Congrats - Maegashira Terunofuji wins his 2nd Sumo Championship!

It's great to see some lower-ranked rikishi on the winner's podium, especially a former Ozeki who, plagued by injuries, dropped all the way down the 2nd lowest division and then managed to dominate all the way back up the banzuke and win his 2nd championship.  Congrats Terunofuji!  Here is his 2018 BBM card that shows him ranked as a Sekiwake on his way down from Ozeki.  Notice his knees all bandaged up which was ultimately his reason for temporarily faltering.

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Fuji for President!

Fuji is the ever-generous gifter throughout the sports card blogging community.  He recently shot out 33 care packages and I was on the fortunate receiving end of one of them.  Like the other 32 recipients of these postal gold mines, I am deeply honored and very surprised with how well Fuji creates these.  He knows everyone's tastes and collecting passions.  Fuji doesn't collect sumo wrestling cards, but this package nailed a bunch of awesome cards for my other collections.  Let me dive in a bit more:

2018 Stranger Things Season 1 Commemorative Patchs Tommy H and Officer Powell.  These came one per blaster box and Fuji sent them my way to fill in some holes.  I am slowly working on this 24-card insert set. 

1975 Phoenix Giants Michael Cramer and 1969 Topps Man on the Moon #48B Space Food!  Michael Cramer was an amazing part of our hobby since the 1970s and started the Pacific Trading Card Company.  He is also an NFL photographer and an all around legend in the hobby.  Rich Klein did an excellent article about him back in 2013.  The Man on the Moon set is one that I would love to complete as I am a space nut!  But thanks to Fuji, I am one less card away!

A pile of 1980s to modern Nolan Ryan cards!  As a kid I collected Nolan Ryan like tens of thousands of other kids and adults.  The 1994 baseball strike, college, and companies producing too many cards to enjoyably collect and drove me out of the hobby back then, but I recently pulled out my Nolan Ryan collection again and want to fill in some holes.  Fuji loaded me up with enough goodness to keep me busy for a while!

California Lottery Scratchers.  Last time we met, Fuji and I gambled a bit of our card show money away on CA Scratchers....he is keeping the tradition alive between us for a bit longer.  I am going to slow roll these over the course of a week or so, but the few that I have scratched haven't led me down a path to retirement yet.

Fuji, I can't thank you enough!!  Fuji for President!

2018 Japanese BBM Akatsuki Five Basketball Cards

This past weekend, FIBA drew the brackets for the 2019 Basketball World Cup and Japan landed a tough bracket E with the United States, Czech Republic, and Turkey.  For some reason that I haven't been able to determine, the World Cup was delayed from 2018 to 2019, but it is still being held in China.  Last year, BBM issued the Rising Sun set to highlight the men's and women's National Team called the "Akatsuki Five".  This is a 28-card base set with one special insert card per box.  All boxes have the same 28 base cards broken out among 14 women and 14 men, but have a random special insert card included which is either an autograph or memorabilia card.  Overall, a simple and decent set.  Here are the scans as well as a video I did for my YouTube channel.

 

 

2018 BBM Infinity Sumo Wrestling - Ozeki Tochiazuma Auto!

As a parent, you always want your child to do better and be more successful than you.  There is something about parental pride that pushes us to raise kids this way.  One successful sumo wrestling family is that of the Hayao father-son duo. The elder Hayao, competing under the name Tochiazuma, had a very productive 16-year career making it to the 3rd-highest rank of Sekiwake in 1970.  In 1976, his son was born and subsequently entered sumo wrestling in 1994 at the age of 18.  How did the younger Hayao/Tochiazuma do?   He made it to sumo wrestling's 2nd-highest rank of Ozeki and won three championships over 22 years of competing....far surpassing his father's successes.  In 2018, BBM issued their annual multi-sport set titled "Infinity" which focuses on families and family ties.  In fact, their family-themed subset is called "Family Ties" and card #99 captured the Tochiazuma father/son duo.  I recently opened a box of these on my YouTube channel and overcame the odds to get the younger Tochiazuma's Autographed Card!  My father and mother would be proud.....

2018 Year in Review

I imagine a lot of you will be posting this topic over the next few days so I am excited to read about how your collecting went.  I tend to be pretty focused with my collecting and set realistic goals to accomplish so I have some satisfaction at the end of the year.  This year was no different and I feel like I did pretty well.  Thanks for stopping by and keeping me motivated to continue this blog!

