Buzz's Fantastic Four (Jan. 13): Collecting Patrick Mahomes, Paul Skenes & Livvy Dunne, Tiffany Stratton, Jimmy Carter

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 ...

THE DYNAMIC DUO ...
The Card: Paul Skenes & Livvy Dunne 2024 Leaf Metal Dual Auto
The Price: Varies by parallel color/scheme ... this 1/1 Galaxy parallel sold for $665 on eBay
Why It’s Buzzworthy: The reigning National League Rookie of The Year was a star at LSU before he was the No. 1 pick in 2023 and his pro career began. Meanwhile, Dunne was a standout gymnast for the Tigers' national championship team and a top draw in the NIL landscape where she made millions on endorsements. Among those deals were autographs for Leaf Trading Cards and that has extended to card appearances with Skenes. While their 1/1 autographed card was the big bonus chase for a Topps Now release last November that helped that card sell nearly 10,000 copies, they actually have several cards together before that -- signed and unsigned -- in various Leaf releases. (Just hit that link above for a sampling.) On their own, thanks to those set and parallels, she's got hundreds of different cards made since 2023 and he's got more than 3,500 with more arriving every time a new baseball set arrives.
The BlowoutCards.com Chase: 2024 Leaf Metal baseball cards
The BlowoutForums.com Chatter: Skenes & Dunne threads

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THE PHENOM ...
The Card: Tiffany Stratton 2022 Panini Prizm WWE -- Rookie Card
The Price: Varies by parallel color -- see eBay asking prices here
Why It’s Buzzworthy: Rewind the clock to 2021 and this 25-year-old was just starting her pro wrestling career -- her first NXT matches were in November with no other indy wrestling experience before that. Fast-forward to the first Smackdown show of 2025 she became the WWE Women's Champion after less than a year on the main roster. Meteoric probably wouldn't be the proper word to describe Stratton's rise as this former gymnast took down others with years, even decades, of experience to win it all in dramatic form in what was just her 125th career match. When Panini America took over the WWE card license in 2022, Stratton was among many new NXT 2.0 names to appear in the meaty Prizm set where her first Rookie Card can be found with 20 different parallel colors and textures. With apologies to Lex Luger, Stratton is the total package and will be around WWE as long as she wants to be. Tiffy Time is now.
The BlowoutCards.com Chase: 2022 Panini Prizm WWE cards
The BlowoutForums.com Chatter: WWE threads

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IN THE HEADLINES ...
The Card: Jimmy Carter 2004 Topps MLB Presidential Pastime insert
The Price: From a few bucks to more for a Chrome counterpart
Why It’s Buzzworthy: Most past presidents often have plenty of card appearances between historical sets, political sets and even in sports sets which got an influx of non-traditional surprises in the early 2000s as a number of new non-sports brands arrived and proved themselves to be strong-selling entities. In the 2004 Topps MLB release, for example, all 42 presidents appeared in this insert set with historical photos on many cards and presidential first pitches on most of the newer names' cards. However, Carter was seen playing on his home field -- helping build a home with Habitat For Humanity. This card shows him working on a build in 1997 but he started working with the organization in 1984 and, according to The Washington Post, helped on more than 4,400 home-construction sites and worked into his 90s. In Topps' Chromed version of the set, it had a Refractor version of this card and then a rarer X-Fractor (/39) ... and that's it. Forget the cut autographs, the presidential sets or the flashy rarities ... this card seemed like the appropriate pick-up to me after his death at age 100 on Dec. 29.
The BlowoutCards.com Chase: Find presidents in various Americana releases here
The BlowoutForums.com Chatter: Non-sports threads

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

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