Columbus Day - 1910s Japanese World Historical Figures Card Set

Today is Columbus Day, but I think the writing is on the wall that this day ought to celebrate the Native American population that was here long before Columbus set foot on what is now American soil.  But 100 years ago, history told a different story and he was revered for being the founder of the land we call The United State of America.  About 100 years ago in the 1910s or 1920s, this set was printed in Japan to capture 32 historical figures from around the world.  Columbus was a worldwide name at that time and the Japanese adorned him on one of the cards from this set.  In reality, it is a pretty neat set that captures some great historical figures.  Check out this checklist of Who's Who in History that earned a card along with a few samples:

Bismark

Cavour

Columbus

Franklin

Garibaldi

Gladstone

Hugo

Ito

Kant

Kido

Lincoln

Moltke

Napoleon

Nelson

Newton

Nogi

Okubo

Okuma

Peter

Roosevelt

Saigo

Shakespeare

Socrates

Spencer

Sun Yat Sen

Togo

Tolstoi

Washington

Watt

Welhelm

Wellington

Yuan Shi Kai

Have an awesome week!  

National Rail Safety Week - Be Safe Out There!

This week is National Rail Safety Week, a week-long awareness campaign supported by the Operation Lifesaver, Inc. non-profit.  This week is important as it raises awareness of the need for rail safety education and how to keep save near highway-railroad crossings.  Last year there were 2,216 highway-railroad crossing collisions with hundreds of deaths across the country.  As part of the awareness campaigns of past, OLI issued this 36-card set in 1993 with locomotives from the major companies and catchy slogans on the back on how to stay safe around railroad tracks.  In the early 1990's anything and everything was printed on trading cards and this set was no exception.  This "Limited Edition" set is a must have for rail fans like myself.  Remember:

- Railroad tracks are meant for trains, not walking laines.  Look, Listen and Live!

- Trains and games don't go together.  Find a safer place to play.

- It only takes your car about 200 fee to stop at 55 mph.  A train takes 8000 feet to stop.

- When you approach a highway-rail grade crossing turn down your radio so you can hear the train whistle.

Probably the most famous train-track movies out there has to be Stand By Me

2002-2004 Radio Shack Zip Zaps Trading Cards

I've been working on this nearly impossible Radio Shack Zip Zaps trading card set for sometime now.  Back between 2002-2005, Radio Shack sold the Zip Zaps RC car starter kits for $19.99 that included one chassis, one rear axle, stock gears, stock motor, 4 custom hubcaps, stock tires, a body top, the remote, a small screwdriver and one collectible trading card.  There were close to a 100 different cars that were sold during this time in these starter kits and additional body kit packages and consequently there are close to 100 trading cards to collect(exact checklist is unknown, but this is what I have been able to checklist so far on TCDB).  Just recently I was able to add six new cards to my collection as well as the tough-to-find card binder that was sold separately to store these trading cards.  These cards rarely show up and if they do, they are frequently bundled with the starter kits which are still quite expensive on the secondary market for close to $50 these days.

Did anyone else play with these 15-17 years ago?

A day on the town with Fuji!

First off, if anyone ever has a chance to hang out with Fuji and Mike, take them up on the offer!  Fuji and Mike are super chill, great to hang out with, and have really good insights and conversations on sports cards!  Fuji pinged me a few weeks ago and asked if I was interested in going to the Frank and Son Collectible Show east of Los Angeles.  Heck yeah I was...a quick check with my better half and I was committed.  Regrettably, I was unable to attend the Dodgers game with Fuji and Mike the night before, but hopefully my rain check will be good for a while.  As soon as I arrived at the show's parking lot, Fuji was already bearing gifts and he handed me these sweet Yuta Tabuse cards.  The first being a sweet 2004 Skybox Limited Edition #34/35 in PSA 9 (my scanner doesn't do this card justice).  This die-cut card is only the second graded card I own and a real stunner!  Plus he hooked me up with this 2004 UD SPx Auto'd Rookie Jersey of Tabuse #1809/1999.  Both of these fill huge holes in my collection.  Thanks Fuji!

Fuji also brought a brick of the Round Tripper Licorice....yum!  For those of you who haven't tried it, check it out.

Fuji also loaded me up with a bunch of cards in shoe boxes for me to look through and pick through before they ended up at a thrift shop.  I grabbed a few cards for my brother and me as well as a few cards for some fellow collectors before they ended up getting donated.

We entered and the experience was pretty amazing and hard to believe they have this show twice a week.  The show wasn't quite what we were expecting in terms of the number of sports card booths as they were swamped by the toys and collectibles arena, but I was able to walk away with these two non-sports cards for a buck.  The first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, and one of the most influential figures in military aviation, Gen Curtis LeMay.  I realized that I should have brought my NES game cartridge want list as I could have probably knocked off a few games as there were a good handful of vintage game booths.

We weren't at the show for more than an hour before we headed off to La Verne, CA to hit up a local show.  Fuji found a few goodies there and hooked me up with this 2018 Panini Status Yuta Watanabe rookie. Thanks again Fuji.

Seeing as how this was National Baseball Card Day we had to hit up one of the local participating dealers in the area and headed over to La Verne to A&N Collectibles to pick up our free pack of cards.  I'm keeping mine sealed, but Fuji surprised me again with a jumbo pack of Topps Chrome where I landed an on-card base auto Rookie Card of Jeffrey Springs from the Rangers.  I haven't heard of him, nor does it matter, this card will stay in my collection as a great memory piece of the day.

