According to this website, advent calendars have been around since the 19th century. I'm pretty sure the first advent calendar I ever received was filled with chocolate back in the 80's.
These days you can find a variety of advent calendars ranging from beer to Legos to science experiments. And for the past four years... Death Stare Cards has even created his very own advent calendar to show off some cool cards in his collection.
Then last year... my buddy Ryan over at Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko gifted me my very own collectible advent calendar which he custom built and personalized. It was honestly one of the coolest and most unique gifts I have ever received.
Over the course of this year, he dropped a few hints that he was putting together another one... and at the end of November a huge box arrived at my mailbox. Inside were a bunch of PWE's and packages... each individually marked with a day and phrase hinting at what was lurking inside.
I've summarized all twenty-five gifts into one post for all of you to see. So grab a cup of eggnog, sit back, scroll, and enjoy...
Day #1: 1898 Pocket Calendar
At 124 years old, I'm pretty sure this is the oldest Christmas collectible sitting in the collection.
Personally, I was more interested in the fact that the 1898 and 2022 calendars are the perfect match.
1990 MVP Pins #NNO
Day #3: Soccer Packs
2021 Panini Adrenalyn XL Kickoff
2021 Panini Adrenalyn XL Update
When I saw these two packs, I made a deal with myself. If Japan beat Croatia (on December 5th), I'd open up these packs in search for some Samurai Blue. But if they lost, I'd add them to my unopened pack collection.
They lost.
Day #4: Ultra Pro Penny Sleeves
Day #5: My New Ride
2021 Tomy #87 GR Supra Fuji Speedway Safety Car
Back in February, I bought my dream car. Since then, I've been building a collection of Toyota Supra MK5 collectibles.
This Tomy diecast is a nice addition to the collection:
Day #6: Another Car
Convenience Store Promotion Pack
According to Ryan, this pack was a promotional item handed out a convenience store in Japan. As much as I love collecting unopened packs, I had to see what was lurking in this one...
The car I pulled was the Datsun (Nissan) Sunny (B10), which was produced from 1966 to 1969. I've always been a Honda and Toyota guy, but I can appreciate a classic like this pull.
Day #7: Menko Discs
Day #8: Art Appreciation Cards
Ed-U-Cards Series #9
Couldn't find any information on these cards, but they look like something from the 60's or 70's. There were sixteen cards featuring paintings housed in this envelope with a window on the front.
As much as I appreciate art, I didn't recognize any of these paintings:
Ed-U-Cards Series #24
Another pack of trading cards featuring paintings.
Day #10: Frame Worthy Art
At first glance, it's just a bunch of Japanese writing... which I personally find beautiful. However, I was thinking it might be sumo related, so I texted Ryan for confirmation.
I was correct. It's an official ranking sheet from 1985 and the great Yokozuna Chiyonofuji is listed on it. This should be framed and hung up in my office, but lack of space currently prevents that. Maybe one day when I own my dream house with that huge man cave.
Day #11: Japanese Highway Cards
These "highway cards" are approximately the same shape and size of the phone cards many of us are familiar with from the 90's.
Day #12: 2021 Allen & Ginter Chrome Pack
Who doesn't enjoy opening up a pack of baseball cards? Here's what I pulled...
Day #13: National Hockey Card Day Packs
I originally thought this pair of National Hockey Card Day packs were from the same year. The plan was to open one and keep the other one sealed for my unopened pack collection.
Day #14: One-Touch Magnetic Holder
My Tashi rookie card was looking for a new home and this one-touch magnetic was the perfect choice.
Day #15: Vintage Sumo Wrestling Cards
1955 Kagome Rikishi 10 Ozeki Mitsuneyama
Day #16: Nanoblock #NBH 014 Space Center
Day #17: Vintage Baseball
Day #18: Early 90's Tuff Stuff Magazines w/Cards
Day #19: Cat in a Kimono Deck of Cards
Who doesn't appreciate cards featuring cats dressed up as humans? I'm guessing the person whose photography was used for the 1983 Topps Perlorian Cats set also captured this photo of a cat wearing a kimono with money tucked behind the obi.
This is actually a deck of playing cards. Here's a closer look:
Day #20: 2020 Topps 206 Singles
Over the summer, Ryan flew up to San Jose for the day and we hit up a card show and a few card shops. At one of the shops, he bought some packs... which we cracked open outside of the restaurant we had dinner at. Pretty sure these were the cards from his pack. I pretty sure that's the same Wade Boggs I traded him for his Tony Gwynn.
Boggs has officially returned to San Jose and will now be added to my HOF binder of inserts, parallels, and oddballs.
Day #21: Kaiju Playing Cards
Here's another deck of playing cards. Only this time it was full of kaiju, instead of a dressed up kitty. These are awesome!
