What's Buzzing: NFL chatter and pulls, Roki Sasaki, 2025 Topps and more in this Tuesday edition.

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What makes Buzz's Fantastic Four each time? Simple, they're cards or collectable items for names in the headlines -- or from new releases -- that came to mind for this veteran collector. Maybe they're good fits for your collection, too? Let's find out together ... 

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THE SAFE ADDITION ... 
The Card: Patrick Mahomes 2017 Donruss Rookie Card
The Price: A variety of eBay asking prices between base and parallels
Why It’s Buzzworthy: Today's modern card collectors have tons of choices -- it's not like the old days where a player had one, maybe two Rookie Cards in a year. But, if you had to choose which of Mahomes' RCs is the most iconic the simple one, Donruss, might get that nod from many collectors. Today's top QB appeared on roughly 2,000 different cards back in 2017 and that's thanks to plenty of inserts and parallel cards in plenty of releases. Of those, almost 40 qualify as a RC by the standard definition and Donruss -- or maybe its higher-end brother, Optic (at right) -- are arguably the iconic cards where many can afford to chase. If you don't have one, it can be as easy as grabbing a Donruss factory set that guarantees you can land Mahomes -- and everybody else.
The BlowoutCards.com Chase: 2017 Donruss NFL
The BlowoutForums.com Chatter: Mahomes threads

Keep reading for three more items in this roundup ...

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What's Buzzing: Talking college football and NFL, 2025 Topps reactions and more in this Saturday edition.

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What's Buzzing: College football and NFL chatter, 2025 Topps, vintage, Topps Now WWE and more.

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What's Buzzing: The 2025 Topps chatter is strong after a premature release, new pulls, awaiting Hall of Famer results and more in this Thursday edition.

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What: 2024 Topps Diamond Icons baseball cards
Arrives: TBD 2025
Box basics: Nine autographed cards and one Relic per 10-card box (two boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: "One of the most-treasured releases every year from Topps" returns with the same format as previous years but with new players and plenty of hits -- in fact, it's once again nothing but hits.

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

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What: 2024 Panini Three & Two baseball cards
Arrives: Feb. 12, 2025
Box basics: One autographed card and one slabbed memorabilia card per five-card box (10 boxes per case) + same for FOTL with exclusive parallels there
Order: Click here (live soon)

What's buzz-worthy: The third release for this brand delivers young stars and all-time greats all in one premium spot.

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

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What's Buzzing: NFL chatter, a printing plate pulled years later, 2025 Topps and more in this one.

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What's Buzzing: A question from a collector, The Rock signs for a WWE set, NFL chatter and more.

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What's Buzzing: The first 2025 Topps teaser, new pulls, NFL chatter, players with something to prove, players who never got carded.

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What's Buzzing: Active discussions across the board this weekend -- new pulls, MLB, NBA, NFL, WWE and Topps Now in this Sunday edition.

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Your new WWE Women's Champion.

What's Buzzing: It's Tiffy Time, NFL Week 18 chatter, Victor Wembanyama, new pulls, Bobby Witt Jr. and more.

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Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card. Here are some some new oddities in this latest edition of MiLB Madness. 

THIS CARD GOT ... NUKED
The Card: Steve Dalkowski 2009 TRISTAR Obak Autographs (unsigned)
The Buzz On This: This one comes from a set that features a lot of minor-league names you know and others you don't -- and in this case, well, you probably know the type of player (check his real, yet unreal, stats) but not this particular card. The back notes the trivia that gets him here -- click here to learn more in The Buzz Archives -- but that's not why I had to have this. This is the card that was planned for Dalkowski as a certified autograph to go into packs but it was never released. Sheets of this released did get out with this and other cards on them, which were then cut down into singles and I had to have it. I had eyed the sheets for a long time but never bit -- storage is just not as easy with uncut sheets.

Keep reading for more examples of some weird or fun baseball cards you can find in MiLB.

