Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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THE GANG'S ALL HERE ... 
The Item: Andy Pafko United Press Associations 8-by-10 photo (stamped on back) sourced from Pafko's estate. In it, he’s greeted by his Brooklyn Dodgers teammates after his 12th-inning homer against the New York Giants on April 18, 1952.
The Price: $29 shipped
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I found this from a seller of all kinds of stuff from Pafko's estate that hadn't seen the light of day in a long, long time. The former Cubs-Dodgers-Braves standout and four-time All-Star either clearly amassed a lot of stuff over the years -- or he had somebody who would do it for him during and after his career. Why do I say that? The volume of original items like this was truly impressive -- and I've picked off a few pieces to show here in the coming months. This photo stood out not only as a key moment in a big game as you can see above -- an extra-inning homer that was his second of the day against a New York rival -- but also because also seen here are Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, Hall of Famer Duke Snider and Hall of Famer Gil Hodges among others. (That's all of the team's HOFers that year save for Roy Campanella -- and it's a team that went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series where they lost to the Yankees.) It's got some typical but still light wear of old press photos, but it is otherwise bright and crisp for 74 years old. I really think this could command a lot more than $29, too.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but MLB cards are here.

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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 packs: 2025 Leaf Metal Pop Century 1/1 Pre-Production Proofs (two)
Where to buy: Click here (these are box-toppers in Pop Century boxes)

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

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Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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BROADWAY JOE
The Item: Joe Namath autographed 16-by-20 Sports Illustrated "Broadway Joe" cover photo (BAS witnessed)
The Price: $249
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: I don't normally include the actual price when I make a bigger buy, but in this case a sale price was too strong for a piece so nice ... so I am. Why? A typical price for an item like this is substantially higher than what I paid (around $400-600) and peak asking prices are sometimes even nuttier than the normal range. This was my big Black Friday buy and I landed it via Mill Creek Sports (this is their scan as I struggled to photograph mine thanks to size/glare on my top-loader) and one reason why I grabbed it (beyond the price) was that I liked this horizontal version of the photo and its autograph placement infinitely more than the vertical version. Atop that, it's also a piece where I had a chance to land one for just $150 long ago at The National but I didn't as I didn't have a way to safely get it home. This is the iconic photo that led to the nickname for the eventual Super Bowl winner and icon who helped change the game forever. He turns 83 this year, too, and I don't think demand will lessen over time.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but NFL cards are here.

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What: 2025 Keepsake Invincible Season 1 trading cards
Arrives: July 24
Box basics: Two Relics per 16-pack box (10 per case)
Full Product Guide PDF: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: A popular and long-running Image Comics book turned animated series on Amazon Prime gets a turn on trading cards from Keepsake with a meaty debut release that includes 600 cards with more than 3,000 unique versions and a variety of types within the product.

Keep reading for more info and a selection of images.

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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: 2025 Leaf Metal Pop Century 1/1 Pre-Production Proofs 
Where to buy: Click here (these are box-toppers in Pop Century boxes)

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

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What: 2025 Topps Stranger Things trading cards
Arrives: March 10, 2026
Box basics: One autographed card and one memorabilia card per 10-card box (10 boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Order: Click here (when live)

What's buzz-worthy: The hit series may have ended, but there's still more cardboard to come with a mix of oddities such as Upside Down variations (above) and screen-used Relic cards (and plenty more) as seen below.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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Mystery Box Buzz Break is a new series here on The Buzz -- it's essentially a Buzz Break but only for "mystery boxes" that seem to be everywhere these days -- and not just in the sports realm. Like this and want to see more? Is there a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The mystery box: Antique Archaeology Antique Stocking Stuffer Blind Bag (that's the Iowa-based antique shop of American Pickers' Mike Wolfe)
Where to buy: Via their site ... find cards BlowoutCards.com

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

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What: Star Trek Connections trading cards
Arrives: Feb. 18, 2026
Box basics: Three autographs and one memorabilia card per box (16 boxes per case)
Order: Click here (live soon)

What's buzz-worthy: The entire Star Trek realm gets a new mission for the new year in this one with ink from William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy or Patrick Stewart found in every single case and in some instances with legendary leaders' autos all on the same card.

