Back to the NPB

Yesterday's post didn't even begin to show you all of the MLB cards I got at the card show last month. But I don't want to bore you with simple inserts that I don't have a story for. Heck, I rarely have a story for most of the cards I get.

But I found some NPB cards, too. Other than the newest sets and recent parallels, finding NPB cards I need is getting much more difficult. My NPB type collection is much more complete; my MLB collection is under 30% while NPB is over 50%. For both, it's the hits, rare parallels, and oddballs that remain. NPB just has fewer of the former two.

It doesn't mean I get shut out when I go card hunting.

 Royal Purple was a rare (#/50) insert found in a few 2018 pack-based team sets released by BBM. I was happy to get these two, from the Carp and Fighters team sets, especially at reasonable prices.

 The annual Icons box set comes with a few rare inserts of its own. The die-cut and printed autograph sets eventually end up becoming affordable, and it was this show that such a thing happened.

 Rookie parallels! I've said it before, but Japanese shops and dealers often assign premiums to rookie cards, even if the player is a flop. Luckily these parallels were priced properly.

 There's only one autograph in this lot, and you're looking at it. I'm probably going to have to start hunting for hits to continue making progress on my type collection.

 I added a few foil signatures, though. And here are both versions from the Pacific League Rookies set.

 2018 Epoch Lions Seasons Achievements regular and parallel. Epoch issued a ton of higher-priced sets this year in addition to the budget team issues. I do miss the full-set box issues, though.

 One single die-cut insert from the 2017 Rakuten Golden Eagles team-issued set. Depending on how things go this year, I would really like to visit Sendai and try to pick up some cards from this annual release that I haven't come across.

 How did I miss a regular insert card from a regular BBM pack-based team set on my first go-round? It's the Giants, so there you go. I'm sure the parallels of this card look awesome, but this foilboard regular insert doesn't look that great.

 I found this promo card flipping through a big box of cards!

 And this insert was nearby. I got all of the three Giants cards above at the shop near Ueno Station, and this Kiyohara was the priciest of all the cards I got there. Even so, it was cheaper than "book" price, so I was certainly happy with the cost.

 I mentioned oddballs are tough to find. Around 1998-2001, there were some sets issued by manufacturers other than BBM and Calbee for individual teams or the entire NPB. Power League and Upper Deck's sets aren't impossible to find, but they're certainly less common than the Big Two.

And don't get me started on the game cards. Baseball Heroes (above) and Owner's League are tough issues to track down. I believe there are still half a dozen cards I need for Owner's League, and there must be a couple dozen Baseball Heroes singles I don't have as well. And that's just for my type collection. Tanishige and Rami-chan both appear on several cards in both series, and I haven't made much headway there in quite a while.

I'm really happy with my finds last month, and I'm not even finished yet! Until next time...