To Cut or Not to Cut

There's no shortage of Shohei collectibles out there for collectors to collect.  That's what happens when a once in a generation type of athlete comes along.  Unfortunately his collectibles are usually attached to high price tags.

But every now and then, they're part of generous care packages.  Today's post features two huge additions to my Shohei Ohtani PC.

The first one is a uncut rookie card from a box of 2018 Topps Big League:

Angus over at Dawg Day Cards sent me a large padded envelope back in December that I finally opened up over the weekend.  It was filled with a few nice additions to my collection that I'll share over a few posts.  

2018 Topps Big League Box Card #B3

My first thought was to cut the Ohtani out, but there's no way I could do it as cleanly as my photo editor.  So I ended up keeping it intact.  Here's a look at the other side of the box:

As soon as I saw this box, I knew it would pair perfectly with the large store display shown above that was part of Ryan's advent calendar.  I placed it with Ohtani's 2025 Topps flagship card to give you some perspective:

I'm still figuring out the best way to display this cool collectible.  I could hang it up in my classroom, but honestly I'd love to find some wall space for this in my office.  We'll see how things play out.

While I'm showing off new additions to the Ohtani collection, I figured I'd show off an action figure of him that has been hanging up in my office for a few years:

2021 Topps Big League Super 7 1959 Variation Figure

I still have a bunch of items from Ryan's advent calendar and Angus' care package.  I'll be sharing them here and there over the next few months, so stay tuned.  Thank you Ryan and Angus!

Here is today's question of the day:

When it comes to box bottom cards or uncut sheets of cards, do you tend to keep them intact or do you cut them out?

Although I have cut out cards, if the box bottom or uncut sheet is in good condition, I'll usually keep it intact.  In fact I have several boxes dedicated to storing oversized items like these.

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

Snacks, Cards, and more Childhood Memories

This photo (found online) was taken sometime in 1986.  Unless you grew up in South San Jose... it probably doesn't do anything for you.  On the other hand, this photo takes me back to my middle school stomping grounds.

Sunrise Plaza is a strip mall that currently looks like this:

I'll still head over there whenever I'm craving a burrito from Chavez Supermarket or need a sporting good from Dick's.

But back in the mid 80's, it was the home to the UA Cinemas, Nova Arcade, and a local pharmacy.  That's where my friends and I would to buy snacks and packs of cards before watching a movie or hanging out in the arcade.

I hadn't thought about that pharmacy in years.  But a few weeks ago, Gregory over at Nine Pockets wrote a post about some Mario Lemieux cards that originally came with some candy.  One of the questions he asked his readers was if there were any stationary or drug stores with racks of candy in our areas when we were kids.  That immediately made me think of The Pharmacy.

By the time the late 80's rolled around, a card shop called National Pastime opened up in the shopping center.

A few years later the shop moved right down the street from my house.  It's currently a nail salon, but that's a photo of the actual address where the card shop was located.  I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at my LCS back then.

Anyways... today I figured I'd share another present from Ryan's advent calendar that is directly related to snacks and cards.

However let's kick things off with a cardboard appetizer involving two Nolan Ryan food issues:

1986 Drake's Big Hitters #33

I don't remember eating any Drake's baked goods, but they seem to similar to Hostess products which I ate all the time as a kid.

1991 Jumbo California Seeds #20

Sunflower seeds were a staple for me and my Little League teammates back in the 80's.  By the time Jumbo was inserting these cards into their packages of seeds, I had hung up my cleats.  But I picked up this card somewhere along the way.

Why am I featuring cards of Nolan Ryan?  Well he celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday and he happens to be one of SumoMenkoMan's favorite baseball players.

