Sadaharu Oh Autos and Star Wars Canon on Cards for the Holidays!

Why do we do what we do?

I know all the attention with Topps Chrome Update is on the Skenes 1/1 chase — and I am very excited to groan in disgust when some breaker opens it and we’re treated to grainy footage of a backwards-capped bro pumping his fist in celebration. Or maybe it’ll be the saccharine father/son story who bought a box to share at Thanksgiving. Or the kid’s birthday. There are only two people who get these cards: breakers or father/son duos celebrating significant dates. So sure, I am happy for them. Great work. 

But the point of what has inadvertently become a Fickle Rant is this: the Skenes card is obfuscating something much cooler: Sadaharu Oh autographs. 

You may not know this about your old friend, but I have a bunch of Oh cards. I love them. They’re underrated value-wise, they’re generally in pretty good condition, and they are aesthetically beautiful. This one is my favorite:

But do yourself a favor — take a trip over to eBay and just search for “Menko card.” You’ll be treated to a color explosion of cards you never knew existed. They’re bright and fun and generally just cool-looking. At the National, you can rifle through boxes of them for $5 each. There are graded versions of players who were mid-level players for $20. 

I know nothing about Takeshi Doigaki (although info is not hard to find), but this card just has too much color to not want in your collection. 

Plus, SGC is kind of iffy with their “Authentic” grades due to minimum sizing not being met; I think they’re biased against smaller cards sometimes. 

Regardless, Doigaki’s card can be had for $40 – maybe less if the seller is serious about “best offer”...  it’s not going to shoot up to $120 anytime soon. But it is a really nice piece of art – and isn’t that why we do this? Kind of? Sort of?

No? Well then consider this – as more noise is made about the Oh autos (and there will be more noise), his vintage cards are going to jump in value as people turn to eBay and try and get in the game. Your window is closing!

J.R. Fickle is not one for victory laps, but I just wanted to note that the BK Advent calendar we featured here a couple weeks ago sold out in 8 minutes. Hopefully you jumped on it while you had the chance!

Mail Day doesn’t consider anyone to be our competitors; we’re all friends here! (Even if The Athletic Collectibles editor Brooks Peck doesn’t realize it yet). So we wanted to surface David Gonos’ “Happy Hobby” newsletter. Specifically his “11 Dirty eBay Tricks” send from last week. He left out one thing we HATE, so we’re officially throwing an addendum out there: People who list things as “non auto” so they can catch the “auto” search. Because then you have to type something like “Paige Bueckers auto -non” to filter them out. 

I don’t know who they’re trying to trick, but… there you go

Three things I’m passing on this week:

1. The Jake Paul/Mike Tyson “slap” card – not feeling it at all. And not because of the streaming issues or the lackluster fight. I am perfectly ambivalent about the whole thing. 

2. The JuJu Watkins Funko Pop – I know, I wrote about it last week. I’m reconsidering it. There are SO MANY Funko Pops out there. And out “here” in my room and on my shelves. Too many! Tribbles! 

3. Paying 25% fees and $10 shipping on $20 auction item wins. You know who you are. I’m done! (Until I come back).

Three things I’m buying instead:

1. The WIllrow Hood Topps Living Set card – Holy crap. I thought I knew Star Wars. I do not. I just spent a half hour in the Willrow Hood rabbit hole. You should too. 

2. Dr. Cornelius Evazan Vintage Collection figure – The rabbit hole led me to the guy in Star Wars who is somehow a doctor and has a giant backstory and his own figure coming out. Am I the last person to know about Dr. Cornelius Evazan??

3. Burgermeister Meisterburger figure – Tis the Season!

I wanted to end here with some Happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone. There are a lot of collecting newsletters you can choose to read, and we are always touched and deeply moved you chose ours. So I leave you with this: What I believe is the only Gobbledy Gooker card ever made.