No Card Shop Doesn't Mean No Cards

 I'm out in the middle of nowhere. Aside from being away from most of my stuff, I'm also about 3-4 hours away by express train from the nearest card shop. But over the years I've found a few other ways to get my hands on cardboard. In fact, it's much easier (and often cheaper) avoiding card shops altogether.

These cards were all delivered to my door, some in as little as a day, usually for under $1 shipping. Boy, do I love Japan. (I would have better-organized scans, but Blogger is a pain in the rear. So these are a bit eclectically sorted. And yes, eclectically is a word.) 

I collect Carter Stewart Jr. now. Not terribly comprehensively, but I would like to keep up with his base and regular insert cards. I'm missing one base card, but I think I have all the inserts I need.

It's a 1/1 plate! These backs are much nicer than the usual sticker-on-a-piece-of-metal plates Topps tosses in most of its packs, but nowhere on this card does it say what brand it is from. (Honestly, Triple Threads and Tribute are always confusing to me at first glance since sometimes neither brand has their name on the front.)

Smile, please! This gets me one step closer to the 1973 crossed bats Calbee set. I still have several more cards to go, though. I'm curious which will be finished first: 1973 Calbee, 1995 BBM, or 1996 BBM.

Here's the penultimate Stewart card (at this time) for my collection. There is still that one other card.

I came across this First Pitch card from 2000. Unlike the BBM cards which have become quite popular, what you see now is a prepaid card most likely used for transportation. You may notice a couple small holes on the right side on the front. Those were punched by the machine as the original 1000-yen value (about $10) dwindled down to nothing. I have a few prepaid cards in my collection. How annoying this must have been compared to today's touchless, easily-rechargeable cards. I remember dealing with this type of card when riding BART back in San Francisco (they didn't punch values, though, they printed it on the ticket face). Anyway, this is a nice little addition to my singles collection.

The BayStars seem to issue a lot of cards. In addition to BBM, Calbee, and Epoch sets, they have their own B*Spirit singles/sets and team sets through TIC/Hits/whatever. B*Spirit is quite confusing, but I believe they basically issue several series throughout the year, with perhaps 2-3 different "regular" team series, plus some highlight series. Toss in at least one cheerleader set each season. This card commemorates Tony Blanco winning a monthly MVP award in 2013.

This card also showcases a 2013 highlight: Norihiro Nakamura's 400th home run at the end of June. Each year's set follows a basic design, with different series having variations on that design, such as different backgrounds or color schemes. It's a nightmare to figure out, especially since I usually only have one or a few examples to work with.

One more US card. I actually got this card at a card shop! Last time I was home, I made a stop in Shinjuku for a late lunch, and swung by the local Mint branch. I wanted another jumbo pack to open, but they only had boxes, so I saved a bit of money. Instead, I overpaid for this card of my former student and biggest PC, Buck Farmer. It cost me a whole dollar, which, I guess, with shipping, is about what I'd pay from Sportlots or eBay if I didn't combine shipping. As of this writing, all I need for his 2021 Topps card are the 1/1 parallel and the /70 anniversary parallel. Fingers crossed.

In 2019, BBM issued a set for the BayStars' 70th anniversary. I picked up my type cards and moved on. Well, I also picked up Alex Ramirez's cards. But I completely missed Tanishige, who has both this base card and an insert card. Well, here's the base card, about two years too late. And I also got a parallel of the insert recently, but that's not shown here, because it isn't.

I've also come across some more random promos as I've been card hunting. This is another Fuji TV promo, and is numbered F03. This card, though, is from 2013, where the memorabilia card I shared earlier this year was from 2012, and was numbered RVM-R.

That's all for today. Until next time...

Trip Report: Nagoya Shops and Show (Part 1)

At the end of February, I took the train down to Nagoya for an overnight trip. The first day was essentially devoted to cards, while the second was all about coasters. You care about the cards, so here they are!

I brought home quite a few cards, so I'm going to break this up into a few different posts. Today, I'll start with the big pickups. Literally. Here are some box toppers!

In addition to the disgustingness that is Manny's helmet, you have to love his hair and facial expression. The original, authentic Manny being Manny. Machado is just a baby.

From 2021 Topps, I now have one of the All Stars box toppers. Too bad they don't stand up. But would I make it stand up if I could?

This card is quite difficult to see. It's a lenticular motion card of McGwire hitting a home run, issued by Upper Deck in 1998. 

