years ago for a pretty modest price -- about the price of a box back then -- and since then Ripley has emerged as the top name among a newer wave of stars who, barring injuries, should be helping redefine women's wrestling for some time. I had this one in my get-graded stacks for a long time as I don't often slab up auto cards -- I don't like surprises -- but I did it on this one and a standard auto earlier this year since they looked quite clean.
The Grade: CGC 10 (Pristine) with 10 auto

Reality Check: As good as it gets and this card is a monster as it is. A raw copy pushed $500 not that long ago and a PSA 9 sold for that much as well earlier this year. A perfect 10 absolutely works for me on this one ... it's the best color here if you ask me, too.

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 ...

The Card: Kobe Bryant 1996-97 Upper Deck #58 Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: I actually bought this card more than a year ago and thought I had it waiting in my stash of cards to present here at some point but, after doing some searching, realized that I never took a photo of this iconic 1990s card and it had been waiting for its time to appear. Unfortunately, we know why this NBA legend has been on the minds of many sports fans out there this week so here we are. I picked up this Rookie Card back then since it was a decent grade for a decent price -- just $9 -- and I didn't ever pull one way back when. It doesn't have any obvious flaws on the front, so it looks much better than its grade, too. (Sub-grades on the back of this slab are all 9 or higher except for an 8.5 on corners and one corner shows why.) The shocking news of this week has created a frenzy of interest for Bryant's RCs and autographs -- and a card in this same grade (not an elite grade, really) sold for $200. Mine will remain in my stash.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: The pop report on this card is a lot stiffer than I had expected with this being the most-common grade and fewer than 600 checking in higher. I had expected there to be more but I suspect the pop reports on this card could change a lot in the coming months -- and it will be interesting to see if any ever reach BGS Black status. Bryant has a number of RCs -- more than 20 -- and this one is unique in that it doesn't show him in his Lakers uniform. The debate as to whether Bryant's cards will hold values in comparison to what people are paying right now is an interesting one over on the Blowout Forums where there are a number of discussions. I think this is a scenario that may defy common collecting logic -- I'd think that anything is possible in this case and there are a lot of buyers right now who will pick up cards and stash them away forever, leaving a smaller volume of stuff available for everyday collectors to grab on eBay and other market hot spots. Finding unopened boxes won't be an option for a lot of his Rookie Cards that people want to track down, either.

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

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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. 

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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: Dak Prescott 2016 Donruss #362 Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: It takes a pretty good deal for one of my buys to lead off here instead of one of my newly submitted grades, but this one was just that. This is one of those cards that is relatively available if you want to chase one down and slab it for some fun or profit. My cost? About $22, which might seem high generally speaking but isn't for its grade -- this was about half the price of the other cards in the same grade where I was looking at the time. They are even higher now.
The Grade: BGS 10

Reality Check: This one is just a half-grade away from a perfect BGS Black slab and the percentage of cards to get this mark is pretty low vs. the overall total. That's what surprised me here more and prompted the pick-up. It's a relatively heavily graded card, too, which you'd think would have resulted in more 10s. (Paper stock can be more pesky than Optic stuff when it comes to grading, though.)

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

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There were almost as many runs scored in Saturday's London Series game as there are Topps Now baseball cards today.

They're not all from the game that the New York Yankees won 17-13 over the Boston Red Sox but a number of them are, including Relics from two English icons who got VIP access at the game and gifts from both teams, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. 

It's not the first time that public figures have been in the mix -- a Chicago Cubs White House visit in 2016 comes to mind -- but it just might be the first where a Relic is involved. A 29-card day also just might be a record for the real-time cardboard program.

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Have you seen the latest crazy 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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THE ROYAL WEDDING'S BIGGEST CARD
The Item: 2012 Cryptozoic Fringe Seasons 1-2 Autographs Meghan Markle
The Price: $999 (or best offer)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Beginning tomorrow, this American actress will potentially be known as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex as she's marrying into England's Royal Family. This is one of just a handful of trading card appearances for her in this Fringe set and this once was a relatively inexpensive signature. Now? It's pricey and a number of people will undoubtedly be interested in these cards as the international spotlight will be all over the story of how she's ended up the bride and everything that entails tomorrow. Members of the Royal Family are not permitted to sign autographs, so there won't be more to come on that front.
Similar Pieces: Other copies of this card on eBay
The BlowoutCards.com Hunt: Click here for non-sports cards

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

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The Royal Wedding has some cardboard to go with it.

Topps revealed its plans for a 20-card Royal Wedding set on Wednesday, a 20-card Topps On Demand release that will initially only be sold via the company's website for a limited time.

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The Royal Family is coming to the toy aisle as Funko Pop! toys.

The Everett, Wash.-based company revealed its plans for Great Britain's elite -- a heavily collected group -- to be found as toys beginning in February.

There are seven toys in this first wave called Pop! Royals and they arrive in advance of the latest royal wedding in May.

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Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today's your day then as we launch 12 in 12 -- a series of a dozen breaks of past wax boxes and wax packs in a dozen hours. We'll post one every hour on the hour all day long today ... this is Hour 1.

The box: 2012 Cryptozoic Fringe Seasons 1 & 2 (hobby)
The cost: $45 only because of lucky hunting (If available now: BlowoutCards.com)

What's inside this one? Keep reading ...

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The next member of Britain's Royal Family was confirmed today across the pond and there's already one autographed card -- and one card only -- that is the one to chase with the news.

American actress Meghan Markle is now engaged to Prince Harry and she's got just one card appearance from the past that matters right now.

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