School's Out for Summer

Have you ever been tossed by a wave and struggled to catch your breath?  That's sort of how I've felt the past month or so at work.  Teaching, testing, grading, and classroom cleanup is part of the normal hectic routine that educators go through at the end of each school year.

It's all the other stuff like the final spirit rally, grad dance, graduation, end-of-the-year picnic, and creating next year's leadership roster that had me stressed out and overwhelmed on what seemed like a daily basis.  Each time I had a chance to come up for air, I'd get pounded with the next thing on the list.

But school's out for summer.  Yesterday was the last day of the school year.  Grades have been submitted.  Keys turned in.  And this morning I submitted all of the lingering paperwork (like overtime and rosters) online.  Summer break is officially here.

That means it's blogging season in my area and I have a ton of stuff to write about including a bunch of flea market finds, a few card show hauls, eBay pickups, and even an estate sale purchase.  But before I get to those, I need to wrap up a few more thank you posts.

Today's post highlights some of my favorite Japanese athletes included in Reader X's and John's (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) care packages.  Together they sent me over one hundred fifty new singles for my Japanese athlete PC.

Let's start things off with this video game legend:

2025 Cardsmiths Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams #27

I wasn't a huge Street Fighter fan, but I do remember fighting against this sumo wrestler when I did play:

I'm hoping to track down another copy of this card for Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan).

Here are some other big names and cool cards that Xavier sent my way earlier in the year:

This is my third copy of Masanori Murakami's First Pitch card, but I'm hoping it's not the last.  That's one of those cards I'm hoping to eventually fill a 9-pocket page with.

Shota and Masataka are experiencing slow starts in 2026, but this next player isnt:

Ohtani is having another amazing season and collectors can't get enough of his cardboard.  Neither can I.

Thank you Xavier for this latest batch of Japanese athletes!

Let's move on to the stuff that John sent my way.  

He sent me so many base cards, inserts, and parallels... that I expanded my Japanese PC binder collection from 6 to 7 binders.

Seiya Suzuki and Kodai Senga were two of the bigger stacks.  Some of them I already had... but most were new.

I was also very happy to cross off nine Matsui Rookie Chronicles cards from my set build.

Thank you John for expanding my collection.  Now that school is out, I'll get those Star Wars cards shipped out to you.

As for the rest of you, I hope you have a great summer.

Do you have any fun summer plans?

I have a few short trips planned here and there, however my main source of entertainment will be organizing parts of my collection and placing some Sportlots orders to complete some set builds.  Plus I'm hoping to attend at least one or two card shows.  Depending on the weather, I may or may not attend any flea markets over the next couple of months.  But like I said at the start of the post, I have a few flea market posts sitting in the draft folder.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

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!

Whirlwind of a Week

This past week has been filled with surprises of all varieties that are best broken down into the following categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:  Surprise Road Trip

Last Sunday my friend invited me to join her and her mom down in Pismo Beach for a short vacation along the Central Coast of California.  My lower back was feeling good for the first time in weeks, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

We spent a total of three days and two nights there and the weather was perfect for walking on the beach, doing a little shopping, eating delicious meals, and hanging out by the fire pit.

Here are a few photographs from our trip:

Tashi & Me

Wallet Card @ the Fire Pit

In a few days, it'll be eleven years since Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown inspired collectors to pick a card in their collection that they enjoy and start carrying it around in their wallets.  I don't go on too many vacations, but when I do... I'll pull it out.  

Wallet Card @ the Beach

In honor of Gavin, I made sure to take a photo of my wallet card in the wet sand.  He usually takes things a step further by allowing his card to take a dip in the water, but mine isn't quite ready to swim.

Another thing I like to do when writing about trips is research famous athletes who were raised in the area.  Unfortunately Pismo Beach's population isn't very high, so I couldn't find any notable athletes that I was familiar with from the area.

Ribeye @ Jocko's

However on Monday night, my friend took us out for a delicious ribeye steak at a restaurant in the small town of Nipomo.

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-53

Jeff McNeil went to high school in Nipomo and ironically, the New York Mets traded him to the Sacramento A's on the day of our dinner.

The next day we woke up, packed, ate a yummy breakfast then rushed back to the Bay Area in an effort to beat the rain, wind, and predicted flooding.  Thankfully we got home safe and sound, but this was going to be just a quick stop for me.

The Bad:  Under the Weather

My brother met me at my house and the next morning we drove to Roseville and spent Christmas with our brother's family.  We lucked out and avoided any holiday traffic, because we left at 5am.  But we did hit some rain which made it hard to see the roads at times.  Thankfully, my bro got us there in one piece.

Christmas Eve was pretty relaxing.  We watched some movies and ate a delicious miso salmon dinner.  However, I started to feel a little congested.

We all woke up early on Christmas morning, ate fried rice for breakfast, and opened presents.  At around 10am, my head was throbbing so bad from the nasal congestion that I took some Mucinex and laid down.  I kept hoping I'd feel better, but by the afternoon I had quarantined myself from the everyone.

It rained off and on throughout Christmas Day.  There's a creek that runs behind my brother's property that was slowly rising.  It peaked sometime around 9pm and ended up flooding half of the backyard, but thankfully the water had receded by the next morning.

The Ugly:  Worst Headache in Years

The day after Christmas, we came home.  I loaded up on over the counter cold meds, orange juice, and chicken noodle soup and hoped the road to recovery would begin.  It didn't.

