Giancarlo who?

That might be the question for some baseball fans -- particularly if they are Chicago White Sox-minded -- after Opening Day as Matt Davidson and his Sox made a little history on Thursday, despite the two-homer debut of that other guy on some team somewhere.

Davidson became just the fourth player in MLB history to hit three home runs on Opening Day and his team tied the MLB record with six longballs on the day as part of a 14-7 win over the Kansas City Royals.

Davidson joins George Bell (1988), Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes (1994) and Dmitri Young (2005) in the Opening Day club, while the only other team to go yard that often was the 1988 New York Mets. The good news here for collectors? Unlike that guy in pinstripes, Davidson's certified autographs are relatively plentiful and available -- and he's been appearing on cards just as long.

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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 returns, big pulls, big trade rumors and more on this (big?) day.

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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 trades (Blake Griffin), big careers (Jaromir Jagr) and big pulls.

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What: 2018 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes baseball cards
Arrives: March 14
Box basics: Five autographs or memorabilia cards per five-pack box (20 boxes per case)

What's buzz-worthy: USA Baseball returns to cardboard with a mix of past and present players' autographs, memorabilia & more.

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

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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: Nothing but breaks ... and that bat knob wasn't even the best card in the box -- check it out.

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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 packs in a dozen hours. We'll post one every hour on the hour all day long today ... this is Hour 6.

The pack: 1985 Topps baseball cello
The cost: $6 

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

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices right now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com is in the midst its Black November sales now.

Wave 6 is here and many of the discounts were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of the boxes and cases -- and here are five boxes/cases that caught this collector’s eye.

2016-17 Panini Threads NBA hobby boxes & cases
Threads is a simple formula but it's a comfortable one with two hits per box -- one autograph and one memorabilia card -- and a feel that's more deluxe than, say, NBA Hoops but still with some of the basics that give it a good collectable feel. (Check out this past break.) You can land ink from the likes of Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony here along with ink from the rookies, too. The memorabilia cards can include Hall of Famers, too, like that past break does, helping offer some extra scope for a price that's now pretty low. It's worth a rip for sure and it leads off this round of picks from this collector.

Keep reading to see more picks from this wave.

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices right now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com is in the midst its Black November sales now.

Wave 5 is here and many of the discounts were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of the boxes and cases -- and here are five boxes/cases that caught this collector’s eye. (And this wave was so big that there could easily be five more ... check it out.)

2016 Panini Absolute Football retail Premium Box
At this sale price, this one is definitely worth checking out since last year's rookie crop is stacked and this one includes two exclusive hits -- one blue auto and one blue memorabilia card -- in every box. This one is a simple retail take on a memorabilia-focused favorite of mine and there could be even more retail-only colors found in boxes, too. If those are big names such as Dak Prescott or Ezekiel Elliott -- or any of the other newcomers that are making a mark -- you're way ahead with this price. Either way, it's a fun rip -- and you can grab it by the case, too. 

Keep reading for a few more picks among this newest wave.

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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: A big collecting question and some big pulls for the weekend.

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If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices right now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com is in the midst its Black November sales now.

Wave 2 is here and many of the discounts were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of the boxes and cases -- and here are five boxes/cases that caught this collector’s eye.

2017 Topps Update Jumbo boxes and cases
This relatively new release is simply a fun one that's stacked with Rookie Cards and moments from the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. This collector has ripped hanger boxes, blaster boxes and standard Hobby boxes and many of them have delivered good volume on those guys named Bellinger, Judge and even on the variations. (They don't have to be rare to be fun.) I haven't studied the jumbo breaks closely, but one auto and two other hits at this price makes for a fun rip -- and if you get lucky you could do pretty well. While this might be a brand that seems somewhat plentiful now, once wax dries up there will be enough key players here to make it of interest later -- and basic Topps flagship RCs seem to be growing in popularity, too.

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What: 2017 Panini Flawless baseball cards
Arrives: June 1
Box basics: Six autos, two memorabilia and two jewel cards per box (two boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here to view

What's buzz-worthy: Flawless returns to the baseball diamond once again with elite names from the past and the biggest names of the present all in one place -- "more All-Stars, legends and superstars than ever before," according to the company.

Keep reading for more info and a full gallery of images released so far.

