One Image: Trade with NPB Card Guy Part 4

I guess you could call this a trade.

Usually, I'm the one picking things off of auctions for NPB Card Guy. And if you've been reading his posts lately, you know that is what I did for a lot of the things he got from me this month. I have no problem with that, because it takes very limited effort and I get to look forward to another package in my mailbox when I get home.

I don't usually need him to do the same for me, because I can have my eBay purchases shipped to my mother's house for storage. But for whatever reason, the seller of this auction had me blocked. (Why? I really don't know. Maybe I insulted him with a Best Offer in the past.) I don't think I've ever been blocked from bidding before, but generally I would probably say "fuck you" and just find the cards elsewhere, but the price was too good to leave behind. So I asked for some help.

Yeah, they aren't baseball cards. Jordana Brewster is a decent actress, though. I remember her back from my college days (does anyone remember the movie The Faculty?) and continuing on in the Fast and the Furious series.

So, that completes my trade post series with NPB Card Guy! After some of our initial discussions on other things he might have, I'm certainly looking forward to the next posting!

Until then...

Clearing Out the Back Stock: Trade with NPB Card Guy Part 3

From what I remember from reading NPB Card Guy's older posts, he used to open boxes of product to build his BBM sets. While that's certainly more time consuming (in a good way - busting packs and sorting cards is a lot of fun in my eyes), you end up with extras (great for trades, if you know someone) and more importantly, you end up with holes in your collection.

When the main source of cards is on the other side of the world, that can be problematic. So these days, he just goes after the full sets in most cases. But that does mean that he has a good stash of cards he'd like to clear out. At least, that's what I gather. So he generously offered to help me fill in some of my needs in a few collections!

 First, I have to say I'm not happy with the crop job my flatbed scanner does. It seems like all of the cards have lost a little border on the outside; that's fine for documents with white borders, larger photos, and things like that, but for 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of cardboard, a decent bit is left out.

These team checklists are cool enough as is, just because they feature the team logos. But I need team logo cards to represent Japan Series participants. You'd be surprised how infrequently things like this appear on cardboard. And keep in mind that singles start at 50 yen in most shops - 100 yen in Mint corporate shops. I can't justify paying a dollar just for a logo of the Lions.

From this point forward, there isn't too much to say: all of these players are foreigners in the NPB. That's what collection they're headed to! Let's play a game: how many names do you recognize? (I'm out because I'm familiar with most of them thanks to their involvement in Japanese baseball. I don't remember who I remember being in the MLB.)

 Looking at all these closeup photos makes me want to put together my own History of Uniform frankenset. I might just do that next year. Or sooner than next year.

 The Hall card is an insert, but in the 1994 BBM set it was pretty hard to tell. Maybe that's why BBM always uses foil for its inserts and some of their parallels. The Yan card is an example of a foilboard card, while most of BBM's parallels these days just use foil signatures.

NPB Card Guy was nice enough to send them alphabetically by last name, which is mostly how I scanned them.

 In addition to filling a lot of my want list in this collection, there's also a really good overview of BBM sets around the year 2000.

 And this concludes the trade part of this post series! Tomorrow I'll finish it off with a couple other cards that were in the package.

(Edit: I had the hardest time uploading these scans thanks to spotty internet service, so I had to hack out most of the text a bit faster than I would have liked.)

Two Countries: Trade with NPB Card Guy Part 2

It looks like this trade is going to be a four-parter. Here, I start by presenting some cards for my fledgling Japanese Player Collection.

I have a pretty good start on my two-player collection. I picked up a couple bulk lots from Yahoo Japan Auctions to knock a lot of the base cards out of the way, and some other cards came when I was hunting for other singles late last year.

I'm not really sure why I collect Motonobu Tanishige. His name is fun to say, that's for sure. And he's a player who has managed to be very popular despite not being very good at the plate. I'm sure that has something to do with his skills behind the plate and as a team captain. He was a manager, too, but hasn't really been successful so he stepped down last year.

Rami-chan (Alex Ramirez) is an interesting character. He has fun on the field, as evidenced by the cards below, and arguably has had the best gaijin career in Japan.

 NPB Card Guy sent me six cards for that collection. I think the photos say a lot about the players - Tanishige showing energy as a catcher and Rami-chan interacting with the mascot and dressing up.

Moving across the Japan Sea, this 1999 Teleca card is a promo card featuring Seung Yeop Lee. The '99 World Sports Cards show was held in Seoul, South Korea, and this card is part of a three-card set all featuring Lee distributed at that show. My scanner clipped the edges of the cards. (Ugh.)

This image, from Prestige Collectibles (you can buy a full set there), shows all three cards.

More to come! See you tomorrow.

Starting From Start to Start: Trade With NPB Card Guy Part 1

The guy who is my Stateside connection to Japanese baseball (NPB Card Guy) is one of the nicest guys I've met. He and I trade occasionally, and one of those trades just finished changing hands. There aren't many surprises in our packages, really - international shipping ain't cheap, you know. But I have a bad memory so even if he did mention everything headed my way it's like Christmas when I open my mail.

It'll take me a few posts to get through everything he sent this time, and we're already talking about the next go-round. How am I ever going to keep things straight?

