My mini collections - current storage setups

My last post was about trying to herd my mini-collections together - after typing up an essay, I don't want to skip forwards towards an entirely different topic.

I want to share a snapshot of how cards are put away for my awesome action collections - which something I kind of made up to make me feel smarter as the main mini-collection themes I focus on.

In an ideal collecting world, maybe I can display my awesome action cards in plastic pages and binders to flip through on a whim - admittedly I tend to hoard more and collect less, where a priority is having a collection of themed bulk cards, without feeling like they are all over the place [at least for my mini-collections].

Awesome action – Actual on field action

Batting / Baserunning / Celebrations / Good job / Confrontations / Curtain Calls / Fielding – 3,200 count box

Batting – Row 1
Baserunning – Row 1 – A–G, Row 2 – H-Z
Celebrations – Row 3
Good job – Row 3
Confrontations – Row 3
Curtain calls – Row 3
Fielding 1B – Row 3
Fielding 2B – Row 4
Fielding 3B – Row 4
Fielding SS – Row 4

I had the following collections in loose boxes I've tried to make use of as card boxes - I am not above reusing shoeboxes, blaster boxes and other miscellaneous boxes, but it's probably the case where I want my themed cards in a catch-all storage setup.

I ended up buying another 3,200 count box - to see if I can jam everything together and still have space for more adds.

Making the throws – Target branded shoebox

Awesome action – Actual on field action – Pitching – Card Saver I box

Dirt fetish – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box

Fun cards – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box

Game face cards – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box with my fun cards

Personality shots – Target branded shoebox

If all my themed cards don't fit into one 3,200 count box and the space ends up too tight - I may keep one or more collections as is, where anything goes as long as I have an idea where certain collections are.

Through 2026 - my mini collections

I've been bringing home card show piles over the past decade, after the world was opening up and card shows were up in full swing - I may have discovered a seller whose bulk boxes I might feed on about once a month to the tune 200-300 cards for a nickel each.

In my own little world I wanted to look high and low for mini-collection cards - where I wanted them to be the focus of my day-to-day collecting.

As it happened however, maybe my filing system in a Google Sheets file got corrupted [columns and headers, as well as the cards I had dutifully entered the past 15 years were in wrong places] or bloated - where even as I was took in more cards, there wasn't the familiar files to list and tally up my new finds as part of an archive.

Maybe I got so ingrained to typing into the same files over and over - that it was going to take time to start over with all the old data.

Maybe even the backup file [on a program called Calc] I may have started listing cards into was lost - due to a memory card crash.

For the past four or five years, actual cards in-hand may or may not have been added towards piles that have just sat around loose in what I may call my morgue - where it was a sad state where I had all these cards that were supposed to be part of certain themes, but I wasn't ever doing anything to enjoy them further.

I really needed to do something about my mini-collection cards where I wanted to have some peace of mind again - maybe the work to get things together hasn't been perfect, but maybe I have finally tried to correct things through the early part of the year, where I want to tend to my cards as much as much possible, especially when the weather is a little more forgiving.

Maybe related to my Google Sheets file wonking out on me is having what I called my 'awesome action' collection as a mini-collection themes - I had to get cards in order and classify how I wanted them sorted.

Awesome action – Actual on field action - simplified outline

Batting / Baserunning / Celebrations / Good job / Confrontations / Curtain Calls / Fielding

Batting
Baserunning
Celebrations
Good job
Confrontations
Curtain calls
Fielding 1B
Fielding 2B
Fielding 3B
Fielding SS

Making the throws – Mirrors my fielding cards; 2B and SS have double play subsets

Awesome action – Actual on field action – Pitching

Dirt fetish

Fun cards

Game face cards

Personality shots

I have what I call my archived collections that I may leave as is - this was when most, if not all cards were listed out.