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What: 2017 Elite Extra Edition baseball cards
Arrives: Dec. 6
Box basics: One autographed Future Threads Silhouette, six-to-seven autographs and two-to-three memorabilia cards per five-pack box (20 boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here to view

What's buzz-worthy: Elite once again arrives with a heavy emphasis on the hits and with case cards that are limited to no more than 999 copies with 10 parallels apiece.

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

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He's had a long road to MLB but he's here -- and at the moment he's under the radar and hot.

He's Oakland A's rookie first baseman Matt Olson and he's got 11 home runs in his last 15 games -- 22 for the year. Olson, 23, was a first-round pick of the A's way back in 2012 and he's delivering so far with a .267 average and all those longballs in just 172 at-bats this season.

That long road? It's even longer when it comes to cardboard.

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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: 2017 Donruss baseball (blaster)
The cost: $19.99 (get hobby here)

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

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If you hadn’t noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices this weekend and for the next week or so over on the mothership and they were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of them.

So much so here's the first of a few "picks" to come in the next few days.

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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.

How can you win one of several boxes we're giving away today? Check out the break -- and keep reading for the contest details.

The box: 2017 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball cards
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 5
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 40
Base set completion: 
29 of 100 (29 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards of note – Royce Lewis, Alex Bregman, Roger Clemens, A.J. Puk, Blake Rutherford, Jake Burger, Jeren Kendall Continue reading →

If you hadn't noticed, there are a number of cases with dramatically discounted prices this weekend over on the mothership and they were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of them.

So much so here are five that caught this collector's eye.

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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 aplenty as we march toward the weekend.

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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: 2017 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball cards
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 5
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 40
Base set completion: 
29 of 100 (29 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Base cards of note – Royce Lewis, Ken Griffey Jr., Jake Burger, Alex Faedo, Brendan McKay, Jeren Kendall, Todd Helton, Alex Bregman

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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: An unbelievable Topps Heritage case, LaVar Ball autos coming today, big pulls from retail and USA Baseball & all the NSCC chatter you can find.

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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: Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge, 2017 Topps Series 2, Superfractors, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Aaron Judge and Aaron Judge. (Something like that.)

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If you want the newest baseball cards of the newest MLB draft picks, then you should probably pick up a box of 2017 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball cards.

Why?

USA Baseball sets from Panini America are among your best bets for finding players taken in the MLB Draft -- 16 of the 30 first-rounders last night were USA alums -- and you'll find No. 1 draft pick Royce Lewis inside this year's boxes along with No. 2 pick Hunter Greene and many others.

Thanks to other past USA releases and Perfect Game products from Leaf Trading Cards, just five of this year's first-rounders don't appear on officially licensed cardboard from a major manufacturer. (One of those five has a collegiate team-issued card ... so there's something official for fans to chase.)

Buzz recapped the draft in real time last night on Twitter and here are those images and a bit more -- keep reading for a rundown of basics on the entire first round.

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First Bowman Chrome autos, Topps Heritage autos and Rookie Cards in general for key players seem to be powering sales of wax boxes most generally these days for Major League Baseball.

Those shouldn't be too surprising, but in a world of seemingly countless options with autographs, serial-numbering or memorabilia pieces one could argue that less is more --- that oldschool simplicity is back.

And one could argue that the basic Rookie Cards from a hobby staple such as Topps Update (or Topps Traded if you're oldschool) continue to be an emerging go-to -- and not just for players such as Mike Trout, whose 2011 Topps Update card is a ridiculous seller if in top condition and still pretty impressive if just in a lesser slab.

Perhaps it's just a gut feeling with the arrival of 2017 Topps Update previewing last week and its date now known on the release calendar -- but the old Topps Traded sets of the 1980s and even recent years of Topps Update also seem like fertile collecting ground, too, especially if you're into graded specimens.

Here's a year-by-year rundown of notable Rookie Cards from past Traded and Update sets ...

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Which card do you chase when there's a player on a hot streak and emerging from the pack -- but when he doesn't have much ink?

This collector would lean toward the earliest.

That player is Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Robbie Ray, and he's a guy who posted an 8-15 record last season -- but with 218 strikeouts, a mark that was fourth-best in the National League.

This year?

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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: Albert Pujols, busting Pro Debut, chasing Stantons, ripping USA Baseball, The Walking Dead & more.

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