Thank You, *Prowling Cat*, for the Oddballs!

Living in Japan as a baseball card collector has its perks. I can sometimes get some great deals on cards here at the occasional shows, and shipping through Yahoo! Auctions is much lower than eBay (as low as 62 yen - that's about 50 cents). Not to mention unparalleled access to Japanese cards and souvenirs.

On the flip side, getting specific American cards is tricky, card shows aren't as common in Tokyo as in San Francisco, and the selection of US cards is really limited, so most of my MLB cards come from eBay, Just Commons, COMC, and SportLots. And all of those cards get shipped to my mom's house, so other than quick iPhone pictures, I don't really get to see or "play" with them. I can only imagine the sorting job it's going to take to reorganize my collection that's currently spread out among four locations.

My mom tends to include shots of addresses or invoices so I can identify the sources of cards, but that doesn't always happen. Usually, I can link cards to purchases on the various websites or trade emails, but sometimes that isn't possible.

Case in point: I received a package in the US at some point last year, and these are the pictures that came:

I see a nice minor league single and a team issued oddball there, and a couple Sportsflics cards. That's Schilling on the right (with the Orioles!) but on the left, that's a Tigers player that I can't identify. Jack Morris? No clue.

That Mariners card looks like a Mothers Cookies card, and there are a couple 2008 Fort Worth Cats minor league singles. Plus Alex Gordon from one of the random Elite sets.

More minor leagues - 2004 Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and a High Desert Mavericks from an early-90s team set. The two bottom cards I can already identify as being from the Senior Leagues.

Four more minor league singles round out the lot. The Nunez and Ocasio cards are autographed (!), while the two Salem-Keizer Volcanoes cards here are not. But that's okay.

I know most if not all of them are needed for my type collection, though I think it's going to have to wait until I do finally consolidate my collections and do a full inventory. When will that be? 

And more importantly, my mom didn't give me any hint as to who these cards came from. I have an idea but I don't remember anyone saying anything was headed my way.

Anyway, claim your care package, please, whoever you are! They're great oddballs that I'm glad to add to my collection at some point!

Thanks, Prowling Cat for the fun cards! I thought they might have been from you but I'm not sure if I sent my side of the package yet either. I'll get on that for my trip to the US!