Card of the Year

Anyone else remember P-town Tom's annual Card of the Year contest?  It's been five years since he last held it, so no judgement if you don't.

Anyways... it happened to pop into my head when I was scanning this card last week:

2025 Topps First Pitch #FP2-3

I realize we're only seven months into 2025, but I don't envision Topps, Panini, Leaf, or any other card manufacturer producing anything else this year that would bump Rickey.  This card is not only my favorite card this year, it's one of my favorite cards... period.

I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads as to why I think this card is so cool.  Well... it has nothing to do with the rarity, design, or overall value... which are things I might usually take into consideration.  Nope.  It's all about the sentimentality.

It captures my second favorite baseball player throwing out the first pitch at the final A's game at the Oakland Coliseum.  That in itself makes this card awesome.

But the sentimental part is that I was in attendance and watched him throw it out:

Over my lifetime, I've had the opportunity to watch Rickey in person on dozens of occasions.  Unfortunately back in December, he passed away a few days before his 66th birthday.

As a fan of the A's and the Man of Steal, 2024 ended up being a rough year.  But at least I have the memory of being at that game.  And this First Pitch insert will keep that memory fresh in my mind, along with this card:

2024 Topps Now #761

Speaking of First Pitch inserts, I have been sitting on two 9-pocket pages worth of them since May.  Check out these beauties:

These eighteen cards were part of the care package I received from Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards earlier in the year.  I had been saving them, because I knew I would eventually add the Rickey Henderson to my collection and wanted to share them all together.

Here's a peek at their backs:

Thank you Kenny for sending me all of these First Pitch inserts.

By the way... if you enjoy seeing Zippy Zappings, he sent me another care package last week.  The plan is to open it up today and publish a post either this weekend or next week.

I'd also like to thank Jim over at cards as i see them.  He's the one who let me know that Rickey was going to part of this First Pitch set.

As for the rest of you, thank you for checking out this post... and allowing me to get all "sentimental" with you.

Today's question of the day is...

Do you have any 2025 Card of the Year candidates?

If so, share them down below.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Sweet & Spicy

This title of this post was inspired by a bag of Japanese rice crackers from Trader Joe's.  I was sitting down yesterday watching a few episodes of Andor, when I remembered I had purchased a bag of these snacks.

It reminded me that I hadn't done a Monday Munchies post for the month of May.  If you're not familiar with this series, it's where I review some Japanese snacks that Ryan @ SumoMenkoMan sent me earlier in the year.

Today's featured snack is two packages of 2024 Bandai Ive Wafers.  Here's a peek at the packages:

2024 Bandai Ive

2024 Bandai Ive

And here's a view of the contents in one of the packages:

The wafer is very similar to the inside of a Kit Kat bar, so it's definitely on the "sweet" side.

2024 Bandai Ive #12

2024 Bandai Ive #19

As for the group, I wasn't familiar with them until today... but according to Wikipedia they're a South Korean girl group.  Just like the wafer, they seem to be more "sweet" than "spicy".

Don't worry, because things are definitely going to heat up in this post.  Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards sent me a box with a bunch of autographs and memorabilia cards featuring some very attractive women.

Let's start with a ten card lot of Yumi Sugimoto costume cards:

Sugimoto is a Japanese model and actress.  Although she's wearing some short shorts and dresses, she comes off as being "sweet".

2010 Produce Yumi Sugimoto Costume Card #11

I'm guessing there was a time when Kenny was building this costume card set as he sent me ten out of the first eleven cards.

Next up were a stack of Honoka cards:

Not sure if Honoka is a model, singer, or actress... but she's definitely "spicier" than Yumi.

Check out that signature with the heart and a bunny rabbit sketch!  She definitely takes pride in signing her autograph for fans.

The final Honoka card is a signed costume card:

Here are more autographs from random models:

One of them was a little too "spicy" for the blog, so I had to blur things out.  No complaints though... because these were some gorgeous additions to my Japanese Model PC.

Here are four "cheki":

I learned about these over on Kenny's blog.  They're small Polaroids taken and signed by the models for their fans.  I started off with "sweet" on the left, but things get "spicier" as you progress to the right.

Before I show off my favorite autograph out of Kenny's care package, let's check out all of the unopened packs he included:

Kenny has been one of the biggest contributors to my unopened Japanese pack collection.  I might eventually open up the 2024 Topps Japan pack, but the other eleven are going into the collection.

Okay... here's my favorite:

2012 BBM Dancing Heroine Autograph #HO11

BBM's Dancing Heroine sets feature NPB baseball cheerleaders.  Out of all of their product lines, this is my favorite.

I'm not familiar with Yu-ka, but she might have been a cheerleader for the Softbank Hawks about a decade ago.  I like the simple design, well-cropped photo, and well-placed on-card autograph.  The flower in the signature is a nice touch.

There are a few more cards out of Kenny's care package that I want to share, but I'm going to wait until later in the summer (after I acquire a certain 2025 Topps Series 2 insert card).

Until then, let me wrap up this post with the latest additions to my 2011 Topps Update set build.

