One down, ten to go.

I put a "Tricky 10" list on my blog a month or two ago. This lists mostly the single cards I need to finish off some sets. One of my goals this year has been to reduce the number of sets on my want list to 175 (yes, 175!). This morning, I was at 206. Tonight, I'm at 205.

This Harry Caray card completes my National Treasures set from the 2004 Fleer issue titled National Pastime. The card you see above is the one I got off eBay, and is actually the parallel numbered out of 500.

My set want list is visible through the link at the top or the right side of my blog, and I've updated my Tricky 10 list. As of today, I'm most interested in the following cards:

1. 2009 Upper Deck Historic Firsts #9
2. 2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars FB Fans of the Game #FG2 (Michael Phelps)
3. 2011 Playoff National Treasures HK Fans of the Game #1 (Alyssa Milano)
4. Duke Snider Donruss Diamond Kings puzzle piece (card with bottom-left pieces)
5. 2013 Triple Play Eye Black #1 (Derek Jeter)
6. 2001 Fleer WWF #68 (from Divas subset)
7. 1999 Topps Stars 'n' Steel #34 (Derek Jeter)
8. 1997 Pinnacle Spellbound Mike Piazza #5 and 6
9. 1999 UD PowerDeck Yankees A Season to Remember (Stadium Giveaway Item)
10. 2010 Bowman Draft Prospects #108 (Corey Seager)

Some should be easy (#1, 4, 10) but surprisingly aren't, at least with the resources available to me.

I'd be glad to work out a trade, of course, but keep in mind (as always) that I really only have access to Japanese cards, which I'd be glad to send over. And I seem to be working pretty slowly on trades with those willing to work with me. Or for the right price I'd be glad to send over a little PayPal.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy to finish this set! Now to work on the rest.

San Francisco Area Readers - A Question

I'll be going back to the US for a couple weeks at the end of the month to visit family and get fat again on all that delicious American food I've been missing for the past three and a half years. So I have a question... more than one, really. Any help is appreciated!

Are there any card shows happening the last weekend of May or the first weekend of June in the SF Bay Area? It seems that I'm going to miss the San Leandro show, but perhaps there are a couple minor shows at the malls in San Jose or Tanforan or something.

What does the card shop situation look like now? I know about Stevens Creek Sports Cards and the two other stores as part of that group (Sunnydale and El Camino). Are there any stores with nickel or dime boxes, or decent quarter boxes? Or really good deals that I should check out? I'll definitely be heading to the San Jose area so anything on the peninsula is fine, and even East Bay, Marin, etc are possible.

I've specifically asked Fuji about this, but does anyone else have any suggestions for flea markets while I'm there? I'm guessing the Capitol Flea Market might be worth visiting.

Thank you all for your help! If I can just get to one decent card show I'll be pretty happy.

Since I'm going to San Francisco... and there has been talk of a reunion show:

Creepy. I really should watch the full run of that show!

It's Been a Month...

I haven't posted in a little more than month! I've been too busy or too tired to post. I know, it's no excuse. But sometimes there are other things that come first.

Let's see... the new school year started in Japan, and while I seem to have fewer actual classes I'm still pretty tired at the end of the day.

I spent most of March cleaning my apartment thoroughly and have used some of my free time to complete my spring cleaning. I'm still not done - there are some things I need to dispose of, not an easy task in Japan.

This morning, I returned from my Golden Week vacation trip. I didn't catch any games, but I did visit one Japanese baseball stadium, the site of an older stadium, and several card shops. Planning out this trip was a bit more difficult than usual because I was in a different town every day; I could spend multiple nights in a few places but over 11 nights I had seven beds (three of those were actually bus seats). Logistics is one of my strong points but it's still time consuming.

I have been rebuilding my inventory spreadsheets for my type collection, which now includes some database functions. I'm going to apply the same basic system for my other collections; I have too many spreadsheets and I'd like to reduce them down to something more manageable.

And I have still been collecting! Buck Farmer has popped up in Topps, Donruss, Bowman, and Diamond Kings this year, and the chase is still on for many of the parallels in those issues. I've bought or built a few sets, too - Gypsy Queen's base is done but I need inserts, and I have already met one of my goals this year to get six "flagship" sets from prior years. And Japanese cards are still slowly being added to my collection.

Meanwhile, this came up in my video feed. Remember how I used to post videos all the time? (No? Has it been that long?) Well, here's one for today:

I loved Ferrell's impressions of Caray on SNL, so it was pretty fun to watch him make an appearance on Letterman again.