Click Here to View Cart 11: Command Bolshoi BBM True Heart Japanese Women's Pro Wrestling Autograph (Partial) Timeline

I picked up a handful of autographed cards from a wrestling shop in Japan called Toudoukan. They all feature one of my favorite Japanese wrestlers, Command Bolshoi, and run through many years for which I didn't have autograph or card examples from the BBM True Heart card sets. There were still a few that I didn't pick up because I don't have a money tree, but I'll probably go back eventually and get a few more things from them.

This first one comes from the 2003 set, The front shows her with some kids at a playground. I am assuming the kids are her kids, but I don't know that for sure. This one is serially-numbered # 024 / 117.

After 2003 I skipped a few years to 2009. The older generation of wrestlers tends to favor these more elaborate ring costumes, while the younger wrestlers seem to go with more athletic or cute outfits. Of course there is crossover on both sides, but you can get a feel for approximately where a wrestler fits on the timeline by how they dress. Those icons at the bottom of the card front look like Captain America's shield. This one's serial number is # 22 / 49. Command Bolshoi seems to get the first card in a disproportionate number of sets. The checklists seem to stay in approximately the same order from year to year, so it's probably just an alphabetical thing.

Here's the 2010 autograph, which switches things up with an autograph in silver paint rather than black Sharpie. Not much more to say about this one. It's nice to finally get an autograph from the 2010 set after my boxed set arrived with all of the autographs missing. This one is # 24 / 50.

For later sets they switched from having the signatures straight on the base cards to making dedicated autograph sets. It took a little while to perfect it, though, as the first couple of years still have UV coating on them and are prone to bubbling/smudging. This is the 2011 card, and bears the serial number # 04 / 94.

I actually picked this one up from a seller on eBay, but it arrived in time for me to post it in this timeline. This is Bolshoi's 2012 autograph, and features a vertical format that very obviously shoehorns a horizontal design into a small space. It looks like BBM made all of the horizontal base cards in the 2012 set into vertical autographs. I've noticed that in a few sets. There will be a few horizontal base cards and they will get vertical autographs, while the more typical vertical base cards get horizontal autograph cards. The autograph cards always use the images used on the base cards. This is a pretty cool photo. Bolshoi is a musician as well as a competitive bodybuilder, so it's neat to see some of the wrestlers' other interests featured on their trading cards. This carries a very aesthetically-satisfying serial number of # 33 / 99.

Command Bolshoi's 2013 autograph features the more typical horizontal format. The backs of the autograph cards all carry the same authenticity guarantee, with the only difference being the foil-stamped serial number. Someone got a little crazy with the BeDazzler on the 2013 card fronts. This autograph is # 25 / 98.

The 2014 BBM True Heart set is when the cards finally got a signature-friendly matte finish on the fronts. I don't think I have her 2015 card and I still need to pick up her 2016 card. I know where I can get copies of those cards; I just haven't done it yet. I also have a few gaps to fill in from 2004-2008, assuming they exist. I think there are autographs for most of those years, but I have to research that. I did get a copy of her 2016 inscription autograph that is # / 5, but it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

These Marvel-ous Dollar Bills have got Me in a Pickle

I won a couple more pieces from artist John Soukup aka Kettle; this time a couple of illustrations from a series he did featuring superheroes holding pickles painted on the face of dollar bills. I chose to bid on these ones because Spider-Man is universally awesome and one of my sons is named after Wolverine. My other two sons are named after superheroes as well, but their namesakes weren't among the items available...yet.

I actually purchased these items and wrote that first paragraph a long time ago, probably several months or maybe even close to a year ago. At the time I was thinking pretty heavily about how you define art and how we separate art from not-art. The thing that really sparked this internal discussion was a couple of performance art pieces I saw, but then I started thinking about sketch cards and art on currency and figures painted for wargaming and where the line is that you have to cross to have something be considered as art. I found that the discussion kind of goes around in circles and seems to have a lot to do with being able to trace the inspirations for your art along a lineage of influences that are accepted by the artsy people as legitimate. You could also influence other people and be retroactively accepted by arty people because they like the work of people who traced themselves artistically back to you. That's the really short version, and there are probably all kinds of holes and exceptions in that definition. You need arty people to like your art or your art isn't really art. For what it's worth, I think the stuff Soukup does is art because it appeals to me in a certain way.

In the time between picking up those first pieces and now I was able to get a couple more bills featuring the characters my other sons were named after, Hulk (Bruce) and Thing (Benjamin). These guys aren't holding pickles, though, so they don't quite all fit the same theme. I think they are pretty cool. I'd really like to pick up one of Soukup's full-size paintings, but that is a #futuregoals kind of thing more than a today thing. Until then I'll keep picking up these smaller works and spend time thinking about the true definition of art.

