Around the World

One of the things I'd like to do at some point in my life is travel around the world.  Until then I'll just collect cards from countries around the world.

Last week, The Shlabotnik Report wrote a post about a vintage German curling card he added to his collection.  In the post he mentioned that he had cards from eight different countries sitting in his collection (it turns out he actually has 12).  I estimated that I had seven and thought I'd share them in a post.

Now we're not talking about athlete origins.  We're talking about different countries where the cards were actually produced.  So without further ado, let's see how many different countries are represented in my collection.

#1:  United States

1985 Topps #401

If I had to guess what percentage of my collection was printed in the United States, I'd probably say 99%.  Maybe 99.5%.

The next three countries make up the bulk of the remaining .5%...


#2:  Canada

1984 O-Pee-Chee #182

With each passing year, I grow more and more obsessed with collecting OPC and Leaf trading cards... especially the rookie cards from the 80's.

#3:  Japan

2016 BBM Dancing Heroine #71

My Japanese trading card collection has really blossomed over the years thanks to guys like Zippy Zappy, Ryan G, and SumoMenkoMan.  I have two binders full of BBM and Calbee trading cards, plus at least another ten sets sitting in boxes.

#4:  Italy

 1983 Topps Stickers #21

Thanks to the sticker albums of the 80's, I have a bunch of baseball stickers printed in Italy.

The rest of the countries listed in this post are definitely outliers which make up a very small fraction of my collection.


#5:  Germany

1967 Heinerle #110

I probably have 50 to 100 different cards produced in Germany and all of them were generously donated to me by SumoMenkoMan.  This card isn't just one of my favorite German cards in the collection, it's one of my favorite cards period.


#6:  Sweden

1993 Swedish Semic World Championships Stickers #207

I found this Swedish sticker sitting inside of my Owen Nolan binder.  Flipping through this binder inspired me to look through my hockey inserts and oddballs box, where I found the next card.


#7:  Finland

1994 Finnish Jaa Kiekko #347

Gotta love a Finnish card featuring the greatest American goal scorer.


#8:  United Kingdom

1988 Topps United Kingdom

I know I have a box of 1990-91 Pro Set English League soccer cards laying around somewhere.  Until I can dig that up, this Topps UK card will have to suffice.


#9:  Venezuela

1964 Topps Venezuelan #75

This card was only added to my collection nine months ago when Brian over at Highly Subjective and Complete Arbitrary sent it my way.  I'd like to add a few more of the Venezuelans to my collection one day.

I'll wrap things up with three more cards that are related to this post, but didn't quite make the cut.  

First up is a Pro Set Spanish rookie card of Brett Favre:

1991 Pro Set Spanish #262

Ever since this product was released, I assumed it was printed and distributed across the border.  Nope.  It was printed and sold in the United States.  Maybe one day I'll be fortunate enough to add the 1977 Topps Mexican Steve Largent rookie card to my collection.

Here's another card I was duped with...

1994 Cubadeportes #23

Who would have thought that Cuban League trading cards would be produced in Canada?

The last card is a card I know I have somewhere...

1991-92 Tri-Globe Russia Magnificent Five #16

I just don't know where it is, so I pulled a scan off of COMC.  I'm also pretty sure I own a least one Korean baseball card, but I wasn't able to locate that one either.

So for the time being there are currently nine different countries represented in my collection.  That's three countries less than The Shlabotnik Report.

What about you?

How many different countries do you have cards from?

If you're willing to write a post and share your response, I encourage you to leave a link on The Shlabotnik Report's blog.  C'mon... who doesn't love a Blog Bat-Around?

Well that's it for today.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Mae West and Menko

Tomorrow's post covers trading cards residing in my collection that were produced in different countries of the world.

Today's post is going to show off some of the cards that Ryan (a.k.a. SumoMenkoMan) sent me a few weeks ago.  The bulk of the cards were produced in Germany and Japan, two countries that will be featured in tomorrow's post.