Keep reading for more details.

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Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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TWO OF BLACKHEARTS
The Card: Shotzi Blackheart 2025 Panini Instant MLW Autographs Water parallel (/10)
The Price: $39.99 each via Panini
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This former WWE star is taking over a prominent spot in indy wrestling with appearances downright everywhere these days but with only a handful of card appearances to show for it (at least for now). Panini's newer foray into cardboard for Major League Wrestling has so far spawned a trio of base cards with parallels and some with autographed versions. I've been lucky enough to be plugged in and online to land ink for a couple of those drop days and in this case landed a pair of these autos where only eight others exist. Generally speaking, I'm not that big of a fan of the elemental parallels used in Instant these days, but they are an upgrade over the previous year's parallels that merely colored in one of the stripes in a design similar to this instead of the border as it is here. Either way, this one I'm a fan of as she's arguably my top collecting target these days as WWE stuff has gotten too pricey to comfortably dabble/rip boxes and have fun with the typical returns. In this case, the only angst is battling bots -- cards like these vanish in seconds and end up on eBay with prices three (or more) times higher. At least when I plunk down the money for these I know what I'm getting. (For those curious, the auto stickers here are older when she was signing in higher volumes for WWE releases -- her auto is back to an every-letter sig now.)
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but wrestling cards are here.

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What: 2025 Topps Pixar Gold trading cards
Arrives: Jan. 7, 2026
Box basics: One encased card and eight Chrome cards per box (six boxes per case)
Checklist: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: The Mint model for Topps non-sports cards goes Gold for a Pixar-focused release with voice actors such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry The Cable Guy and John Ratzenberger among them based on early teasers.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading ... so here's this month's grading diary.

MY EARLY INK FOR A BREAK-OUT STAR
The Card: Pete Crow-Armstrong 2018 Panini Elite Extra Edition 18U National Team Signatures Red (from 2019 USA Baseball Stars & Stripes rack sets)(/100)
The Reason Graded: I landed this ink for the Chicago Cubs star in a rack set -- that's a set and then some bonus cards in pack form direct from USA Baseball back in the day -- and he was one of a number of good names I found there for a low price. They all sat with my stuff for a few years before his breakout 2024 season got this one put into a grading order. Why? So I could get some ink in a slab and cross him off my list of key names needed. Crow-Armstrong joined the 30-30 Club this season, won his first Gold Glove and was an All-Star, too. The cool part? I added his ink from a two-auto set for just $9.99. (Other colors of this card are in standard EEE boxes ... the Reds are only in the sets I bought.)
The Grade: CGC 9.5 (10 auto)

Reality Check: The stock on these is the standard Donruss cardboard that can't decide if its chippy or soft -- it's generally pretty clean but a bottom corner could be soft here on the card backs where there's some color to make fuzz really obvious. This one was cleaner than other grading-worthy names but I'll likely slab others I found over time as more than a few here are in MLB now. He was the highest-profile name who needed to be graded now.

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

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What: 2025 Topps Star Wars Hyperspace trading cards
Arrives: Dec. 30
Box basics: Four serial-numbered cards per box -- two autographed cards and three sketch cards per eight-box case
Checklist: TBD
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Star Wars will hit Chrome for one last time in 2025 with a new line "like never before with a first of its kind trading card experience celebrating the many worlds of the Star Wars universe."

Keep reading for more as well as a gallery.

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This new department will be an occasional series that will take a quick look at a game or gaming release with card elements -- essentially a breakdown of what's in a box, but not the typical kind of a Buzz Break. (Buzz isn't a gamer so this will just be what's in a box vs. gameplay analysis.) Maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

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The Game: 2019 Top Trumps Limited Edition Movie Stars Trading Card Game
Where to buy: Will take some looking ... BlowoutCards.com for other gaming

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery from this one.

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If you're a regular reader, then you know that Ballers has had a place in this Collecting Game-used series with other event-used items shown off here a few times -- more than a few times -- and this is not the first instance where I have typed something like that. (Probably won't be the last, either.)