 

Here are the 10 goals that I set out for myself at the beginning of the year:

1. Discover and Catalog at least 5 "new" vintage sumo sets (pre-1997) - Grade A+
- Just when I think that there are no new vintage sets to collect, something always pops up.  I've discovered numerous fun sets this year including this tiny little 1940 pre-war beauty that I reported back on in November.

2. Add 2 more 1973 Calbee Sumo Cards to my collection - Grade A+
- This set is one that I am really going to have to get a going on with some gusto or I am going to "invest" upwards of $5000 on it before it is all said and done.  Why singles cards go for an average of $100 is beyond me.  I picked up 3 more this year, but I am still over 25 cards short of a complete set.  Here is a summary I did of this set back in 2016.

3.  Conduct some interviews of fellow collectors - A+
- I am glad I got this interview series off the ground with three interviews of Billy @ Cardboard History, Fuji @ The Chronicles of Fuji, and Tony from the Facebook Group "BBM Sumo Card Collectors."  I haven't done one in a while since I frankly ran out of people to interview.  Raz...you interested?  Give me a holler if anyone is up for it!

4.  Add at least 1 more Murai card to my collection - A+
- This set has proven to be hard as people warned me.  I picked up only 4 more from this T483 Murai World's Smokers set earlier this year as posted here and am up to 9 total in this set.  My goal is to complete this set in raw condition someday.

5. Continue to expand my German Card Collection - A+
- Living in Germany has been fun with respect to collecting German Cards.  I've walked away from many flea markets with some good stuff including these 1933 Salem Gold Film Stars detailed here.

6.  Add two more card catalog books to my library - C
- I thought this one would be one of the easier ones from me to complete.  I didn't pick up any physical books, but did get Engel's 2nd Vintage Edition of the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist & Price Guide in electronic form.

 7. Add to my Brandon Laird and Yuta Tabuse Collection - A+
- I've been whittling away at my two player collections all year long and Fuji has helped immensely along the way with this awesome Laird stash & sweet Tabuse haul.

8. Expand the B.League Basketball Sets - A+
- I love the BBM B.League Basketball Sets and will continue to collect them.  I picked up both the 1st and 2nd Half boxes this year, although I don't officially have complete sets in singles form...yet.

9. Update the BB-Series of Sumo Menko and Bromides - B+
- One of my most ambitious goals this year was to "fix" and update the BB-series of sumo cards and bromides in my book.  There were so many produced during the 1930s-1950s that is was daunting to just get to the spot where I am now....I reorganized all the sets and assigned catalogue numbers to them.  Now all I need to do is get them in electronic form in my book.  I see the goal line in sight, but unfortunately will not cross it this year, but the majority of the battle is over with.

10. Finish the 1974 Yamakatsu's Mini Card Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon (Series 1) Set and add to The Way of the Dragon (Series 2) and Green Hornet (Series 3) Sets - B-
- Gah, I'm still two short on the Series 1 set, about 10 short on the Series 2 set and about 35 short on Series 3.  I did have a nice haul reported back in June.  This set is getting harder as the years go by and maybe in 2019 I'll finally finish Series 1!

With no failing classes and some solid effort and help from friends, I am giving myself an:

2018 Overall Grade = A-
(for reference) 2017 Overall Grade = B
 

 

I'm looking forward to 2019 and I really appreciate all the support you have given this blog over the past year!  Thanks for stopping by!

Outliers - What is the best month to be born a sumo wrestler?

What if I could tell you that depending on your birth month, I could "predict" your chances of becoming a successful sumo wrestler?  You would think everyone has an equal shot, but that is not the case.  In sumo wrestling, history has shown that sumo wrestlers born in a certain 6-month period have a ~33% better chance to make the sport's top-two ranks, Ozeki & Yokozuna, than those born in the other 6-month period.  Sound crazy?  I hope you'll keep reading a few more minutes to find out more.