Friday and Saturday were rough.  Every time I coughed, I'd feel a sharp pain in my head.  My main sources of relief were sleeping and taking hot showers.  Fortunately, I woke up this morning feeling a little better.  I still have a cough with phlegm, but the headache is tolerable.

I'm planning on resting one more day to help my body fight whatever it is I'm dealing with.  

Hopefully I'll finally ship out the holiday care packages I've been putting together either tomorrow or Tuesday.

In the meantime, I wanted to recap the highlights from my 2025 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar.  Several other bloggers have covered the day by day contents of their calendars, so I figured I'd just show my favorites...

2025 Topps Holiday Buyback: 1997 Topps #410

The two buybacks were the main reason I purchased one of these advent calendars.  To pull one of my all-time favorite baseball player was a dream come true.

The other card I was really hoping to pull was a Nick Kurtz rookie:

2025 Topps Holiday #H40

The Green Plaid parallels pair perfectly with any of the A's players.  I was fortunate to pull one:

2025 Topps Holiday Green Plaid #H32

It seems like The Nice List inserts were a hit with collectors.  I don't love them or hate them.  I just wish Topps made them a little tougher to pull.

2025 Topps Holiday Making The Nice List #MNL-2

Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this product's design.  My buddy opened a couple of blasters and told me I could have his duplicates.  If I have a reasonable percentage of the set, I might just purchase a blaster and attempt to build it.

Well that's about all the energy I can muster right now for a blog post.  I hope all of you are enjoying your holidays.  As soon as I can ship out all of those care packages (hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday), I will write another post.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Don't Hate the Player

This year... Halloween was extra special, because it's the first time in as long as I can remember that I had the chance to sit down and watch a World Series game from start to finish.  I'm limited to a handful of streaming services and Fox isn't one of them.  However I helped pass out candy at my homegirl's house and she had the game on.  What an awesome game!

I figured Yamamoto and the Dodgers would win Game 6, but had no idea it would be that exciting.  I also predicted that the Blue Jays would win Game 7.  Oops.  Guess it's a good thing I'm not a betting man.  In fact, I had a Blue Jays celebration post in the works.  Unfortunately it'll be scraped and substituted with this post which will highlight my favorite Los Angeles Dodgers.

The key difference is I was going to list my all-time favorite Blue Jays.  However the Dodgers have so many current players I actually enjoy following and collecting, I decided to focus only on them.

Let's start with an honorable mention...

Honorable Mention:  Freddie Freeman

2023 Topps 1988 Topps #T88-59

I've been a fan of Freeman since he was with the Atlanta Braves.  He hits for average and has a likable personality, just like the guy in the #5 spot...

#5:  Mookie Betts

2021 Finest Flashbacks #119

Mookie sort of struggled at the plate against the Blue Jays, but that single on Friday in the top of the third drove in two runs and helped them win that game.  Honestly... as much as I dislike the Dodgers... the beauty of that team is that lineup is so deep and almost everyone contributed at one point or another.

#4:  Roki Sasaki

2024 Topps Now Off-Season #OS-13

Man... I was so bummed that Sasaki didn't sign with the Padres.  But from his point of view, I totally understand.  Less than a year after joining the Dodgers, he's a World Series Champion.  That's pretty cool.  A big piece of the credit has to go to this guy...

#3:  Yoshinobu Yamamoto

2025 Topps #231

This guy was so fun to follow in the series.  I was so torn, because I wanted the Blue Jays to score enough runs to win the game... but not necessarily off of Yamamoto.  The exception was when he relieved Snell in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7.  I was really hoping Kirk would single off of him, end the game, and give Snell the loss.

#2:  Clayton Kershaw

2023 Topps Chrome Titans #CT-1

Kershaw has been one of my favorite pitchers since the early 2010's.  Like Freeman and Betts, he seems like a good guy.  But I really started rooting for him, because he was such a dominating lefty.  I'm glad he stayed with the Dodgers his entire career.  Can't wait until he receives the call from Cooperstown in a few years.

#1:  Shohei Ohtani

2024 Topps Update 1989 Topps #89US-12

This guy is the most exciting baseball player in my lifetime... and that's saying a lot, because I've had the pleasure of watching guys like Rickey, Griffey, and Barry.  And it's not just that he's the greatest player in the game, it's also how he plays the game.  This guy is the classiest of the classy.

I might not be happy that the Dodgers won the World Series again... but I am happy for these six guys.  Congratulations to them, the rest of the Dodgers organization, and their fans... especially the ones in our card blogging community.

Speaking of Dodger bloggers, Greg over at Night Owl Cards sent me a care package a few weeks ago and targeted my two favorite teams:

I haven't been this excited about A's baseball in years, but their young core is super talented and fun to watch.  It's a shame that the owner sucks and has no interest in building a winning team like the Dodgers.

Luckily my other favorite team does:

The Padres had a great season and I was happy to see them make the playoffs again.  However it'll be interesting to see if Cease, Suarez, and/or Arraez are with them next season.  If none of them return, that's a lot of talent exiting the roster.  Whatever happens, I hope ownership continues to try to build a team that can compete with Ohtani and company.

If not, well at least Padres fans will always have this guy:

2000 Pacific Private Stock PS-2000 #48

Thank you Greg for the care package... and congratulations!

Happy Monday and sayonara!