Card of the Year Candidate

Collecting cards makes me happy.  Seriously.  Just like spending the afternoon at the ballpark, hanging out with an old friend, or playing nine holes on a cool spring morning... trading cards have the ability to temporarily take my mind off of things.

And if I'm really lucky, I'll stumble across a card that makes me chuckle and leaves me with a huge smile on my face.

This 2018 BBM True Heart card of Sakura Hirota is one of those cards:

Words don't do this card justice.  Just click on it and soak in the pink beauty of a grown woman holding two oversized baby bottles.

I realize that this card isn't for everyone.  I mean... different strokes for different folks, right?  But I'd take this card over any 2018 Topps or Panini base card I've seen so far... which is why it's my early pick for the 2018 Card of the Year.

What about all of you?

What are your early candidates for the 2018 Card of the Year?

If you're still focusing on the card (which I wouldn't blame you) and are wondering what True Heart cards are... they Japanese women's pro wrestling cards.

Back in March, Christopher over at the The Raz Card Blog opened up three boxes of this product and showed off his pulls.  I was instantly drawn to this card and described it in the comment section as a "card for the ages".

Last week, he sent me a bubble mailer with this card being the centerpiece.  It'll eventually be added to my Japanese PC binder, but for the time being... I've thrown it into a one-touch magnetic and placed it on my desk so I can enjoy it on a daily basis.

In addition to the pinkest card in my collection, Raz also included these two True Heart autographs:

2018 True Heart Autographs #NNO Manami Katsu

2018 True Heart Autographs #NNO Emi Sakura

This isn't the first time Raz has sent me autographs of female Japanese wrestlers.  If you want to see two more cool autographs click here and here.  It's amazing how much time and effort these ladies put into their signatures.  They're literally individual works of art.

He's also really into collecting UFC cards, which is one of those sports I really enjoy collecting and watching but rarely discuss on this blog.  However I have mentioned a few times that I'm a big fan of Daniel Cormier who trains right down the street from me.

Raz essentially doubled my DC collection with these three memorabilia cards:

And these five numbered parallels:

Today's useless fact of the day:  Two of my students know and trained with DC, so I picked up a few cards of him for them on COMC.  Who knows... maybe it'll inspire them to collect UFC cards.

Don't worry Raz... these eight Cormier cards aren't going anywhere except into my collection.

Last, but certainly not least... he sent me this Kurt Suzuki autograph:

2016 Topps Tier One Prime Performers Autographs #PP-KSU

I didn't even know this card existed.  This marks the 38th different Suzuki autographed card in my collection, but it's only my 2nd one featuring him in a Twins uniform.

Thanks Christopher for this very generous care package!  I picked up a few cards for you on COMC and eBay that I'll try to ship out as soon as I wrap up this school year.  Until then...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!