I didn't really need this Cramer's Choice Award jumbo from Crown Royale, but it's Tony Gwynn. I figure I saved this card from a fate worse than death: sitting in a card shop forever.

How about a jumbo Topps Gallery card of Rafael Devers? If I had the resources to put this set together, I would.

On the other hand, I am trying to piece together this jumbo Diamond Kings set from 2014 Donruss. I have but four cards now. Yes, these two doubled my collection. While the regular Diamond Kings subset has 30 cards, the box topper set has only 25. So only 21 to go?

I have a second type collection of flagship sets. I've managed to keep up pretty well with Topps, but I hadn't come across any Donruss (or realized I needed to pick them up when I found them). Eventually, I realized my lack of ownership and found 2018 through 2020, but I was missing Donruss from 2014-2017. I poked through a few boxes of singles on this trip and came away with 2014, 2015, and 2016, leaving me missing just 2017!

All the above cards came from the Mint shop in Gamagori. They have a good selection of single cards for flagship BBM sets and plenty of recent Calbee cards. I wouldn't rely on them for other sets. They also carry MLB cards, as you can see, and I saw some NFL and NBA. They don't really have many singles, and the ones they do have are eclectic, but if you're in the area it might be fun to poke around. They do have a decent selection of recent packs.

Last for today are these three Carter Stewart Jr. cards. I've decided to put together a small collection for myself of his cards, so I've been looking for his base cards. Here are two subset cards from the 2020 and 2019 BBM Hawks team sets, and his regular card from the 2020 BBM Hawks team set. 

That's all for today! See you next time...

Don't Be A Player Hater

Yesterday's MJ card was for a US player collection, but I can't neglect my player collection for the NPB! With no cards being released these days (it is the offseason, after all) I'm starting to look for older cards that I've been missing. And I found this card recently:

The Yomiuri Giants have had special Players Day events in the past which included the distribution of trading cards. These cards came in special folders; above, you can see the front and inside front of the folder for Alex Ramirez. These folders are about 5x7", big enough to hold the actual card inside.

 And here is the card. It's shinier than it looks, with a nice finish. The back of the card tells us the date this particular card was distributed: June 8, 2009.

The Giants issued cards for Players Day events in 2008 and 2009 in this manner, and other promotional items in other years, such as small towels and caps. 

I didn't know this card exists until I happened to see it searching through some listings. Unfortunately, there are probably at least a dozen cards for Rami-chan I don't know about. But that does make things interesting when card hunting!

My Most Expensive Minor League Card

I have several player collections, but keeping up with them isn't too tough, because most of them are just Topps flagship base cards. But I have put together a few more comprehensive collections.

Michael Jordan is known more for his actions with an orange ball than a white one, but at some point I decided to put together a full collection of all of his base and insert baseball cards. That collection isn't quite finished, but the last "hit" is in the books:

This card from 2002 Upper Deck Minor League has a piece of his jersey with the Scottsdale Scorpions. I picked up a bat relic pretty early on in my quest to find all of Jordan's baseball cards, but jerseys have been more elusive. All that's left are a few 1994 inserts (which won't come cheap, I think) and one of those Upper Deck 20th Anniversary cards from 2009. This year, I hope!

Hello Carter Stewart Jr

 Once or twice a year, something will come up and I'll learn about a rare event, unique occurrence, or obscure award, and I'll be inspired to start a new mini-collection of sorts. Last year, I put together a collection of MLB knuckleball pitchers and a collection of players who came from my schools or towns I've lived in.

Earlier this month, I posted about a player in the 1960s who never played with the top team in the NPB, but due to the fanfare around his signing, ended up in a few card sets. Mark Brownstein was the first American to sign with the NPB without playing in the MiLB or MLB. Only two other players have done this: Matt Randel and Carter Stewart Jr. 

Yesterday, I talked about Alex Ramirez's retirement; Ramirez was the only active person I was collecting in the NPB at the beginning of the 2020 season. Well, in December, I found a copy of this card:

I should mention that I've been collecting Carter Stewart Jr. since the summer of 2019, but not for myself. I've been sending off the cards I find to a guy in the States. But effective about a month ago, I've also decided to collect his cards. I'm not going all-in on Stewart; I'll collect his base cards and perhaps some inserts, too. He doesn't really have many cards at this time anyway.

So hello, Carter. Welcome to my collection.

