First Buzz: 2017 Topps Transcendent Collection baseball cards (gallery updated Dec. 15 & beyond)

What: 2017 Topps Transcendent Collection baseball cards
Arrives: Dec. 13
Box basics: 53 autographs — and plenty more — per hand-crafted wooden box
Checklist: Click here to view

What’s buzz-worthy: Topps’ high-end baseball brand — what it calls “the pinnacle of high-end collecting” — returns for another season with a tribute of sorts to 1987, a spotlighting of the newly crowned American League Rookie of the Year and a party invite that includes one of the biggest sluggers in baseball history.

So, what comes in a box? Keep reading for more info and a full gallery of images released so far.

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Whitney Houston’s awards can’t compete with piece of a sports icon in Heritage sale … at least for now

lf-8Items from Whitney Houston‘s estate are currently on the auction block — a selection of awards, memorabilia, clothing and items given to the legendary performer — via Heritage Auctions as part of an entertainment and music memorabilia auction ending on June 24.

The priciest item so far? It’s not her Emmy for “Saving All My Love for You,” her Billboard Award for “I Will Always Love You” or her MTV Video Music Award for “How Will I Know?”

It’s a pair of black Air Jordan V basketball shoes.

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Old sets can include a few surprises … like Pro Set’s UK MusiCards

1991-Pro-Set-SuperStars-MusiCards-UK-boxIt sounded like a fun, cheap rip of some oldschool wax — a late-night buy just because it was a good deal — but it turned into another lesson about old cardboard.

This time, the product was a long-forgotten (and maybe unknown to some) release from Pro Set back in 1991 — the company’s UK edition of SuperStars MusiCards.

prince-purpleTo those of you who were around for Pro Set, you probably fondly remember the football card chases created by the Dallas, Texas-based company in 1989 and 1990 and the overproduction that was happening but we never saw because everybody (and their mother) was buying. By 1991, many of its products — and there were many in the non-football realm — arrived with a thud. Not because they were bad but because they were trying new things and new things didn’t always work. (And because the presses kept on rolling.) By 1993, the company was back down to football and by 1994 the company was gone completely.

And if you weren’t around then? Well, you missed out on some of the best simple cardboard of all times … and one example of that is this 1991 SuperStars MusiCards UK Editon.

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