Torren' Up Cards

 As documented on this blog, I didn't grow up collecting sports cards. I had some here and there but it wasn't an active hobby until much later on in my teens.

Today I just wanted to share the actual cards I've had since childhood that slowly (very slowly) have been built upon over the years.

Yup, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

These can be organized into about four different time periods of my life where I've been on and off of it.

1. 2002-2004

While I was clearing stuff out from my childhood home a few years ago I came across a plastic bag and inside were a select few cards I owned from the days when I was still in elementary school.

Chief among them was this Dark Magician. Originally it came in a starter deck from when Yu-Gi-Oh! first came to North America. But as a kid I thought the original card art for DM sucked so I put a sticker of DM from the anime over it. This is easily the most "well loved" card in my possession. The cut corners, the piece of tape I put on it, it's all there baby.

I had a handful of Japanese cards too. The more scuffed the card is, the more I must've liked it. After all, Magical Cylinders played a big role in the anime and this card is shiny! Or was.

At the time Yu-Gi-Oh! was becoming a phenomenon that was being played at playgrounds across the US and classrooms all across Japan. Despite that, the number of friends I had who actually played the game was basically zero.

We all had the cards and watched the Duel Monsters anime, but what we didn't have was reading comprehension. The way the cards work can be very confusing and the fact that real rules for the game are nothing like how it was played in the anime didn't help. It ultimately it came down to who could shout the loudest before the closest parent or teacher in our vicinity stepped in to tell us to stop playing this game and do something else.

Just like that though, I did stop. After the Battle City arc in the anime, I lost interest in the franchise and tuned out for a while.

2. 2006

This wasn't really a revival but I did happen to catch the second anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! GX on Cartoon Network a few times and thought it was pretty neat to watch.

I didn't pick up any cards around this time period because by then all of my friends had moved on from the franchise. But in the years since I did pick up a few cards I liked from the show. Learning that the best HERO strategy is to use absolutely none of the monsters shown in the show was a heartbreaker though.

3. 2008-2009

By 2008 I had moved to Japan and over there Yu-Gi-Oh! was hot in the streets. Around this time we were in the 3rd anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's and more importantly during the midst of when the game transformed overnight.

It was thanks to the introduction of synchro summoning that the game had a new mechanic which fleshed it out even further. This is where in-game strategies shifted in a huge way and started to turn into the combo fest it's since become.

During that wave I pulled two "relief" parallels, which is usually one of the more sought after parallels given to the rarer cards in the Japanese sets. These two weren't worth anything then and they're worth even less now but it sure did feel cool to say I was able to pull them out of random packs I bought on a whim at 7-Eleven.

But despite that, I just still couldn't get into the card game because it still required me to read and interpret how cards worked. By 2010 my interests shifted to LEGO and then to baseball cards.

4. 2017-2019

Alright, third time's the charm right? This is when I'll finally learn how to play the game right?

Well kinda. Around 2016 is when the app Duel Links launched, and in its early infancy it was a nice way to get re-introduced to a sort've abbreviated version of Yu-Gi-Oh! It helped ease me through the core gameplay and more importantly didn't require me to memorize every effect in play since the game did it automatically.

My first blogposts about Yu-Gi-Oh! were from around that time period too.

But the game Duel Links started getting complicated and my friends who also played the game started leaving (the game being a gacha/grindfest doesn't help). I also deleted it when my phone just needed the space for other things.

But hey, at least I'd been able to obtain some level of understanding for how the game works.

5. 2022-today

In late 2022 I got a new phone, and more memory space. With that I downloaded Duel Links again and as somewhat expected the game evolved because it had introduced the new mechanics the actual card game had been implementing since I stopped paying attention in 2009.

XYZ Summoning, Pendulum Summoning, Link Summoning, Rush Duels, welcome to Master Rule Five!

The XYZ and Pendulum eras of the franchise were ultimately what I feel I truly missed but at the same time it didn't appear like I missed out on much.

Now I've got a firmer grasp on the game, how to play it, and most important of all what I want to play. Turns out the best way to get better at playing a children's card game is to not be a child.

After all this time I've finally assembled an actual deck proper that isn't just a pile of random stuff combined from booster packs and starter decks. It's not the best, nor is it competitive, but I like it.

I'm not sure if I can describe it as "fun" because Yu-Gi-Oh! is not supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a cruel ritual by which the vengeful undead spirit of a pharaoh judges whether you deserve to just die, or die and then have your soul banished to hell. But at least I know what it can do.

