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: Joe Namath 2015 Topps 60th Anniversary Rookie Reprint Autographs #T60RAJN
The Reason Graded: Buzz first met this NFL legend almost 20 years ago and landed the ink for free thanks to some luck while autograph hounding but when it comes to certified autographs of this icon I didn't have any until recent years. Why? He's always been a pricey auto but that has come down a bit as he's been a steady signer and doesn't have quite as much hobby heat as the guy at the end of this month's list. This release was how Topps burned off its Hall of Famer autographs via packs on its website once its NFL deal was done, so the influx of big-name autos helped make the supply even stronger at the time perhaps without added demand. I scouted them all where I buy and this one looked near-perfect to me in both its centering and that ink. Seriously, look at that signature ... that's a perfect Namath auto.
The Grade: BGS 9.5/10

Reality Check: I absolutely thought I had a BGS 10 contender with this one, though I submitted it before I picked up my better loupe and I probably didn't check the back as closely as I should have. Either way, it's still a very solid card in my stash. I don't grade autographs all that often -- I fear results I won't like on those -- but this one I had to. Most of them landed this grade with only one higher so I don't feel bad about not landing a 10.

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

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This year's National Sports Collectors Convention is nearly here -- it's set for July 31-Aug. 4 in Chicago with a strong roster of autograph guests ready to sign for collectors who get a ticket and get in line for their moment beyond the ballpark.

Some signers are free if you attend the VIP reception on opening day of the show or buy a VIP ticket package -- a bonus for taking the time to hit every day of the show -- but other signers will take some planning to land the ones you want.

It's tough to see everything at The National -- it's that big -- and the time it takes to work through autograph lines is valuable in that it impedes your shot at seeing it all. With that said, here are my picks -- one per day plus a bonus pick this year -- to grab off the autograph list. (Keep reading for the full signers list in a gallery ... and, remember, times are always subject to change.)

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He had a day ... but his team still lost.

Carolina Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey dominated in two ways on Sunday with 17 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown and a nearly league-leading 11 catches for 112 and another touchdown but the only wins went out to fantasy league owners who started him as the Seahawks won it 30-27.

He's probably not the top hobby guy on the team, but here might still be bargains out there for McCaffrey, whose Rookie Cards and debut autos can be found in 2017 boxes. That may not last with more games like this one. >> Check out his autos on eBay

>> Click here to shop for football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.

Keep reading for more guys who generated some buzz on the field this week.

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Note: A break from The National coverage for this month's Making the Grade as Buzz preps to be at the show later today. Look for plenty more from Cleveland here soon.

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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 ...

Continue reading →

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 ...

Continue reading →

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 pack: 1974 Topps football cello
The cost: $5 (Really.)

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

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If you're a long-time reader of The Buzz, then you've seen this card before, but with the Super Bowl last night in Minneapolis there was a reason for it to hit The Buzz's Twitter Machine, too.

It's a 1992 Pro Line Profiles card for Hall of Famer Howie Long, and it was among the few tweets in an 11-hour marathon for Super Bowl LII last night simply because of the tree-climbing kid on the right.

Why? That's Eagles defensive end Chris Long, who was roughly six years old at the time of this family portrait that made its way to cardboard -- and that's far from the only piece of trivia here.

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Jon Gruden's return to the Oakland Raiders looks to be a pricey one when it comes next week -- a mere 10-year contract worth close to $100 million.

One thing the former coach turned analyst turned coach again might not be doing anytime soon after signing that massive deal, though, is signing autographs for card companies -- but thankfully for collectors he's already got a heavy volume of ink out there (at least for a coach) from more than a decade ago if they want one.

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Collectors often bemoan the use of sticker autographs, but there are times where their use can create some cardboard that otherwise could not exist.

The card above is one of those times.

It's a 2017 Panini Absolute Football Hall of Fame Jersey Signatures card of Ken Stabler and just 49 copies of this one will arrive in packs of Absolute Football beginning next week. It notes Snake's Hall of Fame status (he was inducted last summer) and it includes a piece of a game-used jersey as well as his signature.

Why is this card special?

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Bo was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s as a college football star, a professional baseball and football star and a marketing star. Everybody knew his name and they still know why.

And then suddenly one day it was gone.

Sure, Vincent Edward Jackson played some baseball after his final NFL game -- that hip injury was 26 years ago tomorrow -- but he was never the same. And in an interview today he had a different take on his career.

"If I knew back then what I know now," he told USA TODAY Sports, "I would have never played football. Never. I wish I had known about all of those head injuries, but no one knew that. And the people that did know that, they wouldn’t tell anybody."

His career as a pro -- in both sports -- lasted less than a decade but he's easily one of the biggest icons of his time. It's a story worth checking out if you missed it and it's worth revisiting if you didn't.

Here, though, we simply have one bit of curiosity presented below.

[polldaddy poll=9634961]

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy cards on BlowoutCards.com

We're down to the last 12 NFL teams and that means we have just one question for the remainder of the football calendar.