Pack of the Day 125: 2 Packs of 2013 Panini Cooperstown

I have finally reached the end of that repack I've been going on and on about for the last month. I guess there were a couple packs of Panini Triple Play in there, but I didn't even open them. I guess that really speaks to how I feel about that product, because I can't help opening anything within five feet of me that even resembles a pack of cards, but I've probably got 6 or 7 packs of Triple Play piled around my desk.

This particular repack contained two retail packs of 2013 Panini Cooperstown, with 6 cards in each pack. I'll be honest; baseball for me started in the early 1990's and I've only picked up on previous baseball history organically as it was presented to me, so I am far from this product's target audience. I recognize Zack Wheat and Bill Mazeroski by name, but I don't know anything else about them. I may have heard Frankie Frisch's name before but it's not ringing any bells.

Again, I am recognizing some names here but not much else. Dave Winfield sneaks onto my radar as his career was winding down just as I got into sports. The other guys I recognize as famous dudes, but I couldn't tell you anything about them. That Cap Anson guy on Cap Anson's card who is probably Fred Pfeffer has got quite a mustache. Apparently there is a mix-up in the photo files and this happens all the time for Cap Anson. I hear he (Cap Anson, not Fred Pfeffer) was pretty racist so that cancels out all his cool points if he also had a sweet mustache.

Hey, Barry Larkin is a guy I recognize! And Warren Spahn is pretty famous, too! I am pretty sure the Larkin card is part of an insert set, and the Spahn card is some sort of Green Ice parallel. I guess I'd rather pull a Green Ice card than a Yellow Snow one. The Rollie Fingers disc is a pretty nice PC pull. This would have been more relevant about a month ago, but Night Owl talked about how infrequently baseball's commissioners get cardboard recognition. Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis is the one major exception that Night Owl noted, as his name sounds so old-timey and cool that the card companies can't help themselves. He sure looks like a grumpy fellow. I bet he and Brian McCann would get along pretty well.

Star Wars Bikkuriman Stickers: Episodes I, II, III

Back in mid-January I busted open a box of Star Wars Bikkuriman: Special Edition stickers from Japan. These stickers are packed with some decently tasty chocolate wafer snacks. The Special Edition set was actually the third product released. There were two previous sets; one for the prequel trilogy and one for the original trilogy. I got a good deal on the Special Edition box, but buying boxes of the other two sets was cost-prohibitive. There was a seller on eBay, though, who had both sets listed together for about what one box of wafers would have cost me. I used my portion of our recent windfall to snap the lot up, as all the other online sellers wanted double the price for the sets.

Each series contains 24 stickers. I think they're a little over an inch square. They've got shiny foil backgrounds and illustrations featuring key characters and scenes from the movies. I'm more of an original trilogy guy than a prequel guy, so my favorites here are the droids and Yoda. The prequels had some pretty good moments, but they also had way too many of these moments:

The illustration style is based on the original Bikkuriman stickers which featured fantasy characters and were part of a game. From my understanding, though, the game was largely secondary to collecting the stickers.

That's not to say that the prequels didn't have their moments, though. My kids were fans of seeing the Jar Jar Binks sticker in this set. I've read a fan theory positing that Jar Jar is the big bad guy manipulating the Sith, but I just don't believe that. It would be a heck of a reveal, though.

I don't really know what the backs of the stickers say. I know the titles are the same as the text on the front of the stickers. I would imagine that there is some descriptive text beneath those along with all the copyright information and logos and stuff. I mostly included scans of all the backs so that some future person out there searching for information on the set can see it all in one place.

I thought sticker # 18 was a nice inclusion as it shows the issuance of Order 66 to Commander Cody, initiating the extermination of the Jedi order. We also get to see Anakin as Darth Vader and a couple of key lightsaber battles from the films. Pretty cool stuff.

I like these stickers, but they have an odd size that isn't easy to store. They are popular enough in Japan that they make special sheets for them, but I don't know if they are available here in America, especially in the small quantity I would need. They do make pages for film slides, but I don't know if they are the right size. I guess I could go and do some measuring, but the idea just came to me so I haven't done it yet.

"What are those picture thingys, Grandpa?"

The auction listing appeared to show the stickers in pages and I secretly hoped that the proper-sized pages would come along with the stickers, but they were packaged in regular 9-card pages from Ultra-Pro. I guess Japanese collectors don't want to pony up for a whole box of Bikkuriman pages, either.

Pack of the Day 124: 2012 Panini Prizm Baseball

Yes, I am still milking that repack I got back in January. There is pretty much no other reason for me to acquire and open a pack of 2012 Panini Prizm baseball cards. This is a pretty quick pack break, as there are only four cards in this thing.

