We should all know by now how good Stephen Curry is by his play on the basketball court.

But maybe we should look at his basketball cards, too.

The reigning league MVP and leader of the defending NBA champs has been hot on cardboard for a while now. How hot? Well, you might call it new-car hot as his high-end rare cards are often priced in small-new-car territory.

Continue reading →

What: 2016 Panini Contenders Draft Picks football cards
Arrives: March 9
Box basics: Five autographs per 24-pack box (12 boxes per case)

What's buzz-worthy: This year's top college stars who have declared for the 2016 NFL Draft will have some of their first cards here with the familiar pro look of Contenders while still showcasing their school colors.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

Continue reading →

If you're a regular Buzz reader, then you know all about the popularlity of San Francisco 49ers practice squad member Jarryd Hayne. He's a former rugby player from Australia whose limited NFL time this season sparked some interest in his Rookie Cards.

With the arrival of 2015 Panini Contenders this week, there was a new twist -- the company couldn't land an autograph deal for his Rookie Tickets. However, that didn't stop demand for his cardboard after Panini America decided to release the cards without ink but a stamp -- in short-printed fashion.

Continue reading →

Panini America's high-end standard arrives for the third time in baseball this week and the mystery of what's in 2015 Panini National Treasures has been solved.

What's in it this year? Get the checklist right here.

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

>> Click here to buy baseball cards on BlowoutCards.com.

For 2015-16 Panini America products that don't get a standalone story here on The Buzz when a final checklist is released, we'll place a link to a PDF of the set's checklist right here.

You'll be able to find all new checklists in PDF form as released by the company and all in one spot. (If traffic stats show us you guys like this format, we'll expand in other directions. If not, Buzz will focus on other stuff.)

Keep reading to see the Panini America checklists posted so far.

Continue reading →

At least one of them is no longer with his team, but there are five "Rookie Cards" in 2015 Panini Contenders that collectors might not expect to see.

And their autographs might go for more than you might expect, too.

Why? They're NFL coaches -- and they, for the most part, don't have any other certified autograph cards.

Continue reading →

Panini America has revealed the checklist for its 2015 Panini Contenders football card set, giving collectors the first look at who's in and what variations there might be for this year's crop of rookies.

Click here to download a PDF of the checklist.

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

>> Click here to shop for 2015 football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.

Way back in 1999, Elton Brand was a star center for the Duke Blue Devils -- a center from tiny Peekskill, N.Y., who was about to make a big impression as the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

Fast-forward to today and the former Chicago Bull is coming out of retirement to join the NBA's worst team -- the Philadelphia 76ers, owners of a 3-33 record -- to help mentor another former Blue Devils star and first-round pick, Jahlil Okafor. Okafor, of course, has had issues off the court this season while also picking up the NBA game quickly. It's a match made in Blue Devils collecting heaven.

"He's not unlike most 20-year-olds you probably know, and he's definitely not at all different than most of his fellow players," Brand wrote in a piece for Sports Illustrated's website. "... if camera phones were around when Brad Miller, Ron Artest and I were Jahlil's age, we might've been banned from the league altogether, never mind suspended for a few games."

So, what about Brand on cardboard?

Continue reading →

Panini America starts off the new year with not one but four new products scheduled to arrive this week -- from four different sports, too. Meanwhile, there's only one other brand on the calendar.

The biggest for most collectors is the arrival of 2015 Panini Contenders football cards with the annual chase for the Rookie Ticket autographs one that's been a mainstay for years. Which ones will be short-prints? Which ones are variations and which ones aren't? We'll find out more beginning Wednesday. Each box includes at least five autographs -- and it looks like some of them might be coaches who have never signed before. Will those be short-prints? Should be interesting to watch.

Continue reading →

The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Contenders variations, game-dated Relic confusion, signing 1/1 cards & more

Continue reading →

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and break down 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: 2015 Panini Contenders baseball cards (blaster box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com (for hobby)

Packs per box: 7
Cards per pack: 6
Cards in this box: 42
Base set completion: 
19 of 99 (19 percent)
Duplicates: 0

Notable names pulled on base cards: Dansby Swanson, Barry Larkin, Aaron Nola, Aaron Judge

Continue reading →

Simply put, it pays to follow @blowoutcards and @blowoutbuzz on Twitter.

Besides the latest info about your hobby and collecting, there are also contests -- and we're here on the first day of 2016 to reveal the final contest winners of 2015.

Boxes of Topps' Star Wars cards, Upper Deck's hockey cards, Topps' 2015 Bowman Draft baseball cards and Panini America's football cards were up for grabs with a simple retweet contest that developed on Twitter Thursday evening.

Were you one of the winners?

Continue reading →

The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Multi-player cards, player-worn patches, Court Kings, goals and resolutions for 2016, college football and more on the forum that recently joined the 10-Million Post Club.

Continue reading →

The checklist for 2015 Elite Extra Edition is here -- click to view a PDF version.

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

>> Click here to buy baseball cards on BlowoutCards.com.

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.

Continue reading →

Another holiday week leads to another abbreviated release schedule for trading cards with just five brands on the tarmac and set to arrive beginning tomorrow.

We've got one from Leaf Trading Cards, one from Cryptozoic, one from Topps and two from Panini America and that's where we'll start off.

This week's NBA release is 2015-16 Panini Court Kings, a rookie-heavy art-style product that will include one autograph and one memorabilia card per 10-card box. It will also include box-toppers. This one will feature on-card autos as well as one Hot Box delivering extras in every 15-box case.

