The Dragons Rookies & Stars set was released on May 19th, with five cards per 400 yen pack, and the usual 20 packs per box and 12 boxes per case.
The base set clocks in at 90 cards, but they're numbered 1-70. Twenty players have photo variations, though they aren't short-printed and are being considered part of a full set.
I think Epoch was going with a sort of art theme - maybe a framed painting with bronze plaques above and below the image? Anyway, regular cards use white card numbers on the back.
This is an image variation, and you can see the light blue card number on the back. And for you bat flip fans, Merry Christmas.
There are two limited insert sets to be found in packs if you're lucky. Lightning Flash comes in Silver #/75, and Gold #/50. Super-rare Force of the Dragon is found in base #/10 and parallel #/5 versions.
A total of 32 players have autographs in the set. Twenty-seven of those have regular horizontal autographed cards with silver backgrounds. Eight players have gold vertical parallel versions. Rookie Signature horizontal cards can be found for six players, with three players having vertical parallels. Print runs vary wildly - one player has only three regular autographs, while others have up to 74.
I like the idea of the light blue card number representing a photo variation. Much easier than trying to read the tiny code at the bottom of a Topps card.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Bat flips rule!
It is much easier than checking all those codes! Though if I were a case buster I would probably just scan the fronts of cards as I was sorting for different images - having a case means having a dozen or more of any particular card!
DeleteBBM did photo variations last year and are continuing the trend this year. I don't even know if there are any differences on the cards other than the photos; I opened a couple packs and got a photo variation without really knowing that I did. Good thing I didn't trade or give away the card! (It's a pretty cool image, though many of the others aren't as unique.)