These twenty cards arrived last week from Greg over at The Collective Mind:

The other thirteen cards were from Chris @ The Collector:

They turned my wantlist from this:

To this:

Thanks to Greg, Chris, Tom, AJ, and Jim... I'm down to needing only fifty-four cards left for my sweet set build.

Thank you Ryan for providing today's snack packs.  And thank you Kenny for all of these "sweet" additions to my Japanese model and unopened wax pack collections!

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Going Back to School

All good things must come to an end... and tomorrow is the last day of Thanksgiving break.  On Monday, I'm back in the classroom for three weeks... and then it's our holiday break.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

This morning I spent a few more hours opening up care packages from fellow bloggers.  

Let's start off with some Tony Gwynn cards from Nick over at Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey:

2002 UD Piece of History Tape Measure Heroes #TM12

This card immediately stood out to me, because Gwynn wasn't known for hitting the long ball.  However it highlights arguably his most famous home run.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here.

I also thought this card was interesting:

1998 Bowman Minor League MVPs #MVP4

Gwynn never won the NL MVP Award.  But in 1981... he won the inaugural Northwest League MVP Award.  Never knew that until I took a closer look at the above insert.

I need to flip over cards more often.  That's where I discovered Gwynn kicked his professional baseball career off by hitting twelve home runs in forty-two games.  What happened to his power?

Nick also tossed in a trio of Oakland Athletics:

2022 Panini Capstone Rookie Materials #RM-KS

2022 Topps Chrome X-Fractor #148

2023 Topps Green Foil #340

Three quick notes about these three cards.

1.  When I hear the name Kevin Smith, I think of the guy who wrote and directed Clerks... not this guy.

2.  Feels like Matt Olson has been with the Braves for a long time, but he was still on the A's three years ago.

3.  Green foil parallels were made for A's cards.

The final two cards in Nick's package originated across the Pacific:

2013 Sega Card-Gen #J13-124

Did you know that Hiroki Kuroda has a lower career ERA in the MLB than fan favorites like Hideo Nomo, Masahiro Tanaka, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kenta Maeda, and this guy:

2023 BBM Infinity #11

As for Darvish, he holds the MLB strikeout record among players born in Japan and he only needs 13 more wins to tie Hideo Nomo's win record.

Moving along is another care package containing Japanese guys.  Only this time the focus is on race car drivers.

Back at the start of the school year, Raymond over at Rebel Random Ramblings emailed me to let me know he had some cool items for my Japanese athlete collection.  He wasn't lying.

Let's start off with the cards:

2024 Parkside NTT IndyCar Premier #57

2024 Parkside NTT IndyCar Premier #101

Takuma Sato is the only Asian driver to ever win the Indianapolis 500... and he did it twice (in 2017 and 2020).

Next up are some "hero cards":

Takeshi Kimura

Marino Sato

Hiroshi Koizumi

If you're wondering what "hero cards" are... then you're in luck, because Rebel Coyote broke it down for me.  They are cards that teams and drivers distribute to fans.  These are larger than standard size cards.  Each one measures approximately 6" x 8.25".

My two favorite are these Toyota Gazoo Racing team cards:

Ryo Hirakawa

Kamui Kobayashi

Three years ago (right before Matt Olson was traded to the Atlanta Braves)... I purchased a Toyota GR Supra.  I've been collecting Hot Wheels of this car... but I'm still waiting for a trading card to be made.  For now... these two "hero cards" are nice placeholders.

A few of these "hero cards" appear to be signed... but Raymond didn't mention anything about autographs in his note.  So they may or may not be facsimile signatures.

The final two "hero cards" are super sized (8.5" x 11") and don't feature Japanese drivers:

Slade Stewart & Andy Lee

Sam Shi

However... who doesn't love Lamborghinis... especially pink ones with a unicorn nicknamed "Sparklefarts".

Rounding things out are a stack of cards that (former blogger) Wes (aka jaybarkerfan) sent me.  Let's kick things off with a Kurt Suzuki four-pack:

Every time someone sends me some cards of Zuk... it reminds me that I need to make time to add my collection of his cards to TCDB.  I'd love to see where I rank among their members.

Next up are a huge lot of Ichiro Suzuki cards:

Wes included Ichiro cards ranging from 2001 all the way to 2015.  Plus there was a serial numbered Kaz Matsui and a Tsuyoshi Shinjo rookie card tossed into the mix.

The highlight of this care package was the card featured at the start of this post:

2008 Topps Target Back to School #TB6

This card is AWESOME on so many levels...

#1:  I love the 2008 Topps flagship design.  It's in my Top 10 of all-time.

#2:  Mariner Moose is Ichiro's co-star.  Mascot cards rule!

#3:  It features a candid photo of the pair hanging out in the dugout.

#4:  You don't see these cards very often.

They were only inserted into these specially marked Fairfield packs sold at Target... probably right around the start of the school year.  I would have loved it had my parents bought me cards to lure me back into the classroom.

I guess in a sense... these bloggers have essentially done that for me... as I head back to school on Monday.

Thank you Dime Box Nick, Rebel Coyote, and jaybarkerfan for these generous care packages.  I'm sorry it took so long for me to crack them open and appreciate.  But honestly... the timing couldn't have been better.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!