Completing a Set and Starting a New One Maybe?

I completed a Kellogg's set today.  One would think I would be more enthused to say that since I don't complete Kellogg's sets often nowadays.  It's a tough set too, but you will understand in a moment why that wasn't the highlight of my day.

When I found out that there were Kellogg's baseball cards in Japan I decided to collect them as well.  Today I complete the 2010 set thanks to Ryan who runs the SumoMenkoMan blog and has written a book called Sumo Menko & Cards Checklist.

Both Utley and Sabathia are unopened too.  I've had better luck getting unopened cards than opened ones.   I am focused on getting both versions of each card.  

It was great to shrink my want list twice this week - the first one was at the card show last weekend.  Now I've got two of the Japanese sets.   There are still a few for me to obtain as well as the opened cards from most of the sets.  

The highlight of the collecting day (and year) was what else Ryan included in the package.  Since Ryan collection has a focus on Japan with Sumo Wrestling and Menko I wasn't surprised to get a few Kellogg's cards from Japan.  I was stunned to see this item slide out of the mailing envelope.  

The photo above does not even begin to show the greatness of this four-color printing of the 1980 Kellogg's cards of Don Baylor.  It is behind two layers of protection and I will probably leave it that way until I have time to think about how to display this treasure.  It's the first of its kind to be added to my collection.  I hope that its not the last.  

I've seen these printing items a few times over the years on ebay, but they don't come up frequently.  I don't pretend to know much about them so maybe someone who does can share their knowledge or a useful link that explains this. 

Having seen so few of these I wonder which players can be found in this form?  Did these items get carried out by an employee, thrown in the trash?  Any ideas?  

I Finally FInished a Kellogg's Set

It has been a long time since I finished a Kellogg's set.  This was a small set.

Takashi Saito was the last card I needed for the 2008 set from Japan.  I have the cards in the original wrappers.  I have extras of some of the cards if anyone would like to trade.  My list of needs from the Japanese sets are shown on the right side of the blog.  I have not been able to find cards that have been taken from the wrappers. 

Saito was the only player in the set that I knew nothing about.  He played seven years in the majors (2006 - 2012) and was an all-star.  He recorded 84 saves along with 21 wins.

He began pitching in Japan in 1992 and didn't stop until after the 2015 season when he was 45 years old.