A few years ago, if you were to mention the names of those two countries, the Axis Powers would be the first thing that popped into my head.  Ryan has started to change that.  Over the past few years, he's sent me multiple care packages that have included hundreds of Japanese and German trading cards.  And each and every time, they give me the opportunity to learn something new.

Yesterday, I spent over two hours sifting through the two 100ct. plastic boxes he filled up with a variety of sports cards and non-sports cards.  As I was scanning the cards, I spent time researching the sets and learning new things.  

I'm here today to share with you what I learned...

1934 Garbaty Kurmark Moderne Schonheitsgalerie #79

1934 Garbaty Kurmark Moderne Schonheitsgalerie #145

I spent over 30 minutes researching these two cards alone.  These beautiful cigarette cards were produced in prewar Nazi Germany.  There were two different series of cards produced with each one focusing on popular German and Hollywood actresses.

I couldn't tell you any movies either of these ladies have starred in, but I did recognize both of their names.

Continuing with the entertainment theme are these 1933 Salem Gold Film Bilder cards...

 

These are similar to the Topps baseball sticker albums of the 80's, except these were produced 50 years earlier and contained famous actors and actresses.  If you're interested in seeing more or learning more about these, then check out Ryan's review from back in March.

Here's one more...

1935 Gold Dollar Film Bilder #44

There wasn't a lot of information out there on Hohn, but according to Wikipedia she was a German stage and movie actress.

Okay moving on...

This next group of cards focuses on ships and flags.  I originally thought that these four cards were from the same set, but after reading another post on Ryan's blog, I discovered they're two different sets:  1933 Lloyd Flottenbilder die Welthandelsflotte and 1933 Lloyd Reedereiflaggen die Welthandelsflotte.  If you're interested in reading about the differences, click on the above link.

Here's a closer look at one of the ship cards:

1933 Lloyd Flottenbilder die Welthandelsflotte #163

These cards are truly beautiful!

The last group of German cards were ones I couldn't find any information on:

Here's a closer look at one of them:

According to Wikipedia, Abd el-Krim was a Rifian political and military leader whose military tactics influenced people like Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara.

Next stop:  Japan.

A care package from Ryan isn't complete without a few sumo wrestling cards.

The first one is part of a fantasy card game he created:

If you're interested in learning more about their game, watch this video:

One of these days, I'm going to get around to learning more about the sport and hopefully get a chance to play in their fantasy league.  It seems like a lot of fun.

He also sent me some vintage sumo discs:

According to the note Ryan included, these three discs are 1930's Menko discs.

Plus he included a stack of 2019 BBM:

I'm gonna close out this post with some vintage Japanese non-sport cards:

I'm not 100% sure what these are, but when I was a kid my parents would take me to this Japanese book store in San Francisco and I'd buy books/magazines that featured characters similar to these.

The backs feature some form of card game and some really cool art work.  I haven't actually had the time to put these into my binders, but I'm guessing that between all of these cards + the huge stack of Japanese basketball cards, I'm going to need close to twenty more 9-pocket pages.

Thanks again Ryan for hooking me up with all of these German and Japanese trading cards.  Stay tuned, because tomorrow I'll be featuring one of my favorite cards in my collection... which happens to be another German card you sent a while back.

Well that's it for today.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Totally Ripped Off

I've been trying to cut back on purchasing retail packs this year, but two weeks ago that went out the window when I picked up two Ultimate Collector's 50 Pack Combos over on Walmart.com.  The purchase was inspired by Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders who bought five of these fifty pack bundles.

I essentially fell off the wagon, because the price was too good to pass up.  Fifty packs for $19.97 is a pretty tempting deal and when you buy two or more combos the shipping is free.

At this price, you'd expect to see a bunch of Junk Wax Era packs, but they only represented about 30% of the packs they shipped.  Half of the packs were from 2012 to 2017.  There was even a pack of one of my all-time favorite products:  UD Masterpieces.