Anyway as I was sorting, sleeving and paging these cards together, it just struck me that this is the rare franchise/collectible where I'd picked it up and then put it back down more than any other hobby. Every time my appreciation for it grew just a little bit. Will I eventually get bored again and then move on? Probably. But if my life to now has shown me anything, it's that I'll find my way back to it again eventually.

The heart of the cards compels me I guess.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

  Despite how I've bombarded several mailboxes and yelled all of your ears off about how I'm downsizing, today's post is going to be the polar opposite. The cards I've accumulated in the time in which I'd been dumping hundreds of cards onto other people, or more specifically the cards I picked up in January before I went cold turkey in February.

The theme for most of these is rather simple, these names were the first names I'd seen when I was wide-eyed and first getting into sports and sports cards. A lot were Tulo and CarGo from those early 2010's Rockies teams but those will get their own post. Here is everything else.

Tim Lincecum

Starting off with this really cool Lincecum jersey card. The "A Cut Above" inserts from 2012 were up against stiff competition in what was a good time for die-cuts. These flimsy cards just didn't tickle anyone's fancy compared to the sturdier and shinier offerings around at the time. But when I saw there was a relic version, I was mildly interested.

Especially since the guy on it is Lincecum, who stopped being the Freak we all know and love in 2012. He'd still show flashes of his former self like when he no-hit the San Diego Padres twice later on, but the Padres didn't start being good at baseball until 2021 so take that with a grain of salt.

Takuya Asao

リリーフ投手としてMVP賞をとれのって普通に凄くない？いつかメジャーでも活躍するの見たいよ。

In 2011 Takuya Asao won Central Legue MVP honors as a reliever. He wasn't even a closer, he won the MVP as a set-up man! This is the year after he set the single-season NPB record for holds (47 in 2010).

Anyone who watched the Chunichi Dragons at the time remembers him being absolutely filthy. He would've probably been a dominant reliever in the big leagues too. Unfortunately he got overused and his arm wore down, but his peak was absolutely insane.

Chris Sale

Once upon a time people thought Sale would never be able to find prolonged success as a starting pitcher and that his lanky frame would doom him to just being a reliever. Well several successful seasons with the Chicago White Sox and Red Sox erased that real quick. Sale has a lot of rookie autographs from 2010-11, but I opted for the more wallet friendly option of a sticker autograph applied on a horizontal insert nobody liked from his sophomore season.

Dellin Betances

This is probably the first Betances card I've added to my collection in a LONG time. Now I have both New York Yankees rookie autos from 2012 Topps Chrome in shiny blue (the other rookie is Austin Romine). 2012 is unfortunately when Betances' chances of being a starter died, things got so bad he got demoted to double-A. But there he was moved to the bullpen and from 2013 onwards he enjoyed a very successful career as a dominant four time All Star reliever.

Yoshinori Tateyama

It's easy to forget but Tateyama did actually come stateside and played in MLB in 2011 and 2012. Tateyama hailed from Osaka, Japan and actually went to the same high school that another Japanese MLBer Koji Uehara went to. They were both in the same grade and both teammates on the high school baseball team.

Tateyama joined the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the second round of the 1998 Draft. While initially he was tried out as a starter, he eventually converted into a reliever and in the 2000's he was a mainstay in the Fighters bullpen.

Tateyama joined the Rangers in October of 2010, it was right when the Rangers were about to become back-to-back AL Champs, but more importantly it was right when they were heavily scouting Tateyama's Fighters teammate Yu Darvish (spoilers: they got him too). Interestingly enough in 2011 the Rangers also traded for his old high school teammate Uehara from the Baltimore Orioles. So in 2012 he had teammates at different times in his life in Japan on the same MLB team. That's kind of nuts.

Tateyama bounced around 2013 and 2014 going from the Rangers to the Yankees to the Hanshin Tigers before calling it a career after the 2014 season. Since then he's gone back to being involved with the Fighters, at first by being a part of the TV crew covering the team but from 2023 onwards he's been the pitching coach for the Fighters. Makes sense since he was also the pitching coach for the Samurai Japan team that won Gold in the 2020 Olympics.

Tateyama gets the honor of the longest blurb out of anyone I will talk about in this post because his career is just truly fascinating.

Johnny Cueto

In 2012 the Cincinnati Reds only used six starting pitchers for the entire season. Johnny Cueto, Bronson Arroyo, Mat Latos, Homer Bailey and Todd Redmond. Redmond only made one start in what was his MLB debut while the other five made 30+ starts each. That was rare even then and absolutely unheard of now given how nobody knows how to keep pitchers healthy. That version of Cueto will always be the version I choose to remember him by.