Farewell Rami-chan

 I came to Japan nine years ago knowing nearly nothing about the country, its people, and its customs. That was true for baseball as well.

Over time, I've learned about the history, teams, and players of the NPB. While Japan has had several superstars, I've only chosen to "supercollect" two of them. Coincidentally, both of them played for Yokohama. Motonobu Tanishige played in the NPB from 1989 through 2015, first for Yokohama and then the Dragons, managing the Dragons from 2014 to 2016. Alex Ramirez, after playing for the Indians and Pirates, played in Japan 2001-2013.

Ramirez was the Indians 1998 Minor League Player of the Year, and made his MLB debut that year. In mid-2000 he was traded to Pittsburgh. Over 135 games in three seasons, he batted a respectable but not outstanding .259 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs.

He signed with the Yakult Swallows in 2001 and batted cleanup, and even held the Central League record for most hits in a season with 204 during the 2007 season (Matt Murton would break that record in 2010, also breaking Ichiro's single-season NPB record; that record would then be surpassed by Shogo Akiyama in 2015). He signed with the Yomirui Giants the next year, performing even better than before and taking home the league MVP award.

Ramirez would play for Yomiuri through 2011, spending the final two years of his NPB playing career with the BayStars. In early 2013, Ramirez hit a home run for his 2000th career hit in the league, the 42nd player to do so and the first foreign player to ever reach that mark. 2000 NPB hits is a comparable milestone to 3000 hits in the MLB.

As a player in the NPB, Ramirez won the Central League MVP award twice, was an eight-time All-Star, won the Japan Series twice, was the 2008 Central League Championship Series MVP, won the Best Nine Award four times, was the 2009 Central League batting champion, a three-time league leader in RBIs, and led the Central League in home runs in 2003.

Ramirez was given the nickname Rami-chan in Japan, probably due to his playful attitude; -chan is a suffix used for small children. (As a side note, -kun is also used for boys, and Masahiro Tanaka's nickname in Japan is Ma-kun, most likely due to his young appearance, and possibly behavior.) Many of Ramirez's subset cards show him interacting with team mascots or goofing off.

Over 13 seasons at the plate in the NPB, he hit .301 with 2017 hits, 380 home runs, and 1272 RBI.

The 2014 season was spent as a player-coach in the independent BCL with the Gunma Diamond Pegasus team. He retired at the end of that season, and served as an advisor for the Orix Buffaloes for part of the 2015 season.

The BayStars brought Ramirez back as manager in 2016, and he took the team to the playoffs in three of his five years with the team. In 2016, the team had a losing record but still managed to finish third, and beat the second-place Giants to advance to the second stage of league playoffs. In 2017, they again finished third, but beat the Tigers and Carp to make it to the Japan Series, where they lost to the dynasty Hawks. The 2018 season was his worst as a manager, finishing fourth with a .475 winning percentage. The BayStars returned to the playoffs in 2019, finishing in second place but losing in the first round to the third-place Tigers. The shortened 2020 season saw the team back in fourth place, two games under .500. Over five seasons, the BayStars had a regular-season record of 336-337.

Ramirez announced his retirement in October, and was given a farewell ceremony at the end of the season. Epoch made an Epoch One card commemorating the event:

I never did see him play in person, and in fact I never saw him manage, either. But perhaps I'll get to see him some other way; he opened a restaurant in 2013, which has since closed, but perhaps he'll try again. Or maybe he'll show up at an event.

1 Not 1/1 1/1

I've been busy! I finished my road assignment last week, and got back home on Sunday... and promptly went out to a card show and a couple card shops. I still have three piles of things to put away in different places, and three stacks of cards from the show and recent online pickups. I've been using my free time to get reorganized and settled in, inventory and scan everything I've picked up, and properly cook dinner. And yesterday, I worked across town - about a 90-minute commute each way. But now I'm working nearby, so I should have more free time. Let's get back to writing, huh?

When is a 1/1 not a 1/1?

The first, easiest argument is aftermarket 1/1s. I'm sure there's still a bunch of those out there on eBay and circulating at shows and in shops. Some guy prints up some 1/1-notated hologram stickers or comes across a foil stamper, creating their own "special" 1/1s. I'm not sure I could call them fraudulent, unless they're misrepresented in some way.

But that leads to fraudulent 1/1s - cards made to look factory-stamped as 1/1s, copying the position, style, etc of legitimate 1/1s. Some aftermarket 1/1s would fall here, as I think hiding some small print in your eBay listing is deceptive.

