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

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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?

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When someone says "1952 Topps Mickey Mantle" there's simply one image that comes to mind for collectors -- the image of the Oklahoma-born slugger looking over his right shoulder where his Louisville Slugger resides.

The blue hues and the yellow bat -- the results of colorized images back in those days -- are dramatically different than what we often expect from the cardboard of today, yet they are the basis of everything, too.

Seeing one of these memorable card images recently got Buzz wondering whether fellow collectors would be able to identify photographs from memorable vintage baseball card sets -- but without the accoutrement that make 1952 look like 1952 or 1965 look like 1965.

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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 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.

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What: 2016 Topps U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team & Hopefuls trading cards
Arrives: May 11, 2016
Box basics: One autographs, one Relic and one manufactured Relic in every 24-pack hobby box

What's buzz-worthy: The latest batch of future Olympians arrives on cardboard in advance of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August. As with past Olympic releases, there are plenty of first-time signers who can become overnight sensations and sell very, very well once the Olympics arrive.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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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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If you're a Buzz regular, you have already read all about (link here) the 2015 Topps Strata Clearly Authentic Relics that include MLB Authentication. If not, check out the link after you check out this video released by Topps.

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

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

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.

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There was an awakening and it's been felt on eBay as well as the box office.

Another Mystery Redemption from 2015 Topps Star Wars: The Force Awakens Series 1 has sold for big bucks on eBay, going for $1,700 on Sunday. (Spoiler alert: It's for an autograph of Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey.) Four other copies have sold for $1,200 or more on eBay since the product's release 11 days ago, while a fifth sale came in at $900 to set the low mark.

Asking prices for the card in current auctions have gotten steeper, though.

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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 five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Results from 2015 Topps Dynasty, favorite sets, Star Wars, prospecting the 2016 NFL Draft & more

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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.

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When 2015 Topps Strata arrived last week with just two cards per box, some collectors may not have noticed one of the features that the high-end brand includes on its Clearly Authentic Autographed Relic and Clearly Authentic Relic cards.

But it's something that many collectors say they have been seeking for a long time.

What is it? Added authenticity -- as in specific game-dating -- thanks to the little silver MLB Authentication sticker found on every single card in those two sets.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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What to do with old common cards is a question and a challenge for many collectors, especially as they continue to pile up.

But for 19-year-old New York-based Blowout member Steven Verdile, aka Metsfan1121, the temptation to simply throw them away was thwarted when the graphic design student received an assignment in a 3D class earlier this year.

"We had to take items that we already had and aren't typically used for art, and use them to create a 3D piece," he wrote on a post on the forum. "I quickly thought about using my cards, and came up with an idea. I decided to make a baseball field, along with bleachers and a dugout, out of cards."

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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 five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What's Buzzing: Vintage cardboard, 2015 Topps Strata, penmanship & more.

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It's a standalone and it's looking spectacular.

The arrival of 2015 Topps Strata as a standalone brand is today and the results ripped from wax boxes are starting to appear on eBay with some big names but also more affordable ones, too.

(They all just look like a million bucks.)

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Stacy Marlow
Also known as: @slmsolo on Twitter
Website: No personal site
Email: stacy@livecasebreak.com
Location: Georgia
Work away from cards: Estate Manager for private family
Collecting since: 2012

Main focuses: Atlanta Braves -- prospects, veteran/Hall of Fame autographs, in-person
Heritage autos, in-person sweet spot autographs, graded Bowman first-year autos

Favorite players/teams: Atlanta Braves -- Chipper Jones, Craig Kimbrel, John Smoltz

Current collecting projects: Currently working on 2015 Topps High Tek John Smoltz auto rainbow/collection (needing two printing proofs to finish) and 2012 Bowman Sterling Lucas Sims rainbow

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Bowman's Best officially returns tomorrow for the first time in eight years and it's going to pack two autographs into each mini box, four per master, when collectors tear in.

First introduced in 1994, Bowman's Best ran for more than a decade before a year off and a return in 2007. It's been sidelined ever since. This time around, the brand replaces Bowman Sterling and offers a selection of young stars that have captivated collectors already this past season or so along with a crop of new draft picks as well. Nearly all autographs are signed on-card for this release.

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What: 2016 Topps Pro Debut baseball cards
Arrives: May 25, 2016
Box basics: Two autographs and two Relics in every 24-pack hobby box

What's buzz-worthy: Future stars, eccentric promo night uniforms and Fragments of the Farm Relics are back in the newest chapter of the ongoing Minor League Baseball card saga called Pro Debut.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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With the holiday season here, cardboard is probably on the minds of many Buzz readers as they wonder what might await them soon.

Others, like Buzz, might be thinking of Cardboard of Christmas Past -- you know, some of the Santa Claus trading cards we've seen throughout the years. Most of it's trivial and not all that collectable -- but they all stand out in a way compared to our traditional sports cards.

1989 Pro Set Promos #1989
When Dallas-based Pro Set created this card during its first season of making football cards in 1989, it sparked a trend that we saw in not just football cards but other areas in the years that followed. (Boy are there some bad Photoshop jobs there in the 1990s.) For all intents and purposes, though, Buzz would call this one a "Rookie Card." Yes, there were previous non-sports cards -- but this was the one that put cards like this on the minds of the sports-collecting masses after it was mailed out to dealers and selected NFL-related people.

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What: 2016 Topps Doctor Who Timeless trading cards
Arrives: May 5, 2016
Box basics: Two autographs or Relics per every 24-pack hobby box

What's buzz-worthy: The multi-generational, multi-series sci-fi staple Doctor Who is back on a new set of trading cards from Topps in the spring with this one spanning all of the action with a new selection of photos, autographs, inserts and more.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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What: 2016 Topps Warcraft trading cards
Arrives: May 11, 2016
Box basics: Two autographs or Relics per every 24-pack hobby box

What's buzz-worthy: If you were at a movie theater this weekend, odds are you saw the
trailer for the next Topps trading card property -- Warcraft -- which is a movie based on the top-selling video game series. Just like other films you might have heard of (you know, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) this one will have autographs, Relics and more for a release that will be found in both hobby and retail boxes in advance of the film's June 10 release.

Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.

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The Bowman Critic is one who spends countless hours examining checklists and box scores to see who should be emerging on collectors' want lists soon. After the checklist for 2015 Bowman's Best checklist arrived -- click here to view it -- there's even more to say.

Keep reading for The Bowman Critic's pros and cons about this release, which is set to arrive on Dec. 23.

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