When I opened the envelope, I saw a bunch of well-secured single cards, plus a large top-loader with a couple things inside. My first thought was that he had found an American card for my collection and tossed it in there.

 With the card was this flyer/postcard advertising a movie called Diamond Diplomacy. Here are the details, as presented by the back of the card.

 I haven't heard much about this project since the initial buzz and later Kickstarter project, but it's only been a few months. Hopefully the film will be released this summer!

So, to start this trade post series, here is the card I thought was a US card. Obviously, it's in the style of the old Turkey Red cabinets, and at first glance, just seeing the top-right corner, I thought it might have been a reprint or one of the Topps cabinets from a few years ago. But seeing the card I remembered that Rob Fitts ran a campaign to help fund Masanori Murakami's trip to the US, and this card in autographed form was one of the "rewards" for funding. The unsigned cards were given out during book-signing events, I believe. I wish I had been able to participate in that crowd-funding event; thankfully NPB Card Guy had an extra one of these sitting around! (I have to wonder what his card collection storage area looks like with all these great things he seems to have just sitting around...)

This card is a good starting point because Murakami was the first Japanese player in Major League Baseball. It's too large to fit in my "Japanese MLB Players Collection" but that's perfectly fine since it's more likely to end up displayed in some way instead!

So while we're at it, I'll include a second card - the first Japanese player to effectively transition from NPB to MLB baseball (Murakami was forced to return to Japan after one year in the Majors). I recently went on a Nomo spree trying to finish my 1993 BBM set, but was still missing a card for the aforementioned Japanese players collection. NPB Card Guy just happened to have an NPB-era Nomo sitting around, and now it has a nice new home!

And speaking of my collection of Japanese players in the MLB, I am now down to needing only one NPB card: Toru Murata, who appeared in 2008's Rookie Edition and First Version sets, and the 2008-2010 BBM Giants team sets. I haven't been hunting too hard yet, but his cards have remained elusive.

And on the MLB side, I still need Murata, Ryota Igarashi, and Kensuke Tanaka, all of whom have only Minor League singles, as well as Norihiro Nakamura.

One of my goals this year is to hunt down those remaining five cards. Can I do it? Only time will tell.

Thanks, NPB Card Guy, for these two awesome cards, and the rest which are coming up!

The Zippy Zappy Fukubukuro: Part Six (The Finale!)

We've finally reached the end! It took six posts - almost a whole week - to give just a sample of what was inside, from 1988 Score to Buck Farmer autographs numbered out of 75 to baseballs with multiple signatures. So what could be so special that I'd save it until the end?

 A retail Topps Update Mega Box. Huh? Why's that special? It's really fun to bust open packs, and I don't do much of that in Japan. I believe I opened maybe three packs last year. So when Zippy Zappy and I stopped for dinner at Taco Bell, I had to open it.

Speaking of Taco Bell, the Japanese version is a little more upscale than the usual fare found in the US. It's not fine dining, but there is an improvement in quality. I had the fajita quesadilla, which was very tasty. It came with a side; I ended up with the french fries even though I asked for chips. And the fries weren't that good. But, again, the quesadilla was great.

This is a box that has so much empty space I could have fit half of an Allen & Ginter set inside. At the bottom there are five packs of Topps Update and two special Topps Chrome Update packs. I'm not showing all the cards, but just the ones that are noteworthy for me.

Pack One:

 One of my former students (here in Japan) loves Corey Seager. I know where that card's going. The Tazawa can go in my Japanese MLB player collection. Does Matt Bowman have any Bowman cards? That's the only reason I scanned that card. To make that bad reference.

 But Ichiro and Altuve aren't bad. That Ichiro is a $3+ card here for some reason.

Pack Two:

 Just a small sampling. But I can take this opportunity to say how much I love the First Pitch series. Please, Topps, keep it up!

 Pack Three:

 Three good names. You know where the Seager is going, and Posey's one of my player collections.

 Yeah, uh, this offer expired before I even opened the box. Topps, you should have made the expiration date a little later to account for Christmas presents. Not that I'd be able to use this card anyway, but for other people, that's cutting it close.

 I remember Frenchy as a rookie. It's good to see him end up back on the Braves.

 Pack Four:

 That Stan Musial card is the redeeming card in an otherwise bland pack.

Pack Five:

 This pack had two non-regular cards: Cano as a gold parallel...

 ...and Craig Biggio as a 3000 Hits Club insert. That Jake Arrieta No-Hitter card is a good highlights addition to the Update series.

Now for the Chrome.

 Three regular cards, but that means one can go into my type collection.

 Now that's a good pull - getting anything but base in these Chrome packs seems rare based on the odds.

So, pack two should be boring:

 Two pitchers with names I could make fun of one way or another.

Wait, what's this? Something a bit thicker in the pack?

 "Bam." Which is what I said when I saw this card. Jersey autograph hit from a retail box!

And it's numbered out of 25! The odds are something like 1:500, not terribly tough, but I certainly beat the odds with this box.

Zippy Zappy put together an awesome package, and having this box to bust (with or without that great hit) made it that much more fun in person! As always, I get the better end of the deal, and I always feel bad about it. But I'm always happy to see him and talk shop as we jump from store to store around Tokyo! Come back to Japan soon, and thank you again for your generous Zippy Zapping!