I have what I have I call my main feeder collections - these are the themed collections from the past four or five years that may not have been formally listed, but I might be looking to change things up, where I might rather have 100 or so cards at a time as part of a personal themed curated set, rather then cards as part of a monolithic archive in a 3,200 count box or some other storage arrangement.

If I have the cards part of a personal themed curated set - maybe I can get back to listing a number of cards in a file where I have something to look at as far as a collection goes and also to check if I already have cards in-hand as opposed to buying more that end up dupes.

As the case maybe I want to work closer with thumbing through and playing with my cards - part of what I do is trying to herd cards from purchases online and maybe in-person, through finds and pulls.

This means smaller piles respawn into what I call satellite piles, where they have to be sorted in bigger update piles - when things get impacted within my temporary satellite / update files, I feel like I am freeing things up by updating my main feeder piles.

I have tried to keep my main feeder piles as the last [nearly semi-permanent] outpost to add cards into - without pulling cards outright, I might need to occasionally move things around and explore new storage options.

COMC order #9 - Another variety pack [FIN]

To stretch things out, one final post for the COMC cards I had gotten in-hand last December - where I've conscripted odds and ends to my collections.

2025 Topps Finest Drake Baldwin RC #21 - my interest in keeping up with aspects of Major League Baseball has probably waned through the past decade, where I might plead ignorance as far as knowing the top prospects coming up.

Entering the 2025 season, maybe Baldwin was a bit of an unknown commodity anyway - I wasn't paying any particular attention as he played well enough to displace Sean Murphy as the Atlanta Braves' starting catcher and won the 2025 National League Rookie of the Year.

As it goes, I probably needed any Baldwin card to fill a spot in my award winners collection - which ends up kind of being in mothballs, where the only time I might worry about the project is when I can add more cards of the year-to-year award winners [MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year].

2002 Donruss Originals On the Record /800 Jimmie Foxx #OR-2 - I thought up a random insert set to search for back in 2023 and this one came up in my memory banks, where it's something that came out 25 years ago and counting.

The card is jazzed up with a serial number on the back and looks almost inspired of a USA Today newspaper like design - Babe Ruth makes a cameo, so it ends up being a star on star card.

1975 NST Mr. Baseball Stamps Shigeo Nagashima #204 and 2001 BBM Shigeo Nagashima #530 - to broaden my collecting interests, I might have been looking to build up a micro-mini collection of his cards a couple of years ago.

It might not actually be a traditional card, but I like the candid street clothes moment captured - where Nagashima is signing autographs for a couple of boys.

2022 BBM Fusion Roki Sasaki #16 - maybe I wished I would have grabbed some Japanese era Sasaki cards while in Japan last November, but was worried I was overpaying for single cards that were not rookies anyway.

2022 BBM Roki Sasaki Perfect Game Roki Sasaki #11 - I think I made up for a little bit of regret, picking out a couple of Sasaki cards, where they at least showed some unique, cutesy images, even if they were no better than the other Japanese era Sasaki cards.

2022 Bowman NPB Nippon Professional Baseball Yoshinobu Yamamoto #9 - maybe I wanted to squirrel away a Japan era card of the Japanese import after his rookie year back in 2024, even if the card I ended up with here was a pretty basic card.

2023 Topps Now Off-Season Yoshinobu Yamamoto #/34,496 #OS-25 - this wasn't worth much at all, but maybe his earliest MLB era card, even if it's a oddball Topps Now thing as opposed to a card that would be inserted in packs.

1974-75 Calbee Bobby Marcano #836 - to fill out my purchase before having things shipped, I grabbed this old-school Japanese card of a Gaijin player who was from Venezuela and flourished in Japan as a second baseman.

COMC order #9 - Sportscasters

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 03 Lausanne Printed in Japan Hank Aaron #03-16 - I picked up this old-school Hank Aaron oddball item for around $6 three years ago and was part of what I had delivered from my COMC account late in December.

The larger format card ends up sort of a misfit, but a case where I didn't mind a more substantial card in-hand - rather than some ratty regular sized card.

