New Release: 2014 Epoch Shigeo Nagashima Memorial Treasures

In contrast to the MLB, single player sets are fairly common in Japan. A few sets are released every year for superstars who have extraordinary years or are recently retired - see yesterday's post about Maeda's set as an example. The other go-to is the classic Japanese star, and there are two that seem to show up every few years: Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima.

Epoch issues a handful of sets for retired players every year, usually focusing on a topic, such as Rookie of the Year awards. This year, their first release is a beautiful box set for Shigeo Nagashima. While the set isn't as big as BBM's Legend set for Sadaharu Oh, it has a great design and comes in a much nicer box. I hope to be able to show you the full set in the future including pictures of the boxes. For now, here are a couple cards from the set.

 There are 30 cards in the base set, which uses a nice high-gloss card stock with foil highlights and text. The backs use the same picture as the front, and include some details on Nagashima's career. For example, card #4 above has a summary of his 1961 season.

 Most of the cards have photos from the field but at least one card has an advertisement - note that the boy is wearing a uniform that says "Epoch" - the manufacturer of the card set (and various toys over the years). I love the idea of including a card like this; it would be neat if other sets were issued reproducing advertisements featuring various baseball players over the year.

A card gallery of all the base cards is located at this post.

A couple promos were issued. I got one of them (#TFT) at the Tokyo area card show held a couple months ago. PR2 has a similar look with the foil signature on the left side; I haven't seen a PR1 or any other promos.

from Jambalaya

Each box set comes with a special card. There are several special foil signature cards. There are 26 different cards, but they come in various foil versions: silver (#/90), gold (#/?), red (#/?), and holo (#/?). There must be about 129 copies total of each card (3333/26), meaning gold, red, and holo foils combine for around 39 copies each.

from Jambalaya

Each box also appears to come with a relic or autograph. There are 15 different relic cards, which all seem to come from one of three suit jackets. There are special "patch" versions, using labels, monograms, and buttons from the jacket. Additionally, there are "jumbo" relic cards which are die cut into the number 3. The regular fabric relics (as seen above) are numbered to 991.

from Jambalaya

There are three different autograph cards. Each one is limited to three copies.

3333 box sets were produced. 2973 of those will have a plain fabric suit relic (3 suits, 991 copies each). Because nine boxes will have autographs, 351 "patch" versions of the relic cards were made; 117 from each suit. I'm guessing about 100-110 of those will be "3" die cut cards.

I'll go ahead and mention that this set is *hot* - it is beautifully done and with a guaranteed "relic" from Nagashima they are selling fast. Even the base box sets are very popular. I'm hoping I am able to buy one this weekend for myself!