Nagoya Shops and Show (Part 3)

 Shall we get the rest of the singles out of the way? You've heard me talk a lot about cards I picked up at Mint Hinasho in Gamagori (do you know where Gamagori is? Many Japanese people don't), but not about other shops, or the show I've been teasing in the title. That's because I only got to one other shop, Mint Ponyland in Nagoya. As for the show, I'm getting there. Actually, I'm there. Most of the cards here were pickups at the show!

First, a bunch of cards for the type collection. See the best I could do with my scanner. I think I need to find a feeder sheet to help scan some of these slicker cards that don't feed through smoothly.

These are both parallels; 2020 Glory on the left is #/30, while the 2013 Giants gold signature parallel is #/100.

These 2019 1st Version cards are the /50 Rookie green and the /50 Holo Signature partial parallels.

Ugh. Crazy scanner. Here are two insert parallels from team sets. The BayStars one is really sparkly, which is why the it has that dot pattern in my scan. The Hawks insert is just a numbered parallel.

Really, BBM is lazy with their inserts. They have no meaning or substance; as you see, it's just a foil card with a player on it; the parallels simply add a different foil style or even just numbered stamping on the back. Yes, I realize Topps and Panini do this too, but BBM's inserts never seem to have much thought put into them.

Ah, I've found a relic! I needed this card for my type collection, and the price was right. But I especially love the use of the summer alternate jersey as both the picture and jersey swatch.

Ugh, scanner again. When I first came to Japan, these First Pitch cards were simply subsets in the 2nd Version set, and rarely commanded a premium. But they've gained popularity over the years (are that many people reading my blog or is it just a coincidence?) and the prices have risen and BBM has added various serial-numbered parallels. I wish this had scanned better, but you can see it's a gold foil front. And yes, the gold foil looks just about as bad in person as it does in the scan.

Here's a 2020 version of the Rookie green foil parallel for you.

And a 2020 Dancing Heroine autographed card. I don't recall offhand what 2019's autographs were like, but I believe this is the first time BBM didn't state which Dancing Heroine set this is from. There are two, called Hana and Mai, and usually the autographs have a notation somewhere telling which set it's from, but I'm blind or it's not there.

Some of the scans here are pretty bad. Sorry. But I did find three Epoch Stars and Legends base singles for my type collection. These cards came from Ponyland, and are basically all that I found at that shop (save for a few other basic singles not worth mentioning this time).

The 2020 BBM Icons set was titled Fireballer, and included both a regular insert set and a Rookie insert set. Here are both.

I'm still confused about this card. When I bought it, I thought I needed it for my type collection. Then, I thought I didn't. And now, again, I wonder if I do. Meanwhile, I remember Lloyd Moseby mostly for his time in Detroit, because I went to a Tigers game and I can distinctly remember hearing the announcer calling his name out for the lineup. Unfortunately, I don't have my ticket stub from that game so I couldn't tell you which. But I do remember a different announcer calling Dave Magadan's name; that would have been 1994, in Atlanta, when he was with the Marlins.

Two certified autographs. The Golden Eagles card on the left is from the team issue set, while the Dragons card is from the BBM team set. Akasaka's jersey number is 204. I think that's the highest jersey number yet that I've seen on a card. (Aside from the mascot jersey numbers.)

The above cards mostly came from the card show, with the exception of those Epoch Stars and Legends base cards. But it's time to go back to Gamagori for some set building:

These two 1996 cards are all I could find to help me finish my set. Dragons are tough! 18 of the 20 cards I need are from the high number Dragons set. One of the others is from the low number Dragons. And one is a short-printed subset card.

I had better luck with 1995. I might finish the '95 set before the '96... though I'm still missing some very tough cards. I think I mixed Dave's cards in when I scanned these, since I did that before entering cards into inventory. But regardless, I need two regular cards (one of which is an Ichiro puzzle piece) and eight high-number cards. Most of those are not Marines, though!

And once again, I'll call it a day. Until next time...

Thirty Eight: Last of the Card Show Pickups

Here's the rest of the singles from last month's card show pickups...

 Three printing plates and an /15 autograph. But that Leaf Matrix card looks the coolest in this scan! The Platinum autograph is nice. But I gotta go with Matt Harvey as the best card here thanks to the colors.

 I was surprised to come across a Goodwin Champions printing plate. But that's why I go to card shows! I really like that Eddie Murray dual relic card too. But Pedro Martinez is my favorite card here. I'm a sucker for art cards, if you didn't know.

One of the dealers has occasional Korean cards. I don't know why; perhaps he builds sets for himself, or he looks for certain big hits or players. I got a bunch of cards from the 2019 SCC Premium 2 set for my type collection from him. Dan usually hooks me up with singles but I didn't have any from this set. Jeon Sang Hyun is the best looking card in the lot, if you ask me. You didn't, but it's my blog. So I'll just pretend you asked me.

