I took an overnight trip to Nagoya recently to catch a Dragons game and do a bit of sightseeing. While I was there, I attended a card show (
with poor results) and stopped by the Mint card shop near Nagoya Station.
The store's the same as it was in November, which is no surprise. Here's a review of my
first (September) and
second (November) visits. I spent a little more time looking around the edges instead of through the boxes in the middle, and came out with a bunch of oddballs. But the card above is a 1970s Calbee that got me one card closer to 100%! I passed on a $30 Oh card for the type collection and I was a bit upset about that for a while but it ended up being the right move. More on that in a future post.
This card is actually just a glossy piece of paper the size of a photo, packaged with a color photo from the game shown. Together it makes a card, I suppose - both are basically blank-backed. I'm not sure about how it was issued or distributed.
Most of the oddballs I found weren't true oddballs, but in fact cards from BBM box sets and promo/special releases. I searched through stacks of cards issued in SCM magazine and given away at stadiums and events and found a good number of cards that aren't catalogued.
There was one new release I hadn't seen when I reached the shop. This is the base card from the Hawks 75th Anniversary set. I didn't get any inserts while I was there as they were a bit expensive.
While the Takadanobaba sports card shop remains my favorite, if I lived in Nagoya this would be my go-to for cars. I just feel like I could go into any corner of the store and find something I've never seen before!
You mention finding cards that have not been catalogued. I assume (like all non-Japanese collectors) you rely on Gary Engel's work as a resource. But in your time in Japan have you ever come across a Japanese language version of a catalog? In several years of reading and collecting Japanese cards, I don't recall anyone mentioning it. So do Japanese collectors rely solely on BBM (the magazine) as a reference source?
ReplyDeleteI ask only out of curiosity since being Japanese illiterate such a catalog would be of no use to me. I'm just asking to get a better understanding from the Japanese collector viewpoint (and your descriptions of card shows there in Japan was very informative from that standpoint as has your blog been overall). Is Engel the only person (Japanese or foreign) to publish a comprehensive resource?
Some of the teams issue "Victory sets" - they'll do a card for each game that the team wins. I know the Fighters did one back in 2010. I don't know how many teams do it and whether they do it every year or not. I wonder if the Tigers card you've got there is one of those.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the drawbacks of not having a comprehensive catalogue for more recent Japanese cards.
I'm asking around about whether anyone has seen a Japanese version of the catalogue. I have not seen one and I know that the folks at Biblio were very interested in the Vintage Edition of Engel's catalogue that Ryan and I were using at their store so maybe there isn't anything like it in Japan.
I remember how interested the Biblio owners(?) were in the catalog. And at a store in Osaka, the owner brought out a copy of the 7th edition. It's certainly used here, though I would like to go back to Osaka and talk with that dealer about his knowledge of other guides. I'm currently researching a more detailed response to this post and I hope to get back with a little more news by Monday.
ReplyDelete