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: 2017 Leaf Buyback Wrestling autograph cards
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 1
Cards per pack: 11
Base set completion:
N/A
What: 2018 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Platinum autographed baseballs
Arrives: Feb. 21
Box basics: One autographed baseball per box (12 boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s autographed baseball chase brand is back for another season with a new batch of stars and legends along with some new specialty balls guaranteed per case that help add variety to the chase.
The biggest chase of them all this year? Keep reading for that and a gallery of what’s in this one.
You may be seeing Rinku Singh on cardboard once again.
Back in 2009, he was one of two pitchers signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Lucknow, India, and their stories of how that happened ended up becoming a Disney movie. But today he joins professional wrestling hopefuls under contract at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.
No, seriously.
Simply put, Don West got me again.
If you’re a collector of a certain age, then you know the past entertainment value of the past Shop At Home hobby heavyweight who got more than a few people to “dial in now” for their latest shot at some cardboard treasures.
This isn’t exactly a scenario like that one, but a recent tweet by a past wrestling star piqued my curiously and led me to eBay and that then led me to ShopImpact.com, which is the website of Impact! Wrestling, one of few WWE competitors these days, and there was West with a deal that I figured … why not?
TRISTAR has a new exclusive team member — and he’s “the greatest baseball player of all time” based on Hall of Fame voting.
It’s former Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds star Ken Griffey Jr. and a full line of autographed memorabilia from him is available now from the Houston-based company after the new deal was announced on Tuesday night.
TRISTAR has a new ace.
The Houston-based autograph and memorabilia company revealed its newest exclusive player on Monday night and it’s Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander.
He’s not been a big signer for companies — or for certified autograph cards — in some time. The last time he had any substantial volume of signed cards was in 2012 and those cards were mostly still low-volume. You have to go back to 2007 when roughly a third of his certified autograph cards were made to find a decent amount of cardboard.
All that, combined with a dominating run to a World Series, drew him to TRISTAR’s stable to help satisfy the growing demand for his ink.
What: 2018 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures autographed baseballs
Arrives: Jan. 3
Box basics: One autographed baseball per box (12 boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s autographed baseball chase brand is back in January with nods to its hometown World Series champion Houston Astros as well as Diamond Tickets good for one of the biggest possible autographs in MLB history.
Keep reading for details on that one and a gallery of what’s possible in this one.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Signature Series
Arrives: Dec. 13
Box basics: One autographed item per envelope (10 envelopes per case).
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s Signature Series is the final product of the year with just 75 10-pack cases of authenticated autographed memorabilia inside.
He styled. He profiled. He wrestled around the world and made millions “Woooooooooo!”
The limousine riding and jet flying is a bit less chaotic these days, but the boisterous story of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair — or, really, the real-life story of Richard Fliehr — will get the spotlight tonight at 10 p.m. on ESPN.
It’s a 30 For 30 documentary that’s been in the works for months — long before his recent health scare nearly ended his life at age 68. It’s a piece that promises to explore the man, the myth, the legend — and where that’s led him to today. (And to be the man, you still have to beat the man … he’s not done yet.)
If you hadn’t noticed, there are a number of boxes with discounted prices right now over on the mothership as BlowoutCards.com is in the midst its Black November sales now.
Wave 2 is here and 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 boxes/cases that caught this collector’s eye.
2017 Topps Update Jumbo boxes and cases
This relatively new release is simply a fun one that’s stacked with Rookie Cards and moments from the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. This collector has ripped hanger boxes, blaster boxes and standard Hobby boxes and many of them have delivered good volume on those guys named Bellinger, Judge and even on the variations. (They don’t have to be rare to be fun.) I haven’t studied the jumbo breaks closely, but one auto and two other hits at this price makes for a fun rip — and if you get lucky you could do pretty well. While this might be a brand that seems somewhat plentiful now, once wax dries up there will be enough key players here to make it of interest later — and basic Topps flagship RCs seem to be growing in popularity, too.
Whether it was his strong showing that led to a win in the American League Wild Card Game or his everyman reaction to his catcher’s foul-ball incident, more than a few baseball fans saw New York Yankees pitcher David Robertson on Tuesday night.
What they won’t be able to see? A certified autograph of the former Yankees closer on an official MLB baseball card.
Seriously.
