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!

A Pair of Surprises

Another card show recap... and another surprise purchase.  Back in June, I picked up a Muhammad Ali pack pulled, on-card autograph for my collection.  Three weekends ago, I found another "biggie" for my PC.

Neither are considered super rare, but neither pop up at card shows on a regular basis either.  But before I get to the big find of the day, let's check out another surprise...

Purchase #1:  Dollar Box  $10

2024 Bowman Draft #BD-56

I was pretty stoked to find this Nick Kurtz in a dollar box.  If you're not familiar with this kid, he had one of the greatest games in MLB history on July 25th.  The twenty-two year old rookie went 6 for 6 with four home runs, six runs scored, and eight runs batted in against the Houston Astros the night before and was definitely the "talk of the show".

As expected dealers were pulling his 1st Bowmans from their cheap boxes and marking them up.  This guy had this lone copy sitting in his dollar box.

Here are the other cards I picked up from this vendor:

1971 Fleer Harlem Globetrotters #72

2024 Topps A&G Mini Rookie Design Variation #RD-6

1976 Topps #204

Not sure I'd normally buy this O.J. Simpson card, but I couldn't pass it up after flipping it over:

This card features 25% of card #205... which is the NFL Interception Leaders.

Rounding out the dollar box was this six pack of football and baseball:

Now for the big surprise...

Purchase #2:  Vintage Billy Ball Oddball  $125

1949 Remar Bread #NNO

I got to experience first hand Billy Ball back in the early 80's at the Oakland Coliseum.  That's why I will always have a deep appreciation for his cards.  The past few years... I have been tracking this particular card for my Oakland Oaks collection.  This was the first time I came across a copy at a card show.

I've bid on multiple copies, but always fall short.  It's a good thing I did, because I was able to pick up this gorgeous copy for a slightly higher price.  After purchasing the Ali, I had zero plans of dropping triple digits on a single card at this show.  But I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. 

Purchase #3:  A Kirby Puckett Rookie Card  $18

1985 Topps Rack Pack

The dealer who sold me the Billy Martin also had a few sealed rack packs from the 80's.  Each of them had a key rookie card featured on the back:

I passed on the 84T Darryl Strawberry and 85T Dwight Gooden, but grabbed the Puckett.  It pairs nicely with this cello pack I purchased back in 2011:

1985 Topps Cello Pack

Well that wraps up the final card show of the summer.  I know that there are two more coming up in September, but I don't have any plans on attending them.  On the other hand... maybe I'll need a distraction from the school year.

If I end up going, you guys will be the first to know.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #177: Stuff from the 70's, 80's, and 90's

It's official.  I'm finally caught up on writing flea market posts.  Perfect timing too, because in a few days I'll be heading out to the De Anza Flea Market in hopes of finding some hidden treasures.

In the meantime, here's what I picked up two Saturdays ago at the Branham Flea Market.

Purchase #1:  80's Baseball Sets  $100

Remember the guy with the Laughlin sets?  Well... he was back again.  Sadly he didn't have any 70's oddball issues this time around.  But he did bring a few 80's sets.  I picked out these four:

First up is a 1983 Donruss factory set:

1983 Donruss Factory Set

This was the first set I noticed (he had these sets spread out over a few tables).  Although they aren't rare by any means... it's not really something I come across at the flea market on a regular basis.

He also had a 1982 Donruss factory set: 

1982 Donruss Factory Set

Not sure if Donruss released the 1982 sets in cellophane packs (like the other 1983 set above), but this one didn't come with any.  The set was in order though, so it was easy to check for the Ripken:

1982 Donruss #405

The centering is terrible, but I'm happy to add this set to my collection of 80's sets.  Speaking of centering, the key rookie cards in the next set are really clean:

1983 Topps Set

This is one of my all-time favorite sets.  I love the design... and it contains the rookie card of my favorite player:

1983 Topps #83

1983 Topps #482

1983 Topps #498

And rounding out the trifecta of 1983 flagship sets is the Fleer set:

1983 Fleer Set

Unfortunately when I got home, I discovered this set was missing two cards.  Plus Joaquin Andujar (card #1) was sun damaged.  I already ordered all three cards on Sportlots, but it might take a few weeks for them to arrive.

