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!

Flea Market Finds #181: Dime Box Cards

This year has been one of the best in regards to flea market finds, but after two poor outings in a row... I'm starting to think the hot streak is over.

Two weeks ago, I walked around the De Anza Flea Market and didn't purchase a single item.  A friend of mine made a big purchase involving hundreds of packs and as a consolation prize tossed me one.  I'll share its contents in a future post, because I'm too lazy to run out to my car.

Two weeks before that, I walked around the Branham Flea Market and had it not been for a guy with a dime box, I would have walked away with nothing again.

Although all of these items were purchased at the same time, it's easier to split them up into two categories...

Purchase #1a:  The Oversized Stuff  $3

They're a pain in the butt to store, but I will happily purchase any box topper I come across if the price is right.  Ten cents works for me.

Here are a few of my favorites:

2020 Topps Holiday Ornament #WHO-MB

Some of you might remember my metal Christmas tree.  Well I've slowly been accumulating some of the Topps Ornament box toppers from the past five years.  Just need a few more to decorate an updated version of it. 

2021 Heritage Box Topper #OB-VG

In the midst of preparing this post, Vladito was having a monster series against the New York Yankees.  Unfortunately he hasn't found the same success against Seattle's pitchers.

2011 Topps Lineage 1964 Topps Giants Box Topper #TG9

The 1964 Topps Giants is one of my favorite vintage oddball sets.  I'm a huge fan of the simple design and was very lucky to add the full sixty card set to my collection a few years ago.  I'm not building this box topper set, but I'll happily add affordable singles when I stumble across them. 

2013 Panini Golden Age Exhibit Box Topper #25

This is probably the least interesting card for the majority of you, but it's my favorite from the bunch.  I can't tell you much about Mr. Johnson that you can't look up on Wikipedia... but this card makes me think of my father who was a huge boxing fan in his youth.

Okay, let's check out the rest of the dime box purchases...

Purchase #1b:  The Standard Stuff  $7

Here's a heads up... there wasn't a lot of baseball in this guy's dime box and the stuff he did have I wasn't interested in.  That being said, there were a bunch of other sports represented and some non-sports too.

I was a pretty diehard San Jose Sharks fan for their first thirty seasons, but I haven't really followed them, the sport, or hockey card industry in several years.  I'll still buy some Sharks, hockey autographs, and 90's inserts from time to time.  But if they started skating in the past ten years, I have no idea who they are.  That being said, I know that the Upper Deck Young Guns are popular among hockey card collectors.  At 10¢ each, I figured I'd grab every copy this guy had.

The same 10¢ rule applies to any shiny Pokemon cards I come across.  The hidden treasure in the box is political trading card of Mark Takano.  Never seen these before, but it's an interesting addition to my Japanese Pc.

There were a bunch of these Disney cards in the guy's dime box.  I picked up a bunch for one of my co-workers who is a huge Disney fan.  However I held onto a few including the Beagle Boys and Goofy cards above.

I was also happy to find a bunch of new Jon Jones cards for my collection:

I don't consider myself a huge MMA fan, but I did enjoy following Jones in the UFC Octagon.

Here are a few more singles I found in the dime box.  Honestly there wasn't anything too mind blowing in this guy's box... but I had fun flipping through it.  Hopefully he'll be out there again this Saturday.  If not... I'm hoping to find at least something card related to purchase out there.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Old Friends and New Additions

I'm caught up with my Flea Market Finds posts.  Now it's time to catch up with my card show hauls.  While I tend to splurge on a variety of purchases at the flea market, I'm much more selective when I shop at shows.

In fact, the only reason I attended the Santa Clara Card Show back in late June was to hang out with my buddy who was setting up at the show.  Walking in with Ben saved me the $10 admission fee... but things balanced out, because I still had to pay for parking ($10).

This show shares the same story I've read across a bunch of your blogs: some sports cards and lots of Pokemon.

I did find a few guys with quarter bins and dollar boxes, but I only made a purchase from one of them...

Purchase #1:  Quarter Bin  $2

I'll happily hand over a quarter for PCA rookie cards.  This guy is super fun to watch.

The other five cards are refractors for the binders.  Although I'm happy to add these to my collection, finding them for 25¢ is a sad reminder that Topps is flooding the hobby with these shiny parallels.  

Purchase #2:  The Greatest Auto  $200+

1992 Pro Line Portraits Autographs #NNO

This card is a huge addition to my autograph collection.  It has been on my radar since the 90's, but honestly I never thought I'd actually own a copy.  Then I saw it sitting in Ben's display case:

He had a $400 price tag, but told me I could have it for $350.  We worked out a deal where I traded him two display cases (from my card show days) and $200 cash.

This purchase had me floating like a butterfly... but stung (my wallet) like a bee.

