Best of 2015: The 15 trading cards that helped define a crazy year

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.

Board Buzz: Five must-read threads on the Blowout Forums (Dec. 22)

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.

Panini Eminence shows its power immediately on BlowoutTV

From time to time, we’ll highlight some crazy pulls from breaks done via BlowoutTV — you know, the stuff that’s truly buzz-worthy. 

Just pulled: A 2014-15 Panini Eminence Stephen Curry championship tag auto 2/2
The box? It can be found right here.

Want to watch the entire video?

So, what does the checklist for a $5,900 box of NBA cards look like?

The most-expensive box in Panini America history arrives on Wednesday in the form of 2014-15 Panini Eminence basketball cards.

It’s a $5,900 box with as many as 10 cards inside — all very limited and autographed.

Panini revealed the checklist for this one on Tuesday so we can all try to answer the million-dollar question … just what’s inside this one?

New Buzz: Products arriving this week (Dec. 13-19) include two Star Wars sets, Eminence & even more

If you haven’t felt the awakening yet, you will by Friday.

That’s the day that Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives and that’s also the day that the galaxy right here right now gets a new set of Star Wars cards — one that includes full scenes from the film and the most-important thing of them all.

Autographs from the new faces of the franchise. (If you thought Star Wars was a force on cardboard before, you haven’t seen anything yet. Guaranteed.)

In fact, Friday’s release of 2015 Topps Star Wars: The Force Awakens is merely a first series of cards. In fact, it won’t even be the only Star Wars set of the week …

Eminence cut autographs include big, rare names beyond basketball

The most-expesnsive box of NBA cards ever is about a week away and Panini America took some time to tease a massive non-basketball inclusion in the brand that includes names well beyond the world of basketball.

One example? George Armstrong Custer who died at The Battle of the Little Bighorn back in 1876. Just think how much the world has changed since that time — and then wonder aloud how many of his autographs could even still exist. And then what it might have cost to land the document.

Although many of the cut autograph sets made in the last decade or so aren’t fully checklisted, it appears this is his first cut autograph — and it will be found in a box of 2014-15 Panini Eminence basketball cards next week. (For trivia’s sake we’ll also mention here that basketball didn’t exist until about 1891 — just one of those many world changes since Custer.)

Buzz-worthy image: 2014-15 Panini Eminence basketball cards

If you’re a regular Buzz reader, then you know a bit about 2014-15 Panini Eminence and how it will be the new high-end of all high-end releases when it arrives in just 15 days.

Board Buzz: Five must-read threads on the Blowout Forums (Nov. 24)

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.

Panini Eminence basketball cards are upping ante on everything

A mysterious package arrived at BlowoutCards.com HQ on Monday morning with some sample images and a flash drive with a single video clip inside.

Here is that video.