2021 Mid-Year Report Card

Well, with the year half over I thought I would do a quick review of where I stand on my 2021 Collecting Goals.  Not going to lie, this has been a tough year with work and COVID-19.  Oddly, my time to even blog has been drastically reduced due to inefficiencies of teleworking and having to spend more time "at work" to make up for the time lost trying to coordinate everything virtually.

I know there are a fair amount of collectors that don't like to do collecting goals...However, I'm one that likes to lay out the year to help me focus and to generally guide my collecting habits.  I seldom vary from my larger collection so I don't have a ton or random collections that are half-started...just expanding my normal collections and then maybe tackle one or two more.  Anyway, let's see how I am doing.

Goal #1: Blog 60 posts this year! - (26 as of this post) - Current Grade - "C"

This goal has been a little rough these past few months, but I feel like I should be able to catch up and get in a rhythm as things have quieted down at work some.  I think I stand a good chance of getting to 60 and maybe a few more as I have a stack of blogging material waiting....really it is stuff to catalogue for my book and some eye candy for the blog.

Goal #2: Publish the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist. - Current Grade - "C"

I am making some good progress on the 5th Edition and really do think I can get it finally published and out the door.  Work should slow down for me later this year for a little bit and if I can get 2-3 hours a week devoted to this goal I should easily crush this.  We'll see how the next few months goes though.

Goal #3: Get to the halfway point with my 1973 Calbee set - Current Grade - "D"

Ugh, I have not focused on the Calbee cards too much this year so far.  Prices for the high-numbers are expensive and I have focused my efforts on the other goals thus far.  I think I can pick up 3-4 more and really get back on track to 50% completion by the end of the year.  It all takes money and that would solve a lot of my problems here.  Ha!
  

Goal #4: Relabel my Binders/Sets and Pass Along Excess "Stuff" - Current Grade - "C"

I'm getting there are relabeling binders and tidying up...it seems like it is a never ending process.  I seem to clean up two piles and another one appears.  I am getting a small stack of cards and menko ready for eBay too which will be great to put a bit of extra money in my pocket!

Goal #5: Expand my 1980s/1990s Japanese Telephone Card Collection - Current Grade - "B"

  

This goal is part of my alt-collection and something fun as I am browsing for sumo auctions.  I have picked up a decent amount of telephone cards so far and am waiting for them arrive from Japan shortly.

Goal #6: Do Something with my Yukata Card/Bolt Collection - Current Grade - "F"

Still have no idea what I am going to do with these......but they are cool!

Goal #7: Continue Giving my Non-Sumo Collections Some Love - Currrent Grade - "C"

Amada Nintendo (NES)/Famicon Mini Cards

No real progress here.....

1983 Myojo Noodle Mechanical (Meca) Cards

I have picked up a crap ton of these cards and lost count how many new ones I now have.  

2014-2020 Airport Trading Cards

Still haven't found one of the "Dirty Five" yet.  Although I missed out on one recently as if flew under the radar before I saw it.

1974 Japanese Yamakatsu Bruce Lee "The Way of the Dragon"

No joy here....

Radio Shack Zip Zap Cards

I have managed to get a few more of these....not too shabby.

Brandon Laird and Yuta Tabuse Cards

Not really making any progress here as new cards rarely pop up that I need.  

Goal #8: Get out at least 1 Care Package a month - Current Grade - "F"

Ummm, I suck...sorry everyone!

Goal #9: Get to The National! - Current Grade - "A+"

VIP tickets purchased, plane tickets in hand, and hotel booked.  Here we go!

Goal #10: Maintain/Improve Google/Yahoo/Bing Search Engine results for Sumo Card(s) & Menko

- Current Grade - "A+"

Sumo Card: Bing #1, Google #2, Yahoo #1

Sumo Cards: Bing #1, Google #2, Yahoo #1

Sumo Menko: #1, Google #1, Yahoo #1

Sumo Wrestling Card: Bing #3, Google #3, Yahoo #3

Sumo Wrestling Cards: Bing #2, Google #2, Yahoo #2

I think I am doing well on this one and hopefully my hiatus these past few months doesn't hurt my metrics.

Thanks for being loyal readers and I hope everyone had a safe 2021 so far and I hope your collection keeps growing.

Hulk Hogan - 1983 Pony Cassette Card - New Find!

There are still a lot of unique Japanese sports cards to be found as a lot of them are still unchecklisted and quite rare.  Once such card is this new card find of Hulk Hogan from 1983.  It is a card that came in a cassette case for what appears to be entrance music for the Hulkster, or Ichiban, as he was known in Japan when he first debuted.  It's about the size of a regular trading card and blank backed.  Now all I need is a Walkman to listen!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and sayonara!

Phoebe Cates, Tom Cruise, Jackie Chan - 1987 Japanese Roadshow Cards

A lot of great things came out in the 1980s and movies were right there at the top.  Terminator, Predator, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Gremlins, Breakfast Club....the list is nearly endless.  The U.S. influence on movies and pop culture was borderless and the Japanese couldn't eat up enough of it.  If you wanted to find out what was happening in the U.S. film and tv industry, you had your subscription to the Roadshow magazine.  It was the bible for pop culture.  As a bonus, they would often print collector cards of the latest stars to insert in the magazine.  These are great opportunities to get some early cards of young actresses and actors.  I have about half a dozen or so of these and recently picked this one up....even before Phoebe Cates "reentered" the news as one of the idols of the Stranger Things kids.  Look at the lineup on these cards from 1987:

Phoebe Cates - She was a stunner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Gremlins (1984)
River Phoenix - His role in Stand By Me was unforgettable (1986)
Jennifer Connelly - A oft overlooked movie with David Bowie, Labyrinth (1986), earned her a spot on this card.
Tom Cruise - Top Gun (1986), need I say more.
David Mendenhall - Playing Sylvester Stallone's son in Over the Top (1986) was enough to garner his own card.
Lea Thompson - Red Dawn (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Space Camp (1986) - Boom!
Lucy Deakins - I have not see The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), but it was popular enough for Lucy to make the Roadshow card list.
Jackie Chan - He had already done 30 movies by the time this card was printed.  A true movie icon.

