Kyle Freeland’s career night should shine spotlight on some cards

Colorado Rockies rookie pitcher Kyle Freeland ended the first half of the season with a no-hitter lost in the ninth inning — but a one-hitter was good enough.

The lefty, who was the eighth-overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, racked up a career-high nine strikeouts in what was just his 18th big-league start. For the season, he sits at 9-7 with a 3.77 ERA after his gem at Coors Field.

The good news for collectors? Unlike those red-hot rookie sluggers, you can actually find Freeland’s autographs somewhat easily and affordably — perhaps because, you know, he pitches at Coors Field.

Board Buzz: Must-read threads on the Blowout Forums (June 20)

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

What’s Buzzing Today: Name-dropping — Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Zack Hample — and big breaks today.

Cody Bellinger’s homer binge fuels demand for his few certified autos

One of the hottest rookies in baseball — the King of the West Coast to counter Aaron Judge‘s Big Apple dominance — wrote his way into the record books on Monday night.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger hit two more home runs — that’s 21 in just 51 career games — and that’s the fastest pace in MLB history to start a career and good enough for the National League lead, trailing only Judge for the overall mark.

What makes this feat extra-enticing for collectors? The fact that Bellinger has a relatively minuscule amount of cardboard overall and a small number of certified autographs — and that means more competition for what he does have as the home runs go flying.

Gleyber Torres autos are tougher finds than other young Yankees

Your next big-name New York Yankees rookie to arrive in The Big Apple will face big expectations — but he doesn’t have nearly as much cardboard as those who arrived before him.

Unlike the arrivals of Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge — guys who had plenty of baseball cards and plenty of certified autographs when they hit The Show — shortstop Gleyber Torres doesn’t.

And that could bode very well for collectors who own them.

Black Friday is nearly here & here are five preview wave deals to consider

If you hadn’t noticed this month, there have been a number of boxes with discounted prices now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com’s Black November has been rocking the hobby.

Now, though, we’re prepping for Black Friday with a preview wave of what’s to come.

Many of the discounts were dramatic enough that Buzz had to sit down and ponder the possibilities in many of the boxes and cases — and here are five options that caught this collector’s eye. (Be sure to click this link to see how much these will be discounted.)

2015 Bowman Chrome baseball hobby box
The rookie auto crop isn’t what a lot of Chrome buyers scout first but the list of names found in this one is impressive — Byron Buxton, Carlos Rodon, Francisco Lindor, Joc Pederson, Kris Bryant and Noah Syndergaard. There are, of course, then the prospects and plenty of rainbow potential that the Chromies are known to collect in bulk. A lower price on these boxes should entice more than a few rippers — and cards like this Bryant auto could be in there with two autographs in every box.

Could strong spring mean hot cards for Braves rookie Hector Olivera?

He’s already joined the Topps Authentics team as one of the top players on the radar of the company’s memorabilia division, but a hot start this spring just might have him on the radar of more collectors soon.

He’s Hector Olivera, and he’s hit .438 (14-for-32) with just a single strikeout in 11 games this spring for the Atlanta Braves, where he’s likely to be in left field on Opening Day.

“We’ve seen him juice some balls, but we don’t know if this guy is going to be a nine-home-run guy or a 15-18 home run guy. We might not know that until later this year,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He doesn’t take things for granted. There’s nobody that works harder than him. He’s here early, he works, and as coaches, that’s what you want to see and what he gives us.”

Does getting a 1/1 autographed yourself hurt the card’s appeal?

One Blowout member did something unconventional by most collectors’ standards and has sparked an interesting debate about collecting over on the forum.

He got his 2015 Bowman Chrome Mini Superfractor of Steven Matz autographed in-person. It’s since been JSA certified, yet he asks the question “Did I ruin this card?”

In a poll on the site, 55 percent of those who answered said it looks awesome but he killed the value of the card. Just 30 percent said it was a good idea and the rest say he ruined it.

A special message from Blowout Cards on Black Friday

Were you shut out on 2015 Bowman Chrome during the downtime on BlowoutCards.com today? Keep reading …

Thanks for hanging in there with us.

We understand many of you got shut out on the 2015 Bowman Chrome special and we are working on a remedy. We will be listing a generous quantity sometime this evening with a limit of one box per household at the Doorbuster price of $29.95.

We do upgrade of servers every year for this event, and, honestly, we are overwhelmed by your support this year. We continue to restock many items well above what we had allocated for this event.

2015 Bowman Chrome Black Friday sale gets ’em buzzing before temporary crash of Blowout site

The BlowoutCards.com Black Friday sale stalled just a bit Friday morning as demand for 2015 Bowman Chrome hobby boxes at just $29.95 apiece crashed the website.

It’s just temporary, though, as the crew at Blowout is working on things right now.

Demand for Chrome is king — here’s the direct link for when it’s back online.

Follow BlowoutBuzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz.