To Cut or Not to Cut

There's no shortage of Shohei collectibles out there for collectors to collect.  That's what happens when a once in a generation type of athlete comes along.  Unfortunately his collectibles are usually attached to high price tags.

But every now and then, they're part of generous care packages.  Today's post features two huge additions to my Shohei Ohtani PC.

The first one is a uncut rookie card from a box of 2018 Topps Big League:

Angus over at Dawg Day Cards sent me a large padded envelope back in December that I finally opened up over the weekend.  It was filled with a few nice additions to my collection that I'll share over a few posts.  

2018 Topps Big League Box Card #B3

My first thought was to cut the Ohtani out, but there's no way I could do it as cleanly as my photo editor.  So I ended up keeping it intact.  Here's a look at the other side of the box:

As soon as I saw this box, I knew it would pair perfectly with the large store display shown above that was part of Ryan's advent calendar.  I placed it with Ohtani's 2025 Topps flagship card to give you some perspective:

I'm still figuring out the best way to display this cool collectible.  I could hang it up in my classroom, but honestly I'd love to find some wall space for this in my office.  We'll see how things play out.

While I'm showing off new additions to the Ohtani collection, I figured I'd show off an action figure of him that has been hanging up in my office for a few years:

2021 Topps Big League Super 7 1959 Variation Figure

I still have a bunch of items from Ryan's advent calendar and Angus' care package.  I'll be sharing them here and there over the next few months, so stay tuned.  Thank you Ryan and Angus!

Here is today's question of the day:

When it comes to box bottom cards or uncut sheets of cards, do you tend to keep them intact or do you cut them out?

Although I have cut out cards, if the box bottom or uncut sheet is in good condition, I'll usually keep it intact.  In fact I have several boxes dedicated to storing oversized items like these.

That's it for today.  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

First Mall Show of the Year

Card shows used to be so alluring.  Not long ago, I was constantly on the lookout for them in my area.  However the rise in interest for graded and gaming cards has sadly lowered my interest in card shows.  I'm especially turned off by the ones that charge parking and/or admission.

Luckily there is still one local mall show about twenty minutes from my place.  Sure it's flooded with Pokemon cards and slabs, but I did manage to find a few dollar bins two Saturdays ago in between visits with friends.

Most of my purchases revolved around football cards, which isn't very interesting most of you.  So I'll go out of order and show off the lone baseball card purchase first...

Purchase #2:  Dollar Rookie Cards  $3

There was a couple with four shoeboxes filled with top loaded dollar cards.  I spent over twenty minutes standing there going through all of them, while talking to the gentleman about the hobby.

1987 Fleer #269

One of our conversations revolved around how this card was once one of the most expensive in the set.  Anyone remember back in the early 90's when Will Clark was towards the top of Beckett's Hot List?  Remember when this card booked for $35?

2019 Topps Update #US1

The vendor had a handful of cards laid out on top of the shoeboxes to attract customers.  This was one of them.  I'll pick up copies of Vladito's flagship rookie card for a buck all day long.  Unfortunately, this was the only one he in these boxes.

1995 SP #99

It's hard to believe that it took me over three decades to finally add this card to my collection.  I bought a lot of football back in the 90's, but never owned this card.  Sapp was a beast on the gridiron and a first ballot hall of famer.  This is arguably my best find of the day.

The rest of my card show purchases revolve around football cards, but I'll wrap up this post with a vintage baseball card I purchased off of eBay.

Let's continue with my card show haul...

Purchase #1:  Modern Football Rookie Cards  $10

My first purchase of the day was from a guy who had a few rows of cards he had marked at $3 each.  I pulled out five and he charged me $10.  Two of them were for fellow bloggers, but these are for me:

2025 Phoenix #200

2024 Prizm #301

I don't usually go out of my way to purchase rookie cards of quarterbacks who aren't on the Packers or Seahawks, but both of these guys impressed me this season.  Classify this as a FOMO purchase.

I don't usually take the time to go through $3 bins, but this card caught my eye:

2021 Prestige Xtra Points Blue #244 (#'d 003/249)

Micah Parsons is a stud and the Green Bay Packers were right in the thick of things this season until he tore his ACL in December.  Can't wait to see him return next season.

Purchase #3:  Super Bowl Bound QB RC  $3

Two of my friends set up at this show.  Tom specializes in the non-sports stuff, along with higher end sports cards.  While Tony focuses on the cheaper stuff.

I noticed a stack of Drake Maye cards on Tony's table.  This was my favorite:

2024 Topps Chrome #203

Maye had one heck of a season... and on Sunday he'll be facing off against my beloved Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.  Go Hawks!