I don't even know what to say here. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this thing. I guess it would be an okay pack if I were a fan of New York Baseball Club. I am confused at the logo placement on the Liam Hendriks Rookie card, with the Prizm badge obscuring the Panini Brand name. I just feel like they could have re-sized and drug the elements around a bit. The Matt Cain card is an insert. It's printed on very thick card stock. Being an insert, it also gets a little bit of color to go with all the silver, white, black, and grey. In keeping with the theme, though, the red on the simulated stitching is flat and lifeless. And that does it for this pack! I'm off to clean my scanner glass again, as Prizm is very good at showing every little smudge.

I spent yesterday evening dismantling my kids' bunk bed and moving it into another room. So it was an evening full of swearing, sweating, and looking for that damn wrench that I just had a second ago. If I ever meet Mr. Ikea I will punch him square in the nose. Nothing in the world should require that many fiddly little fasteners. Before starting the project I watched some UFC card breaks and wound up with what was probably the hit of the night, so that should be fun to show off when it arrives. I have posts scheduled and written out to the end of February, so it might be early March before its turn comes up. Whenever something interesting enough comes in (like the cool package I got yesterday from Baseball Card Breakdown) I bump everything else back a day to fit it in, so there is stuff at the end of my queue that's been ready to go for nearly a month now.

At the Trade Deadline 41: Hot Customs from Baseball Card Breakdown

Normally I try to save to coolest card(s) in a package for the end of a post, but for this package I needed to post the cool stuff right out in front. A little while ago I sent defgav of the Baseball Card Breakdown blog a small package centered around a kinda gross Christmas card (serially numbered # 12 / 25) that I found on eBay. Well, he hit me back with something much more awesome.

Part of the hobby for him is creating custom cards or altering cards to match his tastes. I have no design talent at all, but I certainly appreciate the work and skill that goes into making them. One of my favorite sets in my collection is the Munnatawket Allen & Ginter custom set made by Nachos Grande's friend roddster, who doesn't have a blog that I am aware of. I still haven't added the most recent extension of that set to my collection, and I really need to make that a priority.

But back to the package that defgav sent. I like collecting cards of players who exist on the fringes of fame or who are known for something outside of sports glory. I collect basketball players Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol because they are so tall, Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb because they are so short, baseball player Munenori Kawasaki because he's an interview king and a ball of energy in the dugout and on the field, R.A. Dickey because he throws the knuckleball, and Mario Mendoza because his name is used as the benchmark for batting mediocrity.

Defgav touched on my Mario Mendoza collection with a custom card that incorporates a cut signature from the infamous player. It's been a while since I added to my Mendoza collection, and this custom creation definitely stands as a highlight of that PC.

The second custom included in the package was this Nolan Ryan card featuring him wearing Steve Garvey's batting helmet in the 1985 All-Star game. Defgav did a whole series of custom cards showing different players in San Diego Padres garb, and this is definitely a cool piece of cardboard.

The rest of the package was filled out with conventional cardboard that hit several of my PCs. That Jim Abbott card on the bottom is an SP from the 2012 Topps Archives set. I think my favorite card from the group is that 1974 Topps Rich 'Goose' Gossage card. I could stare at that card forever. Why is Gossage so off-center? Why was this photo chosen? Why does the odd photo choice make this card so much better? So many questions. One thing that is not in question, though, is how awesome this trade package was to open and sort through. Thanks, defgav!

Wow! That Escalated Quickly!

I've been working on a couple of UFC fighter collections recently and thought I'd chase down some more parallels for my Neil Magny and Randa Markos collections. Outside of the really big names it seemed like UFC card sales were pretty flat. The Ruby # / 8 parallels for both fighters popped up at about the same time on eBay and I put bids in on both of them, thinking I could probably land them without breaking the bank. Well, apparently the UFC market isn't as flat as I thought. The Neil Magny Ruby went for $26.88, which was probably 2-3x my personal maximum value on the card. The Randa Markos card blew that out of the water, selling for $47.50 to someone who wanted it a lot more than I did.

I went back to play in the shallow end of the pool, grabbing this Randa Markos Blue parallel, numbered # 54 / 88, for a couple of dollars. There are times when I will chase a card to a higher price than I am willing to pay, but I've found lately that I have an easier time letting even the rare cards go if the asking price feels too high. UFC is still kind of a side collection for me, so I'm not willing to chase too hard for fighter cards.

On a completely unrelated note, our pet tarantula can make quite a racket when it's hunting. We got it near the end of December because one of our twin sons was obsessed with spiders at the time and I was hoping to feed his interest in science and nature. He doesn't care too much about it, but his two brothers talk about the spider from time to time. It's kind of cool sharing a room with a spider that is so large that it makes audible sounds. I am not creeped out by that sort of thing. I had Emperor Scorpions in the past and currently own a couple of Kenyan Sand Boas. It's pretty cool to watch the spider hunt. It will knock the crickets down with its legs and then pounce with its fangs. In MMA terms I guess you could say it wears the opponent out with body shots, then goes to grappling to finish them off.