Hanley Ramirez

It's kind of crazy how the 2010's had such a big array of fantastic shortstops that they've all gotten lost in the shuffle for various reasons (mostly injuries). Hanley was also on a really great HoF caliber path but by the time he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers his best years were somewhat in the rearview mirror. Then he went to the Boston Red Sox and the decline got uglier.

Victor Oladipo

Oladipo was once one of the biggest up-and-coming names when I was getting into basketball. He was really coming into his own as the guy who led the Indiana Pacers to a competitive first round playoff series against LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers that went a full seven games. They lost but the prevailing notion was that they would pick up where the Paul George-era Pacers left off and they might even get as high as the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

Clay Buchholz

The first time I heard about Buchholz was in an article where someone in the comments called him Clay Buttholes. That comment has not left my brain for even a second since. Also this 2013 Topps Replacement Autograph is neat solely because I like the novelty of cards created to be replacements for redemptions.

Ryan Braun and Carlos Gonzalez

Braun is definitely someone who people haven't thought about since 2014. 2011 was when he was at the peak of his powers and NL MVP over Rihanna's then-boyfriend Matt Kemp. Over time it'd become known that Braun used performance enhancers to reach that peak and was cast into the abyss.

As for the card I want to be clear that I picked this up because I wanted a cool 2011 Topps card of Carlos Gonzalez and this is my first dual relic from the 2011 Topps Diamond Duos insert set. Braun just happened to be on it too.

Daniel Bard

I actually did have another copy of this at one point in a trade I made with Ryan of This Card Is Cool over a decade ago but that one was eventually moved. Now that Bard's made a name for himself again with Colorado, I was more than willing to re-add this card from the Topps 60 subset to my collection.

Mark Buehrle

Buehrle's stint in Miami feels basically forgotten at this point. Though considering what a disaster that team was it's probably for the best.

Robinson Cano

Letting Cano leave was a good financial and baseball decision for the Yankees, but I do want to see the alternate reality where Cano hands the baton off to Aaron Judge.

Jared Weaver

Weaver anchoring the Los Angeles Angels rotation feels like an eternity ago and also like the last time that team cared even the tiniest bit about good pitching.

Cliff Lee

I've talked before about Topps 60 and how it's kind of confusing that the player on these cards aren't even number one on the list of whatever the achievement at the top of the card is. Like here Lee is commemorated for having the fifth best career ERA in the Division Series (min 20 IP) with 1.11 as of the time of 2011 Topps Series 1's production.

Ryan Zimmerman

Zimmerman's contributions to helping the Washington Nationals start to establish themselves as more than just the Zombie Expos has also been forgotten, but it is fun to remember how he was there to help fans through some awful dreck years until Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper finally arrived.

I did get a Trevor Story TTM autograph WAY back when he was still just a top prospect but I finally got to add a certified autograph to my collection. Story has so many autograph cards out there that the market for it kind of nuts. I'm picky and wanted an on-card autograph with logos and this 2017 Gypsy Queen offering (a parallel limited to 150 copies at that) was somehow the cheapest option on COMC.

My first certified Charlie Blackmon autograph. This is from that 2018 Topps Clearly Authentic set where every card came prepackaged in a one-touch magnet holders. I promptly freed this card the moment I got it since the case was a little scuffed and therefore useless (I have extremely high standards for one touch cases and even the tiniest blemish is a big no-no). On top of that this card was moving around in that case and made an annoying clicking sound. I can't handle hearing one of my cards get worse.

I only play Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links at a casual level so I have no clue how to play Labrynth and I don't want to read what these cards do so I probably will never learn how to play the deck. What I do know is that Lovely here has big boobs and is conventionally attractive, good enough for a degenerate like me. Although the secret rare sparkle effect makes the art harder to see.

Justin Verlander

This post started on an insert that only existed in 2012 and it's going to fittingly end on another one too. I had forgotten all about these Mound Dominance inserts. These were so obscure and uninteresting that I had no idea there was even a relic version. Normally I wouldn't think much of a boring grey jersey card (even if it is limited to 50 copies) but knowing it's from a one-and-done bumps it up to mildly interesting for 30 seconds territory.

One day Verlander will get the recognition he deserves as one of the greatest pitchers of all time. But that won't be right now since in early 2024 he's just seen as that old guy who stunk for the New York Mets in 2023. We can also blame him for his brother Ben getting famous too.