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: 2011 TRISTAR Obak football cards (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 24 (plus one jumbo T4 box-topper)
Cards per pack: 6
Cards in this box: 144
Base set completion:
101 of 110 (94 percent)
Duplicates: 9
Notables on base cards – Sammy Baugh, Dutch Clark, Red Grange, Mel Hein, Pete Henry, Cal Hubbard, Don Hutson, Tim Mara, Bronko Nagurski, Ernie Nevers, Johnny Unitas, Paul Hornung, Terry Bradshaw, Earl Campbell, Morten Andersen, Roger Staubach, Gale Sayers, Jim Otto, Jim Parker, Norm Van Brocklin, Vince Lombardi, John Heisman, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Doak Walker, Darrell Royal, Bo Jackson, John David Crow, Hopalong Cassady, Johnny Lattner, Charlie Ward, Tom Dempsey, Lem Barney, Dennis Byrd, Edgar Allen Poe, Bob Lilly, “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Emlen Tunnell, Walter Camp, Fritz Pollard, Thomas Riddell, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Eddie LeBaron
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: 2011 TRISTAR Obak cards (hobby box)
Where to buy: BlowoutCards.com
Packs per box: 24 (plus one jumbo T4 box-topper)
Cards per pack: 6
Cards in this box: 144
Base set completion:
103 of 110 (94 percent)
Duplicates: 7
Notables on base cards – Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Nolan Ryan, Josh Gibson, Andre Dawson, High Jennings, “Old Hoss” Radbourn, Hack Wilson, Jack Chesbro, Pete Gray, Ernie Harwell, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, Cap Anson, Johnny Vandermeer, Paul Goldschmidt, Gary Sanchez, Will Clark, “Cool Papa” Bell, George H.W. Bush, Whitey Ford, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial
What: 2017 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Game Day Greats Football Jersey Edition
Arrives: Nov. 8
Box basics: One autographed football jersey per box (five boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s Hidden Treasures line tries on jerseys for a new football season with a lineup of past and present greats from the NFL as well as some new stars from the college ranks.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Quest Top Shelf
Arrives: Oct. 11
Box basics: Four envelopes per case — each with an autographed item or memorabilia redemption inside
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s Quest once again takes things up a notch with a product that is purely high-end memorabilia — and just 30 cases will be made.
Keep reading for more.
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: Big pulls from Contenders, Heritage High Number and more … along with a “custom” card that crosses a few lines.
Goldin Auctions has a new director of marketing and business development — and he comes from the trading card portion of the industry.
Jim Stefano will take on the role, according to Goldin Auctions founder Ken Goldin.
Stefano had spend the last four years as the senior director of product development at Panini America in Dallas, Texas. He previously worked seven years at Fleer/Skybox as its VP of product development and before that with Score Board and TRISTAR Productions.
National Sports Collectors Convention marches on inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center as we finish things up today. That comes after a big Day 4 (gallery here) and the Panini VIP Party, Day 3 (massive gallery here), Day 2 (massive gallery here) as well as the preview night (gallery here).
Now it’s time for Day 5 — the finale — with the last lineup of signers and plenty of action on the floor of a show that, by many accounts, has been busier than normal this year. You’ll never know what big items you’ll see and there will be items you’d never imagine finding because, well, you probably didn’t know they existed.
Keep reading for more and to see a gallery that will grow throughout the day as the doors open shortly.
National Sports Collectors Convention marches on inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center as we hit the weekend. Day 3 (massive gallery here), Day 2 (massive gallery here) as well as the preview night (gallery here) have come and gone but today should be a doozie
Now it’s time for Day 4 with the biggest lineup of signers and plenty of action on the floor of a show that, by many accounts, is busier than normal this year — and we’ll know for sure today as Saturdays are the peak. You’ll never know what big items you’ll see and there will be items you’d never imagine finding because, well, you probably didn’t know they existed.
Keep reading for more and to see a gallery that will grow throughout the day as the doors open shortly.
National Sports Collectors Convention marches on inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center as Day 2 (massive gallery here) as well as the preview night (gallery here) have come and gone.
Now it’s time for Day 3 with a massive slate of signers and plenty of action on the floor of a show that, by many accounts, is busier than normal. You’ll never know what big items you’ll see and there will be items you’d never imagine finding because, well, you probably didn’t know they existed.
Keep reading for more and to see a gallery that will grow throughout the day as the doors open shortly.
This year’s National Sports Collectors Convention begins on Wednesday with more than 100 autograph guests signing for those who opt to get a ticket and stand in line for their “inkredible” moment.
Some of those signers are actually free if you’re at the VIP reception on Wednesday or buy a VIP ticket package — a bonus for taking the time to hit the entire show or buy the full package for all of the other bonuses — but other signers will take some planning to land the ones you want.
>>> NSCC Want even more? Click here to see all of our past pieces previously revealing nuggets of news for the show and keep up with newer stories tagged NSCC by clicking here.
It’s tough to see everything at the show — it’s that big — and the time it takes to work through autograph lines is valuable in that it impedes your shot at seeing it all. With that said, here are my picks — one per day — to grab off the autograph list. (Keep reading for the full signers list in a gallery at the end.)
The National Sports Collectors Convention is nearly here and the months of preparation are culminating in the show of all shows for sports collectors for five days in Chicago.
