Submarines and Sunglasses

Those were two words that popped into my head when I read that today is Kenton Charles Tekulve's birthday.  Although he wasn't a perennial all-star or enshrined in Cooperstown, he played a role in my childhood.  Tekulve owned one of the coolest, sweetest looking pitching deliveries in baseball.  (IMHO) His submarine delivery rivals Fernando's "eyes to the sky" delivery... both of which I'd regularly try to emulate as a kid.  But that's only half the story.

In terms of collecting, Tekulve had another distinguishable trait:  his sunglasses.  He was one of those players I actively sought out while busting 25¢ packs on my porch.  His cards were never hot commodities (at least in my neck of the woods), but flipping through them over the years eventually left an impression that has lasted three decades.  To this day, I can still close my eyes and picture those wire rimmed, dark tinted glasses.

Happy Birthday Kent!

Cards From Across The Pacific

I collect a lot of stuff.  A fellow blogger recently pointed this out to me and he's 100% correct.  I'm starting to think that maybe I've spread myself too thin.  Heck... the thought of scaling things down a bit has even entered my head.

Whatever ends up happening, I can tell you right now... I'll still continue to build my BBM and Calbee Japanese trading card collection.  Even though I don't recognize 99.9% of the athletes, I enjoy the uniqueness of this collection and the fact that it's not something I come across on a regular basis.  In fact, none of my local card shops carry these cards and I've never seen singles for sale at card shows or flea markets.

That's why I rely on eBay, online card shops, and fellow bloggers to help me out.  Over the past year or so, Ryan over at This Card Is Cool - My Life in Baseball Cards has been putting together a nice collection of Japanese sets, packs, and singles.

Whenever he finds something cool, he'll shoot me an email and ask if I'm interested... which is always "yes".  After he's a accumulated a nice stack, he'll ship them out and send me the bill.

Here's a quick glance at the package I received in the mail yesterday:

It contained six sets, eleven packs, and a handful of singles and knickknacks.  Total cost (including shipping):  $88.  I'm sure some of you would rather have a jumbo box of 2014 Topps or maybe a hobby box of Topps Archives.  But for me... I'll take this deal any day of the week.

Let's take a closer look at what Ryan put into the box:

2012 BBM Dynamic Beauty (27 Card Set)

This twenty-seven card set covers Japan's gymnastics team.  I've never really followed this sports since Mary Lou Retton won five medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to acquire this unique set.

2013 BBM Rie Tanaka (27 Card Set)

Last summer Ryan wrote a post about this set which features one of Japan's top gymnasts and I knew this set was right up my alley.  I've never heard of Ms. Tanaka, but she must be a huge star if BBM went out of their way to make her a special boxed set.

2012 BBM Fairies on the Lane (44 Card Set)

Nope... your eyes aren't deceiving you.  You're looking at a women's bowling set.  I'm pretty sure only the Japanese would produce cards like these and call them Fairies on the Lane.


BBM Real Venus Sets

The last three sets are bigger and much more diverse than the sets mentioned above.  These sets sort of remind me of a Japanese version of Allen and Ginter or Goodwin Champions, because they cover a variety of sports ranging from rugby to swimming to golf.  The biggest difference is that they feature a modern design and include only the ladies.  Here's a sampling of what each set has to offer:

2009 Real Venus Set (93 Card Set)

2010 Real Venus Set (99 Card Set)

2013 Real Venus Set (90 Card Set)

Miscellaneous Cards (44 Cards)

If you're wondering if Ryan included any baseball cards... he did.  There were a bunch of BBM cards and a handful of Calbee and Sega Card Gen baseball cards too.  I really like the Carlos Gonzalez, but my favorite is easily the cheerleader card in the middle.

Unopened Packs (10x 2013 Calbee and 1x 2012 Panini Euro2012)

If the sets are the bulk of this package... then these packs are the heart and soul.  One of my most treasured collections is my Japanese Wax Pack PC and I relish every opportunity I get to add a new pack to it.  He actually sent me ten packs of 2013 Calbee.  I'll keep one of them sealed, and probably bust the rest.

2005 Donruss Studio #SP-19 Tony Gwynn (#'d 38/50)

Speaking of baseball cards, he also threw in this cool, non-Japanese card for my Tony Gwynn collection.  It's one of the fifty-five different parallels from 2005 Donruss Studio baseball.  And you thought Topps had too many parallels.

Satoru Tsuda Cat Cards

Last, but definitely not least... I'm pleased to announce that the cats are back!  I blogged about them before and they were a hit.  These might be the most obscure oddball cards ever produced.  Seriously.  How often are you blessed with DJ Kitty?  I might need to give this card it's own post in the future.

