The latest edition of Diamond Kings arrived with a unique look and some of the biggest players in the history of the game available on memorabilia cards.
Guys like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ken Griffey Jr., Roberto Clemente and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson to name a few.
From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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: 2016 Donruss baseball cards (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 8
Cards in this box: 192
Base set completion:
139 of 195 (71 percent)
Duplicates: 0
Notable players on base cards – Kyle Schwarber, Stephen Piscotty, Michael Conforto (Rated Rookies), Albert Pujols, Jose Fernandez (Diamond Kings), George Brett, Frank Thomas, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Rickey Henderson, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Cabrera, Don Mattingly, Mariano Rivera, Nolan Ryan, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlos Correa, Clayton Kershaw, Kris Bryant, Yu Darvish, Pete Rose, Joc Pederson, Bo Jackson, Buster Posey, Pete Rose, The San Diego Chicken
From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post 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: 2016 Donruss 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:
29 of 195 (15 percent)
Duplicates: 0
Notable players on base cards – Henry Owens (Rated Rookie), Andrew McCutchen (Diamond Kings), Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Rickey Henderson, Pete Rose, Josh Donaldson, Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Steven Matz, Bo Jackson
Panini America’s flagship baseball card release for the year is here in the form of 2016 Donruss, which is a brand that packs three hits per hobby box and even some chicken.
The brand is one that relies on the staples of collecting — top players from the past and present, autographs, memorabilia, strong photos, vibrant designs and more — while also harkening back to 1982 and other past Donruss releases.
And more is what you just might find inside a box.
What: 2016 Leaf Q sports cards
Arrives: April
Box basics: Five autographs per box (four boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: Leaf Q will present some of the biggest names in the sports world and some of the biggest names from other areas in a multi-sport release that’s packed with nothing but the hits.
Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.
Game-used baseball bats are often some of the most-abused and most-personalized pieces of game-used memorabilia to hit the market.
And, because of the number of bats a player uses in a season, they can also be bargain-priced at times. But in the case of the Old Hickory J143M used by Mike Trout to hit four home runs during 2013? Well, that bat opened at $2,000 and sits at $7,000 after 17 bids with plenty of time remaining … so not every bat can be a bargain.
Check out this gallery of 18 gamers presently up for grabs right now from Goldin Auctions. You can see a larger image, the model specs and the opening bid price once inside the gallery.
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What: 2016 Upper Deck All-time Greats Master Collection trading cards
Arrives: This week
Box basics: 58 cards and one mystery redemption per box
What’s buzz-worthy: Take the biggest names in the sports world (and the 
Upper Deck stable of signers) and take it all high-end. How high-end? The cost per box to dealers — not the price to the public — is north of $10,000. What does it include? Among the inclusions in each box are an autographed acrylic box-topper, a 25-card autographed base set, a 30-card acetate Master Collection Puzzle set, one Michael Jordan Diamond card, one autographed Masterful Paintings card, one dual auto or dual cut auto card and one mystery redemption.
Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.
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 Today: Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza, Johnny Manziel, Steiner Sports, BGS 9.5s, Star Wars and more …
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America votes are in, and there’s no surprise at the top — Ken Griffey Jr. is headed to Cooperstown, N.Y., this summer to join baseball’s immortals.
He received 99.3 percent of the vote — a record and three votes short of unanimous — after his first time on the ballot. Joining him is former Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza, who appeared on 83 percent of the 440 ballots.
Griffey helped usher in a new era of collecting in 1989 as the iconic No. 1 in the first Upper Deck set, a release that helped change the printing and packaging of cards and the collecting expectations of a generation. For those same thirty-somethings and beyond, he’s an also icon on the field with his backwards cap and a smooth but powerful left-handed swing that helped produce 630 home runs and countless more memorable moments for the Mariners, Reds and White Sox over 22 seasons but never a World Series at-bat.
Clearly he’s one of the greatest players — and most-beloved players — in MLB history, a symbol of what’s good about the game in an era of bogus records and inflated statistics that have undermined not only the results on the field but also the cardboard of our youth. His enshrinement this summer in Cooperstown will be the stuff that cardboard (and baseball) marketing is made of. In fact, there are already two forthcoming brands — 2016 Topps Series 2 and 2016 Topps Finest (above right) — that will spotlight Junior.
We all know which Rookie Card of Ken Griffey Jr. is the most-memorable, but there’s one rarer parallel-type version of one that recently sold for big, big bucks on eBay.
It’s the 1989 Bowman Tiffany card — one printed on glossy, super-bright stock only found in limited factory sets — and a perfect BGS Black copy recently dominated on eBay. With Griffey destined to get the Cooperstown call in a few hours, this one was worth the spotlight.
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 Today: Ken Griffey Jr. and the Hall of Fame vote, NBA legends, 2015 Topps Strata, Panini Immaculate Collection College & redemption replacements.
There are 32 players on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame ballot this year and the ongoing debate of who’s worthy, who’s not and who cheated with performance-enhancing drugs will rage on well beyond the reveal of the voting results on Jan. 6.
In Buzz’s book, there’s quite possibly only one new Hall of Famer headed to Cooperstown this coming summer, and that lock is Ken Griffey Jr.
The rest? Well, it’s not that easy. Buzz has eliminated 12 of the guys who are not likely to even make the cut to be on next year’s ballot and examined the stats for 20 of those who are left. Along with this, Buzz has added some key Rookie Card info, too, just in case you haven’t tracked any of them down just yet or want to revisit cardboard from your youth.
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What: 2015 Leaf SportKings trading cards
Arrives: January 2016
Box basics: One autograph, one memorabilia card, four base cards and one mini per box.
What’s buzz-worthy: SportKings returns with a new mix of cards that includes numbered autographed parallels and buyback autographs for stars throughout the sports world (and even a few from elsewhere) on the famed design from the 1930s.
Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.
If you’ve watched any NFL games this season, you’ve likely heard the word “concussion” many times as the league has implemented new tests on players to help prevent future problems by assessing the here and now immediately following a hard hit.
On Christmas Day, a film about the issue of concussions in football called Concussion opens in theaters. You’ve probably seen the commercials for the film during NFL games.
Will Smith stars as Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered the degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. It’s a real-life issue that has affected more than 80 former players — many you’ve seen on football cards and might have collected. The movie is an important one and Sports Illustrated has Smith on its cover this week to discuss the movie.
Is it the first time a celebrity has appeared on the cover of the highly collectable sports magazine?
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.
Ken Griffey Jr. is one of baseball’s all-time greats and an icon — the Mickey Mantle of the late-thirty somethings who grew up with the new wave of baseball cards that began with his arrival in 1989.
He’s got 630 homers — sixth on the all-time list — and more accolades than than most fans will ever know. But there’s one thing that a lot of fans may not know.
Just like his dad, his first game is George.
What: 2016 Topps Series 2 baseball cards
Arrives: June 15, 2016
Box basics: One autograph or Relic in every 36-pack hobby box (10 cards per pack, 12 boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: The second series of the 2016 Topps flagship includes all of the things found in Series 1 but also some new inclusions such as rip cards and tributes to Ichiro Suzuki as he nears the 3,000-hit club and Ken Griffey Jr. as he’ll likely be in Cooperstown not long after this one arrives next summer.
Keep reading for more and a full gallery of images.
This year’s Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has been released by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America with 15 new names and several players who appeared on last year’s ballot but failed to get 75 percent of the votes.
Below is the ballot that all BBWAA members will receive. The writers can vote for as many as 10 players. Those who appear on 75 percent of all ballots cast will be inducted into the Hall. Your challenge here is a bit different.
BlowoutBuzz.com 