New(ish) Release: 2014 Yokohama DeNA BayStars Rookies & Young Stars

Front Runner Trading Cards, or whatever they want to be called, has released four team sets this year so far under the "Rookies & Young Stars" title. I should note that the copyright line on the box lists Frontier International, while the contact information identifies the product/division (not sure exactly) as "Front Runner Trading Cards". The BayStars set is the most recent; I'll post about the other sets in the next several days.

The fronts have a blurred-background photo with black paint splotch design in two corners. One of those corners has the RY Stars logo (that's what I started calling it last year, so I'll stick with it) and the other has the player's jersey number, position, name, and is further identified as a star (10 cards) or young star (14 cards). The manager also appears in the set. The backs have black borders at the top and bottom with various information. It's a decent design though it doesn't really stand out. I like the box set packaging this year, which is simple and elegant. The complete base set comes in at 25 cards.

No rookies are in the base set, the eight rookies instead receiving only autographed cards, which are numbered as part of the base set and use the same design.

Each box has one autograph, which could be from one of several sets:

• Authentic Signatures (29 different cards)
• Dual Signatures (two different cards)
• Top Draft Pick Dual Signatures (two different cards)
• Gold Glove Winner's Signature (one card)

I haven't seen the actual card, but the preview image from the BayStars website shows a misspelling on the Gold Glove "Winnger's" Signature card. I wonder if that made it to press.

The Jambalaya image above shows one of the Dual Signatures cards.

With a suggested price of 8000 yen, these box sets are way out of my price range, especially just for a 25-card team set and a single autographed card. They do appear to be pretty low-numbered, though. The dual-autographed card above is limited to three copies while the two single-signed examples for sale on Jambalaya's website are serial-numbered to 5 and 10 copies.