Ichiro was the biggest thing in baseball as far as Japan was concerned in 2002. After his amazing "rookie" season, companies were quick to take advantage of Ichiro Mania. One interesting promotion was with a health drink called Yunker. I'm not sure what the actual requirement was, but by buying Yunker you got Ichiro cards.
After my "discovery" last November, I've been keeping my eyes open for full sets. I grabbed a nearly-complete set along with the mini-album to hold it, and finally got my last card a couple weeks ago. The final card was #19.
Shown below are the 20 cards in the set, front and back. The design remains the same, and the stat lines are identical, but the cards sequentially tell the story of Ichiro's MLB career from April 2001 through early May, 2002.
Awesome set! No singles are listed on eBay, so I'm guessing these are pretty hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteNot too difficult in Japan, but you have to be patient. One real problem with things like this is overpricing. I probably overpaid a bit for my last card, but I got a good deal on the rest, so I'm not really complaining.
DeleteTrying to work on the set. I cracked open 30 packs. Nothing but cards 1-10. Have 20 more to open. Was there a series 2 which had the remainder? Might keep the others closed. Don't know yet. Have 20 more to go.
DeleteHey, thanks for the comment. I didn't get an alert that this was posted, so sorry for not replying until now.
DeleteI don't know if there were two series. It's entirely possible - check the packs you have for anything that shows the number 10 or 20. I hope you're able to finish your set!