The book Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, is an amazing read.  Chapter 1 relates success in sports to which month you were born in.  And the answer is fairly simple, although not always obvious.  Most countries have cutoff dates for age-class sports.  If you are a certain age, you make the cutoff.  If you are not, you have to wait a whole year in order to reach the mandatory age.  The kids that have birthdays right after the cutoff can be up to 364 days older than kids that have birthdays right before the next cutoff, but are competing in the same age class.  And guess what?  Waiting that whole year during your adolescent years can give you HUGE advantages in terms of size and strength.  This difference means you have more potential to get more practice and playing time, can develop better skills, have a better chance for the coach to play you even more since you are a better player, and can ultimately move on to bigger and better things....success breeds success.  Malcolm examines hockey, soccer, basketball and a variety of sports and comes to the same conclusion that the successful athletes were typically born right after age-cutoff dates in their respective sport.  In one study, 72% of kids on a Czech Junior World Soccer Team were born in January, February, or March ...where the cutoff date was, you guessed it, 1 January!

I applied this same understanding to the top-two ranks in sumo wrestling and "discovered" that ~66% (66% for Yokozuna and 67% for Ozeki) of the 111 Japanese wrestlers that attained these ranks dating back to 1855 were born in the 6 months between November 1 and April 30....meaning only 33% were born between May 1 and October 31.  And only 8% of these 111 wrestlers were born between June 1 and July 31 during this dead period.  Why is this since, statistically, 50% of the birthdays should fall in each of these two 6-month periods?  What makes the time period from November 1 to April 30 a golden period to be born and increase your chances at making the top of the sumo period 33% higher than someone born during the other 6 months?  Well, I unfortunately have to leave you at a cliffhanger, because the answer is, "I don't know".  But have no fear, I will keep at this and provide you my best theory.  Unfortunately, there has been no research in this area, at least none published in English that I could find.  I tried correlating school cutoffs (The Japanese school year starts in April), but couldn't come up with anything reasonable.  I tried looking at when they passed their sumo entrance physicals compared to their age, but couldn't come up with anything obvious.  More research to follow, but I would love to hear your thoughts and if you have any theories.

But, based on this research, I predict the next Ozeki (and maybe Yokozuna) will be Mitakeumi, born right in the middle of this 6-month golden period, 25 December 1992!!!

Beer and Sumo - My favorite card of 2018!

P-Town Tom is holding his annual contest for best card of 2018.  I chose BBM's 2018 Sumo Wrestling Card #79, Behind the Scenes with sumo wrestlers Takakeisho (Winner of the November 2018 Tournament!!!) and Onosho who were once teammates in high school and are now "rivals" in the ring.  This one was a no brainer for me.  I definitely enjoy a good beer and how often to you see beer on a sports trading card these days?  The answer is probably zero, zilch, nada, or null unless you live in Japan.  Beer is widely accepted as the beverage of choice during festive occasions as well as eating out with friends and family in both Japan and German....two countries I have grown to love.  Here is a tribute to good times and enjoying a good beer with good friends.  Thanks Tom for running the contest again!

39 Steps Back - 2018 Airport Trading Cards Are Here

Last month the North America Airports Council International (NA-ACI) held their annual conference and announced the release of their 2018 series of Airport Trading Cards (Noted in orangish/pink below).  This year, there are 39 new cards in the 2018 series with 14 new airports represented.  For a set completionist like me, this means a whole new challenge as I try and track down these 39 new cards along with the 8 that I am still missing from the previous years.  Cards are already starting to hit eBay and so I have been able to whittle a few down this way.  Does anyone live near any of these airports?  If so, are you tempted to collect?

Right now there are 122 cards in the master set with the checklist below (Note: Yellow is my wantlist from the previous series of cards): 

