Saturday, February 24, 2024

One of Those Perfect Days


This past week I've been on my February break and the plan was to spend several hours each day doing hobby related stuff like sorting cards, working on sets, opening care packages, reading blog posts, and writing a post or two myself.  Gotta admit, with all of the other things going on this week... I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to stick to the plan.

I'm not nearly caught up on sorting cards.  Honestly that's a never-ending project.  And there will always be sets to build.

As for care packages, I still have two large flat-rate boxes and four PWE's from John (@ Johnny's Trading Spot), a medium size box from Chris (@ The Collector), two padded envelopes from Kenny (@ Torren' Up Cards), a padded envelope from Eric (@ The Snorting Bull), and PWE's from Kevin (@ The Diamond King), Gavin (@ Baseball Card Breakdown), and Tom (@ The Angels, In Order).  Plus I still haven't finished reviewing items from Woody (@ Sports Card Forum) and Reader X.

I apologize to everyone above for the delay.  It's one of those things I prefer not to rush... because I want to enjoy and organize the contents of each package, while also writing a thoughtful post for each.  In a perfect world, the posts coincide with something currently going on within sports or the hobby.

Well... today is one of those perfect days.  It's sunny outside.  It's cool, but not freezing cold.  And I had the opportunity to walk around a card show.  But that's a post for another day.  Today's post follows up one of those feel good hobby stories written by one of our very own:  Zippy Zappy over @ Torren' Up Cards.

It would be hard to pinpoint what he's better known for: his Zippy Zappings or his very impressive Luis Torrens PC.  Well I won't spoil anything, but he made a pretty big announcement over on his blog yesterday.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please stop reading this post and click here.  You won't be disappointed.

Pretty awesome, right?  I'm not surprised.  Pretty sure anyone who is familiar with him... is familiar with his generosity.

I've been zapped by him on several occasions.  As mentioned above, I've been sitting on two padded envelopes from him.  One arrived in September and the other in DecemberYesterday afternoon I opened up both.

Let's start with the box topper of his first package.  He included a nice handwritten note and this very cool postcard:

Next Manga Awards Postcard

In regards to manga, I'm pretty much a newbie... but it is something I've had around me since my childhood.  When I was a kid, my parents would go up to San Francisco's Japantown a few times a year and one of my favorite stops was Kinokuniya which is a large bookstore.  I'd plop myself down in front of the manga books and magazines and keep myself entertained without being able to read a single word.

This postcard is somehow related to the Next Manga Awards which honors the best print and web manga titles each year.  The two characters featured are from the manga Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You.  According to their website, it won first place for top web manga in 2022.

Now if you're not familiar with a Zippy Zapping, Kenny creates his own packs using old wrappers which look like these:


In an effort to keep this post reasonable in length, here are the highlights from each pack.


Pack #12013 Bowman Chrome Mini Lot

2013 Bowman Chrome Mini #311

The first pack contained a bunch of New York Yankees prospects from the 2013 Bowman Chrome Mini setAaron Judge stood out.  I knew he had cards from a few years before his rookie card year... but had no idea they dated all the way back to 2013.  Holy cow this is a very nice addition to my collection.


Pack #2BBM Baseball

2017 BBM 2nd Version First Pitch #FP03
2019 BBM 2nd Version First Pitch #FP05
2019 BBM Dancing Heroine #77

The next pack featured a handful of BBM cards.  And it wouldn't be a proper zapping without some beautiful ladies.  Not sure which one is my favorite.  First pitch cards are always cool, but who doesn't love baseball cheerleaders?

2009 BBM Touch The Game Gold Signature #PS05
2010 BBM 1st Version Silver Signature #258
2012 BBM 1st Version Gold Signature #112

There were also three Masahiro Tanaka Japanese parallels in the pack.  The one on the far right is numbered out of 100:

2012 BBM 1st Version Gold Signature #112 (#'d 061/100)

Another huge addition to the card collection.


Pack #3Four Ladies & The Big Unit

2021 Parkside NWSL #70, 130, 159, & 194

Yup.  More ladies.  This time they're all Japanese women playing in our very own National Women's Soccer League.  But the coolest card in the pack was this baseball card:

2003 Topps Kanebo Japan Silver #15

This card looks like the 2002 Topps flagship, but it was actually released in Japan as either a food or store oddball issue.  This particular card of Randy is a silver parallelHow cool is it to see one of his cards with the text written in Japanese on the back?


Pack #4Star Wars Cards


The fourth pack was filled with Star Wars cards from two moviesThe Force Awakens and Rogue One.  I picked a favorite from each:

2015 Topps SW: The Force Awakens Stickers #11
2016 Topps SW: Rogue One Montage #NNO


Pack #5The Heavy Hitters

There were only three cards in the final pack... and two of them featured signatures from some heavy hitters:

2020 Epoch Chunich Dragons Stars & Legends
Legendary Signature #LS-MU (#'d 13/38)

I had never heard of Masaru Uno before seeing this card yesterday, but I stumbled across this article which stated he's part of the NPB 300 Home Run Club.  Back in 2020 when the article was written, Uno was 33rd on the NPB all-time home run listFour years later, he's slid down to 34th.

