3 Cards (Vol 48)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

For today's post there's going to be a key theme. That being, promo cards.

Card #1

My trip to Japan happened to coincide with (Inter)National Baseball Card Day. Because the shop keepers and I are on good terms/because I just happened to be at the right place at the right time, I got about four of those special cello packs. As well as the guaranteed Bryce Harper and Vlad Guerrero Jr. cards. I'm never going to turn down free cards (though I'm struggling to figure out what to do with these other than regift them).

Card #2

Next up is a promo "pack" of EPOCH 2019 NPB Baseball Cards.

These promo packs featured one promo card per pack and were given out for free with the purchase of a box of an EPOCH product. The shop owner of Match-Up was really cool and let me have a pack even though all I bought were two packs of 2019 EPOCH Chunichi Dragons Rookies & Stars. 

Inside the promo pack I got a Shuta Tonosaki. Tonosaki was a third round pick by the Seibu Lions in 2014 and has been with the team since 2015. After a few middling seasons to start his career he broke out in a big way in 2018, earning his first NPB All Star Game appearance in the process.

Even though he's an infielder who can man second, short and third, he's seen a lot of time in the outfield too. Making him a Ben Zobrist-type utility guy who can actually hit.

 

And because I know I'm never going to have a chance to talk about them again, here's what I got in the two Chunichi Dragons Rookies & Stars packs.

I'm only able to show nine of the 10 total cards I got because one of them was a Raidel Martinez that I left with my collecting friend (the same one who took part in the Home Run Challenge) to see if they could get a Martinez TTM return on my behalf next year.

Card #3

This last promo is merely a card I brought back with me. This shiny Mickey Mantle that I remember getting at a card shop in my current area back in 2012. At the time I thought this promo was cool because it was exclusive to US-based card shops. Back then Topps didn't really let the Japanese card shops in on the fun regarding promos/giveaways, so anything like this that I could get when I came stateside was a bit of a treat. Of course that quickly changed (I consider that a good thing BTW). But more than that, my outlook on these promos probably changed drastically when I managed to secure all four of the special refractors (Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Jackson and Mickey Mantle) from the same NY-based shop I got the Mantle above from for like a dollar. Made the thing a lot less fun for me real quick.

And that was another edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.