I Got Majorly Zippy Zapped for New Years!

Dateline: January Fifth. It's the last day of my New Years vacation. For the past eight days, I've been trudging around Japan, buying baseball cards, seeing sights, and eating food. And the day before, I hiked about 13 kilometers. But on this day, my plan was to have a great time with Kenny hitting up Nagoya's four card shops.

While we made it to all four shops (you can read a little bit about it on Kenny's post), I'd like to share a small, small sliver of the massive pile of cards he unloaded on me first thing that morning.

You see, there were two large bags in his hand for me. One full of snacks - American chips (Doritos, Cheetos, Sun Chips, Fritos, Lays), Airheads, and candy canes. The other full of boxes of cards. Kenny bought a bunch of boxes of cards while he was living here, and he's unloaded his extras on me a couple times now.

I'm not complaining. Just sifting through piles of cards can be a great way to stay in shape... er, spend an afternoon. How much time have I "wasted" pulling cards from dime and quarter boxes at shows in the US? And there were many cards in the stacks that I could use. Kenny also included some more recent cards.

I scanned a little over 60 cards in the end, which was just a drop in the bucket. Here's that sampling.

 I like 2013 Topps. It's not one of my favorites, but the design is smooth and clean, and I like that baseball field design. But I put Smyly here because throwback unis are cool.

 Kenny knows I collect Altuve. The man had to go and have a great year this year, which has sent his autographs and relics up in price. But I'm glad to get all I can!

 Green. Puke green.

 I'm not really sure where the football comes in. But this card is sparkly!

 I collect USA Baseball team sets, but this card went to my type collection.

 A nice Altuve parallel! I don't include parallels on my want list, but I'll add any you send my way into my collection!

 There were about half a dozen Farmers in there, too. I knew they were coming. Why didn't I put Buck in my wallet? I really wanted to honor Tony Gwynn this year. But my former student's RC is a prime candidate for future inclusion! Buck just got his "second" card release in the Bowman Mini set, though that really is just a parallel of the card above. I've already cleaned up pretty well on all of those parallels, other than the really-low numbered ones.

 Buck Farmer knows Orlando Hudson. Hudson actually came and practiced at our school a little bit before spring training this year. He's a great guy and I'm going to add him to my player collection.

 There were several minor league singles in there too. Kenny's interest in prospects is pretty cool, and if I had access to a minor league stadium I would be more into prospects too.

 I like these Draft Day cards. They're all kind of strange - the idea of creating a huge event out of just picking players is beyond me. But the cards I've seen in this set are pretty unique. I might chase this set.

 USA again! My scanner doesn't like Bowman Chrome too much, especially when it curls.

 Chunky!

 I think Kenny bought a repack at some time. One thing I'll eventually try to collect cheaply (or free, if you guys can help me out) is a complete run of Donruss puzzles.

 Speaking of old stuff, how about this Dave Collins. I love those glasses.

 I miss comics on cards. The Bazooka Comics insert set was something I really looked forward to each year.

 More football? Manning and Brady are pretty big names. Tom Brady was in Family Guy!

 I found Jesus! There were a lot of Bowman cards in there.

 Something I'd probably never buy, but Wrestling cards are pretty fun to look at. I didn't know The Rock was still wrestling in 2011...

 Minis! I still need many, many mini cards from the past several years. I understand Steve M. has some coming my way soon!

 Speaking of minis, here's another football card. I'm not sure if I would be interested in collecting the baseball version of a football throwback. But I've added random stuff to my lists before!

 I like the photo here.

 I like the photo here, too.

 For some reason, I never looked at the back of the Franchise History subset cards. I wish flagship Topps would only use active players (and managers and coaches), but I like the concept of including all-time as well as current and past-season leaders.

 Again, a couple great photos. Finley with his kid and Alfonzo in a throwback uniform! There are some random photohraphic treats in many of the 1990s sets.

