Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards opened some packs of 2018 Topps Stranger Things and had a wishlist.  I opened up 3 Blaster Boxes of Topps Stranger Things and had doubles I needed to unload.  I offered to do a straight trade for the ones he needed for the one I needed...my double cards needed a good home and my doubles box was not it.  But Kenny took it upon himself to zap me and load me up with some goodness.

First up is the Will Byers sticker I needed.  For those that have not see the Netflix series....go watch it....you wont be disappointed.

Next up is a sweet auto (#3/5) of Hiroshi Gondo who played for the Chunichi Dragons (and won Rookie of the Year I might add) in the 1960s and was a manager off and on after that up until 2012.  Thanks!!



Beau Burrows was the Tigers' First Round pick in the 2015 draft and is currently developing in the minors.

Another video arcade card...this time of Masahiro Tanaka.  This game is called Baseball Heroes from Konami and the cards were printed in 2011.  If I was rich, I'd have these arcade games in my basement and I'd invite all my friends over to play.


This is my first ever Calbee Card....This is a 2016 card of Shogo Akiyama celebrating his new record of 215 hits in the 2015 season.
 

Gotta love me some BBM Baseball.  This 2016 BBM is from the 2nd Version and of player Daiki Tomei.  He is still pitching, but didn't do too hot last season.


Time for some color....this is the 2014 Bowman Platinum Chrome Purple Refractor of Jesse Biddle. Jesse is now with the Braves.


Another auto!  This one of Jake Sweaney (Did I mention his birthday happens to be today...at least the day I wrote this??).  Jake isn't playing at the moment it looks like, but I love these on-card autos.


Some more acrade game cards...this time of Sega WCCF International Clubs Soccer.  I don't recognize any of the names, but you can see how the game is played here.  Again, these video games that incorporate the card collecting aspect are legit in my book!


Lastly are some nice looking ladies on cards....Mayuko Iwasa and Nanami Kawakami.

One of the cool things that I love about this community is the people I get to meet.  Through my sumo blog, I met an Aussie collector (Karl) working down in Indonesia.  He has been helping me work on the Japanese Sumo Wrestling Trump (Playing Card) sets where I am trying to catalog all of them from 1975 to current.  We've traded a few items back and forth and the latest items I am the recipient of are 4 packs of 2018 National Rugby League Traders.  I know very little about rugby, but am excited to have these cards and am hoping to learn more.  I have since come to learn that there are two types of rule sets for Rugby: League and Union.  With respect to this set, there are a whole host of inserts in these 10-card packs.  A quick search of eBay also shows a cool album I may have to snag.  I'm going to open two packs, and keep the other two sealed for the future.  Let's see what I get:



Pack #1:

8 Base Cards: 36, 53, 62, 71, 86, 94, 116, 127
Pearl Special (1 per pack): #86 Michael Morgan
Faces of the Game (1 per 3 packs): #37 Daniel Alvaro

I scanned the two inserts, the knights checklist, and the Robbie Farah card.  Robbie is 34 years old...hard to believe in rugby at least from my perspective.



Pack #2:

8 Base Cards: 19, 24, 50, 108, 111, 138, 143, 160
Pearl Special (1 per pack): #63 Jesse Bromwich
Startoons (1 per 18 packs): #7 Dylan Walker

The Startoons is a clear card with only the image of Dylan opaque although the scan doesn't do it justice!

Thanks so much Karl!

Does anyone else collect rugby cards?