Remember that note from Kenny that was next to the postcard?  He mentioned sending me an autograph of the current New York Yankees captain as a thank you for some Henrik Lundqvist cards I had given him.  Well, here it is:

2013 Prizm Draft Picks Silver Prizm Prospect Signatures #33

Holy cow!  The New York Yankees might be my least favorite team in baseball... but that's never stopped me from collecting their cards.  And this one is a biggie.

And for the curious, here's the third and final card in the pack:

2022 Takara Tomy WiXoss #WXDi-CP01-051

Honestly... not sure what this is.  But it's Japanese, so I'll give it a nice home.  Kenny also included one in the second padded envelope... so maybe the card holds some special meaning to him.

I'll wrap things up with the contents of that second care package...


December PackageUnopened Epoch Packs & Godzilla


The bulk of this package were nine unopened packs of different Epoch products.  I'll be keeping one of each sealed for my unopened Japanese pack collectionThree of these packs will eventually be featured on A Pack to Be Named Later.

Trust me.  It'll happen.  Just don't expect it to happen anytime soon.  Did you see the list of packages I mentioned at the beginning of this post?  They are the priority.

And rounding out the stuff Kenny sent were some top loaded singles:

2012 Sega Card-Gen #135

This one is another biggieMatsui doesn't have a lot of cards featuring him with the Oakland Athletics and I'm pretty sure this is the first one to land in my collection.

There was another copy of that 2022 Takara Tomy WiXoss card, but I didn't scan it again.  But I did scan this card:

Luis Torrens Custom #ZZ

I've received this card before in a previous zapping.  It's sort of Kenny's trademark card from his days of being the ultimate Luis Torrens super collector.

Thank you Kenny!  Not only for these awesome cards... but for being such a class act.  Please let us know which direction your collection takes you.  It's my turn to owe you.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

14 comments:

carlsonjok said...

That Rogue One montage card is pretty cool. Though I am more Star Trek than Star Wards, I am going to have to think about building that set. I really liked the movie and the prequel Andor is by far the best of the TV series.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Holy smokes, 2 amazing Judge cards! I don't own either of them. Totally envious (in a good way).

Bo said...

How perfect - Torrens hit a home run today!

I used to work a block away from the Kinokuniya in NYC. Was fun to go in sometimes. Great store.

Elliptical Man said...

Voting for the Japanese Randy Johnson.
I'll go check out his blog.

The Lost Collector said...

Judge auto!? What?!

For a second I thought those were actual Tanaka autographs...I don't think I've seen any real autos of his!

Michael D said...

It's always a good time when you can dedicate some time to the collection. Looks like you got some great pickups.

Nick said...

Very, very jealous of that Card-Gen Matsui - been trying to find one forever! That's one of the extreme few cards I've ever seen of him on the A's (only other is a random one from Topps Attax).

Xavier Higgins said...

😵😵😵
Talk about a Zapping! 🌩

Ginko-5 said...

Judge auto! That's nuts! And I was excited about an Evan Carter auto...

Read Torren' up Cards less than an hour ago. I was 10 1/2 years late to reading it, but it's still so cool.

Zippy Zappy said...

Glad you got the cards and managed to get a kick out of them.
"It's my turn to owe you", I appreciate the sentiment Fuji but I'm good on a return. If anything these were long overdue returns. But knowing you/your generosity if you still feel that way, all I ask is you pay it forward to someone else. I don't really want for things that much these days.

The Snorting Bull said...

That Judge autograph blew my mind.

Uncle Charlie's Shoebox said...

Wow a great Judge card!

My youngest son has requested we take a trip to Japan here someday. He wants to do the Godzilla tour which I would enjoy, but would also love to catch a ball game or two as well!

Matt said...

That's a great mix of cards! Nice Judge too!

Fuji said...

carlsonjok - i've heard that a lot of the reviewers love andor. i definitely liked it, but i'm more of a mandalorian guy. as for rogue one, i loved that movie. they did a great job with filling in some gaps with it

johnnys trading spot - although i wouldn't trade either of these cards away, i'll keep this info in mind when i'm doing some shopping for you :D

bo - yeah... looks like torrens is off to a hot start in spring training. as for kinokuniya... had no idea it was a chain. very cool

elliptical man - yeah... that johnson is spectacular. absolutely love it

the lost collector - i don't own a tanaka auto... and i don't see them pop up too often. sad thing is... even if they do come up for sale, they're expensive and for the money i'd rather spend it on other things

michael d - yeah... the blogosphere is a very generous place. some of the stuff people send each other is mind blowing

nick - lol. i'm looking for a copy of that topps attax card.

xavier higgins - yeah... it's been over a week... and i'm still shocked

ginko-5 - kenny has some really cool stuff on his blog. lots of cards you won't see anywhere else

zippy zappy - i'm a patient guy. i'm hoping one day you'll find another guy to collect and i'll be able to help you out. otherwise... maybe one day we'll get to hang out, talk cards, and i can buy dinner or something. thanks again for the generous care packages

the snorting bull - yup. me too.

uncle charlie's shoebox - i just read about that godzilla tour on your blog. what is it? sounds awesome!

matt - yeah... lots of stuff for my pc's.