Alright that concludes this extremely long scan dump of names from a decade ago. This covered enough ground from back then that if there's ever a follow-up,

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

 So I took the whole month of November off and spent all of it in Japan. It was my first trip out there since 2019(!) and I wanted the trip to be as long as possible to justify the cumulative 26 hour plane rides. A lot's changed since COVID warped the world and I was eager to see what's changed.

And sort've by extension, I'm seeing how much I've changed too.

The day after I landed I met up with my longtime collecting friend Anco-san, his wife Fukurou-san and their child. We've known eachother for nine years now and we first met through the sports card collecting hobby, but we didn't go to a single shop this time. Partly because their kid is still super young, but also because none of us really collect sports cards like we used to. Those two have more important matters on hand (literally and figuratively), while my interests are just elsewhere.

That said I did pick up some sports cards during my trip just because I did visit two card shops I used to go to back when I lived in Nagoya, Match-Up! and Bits!. The key highlight was probably the Akira Neo autograph since prices on those finally dropped from the 30K JPY (think like 200 USD) to 15K JPY (literally half) thanks to the Chunichi Dragons bumbling his development.

I could go into the rest of my sports card pick-ups, a whopping 9 total cards, but I think that Neo's enough for now. Just not really motivated given how uninterested I was with sports cards for the month I was gone. The rest might get their time on this blog in the months to come. Maybe.

Although real quick, it was a little surreal seeing convenience stores have these packs of Bowman branded NPB cards just sitting there though. I snapped this picture and just bought one pack just out of mild curiosity. The contents were mid and will be sent to NPB Card Guy at some point since I think he'd get more of a kick out of them.

In general rest of my pick ups were just various pieces of merchandise and non-sports cards of VTubers, anime characters and video game characters. Both in volume and in terms of money spent.

Like that Yu-Gi-Oh! card in the center there of Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit is a 20th Anniversary Secret Rare parallel that cost north of 30K yen, it was easily my most expensive purchase on a single item on this trip and I didn't care, I just wanted one of those 20th Secret rares that took the hobby by storm during what was a brief popularity spike in the COVID-riddled 2020-22 era.

Also the Japanese yen was still down horrendously during my entire time here so I was just swiping my US credit card like crazy. I was doing my part to stimulate the Japanese economy damnit.

Other than that I'd say my cosplayer merch/polaroid collection got the biggest boost. Mostly because I got to meet two of my favorite cosplayers in person and it will never cease to amaze me that I somehow managed to squeeze in time to meet both during this trip. 

Beyond that I spent a little more of my time going to maid cafe's and "concept cafes" (think maid cafes but with other themes). I did not spend thousands of dollars on plane tickets to not be a degenerate. For me the best part was getting to take polaroids of them on the spot and having them decorate and sign it. It's a staple (yes these cost extra for those who're wondering).

Because I went to this cafe in particular the most, quick shout-out to Ashita no Cafe. Located in Shibuya (MAP), this cafe changes themes depending on which day of the week it is. Like on Mondays it's a beauty school, on Tuesdays it's your personal work secretary, etc... Each theme was designed by a cosplayer who wanted to bring their vision of a cafe to reality. If you're visiting Japan, maybe give them a visit. Though please pay attention to their pricing system. NOTE: this goes for any maid/concept cafe, the servers will give you a rundown of their pricing and it is essential you pay attention or get hit with a massive bill at the end.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Lots of good food, drinks and cute girls. With some cards here and there.

It also helped me in one huge aspect which was getting to the root cause of my burnout that was so bad I even blogged about it. I have a rough idea on what I can do to prevent that (because if what I think is correct it will be an issue again), but that plan will take some time to execute. Even so, just helping me gain perspective on what might've been the key issue made this trip a rousing success.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

 After managing to put a bowtie on two ongoing trades I've had with collecting friends in Japan, I wrapped up a third. This time with Twitter user @you_oh_, this trade was a lot less focused as it was centered more on the two of us just randomly chucking cards we thought the other would enjoy over any sort of cohesive main piece.

Might as well lead off with what was one of the more interesting cards in the package, at least to me. This is part of a set of cards called "Michi No Eki" which refers to resting stations for people driving long distances in Japan. Normally in America rest stops are limited to dingy McDonalds and gas stations on the side of the highway, but over in Japan these rest stops are sometimes places people actually drive to rather than just stop by en route to somewhere else. The reason for this is that these rest stops really put a lot of time, care and resources into making them almost worthwhile destinations. They tend to have very special foods you can only get there along with souvenirs that are a mix of the local culture of that prefecture for travelers to then tell other travelers. It's very Japanese that they make these things efficient, and even more Japanese that there's a card set dedicated to them.