Here's a breakdown of the packs Walmart shipped me:

1988 Donruss (x3)

1988 Topps (x2)

1989 Bowman (x2)

1989 Donruss (x2)

1989 Topps (x2)

1990 Fleer (x2)

1990 Topps Traded (x2)

1990 Upper Deck (x1)

1991 Fleer (x2)

1991 Upper Deck (x1)

1991 Fleer Ultra (x6)

1992 Donruss Series 2 (x1)

1992 Upper Deck (x1)

2005 UD MVP (x1)

2007 Topps Series 2 Rack Packs (x2)

2007 UD Future Stars (x10)

2007 UD Masterpieces (x1)

2007 Topps Update (x2)

2007 Upper Deck (x2)

2008 Upper Deck Series 2 (x1)

2008 Bowman Chrome (x1)

2008 UD Baseball Heroes (x1)

2010 Topps Update (x1)

2012 Topps Update (x2)

2012 Allen and Ginter (x1)

2013 Topps Series 1 (x1)

2013 Topps Series 2 (x1)

2015 Topps Archives (x5)

2015 Topps Series 1 (x5)

2015 Topps Series 2 (x5)

2015 Topps Update (x5)

2016 Topps Series 1 (x5)

2016 Topps Series 2 (x5)

2017 Topps Series 1 (x5)

2017 Topps Series 2 (x5)

2017 Topps Update (x5)

Now my count could be off, but I checked my addition three times and it seems like Walmart shorted me one pack.  Not cool Walmart.  Not cool.

Honestly... it's not a huge deal.  This purchase provided over an hour's worth of entertainment and I did managed to pull this Mark Teixeira jersey card:

2007 Upper Deck S2 Game Materials #UD-MT

Outside of that and a few Oakland A's and San Diego Padres commons I may or may not have needed... the only card that I was really happy to add to my collection was this Andrelton Simmons rookie card:

2012 Topps Update #UD232

But like I said... if you're looking for some cheap entertainment... you might want to give these Walmart fifty pack bundles a shot.  You never know... but you might end up pulling a Jim Thome memorabilia card or a Mookie Betts rookie card from your packs like Dennis did.

Speaking of Dennis, he held a contest involving some unopened packs over on his blog.  To participate all you had to do was hang out during his live stream and watch him bust packs.  It was a lot of fun to gather with other collectors and talk shop.

I ended up winning five packs of 2006 Topps hanger packs:

In addition to the packs, Dennis hooked me up with a stack of Oakland Athletics:

Plus a bunch of cards for my Japanese PC:

And a nice stack of inserts, buybacks, autographs, and a jersey card:

Since there weren't five cards that stood out from my Walmart packs, I figured I'd create a Top 5 list with the cards Dennis sent me.

However, before I begin, here are some honorable mentions:

My fanfare for memorabilia cards is no secret and both of these were new additions to my Seahawks and A's collections.  The Aoki is one of those Throwback Thursday online exclusive cards and when it came down to picking my Top 5, this card was close to swapping spots with #5 on this list.  Speaking of #5... here are my five favorite cards from Dennis' care package:

#5:  2012 Panini Prizm #RNA

I miss seeing Aoki wearing an MLB uniform, because he was a solid hitter wherever he played.  At 37 years of age, he's still playing in Japan and hitting over .300.


#4:  1978 Topps #298 (75th Anniversary Buyback)

I enjoy adding vintage buybacks of Athletics to my collection... especially when they're players I rooted for back in the day.  Rickey Henderson, Dwayne Murphy, and Armas formed a solid outfield for the Athletics back in the early 80's.


#3:  2000 Paramount End Zone Net Fusions #18

I was stoked when I saw this card in one of the team bags Dennis sent.  It's an insert with a faux net embedded into the card.


#2:  2014 Topps Update Gold #US230

It's been six seasons since Suzuki has played with the Athletics, but he's still one of my favorite players in the game.  I'm always glad to add a new parallel of his to my collection.

#1:  1999 SP Authentic Chirography #EC

Chavez is a fan favorite among A's fans.  The guy was one of the best fielding third basemen during his career and had a pretty solid bat.  He's also one of the best players to never make an MLB All-Star team.

Well that's it for today.  Thank you Dennis for the very generous care package and for inspiring me to pick up two of those Walmart bundles.  Both provided me with tons of entertainment.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!