Sadly... this insanely long post must come to an end.  Now I can truly appreciate the time and effort people like Night Owl put into their posts.  The scanning and cropping time alone for these twenty-seven images took longer than one of my standard posts.

Thanks Ryan for going out of your way to pick up these cards and shipping them out to me.  You're a class act and I truly appreciate you going out of your way to help me with my collection.  I'll start working on a care package for you as a way of saying thanks.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Celebrating w/ a Bowl of Fruit

Four years ago I made the decision to start this blog and begin documenting my cardboard adventures.  According to Hallmark, you celebrate your 4th Anniversary with fruit.  So this morning I woke up, popped a handful of fruit snacks into my mouth, poured a glass of orange juice, and began scouring my collection for cards featuring athletes with "fruit" names.

Right out of the gate, Darryl Strawberry came to mind.  I grew up watching him play and reading about his off the field struggles.  I remember everyone scrambling to buy his rookie cards.

That's when I remembered Left Field Card's set of Edible All-Stars.  She has a Strawberry card in the set, so I figured she might have a few more fruits on the checklist.  And I was right.  I can't believe I forgot about Chet Lemon.

Lemon was another guy I grew up watching.  He had a solid career, playing for the White Sox and Tigers.  While looking up his career statistics on Baseball Reference, I noticed that he stole 58 bases, but was caught 76 times.  Makes me wonder which athletes have the worst stolen base percentage in MLB history. 

By the way...  I encourage you to click on the link above and check out Amelie Mancini's unique baseball cards.  They're not cheap, but they're really cool.

After that, I hit a brick wall.  I couldn't think of anymore baseball players with "fruit" names, so I opened it up to other sports.

I immediately thought of former Kansas City Chief's safety... Deron Cherry:

Cherry was a 6x Pro Bowler and is a member of the NFL's 1980's All-Decade Team.

A few minutes later, Raymond Berry popped into my head:

The hall of fame, wide receiver played his entire thirteen year career with the Baltimore Colts.  He led the league in receptions from 1958 to 1960 and was known for his amazing hands.  In his career, he dropped only two passes.  That's insane!

I eventually turned to Beckett and began entering "fruits" into their search engine.  They came up with a few names:  Eli Apple (football), Chris Peach (hockey), and Milt Plum (football).  But I don't own any of their cards.

However I did find one more "fruit" card sitting in my collection:

I had never heard of Mr. Pear until this morning and was lucky to find this sitting in a box of 1980 Topps football I picked up at the flea market a while back.  According to Wikipedia, he was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first Pro Bowler.  He's also a fellow blogger who covers NFL injuries and pension issues.

Anyways... that's all the "fruit" I could find in my collection.  I'll wrap things up by saying thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever taken the time to read my posts.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Blog Trade #40: CaptKirk42's Trading Card Blog

I've quoted The Fixx before.  And I'll quote them again.  One thing definitely leads to another.

Back in January, Play at the Plate wrote about his newly acquired 2001 Stadium Club Play at the Plate game-used batter's box dirt relic card.

I had never seen these unique relic cards, so I headed over to Beckett to find out more information on this set.  Unfortunately there aren't any Oakland A's or San Diego Padres on the checklist, but Vladimir Guerrero is in the set.  And I knew I'd have to track one down for my Montreal Expos PC and left a comment on his post mentioning it.

Folks:  It pays to comment.  A few days later, Kirk (author of CaptKirk42's Trading Card Blog) emailed me and mentioned he had one for me.  I told him I'd look for some Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles for his collection, then we exchanged addresses.

A few weeks passed and I completely forgot about our little trade.  Then earlier in the week, I received Kirk's package and voilà:

2001 Stadium Club Plate at the Plate Dirt Relic #PP3

The latest addition to my Expos PC and my first official batter's box relic.  But Kirk wasn't finished.  He also included a handful of Oakland A's, Montreal Expos, and San Jose Sharks for my collection.  Plus he added two more relic cards.

First up... is this amazing Ichiro memorabilia card:

2012 Topps Archives Relics #I

I have to admit... I think I like this card more than the Guerrero.  It combines two of my favorite things related to baseball cards:  1956 Topps and Ichiro Suzuki.

And finally a memorabilia card of my favorite San Jose Shark and Olympic gold medalist, Patrick Marleau:

Thanks for the trade Kirk!  I shipped out your package this morning.  And Commishbob... your soccer cards were shipped out as well.  I apologize for the delay.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!