To Cut or Not to Cut

There's no shortage of Shohei collectibles out there for collectors to collect.  That's what happens when a once in a generation type of athlete comes along.  Unfortunately his collectibles are usually attached to high price tags.

But every now and then, they're part of generous care packages.  Today's post features two huge additions to my Shohei Ohtani PC.

The first one is a uncut rookie card from a box of 2018 Topps Big League:

Angus over at Dawg Day Cards sent me a large padded envelope back in December that I finally opened up over the weekend.  It was filled with a few nice additions to my collection that I'll share over a few posts.  

2018 Topps Big League Box Card #B3

My first thought was to cut the Ohtani out, but there's no way I could do it as cleanly as my photo editor.  So I ended up keeping it intact.  Here's a look at the other side of the box:

As soon as I saw this box, I knew it would pair perfectly with the large store display shown above that was part of Ryan's advent calendar.  I placed it with Ohtani's 2025 Topps flagship card to give you some perspective:

I'm still figuring out the best way to display this cool collectible.  I could hang it up in my classroom, but honestly I'd love to find some wall space for this in my office.  We'll see how things play out.

While I'm showing off new additions to the Ohtani collection, I figured I'd show off an action figure of him that has been hanging up in my office for a few years:

2021 Topps Big League Super 7 1959 Variation Figure

I still have a bunch of items from Ryan's advent calendar and Angus' care package.  I'll be sharing them here and there over the next few months, so stay tuned.  Thank you Ryan and Angus!

Here is today's question of the day:

When it comes to box bottom cards or uncut sheets of cards, do you tend to keep them intact or do you cut them out?

Although I have cut out cards, if the box bottom or uncut sheet is in good condition, I'll usually keep it intact.  In fact I have several boxes dedicated to storing oversized items like these.

That's it for today.  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Sayonara Salute: The Cobra

There are moments in your life when you stop what you're doing and reminisce.  That's what happened a few hours ago when Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan) texted me about Dave Parker passing away.

The Cobra was one of those players from my childhood that stood out to me, because he was such a dominating player.  He had won two batting titles, a World Series ring, a NL MVP Award, and an All-Star Game MVP Award before I opened my first pack of cards.  Luckily I was a baseball fan long before I became a baseball card collector.

However being a baseball card blogger, it's probably a good idea to show off some cards.  So here are some of my favorite Dave Parker cards...

1976 Topps #185

This card captures Parker's swing (and gold chain) on one of my favorite Topps flagship designs.

Let's check out some oddball issues:

1981 Topps Squirt #10

Did you know that he once hit a home run out of Wrigley?

1981 Kellogg's #13

I have a few Kellogg's cards of Parker, but the bright yellow border of the 1981 set compliments Parker's black uniform.

In an effort to squeeze a card of Parker from his days with the Oakland Athletics, here's a box bottom card of his:

1990 Topps Box Bottom #J

Topps honored him with this box bottom, because he hit his 300th career home run on August 5th, 1989 at the Kingdome off of Seattle's Mike Jackson.

1989 was a big year for Parker, because he also won his 2nd World Series ring with the Oakland A's:

1989 Topps #475

That postseason, he only had five hits in seven games... but three of them were home runs.

But even this A's fan knows he's best remembered for being a Pittsburgh Pirate.  So I'll wrap things up with a pair of memorabilia cards, two pack pulled on-card autographs, and a signed rookie card (featuring him in black and yellow):

2001 Topps American Pie Timeless Classic #BBTC-42

2001 UD Decade 1970's Game-Used Bat #B-DP

Writing this post made me realize that I didn't own a jersey card of his, so I went out and purchased this card.

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autograph #FFA-DP

2014 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-DPA

The past few years, I've slowed down in purchasing on-card autographs.  Luckily I grabbed these two a decade ago.

Last, but not least...

1974 Topps #252

Rest in peace Mr. Parker.  Your legacy will be remembered by the millions of baseball fans and card collectors who got a chance to watch you play.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #174a: A Solid Appetizer

The end of the school year might have been a little busy and stressful, but I try my hardest to set aside the first and third Saturdays of the month for flea markets.  This post is going to focus on half of my purchases made back on May 17th at the Branham High School Flea Market.

That day I spent the majority of my time with one vendor and everything I'm about to show off came from him.  It was the first time I had seen him out there and the first thing I stumbled across was a box of one dollar items.

Purchase #1:  Playing Cards  $5

My friends and I run a board game club at school, so these decks of cards will be added to our collection of games.

Right next to the dollar box were three boxes filled with two dollar items.  There were a bunch of sealed action figures, Funko Pops, and other miscellaneous toys with beat up packaging.  Imagine the toy section at Ross or Marshalls.

Purchase #2:  Stranger Things Comic & Figures  $2

McFarlane Toys Page Punchers Stranger Things

I had never seen these before, but I'm a big fan of the Stranger Things franchise.  The main thing I wanted was the comic and the packaging was in poor condition, so I opened it up.

The item is meant to be displayed:

I don't have the space for that, so I tossed the comic into my collection and gave the figurines to my co-worker's son.

Purchase #3:  Graphic Novel  $2

Batman The Killing Joke Hardcover

I bought a 1st printing copy back in 2013.  But since it's kind of a valuable book... I never opened it.  This copy is a hard cover and it's not in the best condition, so now I'm going to read it.

The vendor also had some boxes of cards.  One of them was a monster box full of relics, autographs, and numbered cards for two bucks each.  I stood there and flipped through every card.

