Visit to a LCS in Tokyo !!

Thanks to some good tips from Ryan and Zippy Zappy I was on a mission to visit at least one LCS in Tokyo during my visit last week. I found one on the web at only 10 minutes from my hotel in Shinjuku called Mint Shinjuku !

The shop had a wide variety of cards including a lot of soccer cards, NFL, local Japanese Baseball cards as well as MLB cards. With little expectation I started looking around for some new Glavine cards. Well, who would have thought I would actually find a low-numbered Glavine, a 2007 Finest card numbered to only 25 !! I also found a cool 2002 Fleer Showcase card !

Although they did not have that much for my collection I did find two more baseball cards. First up, a Greg Halman auto. As some of you might remember, Greg played for the Mariners until he was murdered during a trip to his family in the Netherlands, ending not only his MLB career but more importantly his life at a way too young age....

I also found myself a cool Rizzo card from this year's Topps TeK !

Besides some baseball cards they also had some lose packs of Star Wars for sale. Although I normally not collect any of these I though it would be fun to open some packs. Here's what I got !

First up, Han Solo !!! and Luke Skywalker !!!

More cool cars with Luke and his Father !!

Lastly, a silky Star Wars card !!

These Star Wars cards bring back memories so pretty cool to open a few packs of these. All in all a fun visit to one of Tokyo's many card shops !!

Thanks for visiting my blog today !

Tokyo dome !!

As some of you read in my earlier post, I had to visit Tokyo for work last week. Luckily I had some time to myself on Saterday before flying back to Europe on Sunday. Browsing the internet I noticed that the finals of the World Championship Baseball was actually held on that day in Tokyo, talk about coincidence !!

Of course I couldn't let this opportunity pass by so bought a ticket online. The following ticket arrived at my doorstep just before my trip.

To me this could be a big fraud or a valid ticket as I had no clue what the ticket said. Even the start time of the game was confusing with times 11:00, 13:00 and 19:00 being mentioned. Asking for some advice during my trip in Tokyo even my Japanese colleagues were not entirely clear so I decided to show up at 11:00 and see what would happen. Apparently I had bough a ticket that both gave me the right to attend the bronze medal match (Japan vs Mexico) and the final later that day (Korea vs USA). It was clear this was going to be a long day !!

Before I moved into the stadium, this was the view outside, a large fairy wheel and a rollercoaster ! But anyways, no time for that, it was time to see Japan play first !

I had fairly good seats and had a good view of the field. Below just before the matched commenced !

The first match actually was pretty boring. After the 2nd inning Japan was already leading with 8-0 with Mexico already at there 3rd pitcher. With still a long day ahead, given that the final only started at 19:00, I decided to leave the stadium after the 4th inning and check out the surrounding, visit a LCS (more on that in a next post!!), have dinner etc. only to return at 19:00 for the final ! Below, the bases are loaded just before a 2 base, 2RBI hit by Japan.

At 19:00 I re-entered the stadium to see the USA team play Korea. Well, this matched turned out the same as the earlier match as after the 3rd inning or so Korea was already leading by 7 or so. Both matches had clear winners and never really became exciting. Nevertheless, Tokyo Dome and the surroundings were are great experience so happy to have been there !!

Be on the look out for my next post with my loot from a LCS visit in Toyko !!

Our first Win at Premier 12 !! Going to Tokyo !!

Of course the World Series are over but of course that does not mean we have a World Champion yet (bring on the comments !). The World Championship has only just started in Taiwan with the finals being planned in Tokyo next week. The Netherlands, or Kingdom of the Netherlands as we seem to officially call ourselves in these baseball tournaments, won the first game 2 days ago beating Chinese Taipai by 7 to 4. This without key players like Gregorius, Profar, Schoop, Simmons, Bogaerts but with Andruw Jones. Would be great to see all these players play together at some point.

A few years ago we actually became World Champions so who knows what can happen this time around. Even better news is that I am visiting Tokyo for work next week and was able to be there on Saturday. The best news is that I got tickets to the final that day !!!! Let's hope the Kingdom of the Netherlands reaches the final and I can be part of history !

Anyways, before we get carried away here let's wait and see what happens in the coming days.

Any of you following the Premier 12 ? Any tips for good LCS in Tokyo ?

As every post needs a card, here's a Dutchie !!

Another UK Package !!

Yesterday I received a surprise package from the UK, a surprise package from Matthew !! Matthew and I have traded once before and although he doesn't have a blog he does take part in a UK baseball card Facebook page. With me being old-fashion and not having Facebook, I am not sharing in that fun I am afraid. Nevertheless, sending packages back and forth is always fun and appreciated !!

The yellow envelop was full of cool Gypsy Queen cards !! Let's start with some minis !! I love minis and trying to complete the minis set so these are very helpful !! Matthew send me a big pile of at least 30 minis, here are a few !

Matthew send me some more minis, 2015 inserts and 2015 GQ !!

In addition the a big bunch of GQ inserts Matthew also send me some very cool Joe DiMaggio cards. Awesome cards from 2009 UD SPx Baseball, all numbered to 425 so I guess that's the print run on these. Very nice cards so might decide to chase this insert set !!

All in all Matthew send me an awesome package so thanks so much Matthew, a return package will be on its way in the coming weeks !!

Cubs !

When I wrote this post the Mets are still hanging in there being 2-1 behind. Hopefully when this post is published, they are still going, making this an exciting World Series!

I really enjoyed watching the Cubs this regular season as well as the post season, ignoring the Mets sweep of course. All of it was fun to watch. To celebrate a cool Cubs season, with more to come next year I hope, I was able to add a cool Rizzo card to my collection with Lester and Baez as a bonus !!

You guys enjoyed the Cubs as well this season ?

Konami anyone ?

I recently noticed a cool card on eBay and given it's a Glavine card I had to chase it of course. It's a 2006 or 2005 Konami card. Browsing through my Glavine beckett list I was not able to track it down on that on, making this even a more interesting one ! I only know Konami from MSX videogames from when I was a kid. Meet my first Konami card !

Do you guys own any Konami cards ? Any more detail one these ?