Day #22: Japanese Novelty Bag
It starts with an envelope (possibly from the 60's or 70's) that features two of the greatest Japanese baseball players: Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima.
The back of the envelope features some kind of table... possibly a board game:
Inside there is a two sided poster that looks like they could also be used as game boards:
The final thing in the envelope are these cutouts printed on heavy cardstock:
Be water, my friend.
I'm not going to make any promises, but there's a chance you'll see some of these singles featured in future holiday posts.
Not exactly sure what these were intended to be used for (maybe game pieces), but I'm keeping them intact and housed in the envelope.
Day #23: Demon Slayer Sticker Packs
Any Demon Slayer fans? I've never watched the show or read the books, but I'm very familiar with the title. One of the most popular things among my middle school students is watching anime and reading Manga. I found Demon Slayer on Hulu and added it to my watch list, so it's only a matter of time.
This appears to be a display box filled with packs of Demon Slayer stickers. I'm torn on whether to open these or not.
Day #24: Celebrity Post Cards
As we quickly approach Christmas Day, Ryan saved some of the coolest items for last. Check out the young Jackie Chan and Farrah Fawcett.
If you're wondering what the heck these are, they're postcards (possibly from a magazine).
As much as I love and appreciate all of these 70's stars, Bruce Lee is my favorite postcard:
Day #25: 2015 BBM P League Very Merry Xmas Set
And rounding out Ryan's 2022 advent calendar is this fantastic Christmas themed set of 46 trading cards featuring twenty-three female bowlers:
In the meantime, I only scanned one individual card:
Thank you Ryan for taking the time and effort to build another fantastic advent calendar for me. I appreciate it as much as I appreciate our friendship. Looking forward to meeting up again in 2023 and enjoying more cards, shops, and good eats.
To the rest of you...
Were there any specific things from this advent calendar that caught your eye?
Happy holidays and sayonara!
14 comments:
That looked like he put a lot of work into it! The cute bowler has my attention.
That is impressive! So many goodies but The Christmas Bowlers set tops it all
This is so cool. Must’ve been fun to open.
I keep wondering why Topps or Panini doesn’t make a card Advent calendar. I had a chocolate one this year. My daughter had a cool Mini Brands one.
Awesome stuff! My faves are the sumo stuff and vintage japanese baseball. I like the McGwire pin too, so many things to collect.
An amazing gift. Fun for the month! (and then some).
Wow! A great gift with tons of variety.
Holy wow. Love the baseball menkos. They rarely fit my collection profile and I'm a little scared of jumping down that rabbithole untethered.
I'm envious of you for having a friend that's willing to do something like this for you. And I really like the kaiju playing cards, though I'm guessing that they're way out of my price range.
Who was Emma Mesner? I'm sure we'll never know.
I opened the picture of Japanese highway cards expecting to see pictures of Japanese highways, so I was surprised to see the NYC skyline instead.
It was definitely fun to put together...working on next year's calendar already!
The Bruce Lee Christmas card is the easy choice here. The playing cards with the cats are my second place winner and the vintage Japanese cards are my third choice.
Man those were all pretty cool! Thanks for sharing and to Ryan for putting it all together!
swing and a pop-up - she had my attention too. love that signature of hers
rebel coyote - there were so many cool items, it's hard to pick a favorite. but the bowling set is definitely up there
the lost collector - it was a blast. unfortunately... my schedule was pretty hectic, so i wasn't able to open them on a daily basis. i think i ended up opening them up on 4 different occasions. topps should definitely do something like this. i would totally buy it. 25 packs? how awesome would that be?
the diamond king - the mcgwire pin fit perfectly into a 25ct. slider box. it makes an excellent display piece.
johnnys trading spot - it was a blast... and very, very thoughtful.
wax pack wonders - one of the most unique presents... and very entertaining
nick vossbrink - the baseball menkos are gorgeous. i've only bought a handful of them, but they were surprisingly affordable.
jon - i truly value ryan's friendship. he's a really cool down to earth guy. i've had the opportunity to meet and hang out with a few bloggers, but ryan is the only one i text on a regular basis.
bo - found an emma messner in sacramento who was born in 1883. not sure if it's the same one, but it might be her. there were actually a few others born around the 1860's that popped up on my search as well. but like you said... this is one of those things we'll never know.
sumomenkoman - thanks again for such a thoughtful present. can't wait to hang (hopefully in february).
the snorting bull - all three of your picks were personal favorites. i wish someone in japan would do a remake of those cats dressing up as humans sets.
jafronius - i had a lot of fun going through each of these gifts. i'm sure i drove ryan nuts with all of the text messages i sent him.
Very cool collection of items. That 1898 Christmas card is awesome
SCC
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