You'll likely see more of these Roadshow cards in the future on this blog as I walk down memory lane.  A fun little piece of card collecting history!

Thanks Billy...an awesome card from an awesome collector!

If you don't read Cardboard History by Billy Kingsley, you are missing out.  I pull up his blog at least once a day seeing if he has posted anything new as I like his style of writing, his passion, his amazing collection, and his great attitude.  I sent Billy a small care package a few months ago with some early 1990 hockey boxes since I knew it would fit perfectly in his collection.  He surprised me this week with an amazing card.  This card has NASCAR, Bruce Lee, and Japan written all over it and those that follow my blog know that it is a perfect fit!  Thanks Billy!


Here is the history of the card courtesy of Billy:

In 1996-1998 NASCAR ran 3 exhibition races in Japan.  In the final race, Jeff Burton drove this car (depicted on the card) and Racing Champions included it in the 1999 lineup of 1:64 scale cars.  Jeff did well finishing 4th and leading 14 laps.  Racing Champions numbered the cards only on the package that year....this is #23 in the 83-card issue.

Wow, thanks again Billy, but I am "mad" at you.  I spent the last 20 minutes on eBay looking at all the other cool NASCAR Japan stuff and have 5 new things watched.

Sangokushi Taisen Cards

Every few years when I go back to Japan to visit, I am always fascinated by something new that wasn't there the last time.  This year there were a couple of things.  First was the interactive arcade game called Sangokushi Taisen (三国志大戦).  The general premise of the game is you have cards that interact with the video game.  Each card represents a military unit: calvary, archers, swordsmen, etc...and as you move these cards around the battle field the video game senses it and moves the units on the video screen.  It is a real-time strategy game so how many units and types you use as well as attack points all matter.  I was unsuccessful in getting some cards while in Japan so I bought some online to see what they looked like.  I wasn't brave enough to interrupt anyone, let alone ask anyone if they had a few extras they could lend a foreigner, but I did ask at the card shops and got the "that is a video game card" answer.  Evidently, I was looking in the wrong place to buy.  It looks like this game has been out for a while in various iterations, but all the arcades we went in to all the machines were full.  I must have stared at kids playing for an hour or so.  There was an interactive terminal that you also could pay money and manipulate your card....I guess to add abilities or level it up.  Possibly even keep in in your online collection...I am guessing at this point.  Here are a couple of YouTube videos of the screen action as well as the cards being manipulated on the game board:

Here are 8 of the cards that can be used on the game...I really have no idea of they are good, strong, weak, etc or if they are even made recently.  I have no ideal what it all means on the back....my Japanese isn't that technical and I haven't had time to study it all, but I assume it is all the technical abilities the card unit has: speed, defense, offensive, attack distance.  I imagine the game board reads the back of the card and determines what unit your are playing with.  I don't see any RF sensor in the cards...at least that I can tell.

The artwork on these is pretty amazing!

Does anyone have anymore information on these?

Express Shopping at Mint Ikebukuro and Mint Shibuya

For those that haven't been to Japan, it is a wonderful place to live and visit!  I took another trip to Japan over Spring Break with my family and we spent the last day in Tokyo where I was able to hit up a few card shops, albeit rather quickly as I didn't want to bore the family with my browsing.  We had other fun family things to do so I wanted to limit the amount of time card shopping.  I was able to hit up three stores though: Mint Ikebukuro, Mint Shibuya, and Yellow Submarine in Akihabara.  Dave over at the Japanese Baseball Cards Blog did a great 4-part series on a bunch of card shops in Japan so I won't recapture what he has there, but his stuff in his blog is extremely useful when picking and choosing where you want to spend your card-shopping time.  One of these days, I would love to make a sports-only trip to Japan to watch baseball, basketball, sumo wrestling, and go card shopping.  I think the end of March I could probably hit all those up over a two-week period.

I spent about 20 minutes in Mint Ikebukuro (groan....right?  only 20 minutes...ha!)  I was able to browse their sumo and pack selection and walked away with another box of 2017 BBM B.League Basketball Fast Break 2nd Half as well as an assortment of random packs that I will open up on my next blog post.  The staff was really helpful and we chatted for a few minutes in my horrific Japanese about collecting Brandon Laird, Yuta Tabuse, and Sumo Wrestling.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any older menko cards, but it was a fun browse!

Mint Shibuya was a quick walk from the station and we were mainly here to do the Shibuya Crossing where everyone crosses the street at one time and in force.  It was definitely fun to people watch here and do the crossing.  My son got a kick out of it.  We headed over to Mint Shibuya and I was intrigued about the bar they had in the store to drink while breaking card boxes.  As tempting as it was, I had to resist bellying up the bar to throw one back as I am sure it would have turned into two and three and my son was with me.  The store was a little smaller than I was expecting, but I did walk away with a sweet deal on a 2015 Sumo Wrestling Box and some more packs.

The last store I headed into was Yellow Submarine over in Akihabara.  I actually didn't see a whole lot here and we were in the area for the arcades anyway, but it was pretty neat to check out all the floors.  A lot of gaming and idol cards here and I didn't end up walking away with anything.  Booo, but I did have fun browsing.  No pictures unfortunately.


Here is what I did end up getting in my bag to haul back home.

I was able to fill in most of my Members Card...hopefully I can spend a bit more at some point to get my ￥500 discount......stay tuned for some pack breaks!