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 27 Geneva A Dave Kingman #27-21 - I decided to pick this up for around $3, because it's been sitting somewhere in my memory banks as a scratch the itch card to take ownership of.

Rather than another regular size card I can file away like the others in my inking it up theme - this ends ends up being a bigger, oddball item, where the image of Kingman signing autographs pops a little bit more.

COMC order #8 - Minor league cards

Maybe going down the COMC rabbit hole has just not been a thing for me - but maybe a few times I have done so with store credit added, I've end up with some odd cards I didn't realize I needed, but impulsively had to make keepers of.

1987 ProCards Minor League Jim Morris #261 - maybe it was the same night in 1999 [nearly 30 years ago] where I got Morris to sign an index card [?] after a Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays @ Anaheim Angels game and then also a bigger deal, was getting Jose Canseco to literally scribble on some things [for the first time ever] when he left the stadium.

That 1999 Tampa Bay team also had Julio Franco towards the end of the season, so that was at least three cult favorites types - though I didn't see Franco then and would not quite realize his 'greatness' until he popped back up in the major leagues in his mid 40s.

A couple of minor league cards of a Tom Nicholson - who went to my high school and played professionally, before ending up in the college coaching ranks.

Maybe the lingering sentiment of keeping up with a local guy has faded - but years ago, it was cool to find a college card of Nicholson posted [on another card blog], when he played college baseball at Texas, so it was nice to find two more cards.

Finally, a couple of early minor league cards picked up of Erik Kratz, a journeyman catcher who played in parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues - I occasionally see clips of Foul Territory Podcasts posted on social media, where Kratz gives his takes on current baseball happenings, along with fellow former big league catcher A.J. Pierzynski and sports broadcaster Scott Braun.

New Hall of Famers for 2026

I have a loose card project for Hall of Famers and each year as a chance to add new cards to the mix - where I end up picking one random card per player / subject to induct into my collection.

With Jeff Kent being elected through a committee at the end of 2025, maybe it was a validation for a player who may not have been a well loved guy - but the slugging numbers as a second baseman couldn't be denied.

Kent has had a bunch of cards from the tail end of the junk wax era onward - I grabbed his 1999 Topps #330 as the card to add to my Hall of Fame collection, but the 1997 Bowman #65 sort of ends up a color match with the black borders.

Maybe Carlos Beltran was on shaky ground for a little bit as he got exposed as the supposed ringleader in the Houston Astros cheating scandal - but despite any sort of resistance from the peanut gallery now, his playing career has him a Hall of Fame legend.

Maybe I had the 1999 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects #15 in-hand as the card for my HOF project - but the 2006 Bazooka Blue Fortune #150 parallel kind of pops [even for a more basic, non-glossy, non-foil card] and has a one-time teammate [and Hall of Famer] Jeff Bagwell as a star-on-star bonus.

I did not think Andruw Jones would ever get enough support to be a Hall of Famer, where I was still looking at how his career fell off after leaving the Atlanta Braves - in my mind, he was destined to languish in the hall of very good at best

Maybe I still feel like he could have finished the last portion of his career better - but the momentum really built up where the numbers guys really did their work to shift the narrative, where Jones may have been one of the best all-around centerfielders of all time, rather just another guy who played the position and has some good years.

Maybe the Jones card on the left ends up my pick to click as far as being added to my HOF collection - though I wanted to show off a Japanese era card I dug up from a card shop bulk bin while I was in Japan last November, where he was someone I recognized as a foreign player and a one-time MLB star.

COMC order #7 - 1957 Topps Don Zimmer #284

Originally a card I read about in passing through a Dime Boxes post - I regret not making a keeper out of a copy I found thumbing through a vintage portion of a seller's binned single cards at a card show back in 2023.

I ended up with my own copy from COMC - where perhaps I was searching for random cards that I might be able to add to my account on a whim.

