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...
Never seen the Bowman Heritage Red Man card. That Manny is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I had ever seen one before this. There are so many cards I miss out on because there are just so many out there!
DeleteI miss Manny...
ReplyDeleteHe was supposed to play in Australia for the Blue Sox in the 2019-20 season. He's like 50 years old! I guess he's like Minnie Minoso. Maybe the Red Sox or some other team will sign him to a one-day contract and he can get an AB as a stunt.
DeleteI surprised by the amount of American card your got in the Japanese shop!
ReplyDeleteI've found that Japanese shops tend to carry lots of US packs and boxes. And many Japanese box busters will pick out the Ohtani and Ichiro cards, grab the hits and nicer inserts, and leave the base cards and less-desirable inserts with the shop. I'm not sure if the shop gives them any actual money or store credit for it. That's how shops end up with this random inventory, though. This shop, the Odawara shop, and the former Kanda shop all have/had interesting selections of recent US cards. Not extensive, but interesting.
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