And since I mentioned eBay in the first two examples, the third eBay example is "eBay 1/1s" - #1/25 is not a 1/1. Jersey number-serialed cards aren't 1/1s. So on, so forth. It is highly possible that, for on-card autographs, the first serial-numbered card was the first or last card signed by the player, meaning it could have the best (or worst) signature. But that's different.

I still consider factory-stamped "event" 1/1s to be 1/1s, but with asterisks. When Topps, Donruss, Upper Deck, etc. made 1/1 cards for Nationals or other card shows, the only distinction was the 1/1 stamp, and thus aren't really any more unique than the regular base cards that they parallel.

Along those lines, any 1/1 parallel that isn't unique from its base card beyond the stamp is somewhat depressing. Parallels, overall, need to be distinctive. Topps Triple Threads has some relic sets that are impossible to distinguish from each other beyond the serial numbering, for example.

Printing plates are marketed as 1/1s, and yes, there should be only one black printing plate for Ichiro in 2003 Topps, but the three other colors are essentially the same thing. I'll take all your Buck Farmer printing plates off of your hands, but as far as my type collection goes, eight Topps Total plates (front and back, four colors each) equal one entry in my list.

Now, there are cases of accidental one-of-one markings on cards or entire sets. Those definitely don't count. Sometimes, they're supposed to be one-of-one, but they aren't.

And then there's Topps Moments & Milestones.

In 2008 Moments & Milestones, Alex Rodriguez's milestone is his 518 home runs hit through 2007. Base cards are numbered to 150 - a low number for a base card. But each home run has its own "mirror" card - the large number at the bottom of the card. So 150 x 518 = 77,700 cards for A-Rod.

The same thing happens with parallels. Each black parallel is numbered to 25; that makes 12,950 A-Rod card #1s numbered to 25. Blue? #10, so 5180 cards. A card numbered to 5000 in 2008 would be in the fifty-cent bin, but numbered to 10 adds an artificial premium.

And that means the red 1/1 cards are very rarely 1/1. In fact, only Dice-K and Ichiro have true 1/1 cards in the set. There are 518 A-Rod card #1 1/1s... again, a card actually numbered to 500 in 2008 was maybe a $1-2 card at a show.

The Albert Pujols card above is the second 1/1 card I've found from this set. I don't have two Pujols 1/1 cards from this set, I think. But there are 195 of them in all!

Is this card a legitimate 1/1? Okay, yeah. It's the only card from 2008 Moments & Milestones which features Pujols' 126th hit of the 2005 season. But there are 194 other cards which highlight his hits in the 2005 season, so it's less special to me.

That said, since I already have a red parallel from this set, I can put a 1/1 card in my Albert Pujols collection!

What do you think? Is this really a 1/1? What do you think of the other 1/1 flavors?

Until next time...

Look What I Found! And my Super Collections Update

One of my goals this year is to clear out a lot of the extra stuff I've accumulated that doesn't fit in my collection. Extra cards, random singles with no home, cards I picked up with good intentions, cards I've picked up and later realized I didn't need, scraps from sets I've torn apart for other purposes.

A couple weeks ago I was sifting through a couple boxes looking for some certain extra cards, and I came across this:

It's not PSA 10 Gem Mint, I'm pretty sure. The odd scan might come more from the sleeve I scanned it in than damage to the card, but I know I'm not buying a new car with this thing. Altuve's first cards came in 2010 Bowman Chrome, aside from a couple minor league issues in 2008 and 2009.

I actually already have a copy of this, but it is nice to have a second first-year card of a player I've been following since early 2011. By then he was tearing up the league, and he had his MLB debut later that season.

My Altuve player collection is my biggest player collection. I focus on all of his base cards and inserts, as well as some of the manufactured relics. I do occasionally end up with parallels and those get added to the collection, and I have a few autographs and memorabilia cards, but I don't actively chase them.

Right now, I have cataloged 261 base cards, of which I have 247. I'm only missing his 2012 Panini Signature Series base card and a few 2019s. As for inserts, I have 269/395 (more than 2/3), and 15 of 20 "hits" I want. Many of those "inserts" are actually Topps Now and other online exclusives, and I'm debating whether I really want to chase those. Certainly more than half of the "insert" cards I need are really online exclusives.