This was added to my COMC account in the middle of November 2023 and it took about two years to get it in-hand with the other cards I got - maybe the passage of time from then until now is a little peculiar to me, where I let all that time pass, but it's almost like I was good letting the card sit at COMC.

COMC order #6 - A variety pack

2007 Upper Deck 1989 Reprints Casey Stengel #89UD-CS - I saw this card somewhere and had to have it, with the image of the legendary manager looking at a baseball that is supposed to a crystal ball of sorts.

I am not sure how many times the image has been reprinted on a card - I saw it on one of the base cards from an early 2000s Upper Deck retro themed set, but that did not deter me from keeping this card on a wantlist somewhere.

I wasn't sure if a copy of the card was worth paying a premium for - but finally grabbed one I saw on the COMC Web site for about $4.

2020 Topps Legend Variation SP Legend Variation Reggie Jackson #206 - I have never gotten a beat on the Topps legends variations and kind of feel like I'm missed out on a thing, but I've gotten a few over the past 5-10 years I guess.

This can end up as either a binder material centerpiece as a highlight for my inking it up collection - having had the pleasure of attempting to get Jackson's autograph after he was a player, I am sure he is telling these late 1970s era fans to keep their distance and to calm down, as he grabs a ball to sign.

2021 SkyBox Metal Universe Champions Fresh Foundation Paige Spiranac #FF36 - between the time I added a copy to my account, to when I had it shipped with my COMC order, it looks as if I picked up another copy.

COMC order #5 - Ichiro

I passively end up making keepers out base cards / inserts and parallels of prominent players to reflect the fabric of a decade / era - this may not mean I actively collect everyone as if they were all my personal favorites, where being obligated to mindlessly hoard 'numbers' seems overwhelming.

On the other hand, besides my regional favorites, I've settled on a short list of 5-10 guys from a decade / era I've chosen to really focus on - from the 2000s through 2010s, Ichiro was an all-around national star to gravitate to, where there is lingering sentiment to this day.

Admittedly, Ichiro had gluts of MLB cards issued where I am content to leave most alone unless they fall into my lap - however, it becomes a mission to look for cards that end up a little different, notably his 1990s pre-MLB issues from Japan.

In my COMC order, I tried to build up a micro-mini run of random ones that caught my eye a couple of years ago - maybe there was a little bit of FOMO, where the cards would have been listed at higher prices once he got elected to the Hall of Fame and any one card would be harder to consider as impulse pick ups.

I tried to pick out some unique ones, even if they more basic cards - where it wasn't the just the usual hitting, fielding or standing around during a baseball game images.

COMC order #4 - Al Schacht

I had picked up a vintage card of Al Schacht in 2022, which I thought was a real neat, quaint odd card for a someone mostly trying to catch up with the here and now - maybe in 2023, I saw another different vintage card of Schacht during a card show rummage, but it didn't register as something I had to pick up and probably pair up with the other already in-hand.

Maybe I regretted not making a keeper out of the second Schacht card, so on a random search on COMC - I had the card in my memory banks and see if I could seek out a copy to add to my account / port.

COMC order #3 - Michael Jordan

1992-93 Topps Archives Michael Jordan #52 - I picked a copy of this card up after regretting skipping past one during a card show rummage three years ago.

While the card sat in COMC account - I got another copy from a card show rummage, which was added to my first all-time Top 100 keepers collection.

Maybe it would have been nicer if Topps had tried to mimic an original back for the Topps Archives cards - where the front matches the back as far as mimicking the 1984 Topps [baseball] set design.

1994 Classic Minor League All Star Edition - Michael Jordan #1 - I have had at least three or four Jordan baseball cards in my collections, but may have seen this posted on another card blog [Dime Boxes?] one time, so I was inspired to hunt for a copy to make a keeper.

Jordan's dalliance in pro baseball in 1994 was peculiar where he hit .202, which was right at the Mendoza line. - but it's kind of an impressive feat to have the season he did, for a guy who never played baseball past high school and had to learn some basic things about being a pro ball player.

