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 Stars of MLB Network baseball cards
Where to buy: Will take some looking ... Click here for MLB boxes

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

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Ichiro Suzuki’s 2001 MLB arrival didn’t just change the game on the field — he helped feed growing international demand for baseball cards via plenty of new premium brands that helped pave the way for the ultra-deluxe stuff of today.

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A legendary career and baseball journey on two continents makes its final stop this month in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Hall of Fame and there’s a lot that can be said about that in several directions. 

Ichiro Suzuki changed the game with his arrival in MLB, eschewing the longball in favor of speed and hits — lots and lots of hits. But, “hits” are also the story of all those years when it comes to baseball cards with the prized rarities found in packs with autographs on them — or pieces of memorabilia in them — being an unstoppable force in those years. 

Of course, hits didn’t start with the Japanese star’s arrival, but many of his cards in sets alongside another now-legendary 2001 rookie, Albert Pujols, helped change the cardboard world even faster. Demand for their stuff prompted several new brands from several companies making MLB cards back then to try new things, capitalizing on their new stars who could move packs and boxes of cards -- just like they could move players around the bases and move butts into seats to watch games. One could argue that 2001 was in part a big piece in the evolution of what we see in today’s sports card landscape -- a focus on rarities with small print runs and with premium prices that weren’t like the wax paper-wrapped pocket-change treasures of not that many years before. 

Now, what’s to come here is absolutely not a definitive list of top cards — and it’s not one purely based on volatile values or one limited solely to Rookie Cards. Why? There’s a lot to choose from for Suzuki on all fronts — there could be several ways to take on this challenge. He has more than 50 different Rookie Cards between his 1993 Nippon Professional Baseball and 2001 Major League Baseball debuts (depending on how you want to argue about RC definitions) and he had roughly 500 cards in 2001 alone. Many of them are rarer cards where it is impossible to own them all thanks to small print runs and rare serial-numbered versions. 

In all, he appears on more than 19,000 different cards made over the years between NPB and MLB -- and even though his playing career ended in 2019 his cardboard career has not. He’s got a place in the game in seemingly every new baseball card set on the way and that figures to be the story for the rest of cardboard eternity. He’s not just a Hall of Famer … he’s an international icon.

Here’s a small sampling of 25 Ichiro Suzuki cards that are both fun and notable.

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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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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: New pulls, MLB chatter, inside a new draft picks box, PMG pumping, Marvin Harrison Jr. and a monster piece of memorabilia to come to auction soon.

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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: NFL and college football chatter, World Baseball Classic cards, Superfractors and more.

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What: 2023 Topps World Baseball Classic baseball cards
Arrives: Dec. 20
Box basics: One autograph or autographed Relic per 10-card box (12 boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here (when available)

What's buzz-worthy: The World Baseball Classic helped start the baseball year and now it's one of the releases that will help close out the cardboard year, too

Keep reading for more and 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: Scouting Black November, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, pondering Hall of Famers, NFL Week 12 and more.

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What: 2023 Topps Finest baseball cards
Arrives: July 7
Box basics: One auto per six-pack mini box with two minis per master (eight masters per case)
Checklist: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Finest arrives for another summer with the same format as past years but with a new design, new players and some World Baseball Classic nods in the mix.

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 ... 

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ONLY 40 MORE OUT THERE ... 
The Cards: Rhea Ripley 2020 Topps Transcendent WWE (/50) -- Rookie Card
The Price: More than I'll admit
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: Not all 10 of these are totally new pick-ups -- I showed off five of them awhile back right here in this series -- but with this run of super-premium RCs I wanted to show them off all together. It's not often that I have been able to track down 20 percent of a print run -- especially in a brand that carried such a massive price tag -- or, well, really even tried except for maybe my PC player. But, last year I made an effort to start amassing them and I'm not done yet. How many more might I grab? Depends on availability and price -- I can think of four I have missed on recently but things could slow here as I'm not going to overpay more than I did to get this far. If you don't know, Ripley is the new Smackdown women's champ after a classic win over Charlotte Flair at Mania and could be the title-holder on both shows at some point ... and since she's young she's got plenty of time to do even more in WWE barring any injuries. Her 2020 Rookie Cards and autographs should be worth a look ... raw or slabbed.
Grab a box right here: BlowoutCards.com for other WWE cards

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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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: A classic finish at the World Baseball Classic, picking MLB's breakout stars in 2023, inside new boxes, new cases and more.