[polldaddy poll=9625420]

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to shop for football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.

Panini Instant has welcomed two more teams into the NFL playoffs.

Joining the previously released Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks team sets are 25-card releases for the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders.

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A number of championship rings, awards and game balls from the career of a Hall of Fame quarterback are headed to the auction block in January.

George Blanda's 26-year career as a quarterback and kicker included three AFL championships and a league MVP award -- and the spoils of those successes will be sold via Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based SCP Auctions. 

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While there might be a quarterback controversy brewing in The Big D, there's no doubting who the top RB is for the Dallas Cowboys after a 30-17 win over the Dolphins on Sunday.

It's Ezekiel Elliott and his 134-yard, two-touchdown day has cemented him as one of the front-runners among rookies this season -- on a historic level, too.

According to Elias, his 546 rushing yards this season are the fifth-best total in NFL history for the first five games of a player's career. The only better starts are Eric Dickerson (645 yards), Adrian Peterson (607), Todd Gurley (575) and Billy Sims (560). That's not bad company -- and that's good news for Elliott's cardboard given how Gurley looked last year.

>> Click here to shop for football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.

Keep reading for more guys who generated some buzz on the field this week.

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The Atlanta Falcons' 48-33 win over the reigning NFC champs on Sunday had plenty of offensive fireworks, but two players stood above the rest. Matt Ryan's 503 passing yards and four TDs were impressive but what was even more impressive is that Julio Jones was responsible for 300 of them.

Jones' 12-catch day came 37 yards short of setting an NFL record for most receiving yards in a game with his 300 being the sixth-best game in league history. Willie "Flipper" Anderson set the mark with 336 in a game against the Saints back in 1989.

Not a bad day ... especially for a guy who hasn't signed a heavy amount of autographs in his six years as a pro.

>> Click here to shop for football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.

Keep reading for more guys who generated some buzz on the field this week.

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The recent Ken Stabler Career Collection sale via Pristine Auction was one on my collecting radar from the second it was teased and on my mind until the final gavel came down earlier this month.

Simply put, I had to have something.

Why? Stabler wasn't the first NFL player I ever met -- he was probably the second -- and I had his autograph a dozen times from various appearances where I played autograph hound in the past, but I knew I had met someone unique every time I ran into him. I knew that the MVP awards and the game-used items would be out of my reach. I knew that the game balls would be scooped up by serious collectors just like many of the odd mementos in the auction that included everything from wedding photos to belt buckles, cowboy hats and mix tapes.

But I knew I had to have something.

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Earlier this month the late Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame but this past weekend the treasures from that career entered the hands of collectors around the world.

The auction of "Snake" Stabler's personal collection of memorabilia via Pristine Auction ended on Sunday night with one six-figure item that didn't reach its reserve and many others of note. In all, the auction generated nearly $200,000 in sales.

The priciest item was his 1976 Hickok Belt Award for Professional Athlete of the Year (above), which reached $107,427.60. It's an honor that was awarded the final time with Stabler's win and this is the first copy of the award to hit the open market. It's an 18K gold belt buckle with a three-carat diamond, a three-carat ruby, a three-carat sapphire and 26 diamond chips totaling 5.5 carats.

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More than 450 lots of memorabilia from the collection of a former Alabama Crimson Tide and Oakland Raiders great are headed into collectors' hands soon as they are now on the auction block.

Trophies, game-used memorabilia and more from the collection of Ken Stabler, who will be posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 6, are up for grabs after his family decided to part with them. "Snake" died in July 2015 after a brief battle with colon cancer.

"In honoring Ken Stabler’s requests, his family has chosen to make items from his personal career collection available to the fans of Mr. Stabler’s career through Pristine Auction," read a release from the Phoenix-based company. "It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ... to obtain a piece of sports memorabilia owned by legendary Oakland Raiders quarterback and 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Ken Stabler."

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There are many sports cards sets out there from the past that aren't valuable in the financial way at all but they can carry some intrinsic quality that should just resonate with some collectors anyway.

Maybe it's just because Buzz ripped these packs in the past -- or maybe because they are just so much more different than anything made in the years since -- but one set that feels that way for me is 1992 Pro Line Portraits. It's a football card set that's simple -- portraits on the front -- and oddly non-statistical with thoughts from the person on the back. Most are football players, but some are players' wives and others are celebrities who have a fondness for the game. One of those people, for example, is Muhammad Ali and you can see his Team NFL insert card (No. 1 in the set) above. The biggest draw of these back then? There was an autographed card guaranteed in every box.

For a simple Sunday item -- call it a Sunday Six -- here's a look at six fun cards from the product.

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The biggest driver on football cards these days is the Rookie Card and now that the regular season is over most of those big-name newcomers are done for the year.

So, naturally, that makes us wonder who get the Rookie of the Year nod? We'll focus on offense since it matters the most when it comes to cards. (On defense Buzz thinks it will probably go to Kansas City's Marcus Peters, who tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions and two TDs.)

But on offense it's not as easy.

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