Happy Thanksgiving!

So, this is only the 50th Thanksgiving post made in the card blogging world this year as far as I can tell, but instead of focusing on my life and family (I just did that at Chaos and Kanji) I'm going to focus on what I'm thankful for in cards.

I'm thankful that I can afford to buy cards. Actually, this coming month I might not be buying much, but I've been able to fit cards into my budget as I've seen fit.

I'm thankful that despite virtual monopolies, I still have so much to choose from! With MLB cards, Topps puts out a decent selection of cards to choose from. I don't like their high-end releases but some people do.

Here in Japan, BBM is the nearly-exclusive manufacturer of NPB cards (other than Calbee's three-series annual release and some historical and oddball sets from manufacturers like Epoch). Japanese cards are actually less varied than MLB issues.

Topps has their flagship issue, throwback cards, modern Chrome cards, and top-priced issues like Triple Threads.

BBM issues a flagship, several team sets, a hsitorical set or two, and one high-end issue called Genesis. BBM doesn't go far from a formula - base card, foil parallel, foil-board insert set, memorabilia, and autograph. And the designs are all minimalistic and modern. They aren't ugly, but there's much less variety.

On the other hand, I'm thankful for the ability to find and collect all the different offerings BBM and others have made over the past 100 years or so. Living in Japan has opened up a whole new world of cards to collect and examine!

And of course, I'm thankful for all of my readers and followers and traders and supporters out there. It's been so wonderful being able to share my hobby with all of you!