Domo Arigato: Taka Tanaka-san!

[sanjosefuji]

Earlier this month, I met TakaTanakaGiants over on Sports Card Radio Forum in one of the threads and after talking about Japanese baseball cards, he offered to send me some to share with my students. Here's a peek at what he sent:

But if you're interested in seeing everything... just watch this video:




There was a little bit of everything in the package: base cards, parallels, mascots, sumo wrestlers, anime cards, and even a promo card. I asked him if it I could add the mascot cards to my collection and he responded, "do what you'd like with any of the cards".


Well... I hope you don't mind... but I pulled out a few singles from the stack, because they were begging to be added to my collection.


I'll do a special PC Addition post tomorrow, so you can see exactly what I kept. My students won't be shortchanged... I promise. I've already replaced the cards I took out with extras from my Japanese PC.

Oh... he also threw the very cool 1/1 calligraphy card (shown above) personally made for me by his wife. Tell her thank you very much... and let her know that it's now has a permanent spot on my office desk (next to my Kurt Suzuki autographed ball & Kurt Suzuki sketch card... both gifts from fellow bloggers).

Thank you TakaTanakaGiants! Your generosity is much appreciated. I haven't showed them to my students, but when I do... I know they'll think it's cool. Especially those two anime cards.


I'm not sure if you know... but I don't accept "gifts" without returning the favor. I'll be shipping you a package this weekend with some Tony Gwynn cards.


And to everyone else... if you collect Japanese trading cards, I encourage you to check out TakaTanakaGiants's YouTube account or contact him at SCR. He really knows his stuff when it comes to Japanese cardboard. And... he's a class act... who truly cares about the cardboard community.


Happy Friday everyone... and sayonara!



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[ocanseco55]

Very cool! The video was fun to watch! I am gonna have to put the feelers out for some Japanese cards!!

[whitney777]

Cool stuff. I have some Japanese cards from 1990, I believe. TakTanaka checked the prices for me and they weren't anything too pricey, but he said a couple of the players were pretty popular in Japan. They're interesting, to say the least.

[sanjosefuji]

PC Addition: Japanese Trading Cards

Yesterday, I wrote about TakaTanakaGiant's "care package" for me & my students.


Today, I'm showing off what I pulled from the stack and added to my collection:

A Trio of 2011 BBM Former MLBers

TakaTanakaGiants shipped a healthy stack of Japanese baseball cards and included some cool parallels and inserts. But the ones I wanted the most were these three, because they all played in the MLB and I figured they'd look cool paired with their rookie cards.

Dynamic Darvish Duo

The card on the left is a subset card from the 2011 BBM set... and the card on the right is a promo card, which also features Norichika Aoki of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Japanese Baseball Team Mascots

I'm a huge fan of MLB mascots... especially Stomper & the Swinging Friar. But the mascots from across the Pacific sure give them a run for their money. These are going straight into my Japanese PC binder.

2010 BBM Sumo Wrestler Cards

I'm a huge fan of odd-balls... and this is the first time I've ever seen sumo cards. I figured my students probably wouldn't appreciate cardboard featuring obese, topless men, in thongs as much as I would. LOL.

2011 BBM Series 2 Wax Pack

Is there another Darvish inside? I'll never know, because this is going straight into my unopened Japanese Wax Pack Collection. This pack is the 33rd one in my collection... but I'm in the process of possibly adding some more in the near future.

1/1 Calligraphy Card

Last, but certainly not least is the awesome one of a kind calligraphy card written by TakaTanakaGiant's wife. Is this awesome or what?


Thanks again TakaTanakaGiants... these are huge additions to my collection.


Happy Saturday... and sayonara!



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