If you're wondering, my next biggest collection is Charlie Hough; I have all but one of his 133 base cards, 80% of his 185 non-base cards, and more than half of his autograph cards (that surprised me). For Hough, I collect all of his parallels, though I don't know of any 1/1 parallels. He has some printing plates, but really those are four copies. And he has a 1/1 signature card, but it's not a parallel. Doesn't matter - I'll never have that in my collection anyway, right?

Jose Altuve, Charlie Hough, Geoff Geary, and Buck Farmer are my (semi) super collections. So why don't we knock the other two off with this post:

I haven't added a Geoff Geary card in quite a while. I got the last minor league card I needed of him sometime in 2018. Now all I need are three different printing plates, two autograph parallels which may or may not exist (if they do, they're /25 and /10), and a 2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blue parallel which is limited to only 50 copies. He only has 44 cards total, so I have an 86% complete collection for him.

Buck Farmer had almost nothing in the past three years, but 2019 saw him back in flagship Topps, and all of the parallels that brings, plus Topps Total. Overall, I'm only missing five of his cards #/10 or #/5, plus several 1/1s. All of the cards #/5 or #/10 are Panini college issues from 2015 or 2016. I've never seen two of the 2019 1/1s show up, while I missed the Platinum card on eBay literally by a few minutes. Maybe it'll be mine some day.

So those are my biggest player collections - my super collections. Altuve's collection will definitely get much bigger over time, Hough will get some more, and Geary is done, but how much larger will Buck Farmer's list get?

Alumni on Cardboard

My most personal collection is my player collection of Buck Farmer. As I've mentioned before, he was my student when I was teaching in the States, and I was an assistant coach for the baseball team while he was there. Buck now has over 300 unique cards, including parallels, and I'm missing only five non 1/1s: Panini issues #/10 or #/5 that I've never seen.

Buck Farmer is the only baseball player to come from the school I worked at. And after doing some digging about the schools I attended as a student, I've found a few more baseball players to look into:

I grew up in Silicon Valley, an area not exactly known for sports. But the 49ers now play just down the street from where I used to live, and the San Jose Giants weren't too far away. Santa Clara is the birthplace of Troy Tulowitzki, Happy Hogan, Kyle Barraclaugh, Charlie Graham, Mitch Haniger, Adam Melhuse, umpire Gabe Morales, Greg Gohr, Ryan Hancock, Bret Hemphill, and Eric Thames, among other non-baseball notable names.

My high school has one baseball player in its list of alumni: Drew Waters. Drew is a prospect in the Braves organization. Buster Skrine, quarterback for the Chicago Bears, PGA golfer Chris Kirk, and Chandler Riggs, an actor in The Walking Dead, also went to my high school. They're all younger than I am, and unless they walked into Blockbuster Video while I was working there in college, I've never met them.

However, my high school split into two just after I graduated, and Nick Markakis went to the new school just down the street. Also from the same town is Lew Carpenter, a Senators player in the 1940s, and Matt Skole. Markakis is already in my player collection for his connection to one of my hometowns.

Moving on to college, I actually attended three. My first one has no notable athletes, as it didn't have a big sports program, though the founder of the Varsity restaurant chain attended that school. I love their onion rings!

I got my Bachelor's degree from the same school that Ty Pennington, Larry Nelson, James Wade, and a handful of senators and congressmen attended. And several baseball players, too: Willie Harris on the Nationals, Max Pentecost from the Blue Jays, and Richard Lovelady.

Rounding out my education, the university from which I obtained my Master's degree has a Hall of Famer in its alumni. Umpire Marvin Hudson went to that school, as did former Yankee Johnny Mize. The school's athletic center is named for him, and the campus also has a museum devoted to his career.

Going back to Buck Farmer's high school career, as a coach we played another local high school which spouted out another major leaguer: Tyler Austin. I always wondered why that name always sounded familiar to me when Zippy Zappy talked about him, and now I know. I saw him play in high school. (Side note: his team was quite dirty on the field. But I remember him as a beast at and behind the plate.) And here's another "small world" moment: Austin signed with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars last month to play baseball here in Japan in 2020.

Buck Farmer and Nick Markakis are already player collections, but as for the other players, I'll probably look into getting a single card from each of them, or possibly a small handful. Some players most likely have no cards at all. I think it'd be great to have an "alumni/hometown" mini-collection!

This post, like all of my posts this week, were inspired by Corky's question posts over at Pack War.