Purchase #3:  Oversized Stuff  $5

1997-98 NBA Hoops Great Shots #13

One vendor had some oversized cards sitting in a box.  This Kobe poster caught my eye and lured me in.  But buried in the stack below was this hidden treasure: 

2006 Topps Allen and Ginter N43 Box Topper #N43-4

At the time, I just thought it was a cool card of one of the greatest hitters of all-time.

But in regards to value... this was the best deal of the day.

Freebie #1:  Oakland A's Lanyard

While walking around the show, I ran into some old friends I hadn't seen in a few years.  Some of you are familiar with my buddy Mike.  Anyways... he introduced me to Alfredo and his wife about a decade ago.  They were regular vendors at the Serramonte Mall shows.  However since Mike passed away, I hadn't seen them.

Well they were set up there and it very nice surprise.  We shared stories and caught up.  Anyways, I saw this lanyard and tried to buy it.  But they refused to take my money.

Purchase #4:  An Ohtani Rookie Card  $20

2018 Topps Now #678J

After hanging with Alfredo, I went back over to Ben's table to tell him I was going to head out.  Saw this Ohtani in his display case and grabbed it. 

I'm not actively chasing all of Ohtani's Topps Now cards, but the "kanji" was interesting.

Well... that wraps up my purchases from this particular show.  I attended a card show last weekend as well that I'll try to recap next week.

Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Is Bigger Better?

I guess it depends on what we're talking about... and our personal preferences.  In regards to trading cards... I appreciate them in all shapes and sizes.

Let's start off with this small tobacco card I recently purchased for my Japan PC:

1887 N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of All Nations #NNO

This one hundred thirty-eight year old trading card has been on my radar for a few years, but I didn't start targeting it on eBay until a year or two ago.  I have seen a few with pretty high BIN prices, but recently one popped up in an auction.

I set an alarm on my phone (the auction was ending towards the end of my 6th period) and quickly entered a bid with about 10 seconds remaining.  A couple of hours later, I checked and discovered I won.

This card might be small in size... but it's a pretty huge addition to my collection.

Next up are a few oversized cards that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me back in early May...

1995 Bowman's Best Jumbo Refractor #89

This shiny Nomo measures 4" x 6" and is part of a ten card set that were individually inserted into specially marked Treat packages.  John sent me the Gwynn earlier in the year... and I'm currently sitting on half of the set.

Next up is this 5" x 7" Jose Canseco:

1993 Stadium Club Master Photo #NNO

There are three different versions of this card.  One is a standard sized redemption card that was inserted into packs.  Topps also produced a 5" x 7" version for their Member's Only sets.  This one is the third version which were distributed two different ways: part of the redemption program or as a box topper.

Topps also produced oversized Master Photo cards for their Dome and Toys R Us factory sets that featured slightly different designs and photos..

The bulk of John's care package were hundreds of Tony Gwynn cards that are in the process of being sorted and integrated into my binders.  I'll show a few of these off in a future post.

In the meantime... there were two 3.5" x 5" cards that stood out from the rest:

1985 Donruss Action All-Stars #19

From 1983 to 1987 Donruss produced these oversized All-Star cards as a separate (oddball) issue.  1985 was Gwynn's first appearance.

The other Gwynn he sent me is the same size (3.5" x 5"), but was distributed as a box topper in hobby boxes of 1994 Donruss baseball:

1994 Donruss Dominators #1

This card celebrates Gwynn for having the highest batting average in the 90's (from 1990 to 1993) and was serial numbered to 10,000:

According to Statmuse, Gwynn held onto that title:

Can you guess who was #2 on the list?  Click the link to find out.  I never would have guessed that player.

Well there you have it.  Five trading cards.  One small.  Four big.  All of them are pretty darn cool as long as you don't get flustered by storing non-standard sized cards.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on small and big cards down below.  I look forward to reading and responding to them.

Until then... thank you John for another generous care package filled with cool stuff for my collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

I wish I would have opened John's care package a little sooner, because he sent me a bunch of Star Wars figures that would have been perfect for my May the 4th post:

It's kind of hard to see from this angle, but you're looking at an army of 2005 Star Wars Attacktix figures.  If you're not familiar with these, they were part of an action figure game with the goal of knocking over your opponent's figures.

Here's a closer look at some of my favorite figures:

These figures were sold in booster and starter packs.  I bought a bunch, but don't think I ever actually played the game.  I'll probably add most of these to my Star Wars shelf in my classroom.  However the next figures will be kept in my personal collection at home:

1977 Kenner Princess Leia

1980 Kenner Lando Calrissian

1980 Kenner Lobot

1980 Kenner IG-88

1983 Kenner Klaatu

The goal is to one day have a vintage Star Wars display like John's.  I do have three shelves in my office dedicated to my Star Wars collection, but one is for my 90's and 2000's action figures.  Another has my collection of 1990's Action Fleet ships.  And the final one has a few of my Star Wars Lego sets.  But one day... I'll have enough vintage figures to fill a shelf in my office.  The bigger... the better.