I stopped by the card store last week to find my singles for BBM's Second Version.
Above is the base card. Like First Version, the cards are borderless with minimal design on the front. I really like this year's BBM flagship issue.
The backs are the usual design, with biographical stats, a writeup, and statistics. Kenta Maeda is having another good year, though I'm not sure what exactly these stats represent. As of this moment, NPB's website shows Maeda with an 11-5 record and a 2.14 ERA, striking out 120 in 130+ innings. Last year he had a 14-7 record with a 1.53 ERA. This is his sixth year in NPB. Despite these stats, this is not an update card; 36 cards are update cards and 216 are regular cards. All cards in this release (including inserts) have "2nd Version" and "2013 BBM Baseball Cards" on or near the copyright line.
Subsets in 2nd version include First Pitch (which I'll bring you later) and checklists with batting scenes. The First Pitch cards have a holographic foil parallel.
There's a foil signature partial parallel. 72 cards in the set have foil signature parallels (6 per team). This is my scan of the silver foil.
The backs of the silver foil signatures are normal.
A gold foil signature card parallel was issued #/100.
A holographic foil signature card parallel was issued #/50.
A red foil signature card parallel was issued #/25.
The new commonly-available insert set in Second Version is Twin Gem, pairing two players from each team, with 12 cards total in the set. They have a foil front.
The same photos appear on the back, uncropped. Cards have TG- prefixes.
Twin Gem has a double-foil signature parallel version.
Leading Players is the other new set to 2nd Version, with 12 cards in the set.
A parallel of Leading Players exists.
Cross Wind returns in 2nd Version, with 36 cards. A parallel /100 was also issued.
Rookie Memorabilia cards (one per team) were inserted into packs. This is a special Card Shop Limited Edition promo. Actual memorabilia cards have the same design, with a grey-blue color format instead of red.
The back of the memorabilia card will have different coloring. The card shop version has CL card number prefixes. Actual memorabilia cards are limited to 100 copies, with patch versions limited to 20 copies or less. The advertising information states one card per team was issued, but the checklist shows only 11 cards.
I can't find details, but BBM's site shows preview images for non-rookie memorabilia cards. There is no checklist for these cards on the BBM page and I haven't seen any actual cards at stores. The preview shows patch cards. This set might not have been released.
Last, 10 autographed cards were inserted into packs, probably from the Cross Wind cross-brand set. Print runs are limited to 20 copies or less per card.
I love that little delta-wing-thingy design element to the base cards! Reminds me of something from the nose of a 1950's car (Cadillac?)
ReplyDeleteThe Maeda card is not an "update" card. It's a regular 2nd Version card. (Base set card? I don't know the right terminology.)
ReplyDeleteThe checklist cards don't really show highlights this year (unfortunately). They are team checklists and each card shows a pitcher for that team batting.
Jambalaya has images for all the regular cards (along with some of the inserts and parallels) here and some of the numbered parallels here
shlabotnikreport: Yeah, the design is really nice! It is really hard for me to stay away from buying a full set of this year's cards - actually, the price is the major issue.
ReplyDeleteNPB Card Guy: I didn't think it was an update card, especially due to the lack of any change, but the stats throw me off a bit. I really need to start paying more attention to the backs of cards!
I stole the term "highlights" from BBM's site. Actually, there is a highlights card of sorts in the set at the end that seems to be grouped in with the First Pitch subset. For those who can't find the checklists through Jambalaya's website (page 9 of the regular cards), the pitcher checklist cards say "Batting Scene" on the front. Given the novelty of pitchers batting on cards, if I can get all the cards for 30 yen each (the lowest going price for single base cards pretty much everywhere in Japan) it might be worth grabbing a complete subset.
Just reread this and I understand now what you were wondering about the stats. The 2nd Version cards always (well the last few years anyway) have stats for the current year up to some date. I see there's something above the stats section with "5" and "13" in it - I don't know if that means the stats are up to date as of the end of May of 2013 or May 13.
ReplyDeleteNPB Card Guy: Ahh I see. And to answer your question about the numbers for the date, that is May 13th. I guess a month and a half of stats is enough to fill a trading card that comes out more than 4 months into the season.
ReplyDelete