30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Flowers, Beasties, and an X-Rated Robot

Plants and I have never gotten along.  Whenever I try to take care of them, they end up dead.  Sometimes it takes a month.  Other times it takes a few years.  The result always ends up the same.


That's why I'm better off collecting cards featuring plants instead.  This card features the Ashikaga Flower Park which is the largest wisteria flower garden in Japan.  My knowledge and understanding of my ancestral family is limited, but according to the internet and my father...  the family surname means "under the wisteria", which explains why the flowering plant is featured in our family crest:


According to the back of the card, the wisteria trees are known as "Fuji" in Japan:


I stumbled across this card while skimming through Goodwin Champions World Traveler Map Relics on COMC last NovemberThree dollars and twenty-one cents later and this card was sitting in my inventory.

I figured it'd be a cool card to use for Tim B.'s 7 Day Trading Card Challenge.  Today I'll be taking on the Day 6 Challenge which is to write about my favorite non-sport card in my collection.  There are a bunch of non-sports cards that I own, that I like a lot.  Most have been shared on my blog already, but this card is as good as any.

But if flowers aren't your style... here are a few other favorites from my collection:

1977 Topps Star Wars #207

When I was brainstorming ideas for this particular challenge, I knew that one of the 1977 Topps Star Wars cards had to be part of the discussion.  These were the very first cards I remember collecting.  As for this specific card, who doesn't appreciate goldenrods?

2010 Rittenhouse Marvel Heroes and Villains Sketch Card #NNO

I own ten to fifteen different sketch cards, but this is hands down the coolest looking.

2009 Topps Heritage Heroes of Spaceflight Relics #SCC3


I have very fond memories of watching space shuttle launches when I was younger.  When Topps released this set of relics, they allowed me and any other NASA enthusiasts the opportunity to own a piece of history.

1967 Heinerle #110

Another space related card.  Only this time it's vintage, German, and was a gift from my buddy Ryan.

2016 BCB Pretty Girls Custom #1

This came from another bloggerGavin @ Baseball Card BreakdownFour years ago, I won a contest on his blog and he offered to create a custom card of any female for his Pretty Girls setGrace Park was the only person I considered and Gavin did a fantastic job.

2019 Allen and Ginter History of Flight #HOF-12

If you're a regular, then you know why this card is special to me.  If you aren't a regular, you can click here to find out.

1991 Pro Set MusiCards Yo! MTV Raps #102

Another card that shouldn't be a surprise if you know me.

1963 Topps Flag Midgee #47

We started this post with the latest addition to my Japanese PC... so I figured I'd wrap things up with another card from that collection.  I have a few flag cards sitting in my collection, but right here and now... this one is calling my name.

What about you?

Are there any non-sports cards that stand out in your collection?  Any of these catch your eye?

By the way... after writing and scheduling this post... I realized that I wrote a very similar post two years ago.  So if you enjoy non-sports cards and want to see some other goodies I have sitting in my collection, click here.

That's it for today.  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

20 comments:

Adam said...

My non-sports collection consists of the Cryptozoic Ghostbusters cards from a few years back, Topps Fright Flicks cards from 1988, and a factory set of Halloween cards from Fright Rags that commemorates the original film from 1978.

Elliptical Man said...

Well, the spaceflight relic card wins this round easily. Good stuff there.

The closest I have to non-sport are a cheerleader card and a Melissa Baker Fan of the Game card. They're both in my football collection.

Big Tone said...

Oh crap after reading the title of this post I thought maybe you purchased a one of those robot sex dolls lol. Sorry, my minds been In the gutter lately.

Jeremya1um said...

That Heroes of Spaceflight card is cool. I have a card from that set with a space flown wire on it, and I’ve thought about getting another one. Maybe next time I’m on COMC. Maybe Topps will put out another set like it with some stuff from the latest space flight.

The Lost Collector said...

The NASA card is cool!

Commishbob said...

Non-sports are a big part of my collection. I'm working on the original 1962 Topps/Bubbles Mars Attacks set. I'm about 3/4 done but several are at COMC, so who knows if I'll live long enough to actually binder them.

Brett Alan said...

Grace Park always catches my eye! I was a BSG fan, never watched the revival of Hawaii Five-O, but I watch A Million Little Things regularly. Gosh, I hope it doesn't take forever for that to come back!

I'm not a big non-sports collector but I have a small set of rock stars put out by Mr. Softee in England around 1965, with the Beatles, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, and others that I'm really fond of. https://www.londoncigcard.co.uk/product/mister-softees-top-10-1965-win-a-big-pri/3570?utm_source=google_products&utm_medium=product_feed&utm_campaign=all_cards

Nick Vossbrink said...

The Heroes of Spaceflight relics are always cool though that's some good competition from the Itsukushima card. I have a decent amount of pre-war non-sport stuff. Hard for me to pick only one though since some of those are jest fantastic sets.

night owl said...

