August 1992 Tuff Stuff Magazine - Are You Rich?

Like most people blogging these days, I collected in the era of junk wax & over production, and at the beginning of the rare/limited/special/exclusive era....which ultimately killed my interest in the hobby at the time.  I picked up a cheap August 1992 Tuff Stuff the other day to take a walk down memory lane and opened up to the first page to glance at the kind of things that were selling back in the day.  There were dozens of different shops selling a wide variety of items throughout the magazine, but here is what I found on the very first page from a company called Sports Collectibles, Inc.:

It got me to thinking.....what at these items selling for today??!!!  If I would have bought this stuff back then via mail order, would I have made out selling this stuff on eBay today?  Well, let's find out.  Here is a bulletized list of all the items for sale on this page (generally going from top to bottom, left to right) with the price adjusted for inflation [2018 dollars]:

- 1990 Pro Set Golf Inaugural Set - $3.75 [$6.70 in 2018 dollars]
- 1991 Pro Set Golf 285-card Factory Set - $9.75 [17.43]
- 1990 Pro Set Golf 300-card Set - $27.50 [$49.16]
- Arnold Palmer Pro Set Award Hologram - $135.00 [241.34]
- 1991 Leaf "Studio Preview" - 18-card Set - $64.00 [$114.41]
- 1989 Pro Set Santa Card - $85.00 [$151.95]
- 1990 Pro Set Santa Card - $5.00 [$8.94]
- 1991 Pro Set Santa Card - $5.00 [$8.94]
- 1990 Jeff George/Keith McCants Draft Day Set - $65.00 [$114.41]
- 1989 Pro Set James Lofton #463 - $20.00 [$35.75]
- 1989 Pro Set Blair Bush #455 - $20.00 [$35.75]
- 1989 Pro Set Thomas Sanders #445 - $20.00 [$35.75]
- 1990 Pro Set Cody Risien #75 - $10.00 [$17.88]
- 1990 Pro Set Eric Dickerson #338 - $10.00 [$17.88]
- 1989 Pro Set William Perry #47 - $10.00 [$17.88]

---All of these items add $3.00 shipping and handling [$5.36]



I went with the eBay option here to see what I could come up with.

-1990 Pro Set Golf Inaugural Set: BIN w/shipping $8.00 ($8.00-$6.70-$5.36= -$4.06)

*not a good start for something that is "Limited Printing"*

- 1991 Pro Set Golf 285-card Factory Set - BIN w/shipping $10.05 ($10.05-$17.43-$5.36= -$12.74)

** uh oh **

- 1992 Pro Set Golf 300-card Factory Set - Best Offer w/Shipping ~$21.50 ($21.50-$49.16-$5.36= -$33.02)

*** I went round and round for a few minutes until I realized that the advertisement had a typo.  It should have said 1992 instead of 1990.  Anyway, things getting worse for Pro Set Golf ***

- 1993 Arnold Palmer Pro Set Award Hologram - Best Offer w/Shipping $23.99 ($23.99-$241.34-$5.36= -$222.71)

**** Wah Wah****

- 1991 Leaf "Studio Preview" - 18-card Set (I couldn't find just the preview set, but here is the complete regular set AND Preview Set.  BIN w/shipping $32.24  ($32.24-$114.41-$5.36 = -$87.53)

***Ugh***

-1989 Pro Set Santa Card - BIN w/shipping $21.95 ($21.95-$151.95-$5.36 = -$135.36)

***Coal in the Stocking***

-1990 Pro Set Santa Card - BIN w/shipping $2.99 ($2.99-$8.94-$5.36 = -$11.31)

***Coal in the Stocking***

-1991 Pro Set Santa Card - BIN w/shipping $4.09 ($4.09-$8.94-$5.36 = -$10.21)

***Coal in the Stocking***

-1990 Jeff George/Keith McCants Draft Day Set - BIN w/shipping $10.44 ($10.44-$114.41-$5.36 = -$109.33)
*** Draft Day Bust***