21D-001	Lake Elmo Airport (Minnesota)
AGC-001	Allegheny County Airport (Pennsylvania)
ANE-001	Anoka County-Blaine Airport (Minnesota)
ATL-001	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 2014 (Georgia)
ATL-002	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 2015 (Georgia)
ATL-003	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 2018 (Georgia)
AUS-001	Austin-Bergstrom International Airport 2014 (Texas)
AUS-002	Austin-Bergstrom International Airport 2018 (Texas)
AVL-001	Asheville Regional Airport (North Carolina)
BDL-001	Bradley International Airport (Connecticut)
BNA-001	Nashville International Airport (Tennessee)
BOS-001	Boston Logan International Airport (Massachusetts)
BTR-001	Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (Louisiana)
BUR-001	Hollywood Burbank Airport (California)
CHS-001	Charleston International Airport  (South Carolina)
CLE-001	Cleveland Hopkins International Airport 2015 (Ohio)
CLE-002	Cleveland Hopkins International Airport 2018 (Ohio)
CLT-001	Charlotte Douglas International Airport (North Carolina)
CMH-001	Port Columbus International Airport 2015 (Ohio)
CMH-002	John Glenn Columbus International Airport 2018 (Ohio)
CVG-001	Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (Ohio)
DAL-001	Dallas Love Field Airport (Texas)
DCA-001	Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (Virginia)
DEN-001	Denver International Airport (Colorado)
DTW-001	Detroit Metropolitan Airport (Detroit)
ELM-001	Elmira-Corning Regional Airport (New York)
ELP-001	El Paso International Airport (Texas)
ELP-002	El Paso International Airport 2014 (Texas)
FAI-001	Fairbanks International Airport (Alaska)
FCM-001	Flying Cloud Airport (Minnesota)
FLL-001	Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport 2015 (Florida)
FLL-002	Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport 2018 (Florida)
GSO-001	Piedmont Triad International Airport 2014 (North Carolina)
GSO-002	Piedmont Triad International Airport 2016 (North Carolina)
GSP-001	Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (South Carolina)
HOU-001	William P. Hobby Airport (Texas)
HSV-001	Huntsville International Airport (Alabama)
IAD-001	Washington Dulles International Airport (Virginia)
IAH-001	George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Texas)
ICT-001	Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (Kansas)
IND-001	Indianapolis International Airport (Indiana)
JAX-001	Jacksonville International Airport 2014 (Florida)
JAX-002	Jacksonville International Airport 2015 (Florida)
JAX-003	Jacksonville International Airport 2018 (Florida)
LAS-001	McCarran International Airport (Nevada)
LAX-001	Los Angeles International Airport (California)
LAX-002	Los Angeles International Airport (California)
LCK-001	Rickenbacker International Airport 2015 (Ohio)
LCK-002	Rickenbacker International Airport 2018 (Ohio)
LEX-001	Blue Grass Airport (Kentucky)
LGB-001	Long Beach Airport 2014 (California)
LGB-002	Long Beach Airport 2018 (California)
LVN-001	Airlake Airport (Minnesota)
MCO-001	Orlando International Airport (Florida)
MDW-001	Chicago Midway International Airport 2015 (Illinois)
MDW-002	Chicago Midway International Airport 2017 (Illinois)
MEM-001	Memphis International Airport (Tennessee)
MHT-001	Manchester–Boston Regional Airport (New Hampshire)
MIA-001	Miami International Airport (Florida)
MIC-001	Crystal Airport (Minnesota)
MKE-001	General Mitchell International Airport (Wisconsin)
MSN-001	Dane County Regional Airport (Wisconsin)
MSP-001	Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport 2014 (Minnesota)
MSP-002	Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport 2015 (Minnesota)
MSP-003	Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport 2017 (Minnesota)
ONT-001	Ontario International Airport (Ontario)
ORD-001	Chicago O’Hare International Airport 2015 (Illinois)
ORD-002	Chicago O’Hare International Airport 2017 (Illinois)
PHX-001	Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport 2014 (Arizona)
PHX-002	Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport 2018 (Arizona)
PIT-001	Pittsburgh International Airport 2014 (Pennsylvania)
PIT-002	Pittsburgh International Airport 2018 (Pennsylvania)
RDU-001	Raleigh-Durham International Airport (North Carolina)
RSW-001	Southwest Florida International Airport (Florida)
SAN-001	San Diego International Airport 2014 (California)
SAN-001	San Diego International Airport 2015 (California)
SAT-001	San Antonio International Airport 2014 (Texas)
SAT-002	San Antonio International Airport 2018 (Texas)
SAV-001	Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport 2014 (Georgia)
SAV-002	Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport 2015 (Georgia)
SAV-003	Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport 2018 (Georgia)
SFO-001	San Francisco International Airport (California)
SJC-001	Mineta San José International Airport (California)
SJC-002	Mineta San José International Airport 2018 (California)
SLC-001	Salt Lake City International Airport (Utah)
SNA-001	John Wayne Airport 2015 (California)
SNA-002	John Wayne Airport 2018 (California)
SPI-001	Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (Illinois)
SRQ-001	Sarasota Bradenton International Airport 2015 (Florida)
SRQ-002	Sarasota Bradenton International Airport 2018 (Florida)
SSF-001	Stinson Municipal Airport (Texas)
SSF-002	Stinson Municipal Airport 2018 (Texas)
STL-001	Lambert-St. Louis International Airport 2014 (Missouri)
STL-002	Lambert-St. Louis International Airport 2015 (Missouri)
STL-003	St. Louis Lambert International Airport 2018 (Missouri)
STP-001	St. Paul Downtown Airport (Minnesota)
TPA-001	Tampa International Airport 2015 (Florida)
TPA-002	Tampa International Airport 2018 (Florida)
TZR-001	Bolton Field Airport 2015 (Ohio)
TZR-002	Bolton Field Airport 2018 (Ohio)
VQQ-001	Cecil Airport (Florida)
YEG-001	Edmonton International Airport 2014 (Alberta)
YEG-002	Edmonton International Airport 2018 (Alberta)
YLW-001	Kelowna International Airport (British Columbia)
YMM-001	Fort McMurray International Airport (Alberta)
YOW-001	Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport 2014 (Ontario)
YOW-002	Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport 2015 (Ontario)
YOW-003	Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport 2016 (Ontario)
YOW-004	Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport 2018 - English (Ontario)
YOW-005	Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport 2018 - French (Ontario)
YQM-001	Greater Moncton Romeo LeBlanc International Airport (New Brunswick)
YQR-001	Regina International Airport (Saskatchewan)
YTZ-001	Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport 2015 (Toronto)
YTZ-002	Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport 2016 (Toronto)
YWG-001	Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (Manitoba)
YXS-001	Prince George International Airport (British Columbia)
YYC-001	Calgary International Airport (Calgary)
YYJ-001	Victoria International Airport (British Columbia)
YYT-001	St. John's International Airport (Newfoundland)
YYT-002	St. John's International Airport 2018 (Newfoundland)
YYZ-001	Toronto Pearson International Airport 2015 (Ontario)
YYZ-002	Toronto Pearson International Airport 2018 (Ontario)