I have lots of nonsports cards I like. I did a nonsports card countdown a couple of years ago.

https://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2018/01/for-nonsporty-types.html

I guess if you can do another one I can, too.

Sean said...

藤 is the Japanese character (well, actually Chinese) for "Fuji" (wisteria). I have a potted one in my yard, they are one of my favorites (it grows wild here so you find it in forests often too).

I have a little collection of non sports cards. I like the old English tobacco cards which have a lot of neat subjects and are way cheaper than American tobacco cards of the same era.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Absolutely Grace park. Yes indeed. Like Cp30 she's made a many of um....yeah catches my eye. My Wackys are my favorite non sports cards in my collections, but there are many others that are pretty cool too.

Tim B. said...

That's. Really cool map relic from UD. I hadn't seen those before. I really like the flag card as well.

SumoMenkoMan said...

I love this list, can definitely see myself collecting each one of those sets. All my German Non-sport cards stick out in my mind. You could pick them up for a song in Germany it seemed.

Alex Markle said...

There are plenty of non-sports cards that I like, and it is any area of my collection I plan to grow moving forward. No favorites as of yet...but I'll check back in with you in two years when you have another post like this :)

Chris said...

Lots of standout non-sports cards caught my eye. The Grace Park custom, of course, and the Beastie Boys (I just uncovered a bunch of Yo! MTV Raps cards in my crawl space, as you know) The flowering "fuji" is fantastic (I'll spend $3.21 on World Traveler box toppers all day) but my favorites are the Japanese flag card and the German space card. Fantastic!

Chris said...

*oops, turns out I didn't scan up the rap cards! I have no idea what happened to the scan, but I'll add it to my post as soon as I find it.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I like those World Traveler cards. I got one last year too. Have you thought about planting a Wisteria? You probably could easily grow one of those outside if you had the space. That seems like it'd be pretty cool given its association for you.

The Snorting Bull said...

That C3PO card is something. I do not have a lot of non-sport cards in my collection. My students have given me some different ones over the years, and I also have a bunch out of Ginter. Never really gone out of my way to collect them.

Adam Kaningher said...

OK, the Space Shuttle relic is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in this hobby!

For other non-sports cards, the lenticular pentagon cards that come with Harry Potter-themed Chocolate Frogs are worth mentioning. As are the chocolate frogs themselves.

Fuji said...

apologies for the delay in responding to your comments. sometimes i just drop the ball and forget. i'll try to be better about that. okay, let's do this...

adam - i don't own any of the ghostbuster cards, but i'd love to add some of those slime relics to my collection. also... the fright flicks is an awesome set. i have a few singles, but i'd like to own a complete set one day.

elliptical man - i just purchased one of those fan of the game cards. hope to write about it in the near future

big tone - lol. i deserve that by creating such a click bait title

jeremya1um - i sure hope topps eventually releases more nasa relics. based on the comments, they seem to be pretty popular

the lost collector - thanks. i have two more, but this one is my favorite

commishbob - hope they ship them out to you soon. the problem is... there aren't a lot of online card stores that sell non-sport singles. i wish sportlots would start selling non-sport stuff

brett alan - the first time i saw her was in an issue of maxim back in the day when i had a subscription. i was like... who is this woman? years later, i started watching BSG on either netflix or hulu. neither have it right now... which is a shame. as soon as i'm caught up on comments, i'm going to try and find that mr. softee set for my collection.

nick vossbrink - yeah. very, very difficult to choose a favorite. i'm sure i left out a bunch that i forgot about.

night owl - great list. i know that i went out and picked up that hulk card on your list. the problem is... i have no idea where i put it.

sean - i'll have to cut and paste that character for future reference. thanks. i love those english tobacco cards too. not sure why they aren't more collectible

johnnys trading spot - lol. you crack me up. your collection of wackys is very impressive. i slowly want to build a 9pocket page of my favorites

tim b - i love the goodwin map relics. i hope they make it into a living set and continue to add new places to the checklist

sumomenkoman - you should create a list of your favorite non-sport german sets. i'd love to see all of the different ones out there

alex markle - one day, i'll have my collection together in one spot... and it'll be organized... so i just need to open up my non-sport box and pick my favorites. not sure if it'll happen within the next two years though ;D

chris - love me some yo! mtv rap cards. super jealous of the attic find. actually... i'm super jealos of the attic. wish i had one that i could turn into a card room

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - hmmm. maybe i will. i was thinking about going to a nursery this week. i'll see if they have one

the snorting bull - your students give you cards? that's awesome. for me it's usually the other way around. i'm dumping cards on them

adam kaningher - i'd love to own some of those lenticular harry potter cards. i looked into buying some, but they weren't cheap. $3.99 for a .55oz chocolate frog and one card is a little out of my price range. maybe i'll try to buy some singles though