In the meantime, check out the Big Three:

1983 Fleer #179

1983 Fleer #360

1983 Fleer #507

There was another guy who came along and showed an interest in these sets, but the vendor said he'd give me first dibs since I've bought a bunch of stuff from him this year.  He was looking to get $40 for the Topps set and $30 each for the others.  I asked him if he'd take $100 for the quartet and he accepted.

After I paid for these sets, I hung out at his booth.  We talked about him moving soon and him heading out to Arkansas.  We also talked about each of our hobby histories and why he was getting rid of his stuff.  I also found two more sets...

Purchase #2:  More Baseball Sets  $20

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Factory Set

This is a set that I have been actively seeking for over a decade.  The box wasn't sealed and was in pretty rough shape, but I still wanted it.

I know Sportflics aren't super popular, but they hold a lot of nostalgic value for me.  I never owned this set, but I opened a lot of 1986 Sportflics packs and owned the Rookies factory set.

This set covers the best players from the 1940's to the 1980's.  Here's what the cards look like:

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats #28

These lenticular cards feature three images for the price of one:

It's the trademark characteristic of 80's Sportflics cards.  But the card backs were pretty cool too:

Check out how much information they packed onto the back of this card.  Plus it's so colorful!  They only downside is they sacrificed the athlete's career stats and focused on a specific decade (hence the name of the set).

In addition to the 75 player cards, they also included 51 trivia cards:

1986 Sportflics Decades Greats Trivia Card #32

Okay... enough Sportflics talk.  Here's the other set I grabbed:

1993 Gatorade Detroit Tigers Set

I've never seen this set before, but according to TCDB it sounds like these were handed out as a stadium giveaway.

I thought about opening this set up and pulling singles for my binders (player collections).  I'm going to keep it sealed for now though.

As for the purchase price, there wasn't any negotiation this time around.  Like I said... I really wanted this Sportflics set... and his twenty dollar asking price seemed fair.

Okay.  I've rambled on way too much and we're only through the first two purchases.  It's time to speed up the process...

Purchase #3:  Sega Genesis Game  $15

1993 EA Sports Tony LaRussa Baseball (Sega Genesis)

My streak of picking up new (in package) 90's media continues.  This time it comes in the form of a video game.

While most of my buddies were SNES fanboys in the early 90's... I was a Genesis guy.  Never owned this particular game, but figured it would look cool on my A's shelf.

Purchase #4:  Three for a Buck Singles  $4

Back in May, I bought some cards off of a guy with 3 for $1 boxes.  He was back.  Here's what I picked up: 

You know how much I enjoy Star Wars and shiny cards.  I also found a huge stack of Jackass cards, but only grabbed the Tony Hawk.

He also had two unopened packs of Sport Kings.  I'm still searching for the Richard Petty card for my set build.  How cool would it be to pull one from these packs?

Purchase #5:  80's Wax Pack  $2

1981 Topps Raiders of the Lost Ark

Found this pack sitting in a bin with a bunch of non-sport Junk Wax Era packs and figured I'd save it.

I'll have to see if I already have one for my unopened wax pack collection.  If I do, I'll crack it open on a rainy day when I need some blog fodder.

The guy who sold me this pack, also had some random 80's team sets...

Purchase #6:  Yankees Team Set  $5

1985 Topps & Topps Traded

There were a handful of singles I needed in my 80's base card binder, but the key to this purchase was this card:

1985 Topps Traded #49T

I needed this for my Topps flagship base card run of Rickey.  I was hoping to find this card in a dollar bin, but I got tired of waiting.

Purchase #7:  Vintage Football Stamps  $10

The last purchase of the day was off of the guy I usually start with.  However the past two times he's had a group of guys digging through his boxes.  Anyways... I ended the day by grabbing these two vintage packs of NFL stamps:

1972 Sunoco NFL Action Stamps

Each pack contains 9 stamps.  At the time, I figured this was a killer deal.  How often do you find unopened packs from 1972 for $5 each?  The answer is... anytime you want.  They're listed on eBay for this price or even cheaper.  Oh well... win some, lose some.

Hopefully I'll find some winners on Saturday at De Anza.  Either way... I'll show off my finds sometime next week.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!