COMC order #2 - Todd Helton

I passively end up making keepers out base cards / inserts and parallels of prominent players to reflect the fabric of a decade / era - this may not mean I actively collect everyone as if they were all my personal favorites, where being obligated to mindlessly hoard 'numbers' seems overwhelming.

On the other hand, besides my regional favorites, I've settled on a short list of 5-10 guys from a decade / era I've chosen to really focus on - Helton is one of those former players who ends up a non-geographical guy for me whose cards I can look for, where it becomes a mission to claim or rummage for his cards I assume I don't have.

Go figure in my COMC order, I only ended up with a couple of Heltons - it could have been a trio of them, but the card that was missing in my order was actually a Helton card.

1998 Leaf Fractal Foundation Gold Leaf Rookie /3999 Todd Helton #184

Helton has his share of rookie era issues, but it's not as big of priority to chase and pay a premium for any one particular card - when his true rookie card [1993 Topps Traded #19T; Team USA] ends up pre-dating his professional career.

2001 Donruss Class Of 2001 Scrapbook /525 Todd Helton #SB-7

Maybe unique design jersey / relic cards might be fun to track down on the cheap - even when it's a type of card that other collectors don't value at all, they fill out my player collections.

COMC order #1 - Angels material

I had about 40 cards in my account and in November decided to finally have them delivered - the shipping charges of around $15 hit me like a brick, where I was hoping for a flat rate of $6 perhaps.

I knew there were grumbling about how COMC jacked up shipping over the past year and I didn't quite know what to make of it - in my case, I just factored the extra costs [$5.99 for the first item and $0.25 per additional item] into what I paid for each card, where what any single card actually cost was OK to a certain pont.

The bulk of my cards have been in my account for past two or three years, where I could have acted on getting my cards shipped then rather than now - I was probably content to let my cards sit in my account, but in case something unexpected happens, I didn't want to let another year go by without having them in hand.

Even with the shipping fee increased, I wasn't expecting a quick ship time - maybe the original ship date was early December, but checking back on updates changed the date into a January ship date.

I actually got notification where my order was shipping out days before Christmas, so that was better than expected - where I didn't have to wait much longer to thumb through the cards that were in someone else's possession for all this time

The only problem with my shipment was getting an email letting me know a card couldn't be added due to a warehouse error - my account was eventually credited for the cost [$2.85] of the card, but maybe I don't get that clean break from the grasp of COMC just yet, where I found a different card to add.

I am going to see if I can get on a run of showing my COMC cards - where it'll have some content to post through the new year.

2018 Topps Update Series SP Legend Variation Nolan Ryan #US1 - a classic posed image of the strikeout king in his prime.

Looking back to when card was printed - 2018 will ring the same way in collector's ears, the way 2011 once did, for one singular player, then maybe a couple more.

1996 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle Tim Salmon / Barry Bonds #5 - regardless of value, I feel a shiny card like this ends up a centerpiece to my Salmon collection.

Maybe the more prominent, infamous player is on the reverse - no one would ever think that Salmon or Bonds would meet in the World Series years later.

1990 Topps TV Glossy All-Star Set Chuck Finley #14 - Finley was one of the all-time pitching greats in Angels franchise history, but his cards spawned during the junk wax era.

For a guy like Finley, it ends up being fun to find an oddball card - that was a little different than the glut of mainstream cards printed.

A quartet of miscellaneous Angels cards - the Garret Anderson and Mike Trout boyhood inserts might go a perpetually work in progress Angels themed curated set, where I set aside 100-108 cards for sentimental purposes.

The first year 2024 Bowman Draft card of Christian Moore was among the few 'new' cards I was able to tack on before shipping my cards out - where I added $25 to my account, but $15 of that amount had to go into shipping my cards out.