There will be plenty to see, plenty to do and plenty to buy and Buzz has been watching the developments the whole way. We’ll have galleries of images from the show floor and a few nuggets here and there in the coming days but there’s already been plenty written leading up to the show that you can all find right here.
Here’s a rundown of all past NSCC stories here on The Buzz …
What: 2017 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Football Mini Helmets
Arrives: Aug. 30
Box basics: One autographed mini helmet per box
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s Hidden Treasures football brand returns to the field for another season with some new NFL names and some of the biggest names from the past.
Collectors who hit the TRISTAR booth with a sealed box from the company in hand at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago will get their hands on some extras.
They’ll get a TRISTAR bag and a company-branded spinner as well as a shot at other prizes throughout the day and entries into a free break of a product.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Signature Series National Edition
Arrives: July 26
Box basics: One autographed item per envelope (10 envelopes per case).
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s Signature Series returns with just 100 10-pack cases of authenticated autographed memorabilia just in time for the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.
“GLOW is unlike any show we’ve ever seen” reads the Entertainment Weekly headline for a review of an upcoming series from Netflix that’s a comedic but fictionalized take on the late-1980s real-world wrestling promotion.
It stars Alison Brie as “Ruth Wilder,” a struggling Los Angeles actress who opts to try out the world of pro wrestling in the series, which is based on a short-lived women’s wrestling promotion called Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that ran for four syndicated seasons in real life. (Really.) The series arrives on June 23.
The real-world wrestling show was pure cheese — even to a 10-year-old wrestling-inclined Buzz — in an era where Hulkamania yellow was everywhere, but apparently the new series is packing punch with critics. The EW reviewer gave it an A while breaking down all of the reasons the 1980s-based new series works. “GLOW, which takes everything over-the-top about professional wrestling,” it reads, “pushes it to higher levels of absurdity and melodrama, and finds something deeply personal, explicitly political, and wonderfully brute-force awesome.”
Now, how about those collecting ties? Well, they’re more like pieces of trivia that could interest those who enjoy the show, but here we go …
Do you like Buzz Breaks? Today’s your day then as we launch 12 in 12 — a series of a dozen breaks of past wax boxes and wax packs in a dozen hours. We’ll post one every hour on the hour all day long … and this is Hour 4.
The box: 2009 TRISTAR TNA Knockouts wrestling hobby box
The cost: Click here
What’s inside this one? Keep reading …
What: 2017 TRISTAR Quest autographs
Arrives: June 7
Box basics: Five envelopes per lockbox — each with an autographed flat or memorabilia redemption inside (three lockboxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: This TRISTAR line will be limited to only 50 cases of autographed items from around the sports world and beyond.
Keep reading for more.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures New York Dynasty autographed baseballs
Arrives: April 26
Box basics: One autographed baseball per box (12 boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s autographed baseball chase brand takes a New York twist for yet another year as this one’s all about the Yankees with stars of the past and present being part of a chase that includes all baseballs having a product-specific and numbered hologram.
Keep reading for more and a gallery of what’s in this one.
There’s a new big name among the first wave of autograph signers for this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.
It’s Alex Rodriguez.
Once baseball’s highest-paid player, he’s a member of the 3,000-hit club and a player who hit 696 home runs during his at times controversial 22-year MLB career with the Mariners, Rangers and Yankees.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Odyssey Baseball autographs
Arrives: April 12
Box basics: One autographed item per envelope (16 envelopes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR brings its autograph chase to baseball with a product limited to only 75 cases and the potential for some big names and some big items.
Keep reading for more information and a gallery of the possibilities here.
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: Throwback breaks, a big week of buying, panic buying, 2017 Allen & Ginter, a big fishy pull & much more …
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: Breaks from around the collecting world and a couple collecting debates that might make you think.
What: 2017 TRISTAR Hidden Treasures Platinum autographed baseballs
Arrives: March 22
Box basics: One autographed baseball per box (12 boxes per case)
What’s buzz-worthy: TRISTAR’s autographed baseball chase brand is back for 2017 with a new batch of stars and legends along with specialty balls guaranteed per case that help add variety to the chase.
The biggest chase of them all this year? Keep reading for that and a gallery of what’s in this one.
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: 2009 TRISTAR TNA Impact wrestling (blaster box)
Where to buy: Check eBay (hobby on BlowoutCards.com)
Packs per box: 1
Cards per pack: 24
Cards in this box: 24
Base set completion:
23 of 99 (23 percent)
Duplicates: 0
Notables on base cards – A.J. Styles, Brother Devon, Traci Brooks, Beer Money Inc., Sting, Mick Foley
TNA Debut cards – Brutus Magnus, Sarita
BlowoutBuzz.com 