Okay... let's get to the advent calendar portion of the post.  Here's the haiku hint that Ryan wrote:

The 25th present in the advent calendar was a large box of rice crackers:

The box contained twenty individually wrapped packages that had a pack of cards attached to each one:

I opened them up, dumped the rice crackers into a bag, and separated the packs from the bags:

There were two different packages available:

Each came with a single pack attached to the back:

Here's a closer look at the front and back of one of those packs:

I cracked open the first five packs.  Each contained one baseball card and an advertisement card.  The baseball cards are made out of acetate or something similar:

Here's a peek at the card backs:

I love that there are so many snacks in Japan that are sold with trading cards.  Personally, I wish we'd see more modern food issues here in North America.

What about you?

Would you be more likely to purchase your favorite snacks if they came with trading cards?

There's no doubt in my mind that I'd seek out more snacks at the grocery store if they came with cards.  Heck... a few years ago I bought a box of cereal mainly because it contained an uncut sheet of MLS cards.

That's it for today.  Thank you Gregory for inspiring this post... and thank you Ryan for providing the snacks and cards.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Calm Before the Storm

Collecting sports cards can be relaxing.  Rooting for sports teams can be quite the opposite.  Today's a big day for one of my favorite teams and I've been stressing out about it for the past week.

I figured I'd try to distract myself this morning, but catching up with a pair of items from Ryan's advent calendar that could be classified as relaxing or calming.

Let's start with the helpful hint that he wrote:

This was one of the most obvious haikus from his package.  It refers to this miniature bonsai tree:

The planting portion was super simple and took less than a minute to complete.  Now the waiting game begins.  I'm planning on taking the pot into my classroom.  Maybe watching it grow will help some of my 8th graders relax too.

The other "calming" present was building block related.  Here's his haiku:

And here's the gift:

It's one of those blind bags that contains one "Space Collection" build.  Here's the one I received:

Building block sets are often pretty therapeutic, but this little sucker was a challenging build due to its small size.  Here's a photo that shows the size compared to the mini bonsai planter, a Lego mini-figure, and a Kenner SLU:

The astronaut will accompany the bonsai pot and join the other Lego builds I have displayed in my classroom.

While on the topic of building blocks, I wanted to show off one more Christmas related gift before discussing the storm that quickly approaching.

My friend's mom gave me this awesome Lego set:

2024 Lego Star Wars #75375

I've thought about buying the midi-scale Millennium Falcon for over a year, but I just never got around to doing it.  So I was blown away to see that this was waiting for me under their tree.  Unfortunately, I haven't had time to build it... but as soon as I do... I'll show you guys what it looks like.

Okay... now let's get to the sports section of this post.  In a couple of hours, the Seattle Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.  Division games always stress me out.  Division games that involve the winner moving on to the Super Bowl is next level.

On one hand, I haven't been as impressed with the Seahawks defense since these guys:

2014 Prizm Red, White, & Blue #200

On the other hand, I'm not quite as confident in the Seahawks offense as I have been in the past.  I'm predicting a close game... but honestly have no idea who wins this game.  I've watched a ton of analysis and prediction videos... and I feel like even the experts are pretty torn.

At this point the only thing to do is sit back, watch the game, and see how things play out.  Let's go Hawks!

Here are today's questions of the day...

Do you ever get stressed out over your favorite sports teams?

Out of the four remaining football teams, are you rooting for any of them?

If so, who?

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Doing Things a Little Differently

Every year my buddy Ryan puts together a thoughtful and generous advent calendar for me.  Normally I try to open it up and recap it in December... which is when it's intended to be opened.  Unfortunately I'm about a month and a half late, but you know the saying.  Better late than never.

After a busy weekend involving my first trip to the flea market this year, a pair of entertaining NFC playoff games, a friend's birthday lunch, and a few other household chores... I was able to sit down and crack open Ryan's advent calendar on Monday.  Let's just say... I was blown away.

He did things a little differently this year by writing haiku poems to help me figure out which gifts were for what days.  I figured I'd do things a little differently too.  Instead of writing two or three large recap posts, I'm going to break them down into smaller, more manageable posts.  I'll also be going against the grain and not following the order he prescribed.