Finally, there is a Logan O'Hoppe insert pictured, where he was a promising young player when he first came up - but has had a rougher go with things the past couple of years, where his future is a little uncertain.

Mini-collection finds - at a crossroads Pt. 2

The following pick-ups represents the other part my latest finds - where it shouldn't be all that serious and if I'm not having fun, I should just quit collecting cold turkey.

Beyond the glory - Octavio Dotel - I don't want to use a former player's untimately passing as reason to collect them now, where I didn't do so before.

However, I might give a player like Dotel [R.I.P.] a second look - where it's a more recent guy I remember playing just 10-15 years ago.

Awesome outfield action - Eric Davis - I like cards of guys trying to do something unique in the outfield.

Hats-off - Barry Bonds - my decade / binder star collections supersede any mini-collecting considerations, regardless of quality; on the other hand, I might prefer to have some star power in my mini-collections, where it doesn't matter what I do with a $0.50 card.

Inking it up - a part of me misses going to MLB games and spring training, trying to get stuff signed by players in-person, where seeing card pictures of players doing some fan service almost ends up bittersweet where my glory days are ancient history.

Pitchers hitting - it's still fun seeing the occasional, dated cards of pitchers hitting or in some cases, doing some baserunning like former big leaguer Alex Fernandez.

Players interviewed - Pedro Martinez - I don't remember claiming the Martinez from a sale online, but it looks like I did make it a keeper.

It could do double duty as a players smiling card - but a microphone is visible, where I assume he is doing an interview.

Players smiling - Dave Henderson - not even considering the ALCS home run he hit against the Angels in 1986, where it was before my time, Henderson was not a player [R.I.P.] who I'd built up a lingering sentiment for to ever collect.

On the other hand, maybe I've read or seen somewhere, where he always had a smile on his face and was part of those great late 1980s / early 1990s Oakland Athletics teams - maybe I can find the space for an occasional mini-collection card or a card for my team boxes.

Shades - Phil Nevin - I got this as a bonus card as part of an occasional '2-for-1' deal [with the Gwynn shown above] offered for sale from a seller online I claim and buy cards from.

I don't know if I can use a Nevin card in 2025 - taking a closer look at the batting image, Nevin is wearing sunglasses of some sort, so I collect those cards too where players are shown with sunglasses or shades.

Mini-collection finds - at a crossroads Pt. 1

I've probably hoarded mini-collection cards for at least the past 18 years - I'm kind of bored with having 25-30 themes I have to keep up with, where it's mostly salvaging bulk cards in a perpetual, 'in my own little world' chase.

On the other hand, maybe I'm just not done at all with my mini-collection adventures - to amuse myself, I'm still keeping an eye out for miscellaneous cards through online sales and even paying a premium for certain mini-collection cards outright, even if they are dated pieces of cardboard that no reasonable collector would want through 2025.

The following pick-ups represents my latest finds - where it shouldn't be all that serious and if I'm not having fun, I should just quit collecting cold turkey.

Fun cards - Oddities - this junk wax era card of Fred McGriff seems like a pretty basic [Studio] shot card, but giving it a second glance, the Hall of Famer is posed balancing a bat [knob] on his finger.

I don't know if this ends up for my junk wax era curated set or another card that ends up being sort of unique - where it's kind of goofy.

Awesome action - Actual on field game action - I have cards with standout fielding images by position and cards with standout throwing images, for infielders making regular throws and second baseman and shortstops in particular, making double play throws.

Game face cards - Focused and Men at Work - Kevin Brown looks like his day is done but he has his right arm wrapped up, so that is kind of a unique shot, with him still looking like he paying attention in the dugout.

Richard Hidaldgo was a decent MLB player back in his day - but here he is shown as a young pro, doing soft toss duties in some minor league outpost somewhere.

I had to have the Russ Ortiz card and ends up my pick to click here - where I assume he is running sprints through the stands inside Scottsdale Stadium, where the San Francisco Giants have their spring training games.