Purchase #4:  An Encapsulated Card  $2

2024 Wild Card Decades Preview National Exclusive

21st Century Green Rainbow Foil #2D3-F3 (#'d 3/10)

I put together a stack of eight or nine cards... hoping he'd take off a buck or two.

He didn't... so I just grabbed this card of Jean Grey.

By the time I was finished with the two dollar box, the guy looking through the three for a buck boxes was finished.  I spent the next thirty minutes digging through them.

Purchase #5:  Three Cards for a Buck  $20

The boxes were filled a lot of sleeved rookie cards and parallels.  That was the bulk of my purchase:

But I also found some interesting non-sports singles:

Not sure if they're worth 33¢ each, but I don't come across Japanese Star Wars or Steve-O cards very often.

I also picked up this run of Jordans from the 1992 Skybox USA set.  What can I say?  I like junk wax Jordans.

The final purchase from this vendor is by far my favorite...


Purchase #6:  Box Bottoms  $3

While digging through the card boxes, I noticed he had some empty boxes under his table.  Inside were three empty 2014 Panini Golden Age boxes with three card panel box panels:

I opened up three boxes of this product myself back in 2019.  I'm hoping I saved these panels, because I'd love to build both panel sets (red and black).

Well that wraps up the first half of my Branham High School Flea Market finds.  I titled this the appetizer, because the next post contains one of my favorite finds of all-time. 

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Terro and El Torro

I'm not a fan of ants.  About twenty-five years ago I had a really bad encounter with them.  It was back when I was working two jobs (teacher during the day, card shop employee at night).  After a long day at work, I came home and eventually settled into bed.

I had bought a bag of powdered sugar Hostess Donettes a day or two before... and was looking forward to eating a few before bedtime while watching whatever was on the boob tube.  The room was dimly lit.  The light from the television was bright enough for me to see the bag... but not bright enough for me to see the trail of ants going into the bag.

Anyways... long story short... I popped one into my mouth and quickly realized something was wrong.  I ran to my bathroom, turned on the light, and ants were everywhere: on my hand, on my face, and obviously in my mouth.  Now whenever I see them... I kill them instantly.

Last weekend... while scanning my newly acquired flea market finds... I started noticing one every couple of minutes.  I'd kill it.  Two minutes later another one would show up.  This went on for over an hour.  The next day... the same exact thing.

The last time I had a problem with ants, I bought some Terro liquid ant bait and it did the job.  I had some leftover, so I put one on my desk on Sunday night.  The next day, I came home from work, headed up to my office to work on some stacks of cards, and was greeted by thousands of ants.

I thought about busting out a can of Raid... but didn't want to damage any cards out on my desk.  Vacuuming them up was another possibility... but I wasn't sure if the bag would contain them.  The last thing I wanted was to just transport them to another room in my house.  Ultimately... I decided to go all-in and put out three more liquid ant baits and hope for the best.

As of this morning there's still a trail of ants.  However... it's smaller than yesterday and only a tenth of the size of Thursday's trail.  I'm not sure if that's because they've eaten most of the food or if the colony is slowly dying off.  Hopefully... the latter, because I'd like to get back to cleaning my desk, sorting some stacks, and scanning some cards.

Speaking of cards... on Wednesday I learned about Fernando Valenzuela passing away from a comment left on one of Night Owl's posts.  As I left in my comment, El Toro played a huge role in getting me into the hobby.

1981 Topps #302

The year Fernandomania was born... was the year I started opening up packs of baseball cards.  I don't remember if I pulled, traded for, or purchased his 1981 Topps rookie card, but I know that was the first card I owned of his.

1981 Fleer #140

Later that year, I added the 1981 Fleer rookie to my collection when my parents bought me the complete set on a trip up to Seattle.

Over the years, I have picked up a bunch of his cards.  I may not be a Dodgers fan, but I've rooted for plenty of their players.  Fernando is right up there with my favorites.  Here are a few of my favorite cards that I have sitting in my scan folder (sorry... due to the ant issue... I cannot scan any new cards right now):

2014 Five Star Autographs #FSA-FV

On-card, pack-pulled autographs are one of my favorite things to collect and some of the cleanest looking designs were the ones pulled from Five Star boxes in the mid 2010's.

Here's another certified auto of Fernando:

2005 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures #FV

This was his first pack-pulled autograph and one of the most common and available to collectors.

Let's switch gears and check out some oddball issues:

1988 Grenada Stamps 

1986 Topps Box Bottoms #P

1991 Fleer Box Bottoms

1981 Dodgers Police #34

1982 Dodgers Police #34

 Moving along... here are a pair of base cards I really like:

1983 Donruss #1

Not sure if Donruss or Dick Perez created the Diamond King checklist each year back in the 80's... but Fernando kinda got snubbed in 1982.  Glad he got to be card #1 in 1983.

1991 Upper Deck #175

One of my favorite base cards of Fernando is his 1991 Topps card, but I don't have it saved in my scan folder.  His 1991 Upper Deck is a fine surrogate.  Who doesn't enjoy Upper Deck multiple exposure cards?

And I'll wrap things up with this cool relic card:

2002 Stadium Club World Champions Relics #WC-FV

Down two games to the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, the Dodgers started Fernando in Game 3.  He went 0 for 4 at the plate that day... but pitched a complete game and got the Dodgers back into the series.

Unfortunately... if you look closely... Topps highlighted the 1988 World Series on this card.  The Dodgers won that series as well... but Fernando didn't pitch against the A's that postseason.

Well that wraps up today's post.  Let me know if you have any hints on getting rid of ants.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!