- 1989Pro Set James Lofton #463 - BIN w/shipping $19.00 ($19.00-$35.75-$5.63 = -$22.38)
*** Boo ***

- 1989 Pro Set Blair Bush #455 - Successful Bid Price w/shipping $10.49 ($10.49-$35.75-$5.63 = -$30.89)

*** Boo ***

- 1989 Pro Set Thomas Sanders #445 - Successful Bid Price w/shipping $21.50 ($21.50-$35.75-$5.63 = -$19.88)

*** Boo ***

- 1990 Pro Set Cody Risien #75 - Graded Opening Bid w/shipping $18.99 ($18.99-$17.88-$5.63 = -$4.52)

*** Almost, but grading fees bump this lose even higher.***

- 1990 Pro Set Eric Dickerson #75 - [Graded] Bid w/shipping $2.00 ($2.00-$17.88-$5.63 = -$21.51)

*** A big loss and the grading fees bump this lose even higher.***

- 1989 Pro Set William Perry #47 - Bid w/shipping $6.31 ($6.31-$17.88-$5.63 = -$17.20)

***No love for the fridge***

There you have it.  Does anyone own any of these or invest in them back in 1992?

1992 BBM Sumo World Cards

After 18+ years of collecting sumo cards, new and amazing items keep surfacing that I have to have.  This 18-card set came stapled in the center of the 30 June 1992 magazine supplement to Sumo World （相撲界）magazine which was published by BBM.  These cards came in a sheet of 18 cards folded down the middle and are meant to be cut out individually by the buyer.  It is a very interesting set as it shows Akebono as a Sekiwake, but the magazine covers the announcement of his promotion to Ozeki.  There was a span of about 9 months during this time where there were no Yokozuna, but Akebono would soon blow through the Ozeki rank to achieve the highest rank the following year.  It also shows the extremely popular Hanada brothers who still had their original shikona of Takahanada & Wakahanada.  Not all of the Maegashira ranks are included in this set so I suspect there might be additional cards, or BBM only printed the most popular wrestlers.  The cards are about the same size as standard trading cards.

Even though this set came in a magazine, I will catalog it in the BBM section of the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist.

Here is the checklist:

1 - Ozeki Konishiki (Here is a great interview by John Gunning of Inside Sport)
2 - Ozeki Kirishima
3 - Sekiwake Tochinowaka
4 - Sekiwake Akebono
5 - Komusubi Akinoshima
6 - Komusubi Mitoizumi
7 - Komusubi Kotonishiki
8 - Komusubi Musashimaru
9 - Maegashira Terao
10 - Maegashira Takahanada
11 - Maegashira Takatoriki
12 - Maegashira Kyokudozan
13 - Maegashira Wakahanada
14 - Maegashira Mainoumi
15 - Maegashira Wakanoyama
16 - Maegashira Kotonowaka
17 - Maegashira Tokitsunada
18 - Juryo Genkai

Thanks for stopping by!

1990s Japanese BBM Baseball Pack "Rips"

Back in the day, before sumo wrestling cards took over, I was a big baseball card collector.  I was fortunately to work at a card store for most of my high school years to fuel my passion, but the combination of the 1994 strike, going to college, and the overwhelming number of baseball sets being produced killed my collecting mojo during the late 1990s.  However, before it was totally dead I had some of my Japanese friends pick up some Japanese baseball card packs for me during my freshman year of college.  This weekend, when I was tidying up the basement, I came across the packs.  Before anyone gets too excited they were already opened, but I apparently only cut off the top of the pack and then slid the cards back in after I was done looking at them....typical me of the era.  So 20 years later, here I am again getting ready to open/reopen them and see what lies within.  All the cards appear to be in the 6 different packs so it's really like I never even opened them....my memory of what lies within long ago faded.  I'm a true amateur when it comes to Japanese Baseball stars so all I'll really recognize is Nomo, Ichiro, and Matsui.  I'm using Engel's book as a guide to see how I fared.  The packs are as follows: 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992 Series 1, 1992 Series 2, and 1991.  Wish me luck.