 Why did I scan this? Because it's "old". My (not really publicized) Live Game collection calls for one card for each player who appeared in each MLB game I've attended.  Kenny's generous card "donations" really filled out a lot of the more recent seasons' games, but the dozens of games I attended in the 1990s are relatively sparse in the card department. I'm not chasing those cards other than what end up in my hands right now, though, because whenever I can get back to those thousands upon thousands of extras in storage, I'll be able to pull a whole bunch of cards for my want list.

 I love Upper Deck's 1993 set, as do many other people. But I love it for the subsets more than the base sets, which all had 90s-style logos, some only used on one card! So much more effort went into a single set or even card compared to today's relatively unimaginative offerings.

 So this is somewhat old...

 But this is OLD! Vintage is really cool, and one of my hopes is to finish the 1973 set this year. But any pre-1980 cards you want to get rid of can be happy here! That includes oddball sets - team issues are really tough to find when I'm not able to attend local card shows.

 There was one jersey in the lot!

 Hmm. An Opening Day 3D card. I might need to collect this set.

 Hah. When I saw Panini preview images from this set in 2011, I was disappointed. They've issued a bunch of other sets I really enjoy, but Contenders, with its studio shots of players in t-shirts, was a big let-down.

 And then I follow it up with Studio. It was a unique issue in 1991 - black and white photos and some interesting poses. There were some good Studio insert sets over the years, too.

 I know nothing about hockey. Nothing.

 Eh? Football?

 You know I'm not a fan of football, but I like the photo on this card. A couple teammates on the sidelines appearing to share a happy moment.

 2AM is a K-Pop group. This card came with a piece of bubble gum; I've seen these in stores recently again. I'm sure Kenny was hoping for KARA or another girl group. Or did I give this card to Kenny by mistake?

 I remember when Belt was supposed to be the Giants' answer to first base. This was quite the hot card in San Francisco. He's not been great, and 2014 was a tough year for Brandon, but his 2012 and 2013 seasons were respectable.

 Heritage Minor League just feels wrong - future players on past designs? But I like minor league cards because I can see logos and jerseys that I generally don't get to see. I think I've seen Kevin Pillar play, too!

 Mini football!

 Gold!

 When Clone Wars first started airing on TV, I had no interest in it. I'm not a big Star Wars fan, though I enjoyed the movies. What bothers me is the angular animation the show uses.

 But digital Natalie Portman isn't too bad.

 I wish I knew what was going on here.

 A real Star Wars fan knows who Barriss is. I don't.

 Here's Lucky! And a stink-eye from the girl in the front. Seriously, though, this animation is so simple.

 Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? This is from a trading card game! Kids non-sport issues from the past 20-30 years are some of the toughest cards to find. Did you know there were several Hannah Montana sets? And an iCarly set that had costume cards?

 Bowman's Best is nice. My scanner still didn't think very highly of it.

 Ren and Stimpy! Old Nicktoons were the best - Doug, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy...

 I hear this Trumbo guy is pretty good. This liquorfractor went to my Awards collection.

 What is it was super-baggy uniforms? I guess this is a throwback uniform anyway, but it looks like he's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and surf shorts.

 Old-school Topps Chrome!

 Some of the cards I understood. You could tell when Kenny bought a pack of something.

 Remember this monstrosity?

 Where was this photo taken? The D'Backs Spring Training facility? Chris's high school?

 A couple good shots from 2012 Topps. Yes, the Suzuki is an Opening Day. Look how easy it is to read his name without the foil!

 Football?!

Another 3D card from Opening Day. I think there's a very strong chance I'll put together these sets.

Kenny has said that he's dumping cards on me that I don't need. And yes, I have a bunch of cards left that are just taking up space. But my collection got some help and I really enjoyed sorting through the cards! So thanks, Kenny, for all the awesomeness you left with me as I departed Nagoya!

And it was great getting to catch up with you! I have to go through my stuff to find those (very few) cards I have for you to send to New York.