Cool People, Cool Cards: The NPB Bulletin

NPB Card Guy finally made it to Japan in March, and we arranged to hang out on my two days off. He's written of our escapades together, and I did a good bit of card buying that weekend. Being that he's got a supplier already and pretty much everything he needs, I didn't really have anything to offer him as a gift or in trade. However, he had accumulated a bunch of nice older cards he didn't need any more that fit perfectly in my collection!

 He had a couple Korean cards, about the size of phone cards or credit cards (with rounded corners), attached to a backer card as you see above.

 The card looks like this, removed. Yeah, nothing too special from the above scan. Anyway, Korean cards are super-difficult to find so this was an awesome gift.

 He had a bunch of menkos. I didn't want to be greedy (all in all he brought a 200-count box full of cards to trade or sell) but I did find some I needed for my collection.

There were also some cards from the 1970s that, well, you don't see very often.

 The older cards were fun to thumb through.

 I don't know why, but I enjoy seeing foreigners on older cards than I do on newer releases.

 But menkos are cool, creases or not! Anything helps when you build a type collection.

 There is one set I had to have two cards from: this pin-back set from Yamakatsu. I should have asked to keep a pin too, but I didn't think about it at the time. He traded all the pins and cards I didn't want to the store owners.

 The Giants in this set don't have players on the pin backs. I had to have a cartoon!

The last thing Mr. NPB Card Guy tossed in was this silver signature promo of Rie Tanaka from SCM Magazine. It's fairly tough to find and is a great addition to my Women In Sports collection!

By the way, he also gave me several bags of American candy! I'm still trying to finish it off two months later.

Thanks again, NPB Card Guy (I'm not using his real name because I've never seen him post it, and I want to respect that) - I really enjoyed helping you plan your visit, and traveling from shop to shop with someone else! And thank you so much for your generosity. I know you said it was payback for my help in planning but I think you certainly did one better than that!

Tomorrow (again, yes, I promise) I have one more set of trade cards to show you, with an awesome (for me) ending!

Cool People, Cool Stuff: The Kenny Files

It's been a long time since I've made a real post here. Life just gets in the way of writing for me. After spending all day with the English language - listening, speaking, correcting, suggesting, all with energy and a smile - I don't have much brain power left for here. Excuses, as always.

There are several things I can report on now. I want to get what I feel is most important out of the way, so I need to talk about a couple trade/gift packages I've received in the last few months. Yes, I know there are more that were sent in the last four or five months (I think someone sent something in December that wasn't included in my last care package from America - so six months there) but I don't have everything in hand.

First, my Japanese-American friend Kenny - you should know him as Zippy Zappy - lived here last year and went to school nearby. He's a great guy anyway, and in trades he was very good to me! He returned to New York last month, but several hundreds of cards are now in my possession. I posted my want list for 2012 Allen & Ginter (I still have a bunch of needs from that set, by the way) but haven't bought a single card yet, thanks to his generosity and then the generosity of others.

 The last time we met we exchanged a few cards. Well, I guess I should say he gave me a few cards. I always seem to come out on top of the deal. There were a handful of 2013 Topps.

 A couple inserts were in there to give me an idea of what the release looked like in hand, too.

 I guess this set is my favorite of what I have, but I'm not too impressed with this year's Topps inserts. (Thanks for the cards, though!)

 He also tossed in some great shinyness! Platinum mining...

 A bit of green refractory bo-chrome...

 A bit of refractory to-chrome (that doesn't sound as cool).

 Silly scanner. It doesn't like the curly, slicky, thick Chrome stock. Always hard to scan. The card itself is perfectly fine.

 A little bit of fishing...

And this orange refractor of Chipper! While all these cards are ending up in my collection, this was probably my favorite since I have enjoyed watching Chipper play (and have affairs with Hooters girls - no, I didn't watch him have the affair though I bet that would have been a pretty hot seller in the adult video stores).

Okay, moving on. Kenny and I are working on our next trade, which is going to be pretty big, given the cards he's interested in! I hope he's having a good time back in the States. Thanks for all the cards you've given me and all the good times we've been able to have running around Tokyo!

Until tomorrow (I promise!)...

In Osaka

The Buffaloes know how the Marlins feel. I am in center field (third level) and can hear the action on the field. And the visiting team's fans outnumber the Buffaloes fans. Sure, the Marines are better than the Bs, but they are only one game over .500 right now...