I still realize that "the game" isn't reality there, but the items used in production are reality in the here and now -- and above is a piece with screen time in one scene that I managed to match. Meanwhile, it probably was there for other episodes beyond the season I watched and it could have potentially popped up elsewhere during the multi-year life of the show as there were plenty of scenes over several seasons for the franchise. This could be some store-bought creation as it has no unique markings whatsoever -- or it could be one of a few from the show. After all, there were plenty of trophies just like there were plenty of three-piece tailored suits and tons of sports equipment used -- but there's no doubt this trophy model is the one seen on screen.

Now, why did I have to do research? Well, because nobody's perfect. The trophy I landed above is a meaty 13-inch specimen made of wood and what seems like some solid bronze-ish material that's impressively dense and truly heavy. But, it's actually not the trophy that I had set my eyes on first and photo-matched to the show before buying.

The other trophy that I wanted actually had suffered damage from its after-screen life in storage -- it was a faux copper on ceramic with a wire undercarriage -- and then it arrived with its base obliterated during shipping making it undisplayable and left laying in pieces like that one guy Spencer Strasmore (aka Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) took out on the Buffalo Bills. (Actually, many more pieces than that guy -- there was no post-career fame for my trophy.) The auction house offered some credit and then this piece to make up for it -- and since it wasn't an expensive buy (it was less than a retail mega box of cards these days) I called it a deal.

It arrived many months ago and it sat nearby until some recent curiosity finally got me to go back to the tape. Keep reading to see the details.

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What: 2025 Topps Star Wars Chrome Galaxy trading cards
Arrives: Dec. 10
Box basics: Four parallels per 18-pack hobby box -- one autographed card and three sketch cards per 12-box case
Checklist: Click here
Odds: Click here
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Star Wars will hit Chrome once again with its art-focused line, which will include autographs as well as plenty of parallel power from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Keep reading for more as well as a gallery.

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What: 2025 Topps Mint Disney trading cards
Arrives: Oct. 31
Box basics: One encased card and one 10-card pack per box (10 boxes per case)
Checklist: TBD
Order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: A new release debuted at New York Comic Con and it's one that "brings the bold, imaginative world of Disney to life through a premium trading card experience," according to Topps.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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Somebody in Bikini Bottom really, really, really loves Superfractors.

A quick look at eBay -- and only eBay -- shows nearly 40 completed auctions for those golden 1/1s from 2025 Topps Chrome SpongeBob SquarePants and the prices would pay for many a Krabby Patty.

How much? Well, the top card sold for a cool $50,000 -- and it's not alone. And, well, that one might not even be the biggest card of the bunch from the recent Topps release.

Keep reading for a rundown of the cardboard monsters living in pineapples boxes of Chrome under the sea.

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What: Game of Thrones The Great Houses trading cards
Arrives: Dec. 15
Box basics: Two autographs and two wardrobe cards in every 24-pack box (20 boxes per case)
Pre-order: Click here

What's buzz-worthy: Thrones fans have a new release on the way for the holidays with some of the biggest names possible in the mix -- and with one of the four signers seen above guaranteed in every case.

Keep reading for more info and images for 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: 2025 Leaf Metal Pop Century 1/1 Pre-Production Proofs 
Where to buy: Click here (these are box-toppers in Pop Century boxes)

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

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Auction Buzz is a monthly look at some of the variety found out there on the auction block ... check 'em out.

It's going to be a busy end of the year for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions with a number of regularly scheduled events as well as some showcase auctions with high-profile stuff all on the calendar. This time, we look at a few things from a few active sales this month.

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LUCILLE'S DEBUT ... AND MORE
The Item: Negan -- aka Jeffrey Dean Morgan -- signature ensemble and action "Lucille" bat from Season 7 of The Walking Dead (AMC 2010-2022). Certified via AMC and Heritage. 
The Price: $10,000 opening bid (ends Oct. 31)
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: According to Heritage, the full lot here includes a leather jacket, an off-white T-shirt with staining, a pair of gray pants with a "'Negan Hero' bias label," a leather belt, a red bandana, a pair of leather boots, a right-hand leather glove and an "action version" of the famed "Lucille" baseball bat constructed of foam rubber that is "expertly painted and finished to appear as a lathed wood grain baseball bat with a black oval-shaped logo and blood stains." This comes from Season 7, Episode 1, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" and Heritage says "Negan's introduction marked one of the most-dramatic turning points in the series" with this scene's game of "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" with Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun). There's no estimate for how much this one will go for but the full package (Click image at left for a closer look) could be a headlining kind of item. For those who want a non-stunt Lucille, there are a few up for grabs in the overall event, which includes almost 900 listings.

