German Flea Market Finds #5: Tobacco Cards!

Flea market season is getting back into full swing here in Germany and I picked up a whole slew of 1930s German tobacco cards last week.  There are some fun ones in this flea market find.  I picked up some more of the 1933 Gold Film Bilder Set (20913-5/6).  These are quite easy to find, but have some great early cards of film actresses and actors.  Some of the interesting ones in this set are Norma Shearer (1930 winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress), Lita Grey Chaplin (2nd wife of Charlie Chaplin) and Greta Garbo (Three-time nominee for the Academy Award Best Actress).

I was also able to pick up these 1933 Lloyd Flottenbilder die Welthandelsflotte (20247-4) (Translated as "Ship Cards of the World's Fleets").  Did you know the Titanic had two sister ships: Olympic and Britannic?  Here is the Britannic (top left) in all her glory before she was sunk in World War 1 by the Germans.  The Germans were forced to compensate England for the lose after the war ended and did so with the Majestic (top right) which was the largest ship in the world at the time she was launched.

The last ones I'll show today are from the 1933 Lloyd Reedereiflaggen die Welthandelsflotte (20247-5) (Translated as "Company Flags of the World's Fleets").  I pulled out a couple of the US Flags. In the upper left is the Matson Navigation Company out of San Francisco that is still in business today.  You are probably more familiar with their current logo. The upper right is the Goodrich Transit Company out of Chicago that operated a fleet of ships in Lake Michigan, but went bankrupt in 1933...right after these cards were printed.

German Flea Market Finds #3: Card Goodness

Flea market season is in full swing over here in Germany.  Dozens are happening every weekend so picking and choosing the right ones isn't as hard....if you hit a dud, just move onto the next one.  I try to look around to see what people are buying, but it truly is a random assortment of stuff.  Fortunately, it seems I am the only one in Southern Germany that is collecting cards so that is a positive thing that keeps me going out as often as possible.  Here are some of the highlights of one of the local markets:

I picked up this full album of 1937 Cigaretten-Bilderdenst-Hamburg cards of trees and flowers called "Aus Wald und Flur" (Trees and Flowers) for 8 Euro.  Its catalog number is 21806-17.  As is German tradition, the cards are pasted in the album.   This tobacco card series seemed really popular back in the day due to the amount of them I see these days for sale.  They are also all over German eBay so I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

World Cup fever was in full swing here until Germany lost last week.  Boo, but at least the biergartens are now a lot less crowded.  A local store, Rewe, hands out these cards for every 10-Euro purchase.  They have done this now for at least 3 World Cups.  The cashier took pity on me when I asked if I could have one and he gave me a whole stack of unopened packs.  The cards above, however, came from a seller at the flea market.  He had hundreds of them and I was able to complete an entire 36-card set for 10 Euro and keep my unopened packs sealed.

The WWF (no, not the wrestling brand), World Wildlife Fund, teamed up with the local grocery store, Edeka, to issue these 4-sticker packs with a purchase of groceries.  As you can imagine, each of the stickers contains an image of an animal, or part of an animal for larger, multi-sticker images.  There are 180-stickers in the set and once you tear off the borders of the pack, it reveals 4 stickers that are perforated.  A seller at the flea-market had a whole stack of them and was happy to unload them all for 2 Euro.


More to follow next week.

1895-1899 Japanese Murai World Smokers

The 1895-1899 Murai Brothers World Smokers is one set where I have picked up a few cards here and there.  I definitely don't expect to complete it, but it is fun to dabble in these low-grade examples.  Plus the Japanese connection with the Murai Bros brand helps keep my interest even though supply is extremely low.  These 4 cards come courtesy of eBay and put my total cards in this set at 9 total now.  I am not a smoker, but every once in a while I like to have a good cigar.....and when someone is smoking a pipe it always smells so good.  Anyone else collect these or like to have a good cigar now and then?

2017 Year in Review

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from the Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko Blog!

It definitely has been an exciting year and one full of lots of adventures.  The biggest is that we moved to Germany and, along with the move, all the exciting adventures in travel, culture, and card collecting that come with it.  It was a busy 2017 in terms of my card collection so I'd like to wrap up the progress on my goals that I set for myself this year so I can clear my conscious and set some new goals for 2018.  Here are the 6 goals I set for myself this year:

1.  Finish the 4th Edition of my Sumo Menko & Card Checklist. (A+)
- I did it!  With a ton of work and some late nights, I was able to push out the latest edition of my book.  Every year I am finding new sets and expanding on others so it was time for a refresh of my book.  I am already stockpiling new material for the next edition and at this rate am going to aim for a Summer/Fall 2019 release.

2.  Focus on branching out of the sumo world and collecting cards of the local German sports teams and hopefully the main sets of the entire league. (F)
- This goal did not come to fruition and I can't see myself picking this up as a goal in 2018 either.  The modern card and collecting market here in Germany really doesn't lend itself to the kind of collecting I want to do.  Plus, we haven't really invested time in following any local teams with any sort of passion.  It was a valiant effort, but RIP goal #2!

3. "Discover" and catalogue at least 5 vintage sumo sets (pre-1960), add at least 3 of the 1973 Calbee cards to my set, and complete the base 2017 BBM set from opening boxes and trading. (A-)
- I did extremely well on this goal.  I knocked the number of vintage sets out of the park, picked up a few 1973 Calbee cards, and have almost completed the 2017 BBM Sumo Set.  With respect to the BBM set, I need to see how many cards I fell short, but I am almost there.  I'll likely have a similar goal for next year.

4. Start collecting Murai Tobacco Cards. (A+)
- I did well on this goal.... although someone warned me what I was getting myself into here.  I ended up picking up 6 Murai cards which I thought was a week accomplishment at first until I realized how difficult these are to find.  I'll likely carry this goal over to next year as well.

5. Build the 2017 Topps Heritage set and I plan on trying to complete that set through boxes and trading. (D)
- I bought a few packs, but I just couldn't muster up the momentum to working on this set, nor even come close to finishing it.  Sadly, as much as I really want to come back to collecting some American sports cards, there are too many Japanese interests pulling me in other directions.  RIP Goal #5!


6. Interviews! (D)
- Lots of thought went into this one of how exactly I want to do this, but no action yet.  I will likely pull this over to next year as I might be ready at that point.  My main problem is I don't want to half-ass anything and I want to be able to ask interesting questions on a variety of topics.  More to follow on this one in my 2018 Collecting Goals Blog.

Overall Grade - B
- Math in public, combined with a subjective score of how I felt I did, puts me at a B.  It was a great year!

Have a great New Year and I will catch you on the other side!!

First Good Year Blimp Trading Card - 1932 German Garbaty "Die Eroberung Der Lift" Set

The German card market has a wealth of cards that seem fairly undiscovered on the other side of the Atlantic.  This set is one of them in the fact that it contains the earliest known Good Year Blimp Card...the "Pilgrim."  While the Pilgrim wasn't the first blimp built by Good Year, it was the first to have the words Good Year printed on the side.  This 1932 German "Die Eroberung Der Lift" (The Conquest of the Air) set was the first to capture the iconic Good Year Blimp image on a card.  In fact, the only other cards I can find of the early Good Year blimps are postcards.  This set was made to collect and paste into an album which was typical of the German tobacco sets of this era.  Surprisingly, this small lot of cards I won at auction survived this pasting fate.  Köberich catalogues this set as the 20703-5 and it chronicles the history of human flight over 234 cards from mechanical wings on humans to passenger aircraft and blimps.  Each card measures approximately 2 7/17" x 1 9/16".