30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

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.

#1United 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%...


#2Canada

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.


#3Japan

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.



#4Italy

 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.


#5Germany

1967 Heinerle #110

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


#6Sweden

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.


#7Finland

1994 Finnish Jaa Kiekko #347

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


#8United 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.


#9Venezuela

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!

10 comments:

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Maybe a half dozen. US, Canada, Venezuela, UK for certain.

The Shlabotnik Report said...

Great cards, Fuji! I particularly like the examples from Japan, Germany and Russia... I didn't know they had cards in Russia, but I confess I never really thought about it. I also completely forgot that the 1980's Topps stickers were printed in Italy.

Hopefully we'll inspire some more people to do the same, I'm enjoying seeing the international cards from you and Billy at Cardboard History!
https://cardboardhistory.blogspot.com/2019/04/seeing-world-on-cards.html

Nick said...

I'm considering doing a post on this, but my numbers pale in comparison to yours and Mr. Shlabotnik's -- probably because my collection only covers baseball cards. I think I'd be at six: US, Canada, Japan, Italy, UK, Venezuela.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Awesome! I think you might have some Irish “Cul Heroes” cards too somewhere. I’d have to look to see how countries I have. Maybe 6.

The Lost Collector said...

Geez, I don't know! Probably 4 or 5?

That McGwire is awesome. I need to go buy one of those, just to have.

Matt said...

I decided to skip this Bat-A-Round because I only had two countries - the US and Canada. I had forgotten about the UK mini cards. Still, three doesn't make a very interesting post..

GCA said...

I've got most of those places' cards. Don't think I have any hockey stickers, except OPC, though. I have a couple team sets of Russian Red Army for my Fedorov collection. I got Livan Hernanadez to sign his Cuban rookie card too.

Baltmoss68 said...

I have Mexican nfl , Topps Venezuelan, German Olympics, English soccer, Dutch golf,Japanese baseball, Canadian football, Finnish track,Spanish basketball, and A few American cards😎

night owl said...

Probably have maybe 75 percent of yours. I don't know if I'll dig them out, it seems like it'd take a lot of time and I'd miss something.

Fuji said...

johnnys trading spot - that's not bad john.

the shlabotnik report - billy's collection is impression. last time i checked, his collection represented the most countries

nick - it's okay nick. billy's collection makes my collection look like a joke

the lost collector - it's definitely an iconic card for sure. i'd love to fill a complete 9-pocket page with that card. i think it'd look cool.

matt - it'd be interesting to see which card you'd use to represent the US and which card you'd use to represent canada ;)

gca - that's cool that you got hernandez to sign his rookie card. and i'm pretty sure i have a russian fedorov card in my collection too. it's just a matter of me finding it.

baltmoss68 - damn. that's impressive. you're entering billy's league.

night owl - yeah i had to do a little digging for this post. the others were already in my scan folder