Purchase #4:  Bargain Bin  $12

I'm a sucker for bargain bins... and this guy had two boxes filled with dollar cards.  If the card was in a one-touch or top loader, it was two bucks.

Let's start with them:

I figured the magnetics were worth the two dollar price tag alone.  In hindsight I should have grabbed all of his $2 one touch singles at this price.  I also picked up two cards in top loaders:

2024 Leaf Pro Set Pure Green Spectrum #60 (#'d 1/49)

2025 Phoenix Phoenician Penmanship #PHP-MRN

I was pretty excited to add this Joe Namath to my Prime Number PC.  Plus sticker auto or not, I'll always add a Super Bowl MVP autograph to my collection for a couple bucks.

I also pulled out three dollar cards from his boxes.  One is for a fellow blogger, but here are the two for me:

2024 Prizm Silver Prizm #145

2025 Absolute Red Plaid #137

The vendor ended up tossing them into the deal for free.  That was a nice surprise.  I'll definitely look for his table the next time I attend this show.

That wraps up my latest card show haul.  Two hours of entertainment and walking out with a small stack of cardboard made the experience a successful day at the mall (even if there were two baseball cards involved).  There's another show in February, but it falls on the same day as one of my flea markets.  Not sure I'll attend both, but we'll see.

Here's the baseball card I mentioned earlier in the post:

1959 Fleer Ted Williams #67

Greg over at Crocodile Sports Cards show off this Ted Williams card on his blog two weeks ago and I immediately added it to my saved eBay searches.

I was drawn to it, because it features Sam Snead, who was one of those old school golfers that my father talked about when I was a kid.

That leads us to today's question of the day:

Are there athletes that you associate with your parents or other family members?

I'd say Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Joe Montana, Jim Plunkett, and Bart Starr are athletes that remind me of my dad.  As for my mother, Joe Montana reigns supreme.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Snacks, Cards, and more Childhood Memories

This photo (found online) was taken sometime in 1986.  Unless you grew up in South San Jose... it probably doesn't do anything for you.  On the other hand, this photo takes me back to my middle school stomping grounds.

Sunrise Plaza is a strip mall that currently looks like this:

I'll still head over there whenever I'm craving a burrito from Chavez Supermarket or need a sporting good from Dick's.

But back in the mid 80's, it was the home to the UA Cinemas, Nova Arcade, and a local pharmacy.  That's where my friends and I would to buy snacks and packs of cards before watching a movie or hanging out in the arcade.

I hadn't thought about that pharmacy in years.  But a few weeks ago, Gregory over at Nine Pockets wrote a post about some Mario Lemieux cards that originally came with some candy.  One of the questions he asked his readers was if there were any stationary or drug stores with racks of candy in our areas when we were kids.  That immediately made me think of The Pharmacy.

By the time the late 80's rolled around, a card shop called National Pastime opened up in the shopping center.

A few years later the shop moved right down the street from my house.  It's currently a nail salon, but that's a photo of the actual address where the card shop was located.  I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at my LCS back then.

Anyways... today I figured I'd share another present from Ryan's advent calendar that is directly related to snacks and cards.

However let's kick things off with a cardboard appetizer involving two Nolan Ryan food issues:

1986 Drake's Big Hitters #33

I don't remember eating any Drake's baked goods, but they seem to similar to Hostess products which I ate all the time as a kid.

1991 Jumbo California Seeds #20

Sunflower seeds were a staple for me and my Little League teammates back in the 80's.  By the time Jumbo was inserting these cards into their packages of seeds, I had hung up my cleats.  But I picked up this card somewhere along the way.

Why am I featuring cards of Nolan Ryan?  Well he celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday and he happens to be one of SumoMenkoMan's favorite baseball players.

Okay... let's get to the advent calendar portion of the post.  Here's the haiku hint that Ryan wrote:

The 25th present in the advent calendar was a large box of rice crackers:

The box contained twenty individually wrapped packages that had a pack of cards attached to each one:

I opened them up, dumped the rice crackers into a bag, and separated the packs from the bags:

There were two different packages available:

Each came with a single pack attached to the back:

Here's a closer look at the front and back of one of those packs:

I cracked open the first five packs.  Each contained one baseball card and an advertisement card.  The baseball cards are made out of acetate or something similar:

Here's a peek at the card backs:

I love that there are so many snacks in Japan that are sold with trading cards.  Personally, I wish we'd see more modern food issues here in North America.

What about you?

Would you be more likely to purchase your favorite snacks if they came with trading cards?

There's no doubt in my mind that I'd seek out more snacks at the grocery store if they came with cards.  Heck... a few years ago I bought a box of cereal mainly because it contained an uncut sheet of MLS cards.

That's it for today.  Thank you Gregory for inspiring this post... and thank you Ryan for providing the snacks and cards.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!