Seeing the World on cards

Recently The Shlabotnik Report proposed a Blog Bat-Around of how many different countries we have represented in our collections. I thought that was a great idea and this post is the result...

1. USA

2001 Racing Champions United We Stand

Being from the USA, and the USA's obsession with sports, means that the vast majority of cards in my collection are from my home country.

#2. Canada

1981-82 O-Pee-Chee #307

Speaking of national sporting obsessions, I've since gotten addicted to hockey, and Hockey = Canada. O-Pee-Chee and Parkhurst are both Canadian companies, now contracting with Upper Deck to produce their cards.

#3 England

1908 Wills European Royalty #3

There is some doubt in my mind where trading cards were invented. I know the USA had them as far back as 1868, but I don't know when they arrived on the scene in England/GB. Most of my British cards are of the Tobacco variety, but they still produce cards to this very day.

#4 Japan

1999 BBM Sumo #3

The vast majority of my Japanese cards have come from Ryan, aka SumoMenkoMan...as in I think all except one that I bought on COMC have come from him. Japan has a rich history of cards...most of which leaves me very confused.

#5 Spain

2012 Angry Birds #5

In 2012, Spanish company E-Max got the Angry Birds license and issued a large trading card set for the game's characters. I began building my pack stack in 2012 with this set, and I still have one pack left to open, or maybe even more than one.

#6 Germany

1933? Yosma #81

Trading cards were a big deal in Germany...until WWII. While they still get some, it's not like it was before the war.

#7 New Zealand

2018 NRL Traders #36

This country, represented by only a single pack, came to me entirely from SumoMenkoMan.

#8 Cuba

1920s Calixto Lopez #485

I picked up 4 Cuban girlie cards earlier this year...this is the only one that does not feature nudity.

#9 Ireland

2018 Cúl Heroes #465

Another set represented solely by SumoMenkoMan

#10 Italy

2018-19 Panini Stickers #17

Panini Stickers are made in Italy, and sold around the world. Panini is an Italian company.

#11 Portugal

1995-96 Collector's Choice Portuguese #11 

In 1995-96, Upper Deck produced versions of Collector's Choice for sale exclusively in 7 different countries outside the USA- at least, that was the plan. All except the Japanese version were widely sold in the USA, although the set issued for Portugal was the second rarest. The fronts are identical among the issues for the USA, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, England, Portugal and Japan.

#12 France

1995-96 Collector's Choice French II #165

Read the caption above for Portugal, and it applies to France as well. There are fully French cards- made by French companies, for the French market, not just made for the French market by a US company, but I don't have any.

#13 China

2013-14 Panini Chinese Golden Foil #74

Represented by only a single card in my collection, this card comes from the 2013-14 Panini Chinese set, which was only sold in China (naturally). China actually has more NBA fans than the USA does, believe it or not. There are cards out there for the Chinese Basketball league but I've never seen any in person.

#14 Belgium

The most mysterious card in my collection. I know almost nothing about it, other than it was made by a Belgian chocolate company. Like China it's represented by this single card.

I know cards have been issued for the Philippines professional basketball league. I'd like to get them represented in my collection at some point, but they are not here yet.