Keep reading for more interesting pieces up for grabs right now.

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Here's this month's roundup of items that have recently caught my eye as a buyer ...

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MY BEAR NECESSITY
The Item: Paul "Bear" Bryant autographed & dated/inscribed (Oct. 18, 1976) 8-by-10 photo (BAS authenticated)
The Price: $219 ... high for me but it's the perfect item for me
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This was a jaw-dropper of a find for me during a random search of Mill Creek Sports' superstore for autographed stuff earlier this year and I've saved it for football season, specifically this month, to present it and tell its story. It's personalized and that makes it perfect for me this time ... and to top that, the signed date -- the legendary Alabama Crimson Tide football coach and football icon who won 323 games dated everything signed like this -- might as well be on Buzz's actual birthday. (It's close ... close enough.) The odds of this existing or one being signed on my actual birthday? Well, I'm sure there were a number of things to sign on this Monday and I'm also very sure he wasn't sitting down to sign requests on a gameday when I kicked things off in the world. So, this is perhaps as close as it can get. The quality and condition of the photo are perfect and the ink is perfectly legible, too. Now, is his autograph really rare? Not particularly, but he died in January 1983 well before sit-down and paid signing sessions were en vogue for sports legends and he's still in high, historic demand despite Nick Saban equaling him and/or re-writing the Alabama record book in more recent years. It's the perfect item at a perfect price and it will always be mine.
Grab a box right here: Nothing for this ... but football cards are here.

Keep reading for more interesting items ...

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What's Buzzing: Dodgers advance in MLB postseason, NFL Week 5 is here, MVP chatter, a grading question, a SpongeBob thread and ... Living Set NBA?

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1 -- The MLB postseason threads are here

2 -- NFL Week 5 is upon us

3 -- Talking Topps Now and Living Sets

4 -- A grading question 

5 -- A SpongeBob thread

6 -- Still pondering the MVP ... 

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Have you spotted a hot thread? Tell us about it in a comment or on Twitter.

Follow BlowoutBuzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz.

They were made just for the show -- but now you can get them, too.

Keepsake was at the L.A. Comic Con this past week with a number of exclusives for 2025 Keepsake Invincible Season 1 available to those who hit the company booth -- and now you can have a shot at them right here.

Seven different packages were up for grabs during the show -- some only available during a single day --  with one biggie being the Blue Holo set above. It's limited to just 1,000 serial-numbered copies with all cards carrying a matching number. That one includes 449 cards and it includes all 140 Laser Signagraph cards and 10 Kill Splatter case hits in this style.

Keep reading for the rest of the show-made packages up for grabs.

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Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading ... so here's this month's grading diary.

A HIGH-GRADE DOMINATOR
The Card: Paul Skenes 2025 Topps Heritage
The Reason Bought: I'll fully admit I'm a sucker for high-grade Heritage Rookie Cards and, while this isn't an RC, this one captured my attention just like one as I've ripped my fair share of Heritage this year and, well, not much of the cards that matter that I pulled could have checked in at a perfect grade. All that perfection, the clean photo and the color scheme here got me to bite.
The Grade: CGC 10 (Pristine)

Reality Check: I didn't check the pop report before grabbing it, so it was an extra bonus to see that it's the lone card in the top slot with a decent number of cards below it -- and that goes as low as a CGC 7. That reinforces that Heritage isn't the easiest grade. That makes this one even more of a win in my book.

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

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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: 2025 Leaf Metal Pop Century 1/1 Pre-Production Proofs 
Where to buy: Click here (these are box-toppers in Pop Century boxes)

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

Continue reading →