 After Korea, let's look at Japan. I do live in Japan, after all! One seller had a bunch of numbered Epoch singles, which I gobbled up for my type collection. Epoch's issues are usually so limited that most inserts are numbered less than 100 copies each. I've been gobbling up Calbee singles to finish off a little mini-collection I'm working on; I'm down to mostly 1980s cards. Soon, that project will be completed! Beste card here: Tokutsu, though it didn't scan well.

Finally, some more type collection singles. I lined these cards up so well that the Glory and Legendary Player cards look like single big cards! The two Tashiros are different; you can't tell it in the scan, but they are parallels of the base version. Best card: Asuka Teramoto, because any time I can get a gymnast out of a pack of baseball cards, that set is a winner.

What do you think of this scanning style? Nine cards per scan in an extra-large image size? Usually I have single card images, and put up to three in a row, but I thought I'd go back to this format to see how it works.

Have Nots and Haves...

Let's finish off these thick cards from that show last month, huh?

A few more hits were picked up for the type collection:

 I bet you Upper Deck went to a used bookstore or eBay or Amazon or whatever, bought the cheapest map book they could find, and have then been cutting it up since then to make this series of relic cards. I still like World Traveler, though, since I enjoy traveling the world. With 250 cards, the set would be extremely difficult to complete - finding the cards would be the first big challenge, and visiting all 250 locations would cost a fortune. But what a trip that would be, eh?

 A Big Grey Piece of a Shirt. But this one is numbered out of 10 so that makes it more special, right?

 Hey, this one has colors! The green dot means I forgot to take it out of the sleeve before scanning... oops. This is a pretty cool relic because each swatch is a different color, and the patch has four colors too!

 I remember these guys, back when I lived in Atlanta. When this card came out, it was probably a $100 card, at least in Atlanta. I think I paid a couple bucks for it. Boy how things have changed.

 The last card that actually fit into my collection was this patch; it only has a couple colors but it's a big piece. I wouldn't mind having a piece of the S on that logo from his jersey.

I picked up some more cards that ended up not fitting in my collection, as usual.

 I knew I wouldn't need these Civic Symbols state flag manu-relics. But I like novelties, and these are novelties. And they cost me $1 each, so I'll just go to Starbucks one less time this month. At a dollar each, I'd be interested in building the entire set of state flags.

 Two more World Traveler cards puts me over the 1% mark for set completion! Yeah, still not happening, unless, again, I can get the cards for $1 each. Oh, and Walla Walla, Washington! How can you not love Walla Walla, Washington?

 A few days ago, I posted one of these cards. But I bought three in all. Honestly, I wish the colors were bolder, but these have a kind of cross-stitch/needlepoint feel, which issomewhat admirable.

Two horrible signatures. I didn't need either of these in the end. (Yes, I already have a #/5 card from that Tier One autograph set somehow. I might actually have another Odorizzi.) Crawford actually signed all the way down to the relic window.

While not every card I picked up found a home in my collection (yet - perhaps they will fit in somewhere) what I did need certainly was worth the extra expense.

Until next time...

Sew What? Going Wild. Confusing Movie. Double-Triple.

So many bad puns, so little post titles. More thick cards from the card show today.

 I'm not sure why my scanner decided to chop the top of the image off, but these two parallels from Topps Inception utilize the Official Panini Diamond Kings Artification Filter to make the photos look... arty. Honestly, I don't like the over-HDRization of images.

 Here's a card from Triple Threads. It features three pieces of jersey, which is obvious because the middle one is a different color. Some would have you believe this is a 7-piece relic card. But it ain't. It's numbered out of 36.

 Here's another card from the same year of Triple Threads. It may only have one giant piece of jersey inside, though the angle of the mesh indicates there are probably three separate pieces... which almost certainly came from the same jersey anyway. This card is numbered out of 27, and as such is a parallel. How else do I know it's a parallel? Seriously, I can't tell the difference beyond the serial number.

But Verlander and Scherzer are great pitchers, and Verlander was a 20-game winner last year. If (and it's a big if) Verlander can have four more seasons like last year, he could be a 300-game winner. And he reached the 3000-strikeout milestone last year as well. And he got 300 strikeouts last year alone. Again, four more seasons, and he could pass 4000 strikeouts.

 Speaking of animals, this manupatch is pretty cool...

But I think the water buffalo is cooler. All of the cards in this post have been funneled into my type collection but these patches might do well on display somewhere. I'd love a complete set of either of these series, but that's beyond my budget, and do I really need another impossible set to collect?

Since today is Groundhog Day, I guess it makes sense that today is the day I post these scans.

So let's close out this post with the thought that I might chase after a Max Scherzer autograph, inspired by this purchase.

Until next time...