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

STARTING ON A SERIOUS NOTE ...
The Card: Will Ferrell 2015 Topps Archives Will Ferrell Inserts
The Reason Graded: Back in 2015 this comedy legend took to the field for 10 MLB teams and played 10 positions in a single day of real spring training action -- you can see his stats here -- as part of a project with a charity component called Ferrell Takes The Field. Collectors ended up chasing his autographs on 10 different cards in Archives that year -- roughly one per hobby case if I remember correctly -- but, alas, I went 0-for-1 there before those boxes got too pricy and/or vanished ... but I did hit the blasters. There, the regular Ferrell inserts were found one per box -- at least until all of those boxes disappeared, too. It's been a decade since this publicity stunt took place (March 12, 2015), so I figured we could start this new MLB season here on a serious note. These aren't his only cards -- he popped up a few times that year -- but this was the first set and this was the first card -- and one for my team.
The Grade: CGC 10

Reality Check: There's a small volume of stuff slabbed for this card -- roughly all cards here have no more than 10 slabbed copies across the entire set -- and this is among the top marks. This card has full-bleed back edges in bright blue just like in 1965 Topps and when I saw how clean this card was, well, it was a no-brainer. I previously slabbed one elsewhere years ago and this copy will go well with that and a slab of the same photo used on a magazine cover that ended up on a show promo card. A lot of those who likely weren't collecting back then seem to be interested here as asking prices can be steep -- raw or graded -- for Ferrell stuff.

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

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He'll always be known for his epic Afro and one of the greatest baseball cards ever made -- 1976 Topps Traded No. 74T -- but he also was a reliable big-leaguer for a long, long time.

He's Oscar Gamble, a former New York Yankees outfielder who died on Wednesday at age 68. A member of the Yankees for seven of his 17 seasons in MLB, he hit .265 with 200 home runs and 666 RBI in 1,584 games. He also played for the Cubs, who drafted him in the 16th round in 1968, as well as the Phillies, Indians, White Sox, Padres and Rangers.

"He was the player on the Yankees known for big hair," said his agent, Andrew Levy, on Twitter, "but those who knew him best will remember his big heart."

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It's a time of change, a time of high-end product exploration and a time of options for many collectors in what we call the sports card industry these days.

Tastes, products and prices continue to evolve as does the business environment that helps bring us our cardboard. For every super-pricey box being made, there are seemingly just as many buyers ready to rip or pick off singles for not-always-so-super prices (but super bargains).

The Buzz has only been around for part of 2015, but Buzz has been here all along as part of the world of collecting. Here are Buzz's picks for 15 cards that helped define 2015.

2015-16 Upper Deck #201 Connor McDavid RC
The impressive prices being paid for what's just a simple piece of cardboard with just gloss and some foil stamping shows that fundamentals never go out of style when there's a big name involved. This time, it's the No. 1 pick Connor McDavid, a Canadian phenom drafted by the Edmonton Oilers. This photo was selected by collectors and it even has a fun sign of 2015 -- the fan showing off a photo on her phone in the background.

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