Up first is the 1995 pack.  Come on Ichiro!!!!  It says there are 10 cards inside and cost 200円.

No Ichiro and the best card it looks like is #349 of Kazuhiko Ishimine.  I do like the hologram on the back...reminds me of Upper Deck!

Here is what I got:

#638 - Tomohiro Kuroki
#550 - Shinichiro Minami
#461 - Shinjiro Hiyama
#382 - Takayuki Murakami
#349 - Kazuhiko Ishimine
#272 - Masashi Arikura
#212 - Katsuhiko Yamada
#176 - Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (Gold Facsimile Auto)
#152 - Hiroo Ishii
#92 - Hiroyuki Maehara

Alright, 1994 here we go.  Looks like Matsui and Ichiro are the ones to get here.  Engel also states that cards #1-42 are scarce.  10 cards in this pack as well No whammies!

Okay, another so-so pack.  Card #553 looks to be my best card "Power Aplenty" (Bryant and Winters)

Here is what I got:

#553 - "Power Aplenty" Bryant and Winters
#533 - Shintaro Yoshitake
#505 - Jun Yamada
#477 - Yusuke Torigoe
#449 - Chihiro Hamana
#421 - Masao Yanada
#393 - Yoshinori Ueda
#365 - Norio Tanabe
#337 - Kiyoyuki Nagashima
#309 - Yasuaki Taihoh

Next up.  1993.  200円 for 10 cards.  Hoping for an Ichiro, Matsui or Nomo.

Bam!  Hit the #423 Matsui!

Here is what I got:

#498 - Checklist
#473 - "Combination Card" Furuta and Okabayashi
#448 - Takahiro Ikeyama
#423 - Hideki Matsui
#398 - Akihito Kondoh
#373 - Tadaharu Sakai
#348 - Norihiro Akimura
#323 - Terumitsu Kumano
#298 - Kenji Tomashino
#273 - Shinichi Igarashi

Let's roll with 1992 Series 1.  200円 for 10 glorious cards.  I'd love to pull a Nomo here.

Nothing at all to report in this one.

#232 - Takahiro Konno
#219 - Yoshihiko Takahashi
#182 - Kenji Horie
#157 - Kenji Furukubo
#132 - Satoshi Nakajima
#107 - Hiroshima Municipal Stadium
#82 - Hiroshi Yagi
#57 - Takahiro Ikeyama
#44 - Hiroaki Hirota
#7 - Tomio Watanabe

1992 Series 2.  Hopefully I get at least a semi-star!

Another blah pack.  1992 was not kind to me at all here.

#497 - Checklist
#472 - Yasuo Nagaike
#447 - Hiroshi Motohigashi
#422 - Kohji Ohtsuka
#379 - Atsunori Itoh
#372 - Shinichi Igarashi
#347 - Norihito Yamashita
#322 - Shinji Sasaoka
#297 - Yoichi Okabayashi
#272 - Masahiro Takahashi

Alright, last pack.  1991....Inaugural year for BBM baseball cards.  Let's see what we get...would love a Nomo!

Not bad it seems.  I did get an Oh card...and for some reason this pack has 3 American players in it.

Here is what I ended up with:

#384 - Tetsuya Iida
#344 - Shinichi Murakami
#304 - Tom O'Malley
#264 - Koji Maeda
#223 - Sadaharu Oh
#183 - Shinichi Igarashi
#143 - Koji Takagi
#103 - Kiyoki Nakanishi
#63 - Johnny Ray
#24 - Jim Paciorek

Well that was definitely fun and some great looking cards these early BBM releases are!  A great way to spend an hour on a Saturday.