Night Owl and I are Both Collecting 1973

I think my cards look better than his cards.

Night Owl picked up a bunch of 1973s from a card show last weekend, as did I. But while his cards may be more popular than mine, I would argue that my cards are more attractive.

The 1973 Calbee "Crossed Bats" set is probably the first Calbee set ever released. A parallel set with different backs would be issued from 1973 to 1974, but based on the Homerun Card expiration dates, I believe the Crossed Bats set came first.

It's a gorgeous set, too. Despite being issued in 1973, the images are bright and sharp. There are winners and losers in the image department, but when people talk about the beauty of Calbee, they're referring to this set.

I started with just a few cards, but a couple weeks ago I wiped out a large portion of the set. And at last weekend's card show, a couple more dents were added: 

 Cards #1-6 are all of Shigeo Nagashima, and while this isn't the iconic #1, it is semi-iconic #2. I believe card #1 can be had for less than 5000 yen in lower condition.

 Cards #7-12 are all Sadaharu Oh, and that makes this Oh's first Calbee card! So Oh is no more.

 Another Giants player, Isao Shibata, is card #20. He's a semi-star, but it's nice to take him off the list.

 And the last 1973 I picked up is #43, Kazumi Takahashi, a common player who also has #44.

That leaves me needing:

• 1: Shigeo Nagashima, the key card in the set
• 31: Katsuya Sugawara, a common card
• 51: Tabuchi/Enatsu, a highly valuable card for some reason
• 52: Kenichi Yazawa, a semi-star
• 57: Masaji Hiramatsu, a semi-star
• 64-91

I wasn't really sure of the existence of #64-91 until recently, when I studied past Yahoo Japan Auctions listings. I don't even see any current Crossed Bats cards from these numbers actively listed, but nothing indicates that they are short-printed, so I might have just been unlucky thus far. Card #75 (Katsuya Nomura) will probably be the only really expensive card in the remaining lot. I have 58 of 91 cards, or almost 2/3 of the set now! Will I finish is this year? I doubt it, but who knows what I'll find at card shops over the rest of the year.

There is one more card to add to my collection in this post:

This is my second 1979 Home Run Card in my collection. The back shows details for redemption: Two cards and 300 yen will get you an autographed ball (I'm pretty sure it's a facsimile signature), while one home run card gives you a choice of a card album or a signed mascot bat. Again, I'm guessing it's a facsimile signature... but anyone could probably sign for a mascot. The last line indicates that you should request a signature but there are no choices given, so could you choose any player from the Calbee set? Oddly enough, they didn't include an expiration date on the card, so I wonder if they'd still honor a redemption today.

Until next time...