New Release: 2018 BBM Carp

Released in mid-May, at the same time as the Giants set, actually, the Carp team set is very similar. Like the Giants set, there are 81 base cards and a bunch of insert cards. And like the Giants set, there are several memorabilia cards. Unlike the Giants, however, the Carp set comes with autographs.

The first 69 cards in the 81-card base set are regular player cards. Actually, the last card features the team's mascot, Slyly. Several cards come in two parallels: Silver Signature #/100, and Gold Signature #/50.

Top Prospects is pretty self-explanatory. Three young promising players appear in this subset.

Another unambiguous subset is Pitching Staff. The team's top four starters have their prior-year's appearances itemized on the back.

Franchise Players are the five best hitters on the team. Interesting statistics can be found on the back - this is a list of the players who have worn jersey number 6. I'm not sure how complete the list is, but it does feature at least the major players. (There are no records for 1951, 1952 and 1974, and it's at least somewhat possible though unlikely that a player wore a jersey number for at least one or two games somewhere between listed players.)

The Carp set doesn't have a checklist card. Moving on to inserts, there are several small sets totaling the standard 18 cards. Three tiers of parallels can be found for each insert set: gold #/100, silver hologram foil #/75, gold hologram foil #/50.

Clear the Bases: four cards, featuring the team's best sluggers.

Confidential: three cards, no reason why the players were chosen on the card, but these are all relief pitchers.

Defence Master: two cards of the team's best fielders. British spelling!

Hard Hitters: three cards, the team's best hitters... again? These players are different from the Clear the Bases set, with players who get hits, instead of home runs.

High Energy: six cards of the team's starting pitchers.

 Royal Purple is one of the super-limited inserts, with all cards serial-numbered to 50 copies. There are 12 cards in the Carp set.

 Phantom is the other limited set, with 18 cards, #/25 each.

 As I mentioned, there are memorabilia cards. Five different jersey cards are available, each featuring just one player. Regular swatches are #/250, foil signature #/100, patch #/20, and foil signature patch #/10.

 The single player autographs are #/70 or less. Most players have on-card signatures, but seven have sticker autographs.

 Two combo autograph cards are #/3 each.

 Rookie Autographs can be found for six players, #/10 each.

 Silver Signature cards were made for 18 players, #/10 or less. Nine of those players have 1/1 Gold Signature versions. These are actual autographs (not foil or printed), though they are sticker autographs.

Picturesque is the cross-brand autograph series, and three Carp players have cards #/10 each.

Finally, BBM released a nine-card promo set to shops and for stadium events. Two different insert promos were included, one for stores and one for stadiums.

Limited inserts, memorabilia, and autographed cards in this post are promotional images from BBM.