Continue reading →

Basketball Hall of Famer and legendary Harlem Globetrotters showman Meadowlark Lemon has died, the team announced on Monday. He was 83.

Known as "The Clown Prince of Basketball," Lemon was a fixture for the traveling exhibition team beginning in 1954. He's one of just five players to have his number retired by the team and he played more than 7,500 games in the red, white and blue before retiring in the late-1970s. He joined the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.

"Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I’ve ever seen," former Globetrotter Wilt Chamberlain told The New York Times in 1999. "People would say it would be Dr. J or even Jordan. For me, it would be Meadowlark Lemon."

Off the court, he was one of the core players often seen on the Globetrotters' cartoon series, some memorable episodes of Scooby-Doo and, of course, seen on plenty of cardboard.

Continue reading →

Robert Morris
Also known as: @dalsubfan on Twitter and most other places
Website: http://sportscardalbum.com/u/dalsubfan
Email: dalsubfan@gmail.com
Location: Texas
Work away from cards: Manufacturing
Collecting since: 1970-80, 1992-95, 2005-current

Main focuses: My collecting focus is Mark Teixeira cards and whatever else interests me. Hall of Famers, 1/1s, memorabilia ...

Favorite players/teams: Mark Teixeira and Texas Rangers

Current collecting projects: In addition to chasing at least one of every Mark Teixeira card made (at 5,700 or 81 percent), I am completing th 2013 Historic Autographs Originals 1933 set. Also working on a bat with Hall of Famer autographs -- at 65 so far.

Continue reading →

Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading and knows that there are many reasons that collectors choose to slab cards. Sometimes it's to enhance the appeal and protect them when selling. Other times it's to protect an investment for the long-term or to protect for sentimental reasons. Or, it might be just for fun or curiosity about a potential grade.

For the first grading diary here on The Buzz, it will be a mix of cards graded for a few reasons.

The Card: 1993 Upper Deck #449 Derek Jeter
The Reason Graded: This was pulled straight from an underpriced factory set and looked very clean except for a tiny spot on the back -- Buzz figured it might push into the high grades even with the gloss issue. These cards are also not easy to pull from wax or sets cleanly because the high-gloss cards often stick together, peeling away specks of paper. Another reason? This is an iconic card that's worth grading if you own a clean one.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: The SP Jeter rookie is the one people chase, not this one. This one's $20 on eBay -- and perhaps undervalued considering how they grade on the pop report. BGS 9s and higher are really much rarer than people think.

Continue reading →

Admit it, you may have overdone things when it comes to buying football cards this year -- maybe past years, too -- and have a big ol' stash of cards you don't know what to do with. What do you keep? What do you jettison? That's where having a collecting focus comes in. If you haven't overdone it on wax, then maybe having a focus for your single-card buys is a need. (That's one even Buzz has struggled with over decades of collecting.)

One potential niche that seems prevalent this year in NFL and college sets? Cards showing the kids of former NFL players who have now made their way onto cardboard.

They seem to be everywhere this year. Second-generation players aren't anything new, of course, but they can be a fun way to revisit the past while also collecting the present. Buzz started his collecting days in the 1980s and, back then, a Joe Montana autograph wasn't an easy find -- plus, his handwriting didn't justify the high cost on a small budget. Fast-forward to 2015 and Nick Montana has cardboard. He won't be an NFL star -- he wasn't really even that good in college -- and the handwriting also isn't great, but he's got a certified autograph card.

Buzz wanted it, Buzz got it. Can't say the same thing for a Joe autograph, though, even all these years later.

Continue reading →

When Panini America first revealed 2015 Elite Extra Edition back in October, it promised that the annual prospecting staple would include plenty of autographs -- eight to 10 in the warmest of Hot Box scenarios and six autos for the standard boxes.

But there will be even more ink when it arrives next Thursday.

A lot more in every case.

Continue reading →

Panini America's annual USA Baseball boxed set arrived in hobby shops today with a new inclusion inside.

As in the newest players ever.

New in 2015 Panini USA Baseball are autographs and memorabilia cards like those of Adam Crampton seen above. He was a member of the USA Baseball 14U squad this year. That's the 14-and-under squad -- do the math and you'll figure out that the third-baseman was born sometime in the 2000s. (It's May 24, 2001, to be precise, meaning he's now a grizzled veteran and too old for that roster.)

Continue reading →

The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: High-end brands like Panini Immaculate and Panini Eminence, keeping vs. flipping, Chris Bosh's Hall of Fame chances and golf greats find a spot in this one.

Continue reading →

When collectors crack into boxes of 2015 Panini Immaculate Collection College beginning tomorrow, they could find one of the more unique memorabilia cards made in a long time.

It's a card of baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn from his days as a player at San Diego State.

What makes it different, though? The card appears to include a swatch from the Aztecs jersey seen above.

Continue reading →

When the next Panini America soccer product arrives in January, it will bring all the international flair and fervor of The Beautiful Game, but it will take things up a notch in spots compared to its predecessor without a dramatic high-end hike in price.

The brand is 2015 Panini Select and it's set to arrive on Jan. 6 packing three autographs or memorabilia cards per box along with a selection of inserts and parallels. The previously released 2015 Donruss soccer boxes had just one autograph per box, while Select will include the first memorabilia cards made by the company for its international soccer releases.

Continue reading →