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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: Randy Arozarena dazzles but Japan spoils all that in the World Baseball Classic, new pulls, more MLB chatter, an NFL collecting goal and more.

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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: Celebrity ink and non-sports chatter, World Baseball Classic updates, hobby pet peeves, Corbin Carroll and more.

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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: World Baseball Classic chatter, MLB and NFL breaks, Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe, UFC ... and "whose career will the Panthers ruin?"

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What: 2023 Topps World Baseball Classic Global Stars baseball cards
Arrives: Live now via Topps
Pack basics: 20 cards per pack (autographs every third box)
Checklist: Click here
Order: Via Topps.com; Click here (when available)

What's buzz-worthy: The World Baseball Classic gets a standalone in-pack release that showcases stars from around the world, includes plenty of parallels and offers up ink as well -- though not in every pack.

Keep reading for more info and a gallery for this one.

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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: NFL offseason and MLB spring training chatter, new NBA and MB breaks, the World Baseball Classic and "Who signed the Jarren Duran Five Star redemption autographs?"

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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: Shohei Ohtani puts on a World Baseball Classic show, Shawn Kemp, Hidden Gems and more in today's edition.

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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: Chewing on 2023 Topps, the World Baseball Classic, slabbing some MiLB classics, NFL redemption packs, deactivated slabs and NBA chatter 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 just might be to rip fewer boxes this year 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 that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ... and this time around there's a bit of everything but more on the affordable side.

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MONSTER YEAR, SIMPLE ROOKIE CARD
The Card: Derrick Henry 2016 Donruss Rookie Card (BGS 9.5)
The Price: $9
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I made this pick-up just before he started his recent run of big games mostly because it seemed underpriced for the grade, which is a solid quad 9.5. Interestingly, just 25 copies of this card have been slabbed and nothing has checked in below this mark. It makes me think you could pick off a factory set at a pretty cheap price if you want to dabble with grading key cards here -- and there are a few where you could do pretty well with some 9.5s or 10s. About that price ... one of the other 9.5s had an asking price of $40 on eBay when I looked. Sure, the action here is heavier on Optic, ink and rarer parallels, but simple RCs of affordable sets seem to be go-to cards for more and more people these days.
Grab a box right here: 2016 Donruss (several formats)

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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There could be a new slugger on his way to MLB from Japan -- and you might already have some of his baseball cards.

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo will posted by his team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, soon and that means MLB teams will have a shot at signing him. He's a guy who has hit 139 homers in the last four years -- his best season being 2016 when he hit .322 with 44 homers and 110 RBI.

Thanks to the World Baseball Classic, he's already got a few baseball cards that have been found in past Topps packs -- and, of course, he has BBM cards if you want to go further back into the past.

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The Shohei Ohtani show isn't just limited to his newest cardboard.

A shouldn't-have-been-released copy of his 2017 Bowman Chrome Mega Box Refractor is on the auction block and ends tonight -- oh and it's a perfect black-label BGS 10 version of the card only found in 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes where it was mistakenly released, meaning it's rare on top of rare.

How much is is going for?

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Fans who watch the global game know the name Shohei Otani and now that he's firmly set his sights on MLB -- as soon as next year -- collectors once again have a reason to seek out his cards.

And their shot at some American cardboard of the pitcher-slugger is coming once again.

His only American-made cardboard was mistakenly released in 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes that were only found at Target stores for a brief time early this year. He was originally set to appear on a World Baseball Classic card in 2017 Bowman but when he didn't play, the card was pulled from the product.

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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 3.

The box: 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter (hobby)
The cost: BlowoutCards.com

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

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What's rarer than a trade between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox?

A big-leaguer with only five certified autographs in the year 2017.

That's Jose Quintana and he was dealt to the Cubs on Thursday morning as part of a five-player deal that could make some prospectors unhappy -- or spark added interest in the team that's not the defending World Series champion.

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Baseball fans who watch the international scene know the name Shohei Otani but now collectors have their shot at some American cardboard of the pitcher-slugger.

Topps has put him into its 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes that are only found at Target stores.

And the early copies to hit eBay are getting noticed, too. And it's not alone.

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No matter what he does, Gift Ngoepe's first play for the Pittsburgh Pirates will be a historic one.

The team called him up on Wednesday -- after nine seasons in the minors -- making him the first MLB player born in Africa. You know, the entire continent.

And thanks to the World Baseball Classic and Topps he's already got a modest amount of MLB-approved cardboard for collectors to chase.

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