Navigating through a Japanese repack

I was fortunate to be able to travel for a couple of weeks to Japan the past year - mostly taking photo ops at various sighteeing sites.

When I could, I tried to look for cards and seek out places where they were sold - this blog was instrumental in helping find a few card shops, where I sought a few places out to get a look at the Japanese baseball card scene.

In my second trip to Yellow Submarine Akihabara, where it's part of a multi-floor 'department store,' made up of different shops for various hobbies / interests I might be too old for [or not] - there was a dedicated section for sports cards and other trading cards with bulk bins to rummage through, packs for sale, supplies and single cards displayed behind glass.

There might have been a display table with repacks and after browsing around for miscellanous 'non-sport singles' featured behind glass - I grabbed a couple of bulk baseball card repacks in plastic for 200 yen or around $1.30.

I saw another person grabbing and stacking 5-10 repacks together and while it wasn't all that serious - I wondered if I should stake my claim before they all disappeared for the day.

I do not know about Japanese baseball cards at all, so maybe the nuances about collecting specific ones didn't matter as much as getting a bunch of cards to take home with me - I ended up thumbing through the contents and while these might not be valued cards, I tried to separate them where I had keepers for my collection.

Cards of Atsuya Furata and Shigeo Nagashima - I didn't know who Furata was and his card ends up an odd duck for me, but looking him up online, he ends up being a legendary catcher and Japanese baseball Hall of Famer.

Nagashima ends up a legend I may have heard of in passing where an American collector on YouTube collects him - go figure, I ended up buying a copy of the card from the bulk bins of the card shop, where I didn't go through the repack until I was back home.

Some retro cards of Japanese baseball legends - adds some historicity in my pack, even if the cards are actually fairly recent.

Japanese cards of guys who played in the big leagues - just like the Nagashima, I may or may not have picked up a copy of the Masahiro Tanaka card I found in the repack

A couple of cards of a pair of Japanese players expected to sign with big league teams - the cards may only be regular cards, but it's a novelty where I only really have the chance to collect MLB cards.

Cards of a couple of gaijin players who played in Japan - after a dominant season pitching in Korea, Cody Ponce signed a three year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays to see whether he can build on his overseas performance.

Some odds and ends - a couple of the same cards found of Shinnosuke Ogasawara, a Japanese pitcher who played for the Washington Nationals in 2025 and a trio of gaijin players.

These may not be the best example, but for guys who have had their share of mainstream American cards - it's always interesting to see examples of their Japanese cards.

Parallels / inserts - these might not be high brow cards of better players, but anything different besides regular cards ends up as a teaser.

Standouts - even if only regular cards, I went ahead and used Baseball Reference to check up on players and see whether they were 'good or not.'

I wanted to separate the bulk repack cards of guys who might be better than the rank-and-file players at best - where maybe if young enough, have the chance to eventually big leaguers, if that is a path they decide to choose.

Maybe I will look to get a beat on keeping up with the Japanese baseball season in 2026 - where it might be fun keeping up with certain guys whose cards I've pulled and made keepers of.

More standouts - maybe I can make a themed curated set out of this repack, where it ends up being a scrapbook, rather than trying to squirrel the cards in different places.

There were a couple of instances were I was bipped with the same player - I wasn't sure who Sachiya Yamasaki was, but he pitched for the Nippon Ham Fighters the past three seasons and has generally been a solid veteran.

Cards of old dudes - there might be a more cards of older players set aside in my standouts portion, but these end up as notable 'super veterans.'

I found a card of Takumi Kuriyama, a 41-year old who hung on to play his 22nd season with one team, the Seibu Lions - where everyone gets old, it's pretty neat to see a pro baseball player still active in his 40s.

I also found a card of Masanori Ishikawa, who is even older at 45 and was still pitching through 2025, all with the Yakult Swallows - he has a losing career record of 198-203, but it looks like he chasing 200 wins, so he might be back next season.