Topps Stranger Things is stuck in the Upside Down!

For most people reading this blog, you are probably of the age to relate to most things from the 1980s.  Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, ET, trading cards, Dungeons and Dragons...the list goes on.  If you are still reading this blog, you definitely need to check out the show "Stranger Things" on Netflix if you haven't already done so.  An amazing cast of child and adult actors, a great storyline, and set in the 1980s which brings back a ton of nostalgia.  After two years, Topps was finally able to secure the license to manufacture trading cards.  Announced back in June, the original release date was mid October and eventually pushed back to 31 October.  Further delays have pushed the Hobby boxes back to the end of November, but Topps was able to release Blaster and Retail Boxes last week......which is fine by me because I really want to only collect the base set anyways.  Sure, it would be a lot cheaper to just buy the base set from folks are just chasing the inserts and parallels, but given the old-school nostalgia of the show, I want to hand collate the 100-card base set from packs....just like I did back in the 1980s.  I'll probably complete the Character Cards, Character Stickers and Scene Sticker sets as well.

Topps gave us a sneak peak with some online picture teasers and this promotional card handed out at the New York Comic Con.  Singles are already starting to pop up on eBay and the scramble to pick up the hard-to-find parallels will be in full swing.

Who else is chasing this set?

2018 Japanese BBM Akatsuki Five Basketball Set

I am not a huge basketball fan, but I love collecting the Japanese BBM B.League sets.  For those that are tracking, BBM has released 3 sets so far of Japan's B.League basketball: 2016-2017 1st/2nd Half, 2017 High Five, and 2017-2018 1st/2nd Half.  In keeping with their "tradition" of releasing an annual boxed set, BBM plans on releasing the 2018 Akatsuki Five Set in early November.  Akatsuki means “Dawn or Rising Sun” in English and alludes to the fact that these are young players with bright futures.  This set captures the Japanese men's and women's World Cup Asian teams that will compete in the 2019 World Cup.  While not a true B.League set, many of the World Cup players do play for B.League teams. Here are the details from what I am able to gather:

- The entire 29-card set will be included in the boxed set
- 29 cards in the base set with 1 special insert card per box
- Special Inserts consist of 25 different #ed autos and 6 different #ed memorabilia cards
- 4000 yen per set
- Limited to 2200 sets

Below images are courtesy of BBM's website.

I've staked my claim to three boxes.  How about anyone else?