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What's Buzzing: Inside a new WWE case, NFL Week 18, a solid Triple Threads find 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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ICONIC ARRIVAL
The Cards: Caitlin Clark 2024 Panini Instant WNBA (All-Rookie Team) -- Rookie Card (/26,980)
The Price: Whatever a 10-pack cost was from Panini
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: There's no doubt that Clark owned the WNBA in her rookie year and for most of this year her only pro cardboard came via Instant ... but I passed. Why? I figured I'd wait and see what popped up that I liked in packs -- and then when I opened one of her college career boxes I found interesting stuff but not cards all that slab-worthy with the details for cutting and printing. (Too messy for the risk to me.) As an easy slabbing decision, I grabbed a 10-pack of this card within hours of its arrival online. Why? It's clean and simple -- iconic -- and I knew that I'd want one or two of these in a slab with a high mark. How does that happen? Well, you have to have a few to pick from -- to eliminate obvious flaws like centering or corners -- and in this case three of my 10 might get sent in. The rest were too off-centered for my taste. There were plenty of these made so there's no rush, but it'll happen at some point in 2025.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but WNBA cards are here.

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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What's Buzzing: Fun Face isn't done yet, new MLB pulls, a nutty thread, Victor Wembanyama, Topps Heritage and NFL chatter as we work toward the weekend.

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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 ...

THEY'RE BACK ... SOMETIME SOON
The Item: Stranger Things Season 1 Target-exclusive Blu-ray set (2016)
The Reason Bought: How many Netflix series these days get a physical DVD release of any kind? How many get chain store-exclusive variant versions? Not that much of anything TV gets a physical release, really, not at least anywhere near the volumes of the past and that thought, along with the fact that the final season of this franchise is finally dropping sometime this year, got me looking here. I really liked the feel of this DVD set that's made to look like an old 1980s VHS sleeve that's had plenty of wear and tear and I also liked the idea of a graded item with that feel -- one where its actual flaws can blend in well and not stand out as glaring reasons why an item didn't grade higher.
The Grade: CGC 9.4 (A+ seal)

Reality Check: There are definitely other* copies of this one graded, but a pop report doesn't yet appear to be live for CGC Home Video (or it was down when I prepped this) and my number didn't come up on the verification search, either. That's OK for me as slabbed movies and games aren't as high on my radar in slabs as cards and magazines in terms of a "commodity" ... these are more the kind of shelf item with maybe some longer-term potential substance to them. To me they're more of a name-your-price novelty -- and, as an aside, I do like CGC's cases a lot more than others in this realm. This was a relatively cheap addition as well -- less than a lot of retail card boxes -- and over time affordable items can build a collection. One scary part? This is not far away from being 10 years old ... time flies.

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

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What's Buzzing: Behind the scenes with Asuka signing Flawless WWE, new pulls, NFL chatter and ... is Topps Heritage done?

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What's Buzzing: NFL chatter and pondering the MVP, showing off custom card creations, Jayden Daniels and more in this Monday edition.

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What's Buzzing: Collecting goals (new and old), breaking down a Prizm case, the point of prospecting, new pulls, NFL Week 17 and "current players no one is buying right now."

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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: 2024 Topps Holiday baseball cards (tin)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Where to buy: Click here

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery for what was 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 pack: 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter baseball cards (value)
First Buzz preview & checklist: Click here
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (for hobby)

Keep reading for a full breakdown of what was in this one as well as a gallery of highlights.

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What's Buzzing: Collecting Claus cards, reactions to Barry Bonds' upcoming Topps ink, new pulls, NFL chatter and more on fans' minds in today's edition.

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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 boxes: 2024 Topps Holiday baseball cards (tin)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Where to buy: Click here

Why two? Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery for what was in this pairing.

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What's Buzzing: Collecting goals for 2025, pondering what Shohei Ohtani can do next, NFL Week 17, Rickey Henderson and more in this one.

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