We still had a good portion of the day ahead of us so we ended up in downtown La Verne hitting up antique shops.  I snagged this really cool postcard set of US. Presidents.  They are hand-made with serigraph technology...which is very similar to silk screening.  Made by M.A. Sheehan from Topanga, CA, these date from the late 1940s to early 1950s since it still shows President Truman as the sitting president.  These are absolutely gorgeous both front and back.  A quick 10-minute search of the internet doesn't yield any examples of this set making me believe it is somewhat rare.  They are supposedly limited to 2000 sets and my set seems to be a mix of different sets as it has cards from set #19, #26, #27, and #303.  Would love to know if anyone has seen these before.

We ended the day with a quick trip to LaVerne Brewery where I grabbed a 4-pack of their Hazy IPA and Fuji threw in another 4-pack.  I wasn't counting, but let's consider ourselves even....as I mentioned before, Fuji's generosity is second to none!

 

I had a lonely drive home as Fuji continued to shoot photos my way of some potential new spots to explore in the future.  Thanks again Fuji and Mike for a great day....I realized we don't have any photos of all of us together.  Hopefully we can repeat this soon somewhere and grab that photo.

German Flea Market Finds #2: Some Non-Sport Goodness

It has taken a little while to adjust German life, but it has been the most difficult having my new sumo card supply dwindle while we make the transition.  I have been filling some of my time, though, browsing German Flea Markets.  I hit up another one this morning and came away with a nice haul of some non-sport cards. The language barrier doesn't seem to be a problem as long as you bring money.  That is almost the universal language, but I am sure I could have snagged these for a few less Euro than what I paid.  All in all, I walked away with these 24 cards for about $11 or 10E.

Some German Beauties!
*Sets:
-Koberich 21146-16, Frauen-Schonheit und Anmut (Set of 20)
-Koberich 21146-17, Frauen-Schonheit und Anmut (Set of 20)
*Size :6.5" x 8.5"

--Schonheit in Film (Gruppe/Group 1, Bild/Card 13) - Carola Hohn
--Schonheit in Film (Gruppe/Group 1, Bild/Card 16) - Hansi Knoteck
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 12) - Ursula Deinert
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 13) - Friedl Romanowsky
--Anmut im Tanz (Gruppe/Group 2, Bild/Card 17) -Annemarie Herrmann


A walk back in time with the Egyptians (Aus der Pharaonenzeit)

*Set: Uncatalogued Aecht Franck Coffee (Set of 6?)
*Size: 2.75" x 4.25"

--1. Am Hofe eines altagyptischen Herrschers
--2. Jagd auf Wasservogel am Ufer des Nils
--3. Aegypterinnen beim Ballspiel auf einem Dachgarten im alten Theben
--4. Vornehmer Aegypter beim Sklavenhandler
--5. Pharao verfolg den Bau einer Pyramide
--6. Transport des Materials zum Pyramidenbau durch die Wuste


Famous armies of the world set (Beruhente Regimenter)

*Set: Uncatalogued (Set of 6?)
*Size: 4.5" x 2.75"

--1. Preussen (Prussia)
--2. Frankreich (France)
--3. Osterreich (Austria)
--4. England
--5. Russland (Russia)
--6. Ilalien


Some Pearls of the German Landscape (Perlen deutscher Landschaft)
*Set: Uncatalogued Aecht Franck Coffee (Set of 6?)
*Size: 4.25" x 2.75"

--Bild 7. Auf Rugen
--Bild 8. Die Sachsische Schweiz


I love me some lithographic moth cards!

*Set: Uncatalogued Kornfranck Moth (Set of 8?)
*Size: 4.0" x 2 5/8"

--Bild 2. Die Ronne
--Bild 3. Schwammfpinner
--Bild 5. Ringelfpinner


Animals!
*Set: Uncatalogued Stollwerck Chocolade (Set of hundreds)
*Size: 3 5/8" x 1 7/8"

--Gruppe 270, Bild V - Der Igel (Hedgehog)
--Gruppe 276, Bild IV - Das Opossum

1983 Myojo Noodles Mechanical Cards

I love the odd-ball Japanese non-sports cards from the 1970s and especially these 1983 Myojo Noodles Mechanical Cards called Myojo Meka Kado (明星メカ　カード).  These cards came affixed to the top of a bowl of instant noodles.  I wish I could find a picture, but was unable to come across one in my internet search.  There are six 30-card series that I know of: World Classic Cars, World Motorcycles, World Ships, World Jets, Space/NASA, and Star Wars.  For those that collect the Star Wars cards, expect to pay upwards of $30-$40 per card...it'll be in the thousands for sure to complete the set.  For the other ones, they are fairly cheap when they hit the market...~$5 each, but they rarely hit the market in quantity.  In fact, the Star Wars set is the easiest to find (it might explain why they are more expensive) and the Space/NASA sets are almost impossible to find.  The cards measure 2.25" x 3.5" and are printed on thick cardboard.  I hope to pick up a few more of these now and then and I am not sure I am ever going to complete a set.  Here are a few examples of the Classic Cars, Motorcycles, and Ships sets.