Dig Deeper
Auction | Ultraman and Astroboy Menko
Video | Kids Battling… Menko-style!
Sadaharu Oh’s rookie card. Godzilla getting beat down by Mothra. Mario eating ‘shrooms. Doraemon helping Nobita. A ninja with glasses. What do all these have in common? Aside from being Japanese and being awesome in their own right, they are also all featured on highly collectible menko trading cards.
Back in the day, kids played a game with menko cards in which the object was to flip over your opponents cards using only the force from the wind generated by throwing down your own menko card. Flip the card over, and it was yours. Many lost friendships and throwing stars to the eye resulted.
In the 21st century, a new dawn of enlightened thinking is upon us. No longer are there scuffles between best friends forever owing to the gust of wind that flipped over little Akira’s favorite Pokemon card. Instead, the monetary battle for collectibles has begun in a virtual world. And we, being the blood-thirsty wretches that we are, would like to facilitate this battle by bringing you menko cards straight from Japan. With production spanning from the late Edo Period all the way through to the early 1990’s, we’re almost certain you’ll be able to find nostalgic menko in your particular area of interest.
