How Many Countries Do I Have Cards From?

That’s a question I asked myself when I was finishing my previous post about a card from Germany. I asked it at the end of the post, but Fuji (of the World Famous Chronicles of Fuji) made a comment that he might do it as a blog post, I agreed that it deserved to be, and here I am doing my own.

This turned out to be a fun little exercise, and I’d love to see other people’s international collections, so let’s see if we can’t make this something of a Blog Bat Around.  If you do something similar, please post a link in the comments here so everybody can see what you’ve got.

Since, with the exception of two week-long trips to Canada, I’ve spent all of my life in the US, it’s not surprising that this list starts with…

1) UNITED STATES

This Gil Hodges card is, of course, from the 1965 Topps set.

2) CANADA

Sometime around the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, I bought a complete set of 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA hockey for $10… Mainly because it was a cool oddball set.  To this day, it remains one of my favorite hockey sets..

3) MEXICO

I didn’t even think about Mexico until I remembered that I had one example of the 1977 Topps “Futbol Americano Profesional” set. I’m not clear if these cards were made in Mexico, but they were sold in Mexico so that’s good enough for me.

4) JAPAN

I’ve been intrigued by Japanese baseball since 1979 when I stumbled on a game on a UHF station outside of New York City. My Japanese collection isn’t going to impress anybody or pay for someone’s college tuition, but I enjoy it.

This card of Dwayne Hosey is from 1998 Calbee.

5) ENGLAND

Anglophile that I am, I have a few English cards;  mostly soccer, with some cigarette and tea cards… and Doctor Who as well. This card of a Rover BRM Le Mans is from the 1968 Brooke Bond “History Of The Motor Car” set.

6) SCOTLAND

I’m going with international sporting definitions of a country;  both Scotland and England are part of the United Kingdom, but I’m counting them separately.  This card is from the 1975/76 Topps Scottish Footballers set.

7) AUSTRALIA

It doesn’t get much more “stumbling across” than the way I stumbled across this card.  I was at a show and this card, from the 1978 Scanlens Victorian Football League set, was sitting on top of a dime box.  I had no idea what it was, but for a dime there was no argument that whether it was coming home with me.  Sadly, it was the only one of it’s kind I found.

8) GERMANY

When I featured the Sanella Margerine “Handbuch des Sports” card he other day, I forgot that it wasn’t my first German card;  I have this “Wer ist die schoenste Frau?” card from a cigarette card set that’s also from the 1930’s.  I originally wrote about this card over three years ago;  I still don’t know who she is.

9) SOUTH KOREA

I found out that Korean baseball cards were available on COMC, so I bought one just so I could say I have a Korean baseball card. This card features Shin Yung Song from the 2015 NtreevSoft Korean Baseball Organization set.

10) ITALY

I almost forgot that I had these 1992 Score Italian Soccer cards.  I don’t remember when or where I bought them, I only know I bought they because they were exotic (and, I’m sure, relatively cheap).

It’s not Trey Mancini or Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini or even Henry Mancini… It’s Roberto Mancini, who won  numerous championships as a player and is currently the manager of the Italian national team.

Since I’ve never featured one of these on the blog before, here’s the back:

11) SWEDEN

Swedish publisher Semic produced a hockey card set to commemorate the 1995 World Ice Hockey Championships, which were held in Stockholm that year.  I bought this card because I like Michal Pivonka, who played for the Capitals back when I still rooted for the Capitals.

12) THE NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND)

Back in the 1980’s I bought a pack of “Football Stars” cards which have long been a mystery to me.  I’ll write about the whole pack some other time, but they are blank-backed minis and I only know they’re from The Netherlands because the thin paper wrapper says “MADE AND PRINTED IN HOLLAND” on the back.  Since the front references the World Cup, and Germany’s Klaus Allofs only played in the 1986 World Cup, I’m assuming these cards are from 1986. They may well be some sort of “Broder”.

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I have to admit that I didn’t expect to have twelve countries represented, but I’m often drawn to the unusual when it comes to collectibles, especially when it’s within my budget.

So, once again, I’d love to know what countries are represented in your collection; you can always just leave a comment here. This isn’t any kind of competition, there’s no award (real or imaginary) for having the most countries… I’m just curious and I’m sure others are as well.