An Old Friend

 2018, the last time I added new Sega Card Gen cards to my collection was 2018.

Sega Card Gen was at one point the cards people associated with me the most, then came Luis Torrens and a bunch of other things I grew interested in.

The now-defunct arcade game brand was the first base set I ever completed back in 2014, and I have fond memories of it. Some collectors might even remember getting these in a trade back from me when I was first starting to trade (or traded at all).

Since Sega Card Gen got discontinued in 2013, it's been increasingly harder and harder to find these cards. They just did not get enough time be widely distributed enough that they can be found easily. But once in a while you'll get lucky with a large lot. Which is where the Darvish above came from and where a lot of the cards I'm about to show below came from.

The key card in this entire lot was this Hideki Matsui rare. Back when Card Gen was active they'd host competitions at arcades and whoever won got these cool special rares as prizes.

The backs are special with goldish-yellowish tint and have congrats written on them. I'm not sure how much different these cards fared in the game (if anyone ever tried I wouldn't know), but I doubt it made much of a difference.

During the tournaments they also gave away these sealed packs of special EX (think like shortprints) cards for cards outside of the base set. There are a small handful of EX cards I could never track down like Magglio Ordonez or Shoo Shin Choo and though it is possible they're in these packs, I don't really want to run the risk of getting dupes of the few EX cards I do have. So they remained sealed. For now.

Accompanying the prize card, the consolation packs and the Yu Darvish were a bunch of base cards. They were all dupes and will be part of future Zappings and I won't be showing them (it'll be up to their new owners whether or not they get blog-time). But to round out this post I'll share the two additional foil rares in this lot, starting with Matt Kemp.

It feels like it was forever ago when we last saw Kemp in a Dodgers jersey. Though he got a huge contract from the Dodgers that more or less turned into an albatross, what the Dodgers managed to do in not only moving his contract but getting actual prospects in return for him would set the tone for how they'd operate going forward. Not to mention that the prospects LAD got back for Kemp from Cincinnati included Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray. Downs would later be part of the package sent to Boston for Mookie Betts and Gray would be part of the package sent to Washington for Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. Andrew Friedman folks, he's always four steps ahead.

And finally Prince Fielder. Man, the way these names just teleport me back to the late-2000's/early-2010's is something.

Fielder was at his peak in 2012 before things went downhill for him rather quickly, with him eventually having to retire in 2016 for health concerns.

That concludes my first Sega Card Gen mailday in forever and likely my last one for another long while. It's always nice to look back on these, back when I was first in the hobby and everything seemed fun and exciting.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.