Today's post covers some Yomiuri Giants related gifts including one of the coolest Japanese baseball collectibles I've seen:

What you're looking at is a vintage card game.  But before I dive into the details, here is Ryan's haiku:

The game comes inside of a cardboard sleeve that resembles a box for a Betamax or VHS tape:

Here's another look at the scoreboard:

On the left side of the game, there's an orange tinted box that slides in and out.  This case holds the cards.  There are a total of 72 game cards.  Here's a sampling of the deck:

I'm not sure if any actual NPB players are depicted on these cards, but regardless... the art is really awesome.

The game itself isn't new, but it's in great condition for being fifty to sixty years old.  It even came with the instruction manual:

Next up is the Day 10 present.  Here's the haiku hints for the present:

Do you think you know what he sent?  It was a stack of Japanese baseball card packs.  The first one was this 2025 Yomiuri Giants pack:

2025 BBM Yomiuri Giants Pack

He also sent me these three team specific packs:

2025 BBM Chiba Lotte Marines Pack

2025 BBM Nippon Ham Fighters Pack

2025 BBM Rakuten Golden Eagles Pack

Plus there were these 2025 BBM 1st Version packs:

I've already added the four team packs and one of these 1st Version packs to my Unopened Japanese Baseball Pack PC, but the rest I'm planning on tearing into eventually.

The next Yomiuri Giants present pays tribute to one of the greatest hitters in their franchise history.  Here's Ryan's haiku clue:

Last June, diamond legend Shigeo Nagashima passed away at the age of 89.  Ryan sent me a very cool tribute magazine that contained hundreds of cool photos and full career statistics of Sadaharu Oh's sidekick:

Weekly Baseball Shigeo Nagashima Tribute (6/18/25)

He included another tribute magazine, but it was for a different athlete from another sport.  See if you can guess the athlete using Ryan's hint:

Did you guess Thunder Lips?  If so, you're correct:

Weekly Pro-Wrestling #2269 (8/30/25)

Hulk Hogan passed away last July.  I had no idea he was so popular in Japan, but there were several photographs in this tribute featuring him with Japanese wrestlers.  Although I don't follow wrestling that closely, Hogan was the biggest name in the game when I was actively watching the sport back in the mid to late 80's.

The final advent calendar gift were a few items wrapped in a yellow bag, hence the following haiku:

The first thing I pulled out of the bag was this really cool Yomiuri Giants baseball mug:

In an effort to cut back on soda and sugary drinks, I've switched things up and have been drinking extra cups of hot green tea.  This mug will be added to the rotation.

He also tossed these two Seibu Lions items into the bag:

The jersey doubles as an insulated cold beverage holder and the plastic helmet reminds of the ones you get a ballgames with a scoop of ice cream.  I have a very small display of NPB memorabilia in my office.  I'll have to make more room and add these two items to it.

That wraps up five days worth of goodies from Ryan's (a.k.a SumoMenkoMan) 2025 Advent Calendar.  I'll be sprinkling more of his gifts into posts over the next few months.

Thank you Ryan!  I truly appreciate the thought and effort you put into building this advent calendar.

As for the rest of you, here are today's questions of the day:

Do you have a favorite baseball game?

Do you have a favorite professional wrestler?

Have you started doing anything differently lately?

My favorite baseball game is called Computer Baseball by SSI.  I've referenced this game in a lot of blog comments over the years.  It's a baseball simulator game that I played a lot on my family's Apple IIe back in the early 80's.  It used real players from famous World Series teams, so I learned a lot about guys who played before I was born.

My favorite wrestlers are Ricky The Dragon Steamboat and Asuka.  Grew up rooting for Steamboat.  As for Asuka, I don't watch her matches on a regular basis, but I enjoy collecting her cards.

As for doing things differently, well... I'm trying to watch what I eat and drink.  And since it hasn't been raining, I've been trying to make sure to reach 10k steps during the work week.

Well that's it for today.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!