Go Big or Go Home

Calbee has been including prize redemption cards since their first baseball set back in 1973. Originally called homerun cards, and now called lucky cards, these could be exchanged for various gifts. They've offered card albums, baseballs, towels, books, and, yes, even cards.

From 1990-1993, you could get your hands on an oversized card set. There were two unique series in 1990, but only one type for the remaining years.

1992 is definitely the rarest of the issues, and I'm not sure I've ever seen one in a shop. I finally bit the bullet and bought this Tatsunori Hara:

The design copies the base card from that year, but the set is much larger than the regular version.

I ended up with two Haras for the price of one. This is from the 1993 Big set. Again, it uses the same design as the regular 1993 cards, just in a larger size.

While we're at it, here are the other sets at a glance:

Here's the first version of 1990 Big Size cards. The front design is different from the regular set, but the backs are similar to base cards.

The second series was printed on photographic paper and has no Calbee markings, though they have the facsimile signature on the front. These might be better off labeled as bromides or raw photos rather than Big Cards.

Here's 1991. It, like 1992 and 1993, uses the same design as the base set.

I'm happy to have this run of inserts completed and crossed off my list! I guess my next whale will be a 1989 Hologram card. That might prove to be impossible, but we shall see. Until next time...

1975-76 Calbee: The Original Dirt Card?

Laundry: done.

Dinner: done.

Show the new teacher where to take out the trash, how to teach preschool, and a whole bunch of other stuff: done.

Update 1975 Calbee post: ...

I mentioned that I had been flipping through a couple of the "extras" boxes I've stacked up over the past few years. Some of the last cards I came across over the New Years holidays (yes, I'm still getting through those scans 20 days later) were forgotten about perhaps six years ago.

You see, back when I wrote the 1975-76 Calbee By Year post, I broke the set up into subsets, and was inspired to find some examples of cards from those subsets.

And I did. I grabbed a few at a shop or at a show. Or perhaps I already had them and didn't realize it even back then.

And then I forgot about them. They got tossed into the extras stack, and there they sat for a large part of a decade. And then, we hit a new decade. And I found them.

The 1975 portion of this set had seven subsets. Two of them overlap in card numbers; the last 35 cards in the set are Star History or Japan Series. Star History features players in 1975 and in the past using a color photo and a black and white photo.

 Card #294 has Tokuji Nagaike. He's not really much of a star, but he was popular enough 45 years ago to end up in this subset.

 Here's #323, with Tsuyoshi Oshita. Another player who really isn't that popular now, but ended up in the set anyway. You can see that the old photo could have been displayed in multiple ways on the card.

The third series to be issued in 1976 was the regular series; before that were the two magenta-bordered series Pennant Race Stars and Spring Training. The regular series has several team cards and multi-player cards, and three cards featuring Korakuen Stadium's turf. Yes, three cards in a baseball card set were about dirt.

The card above describes the many layers of the astroturf playing surface. I might try to get all three and do a full-on post attempting to translate everything, but until then, you can just enjoy the beauty that is an educational piece of cardboard that was sold with potato chips 45 years ago. Too bad they didn't have relic cards back then.

(Random tangent: Tokyo Dome resurfaced its playing field some years ago, and turned the old turf into a souvenir; each piece is about the size of a coaster. I grabbed one piece, and I'm quite glad to have it! Similar random tangent: over a decade ago, I came across a doormat-sized piece of artificial turf - maybe from Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium? I still have that oddly-shaped cut of plastic and rubber, and it still has some dirt in it from use. I don't know how I'd go about authenticating it, or even if I could, but to me it's the biggest piece of a major league ballpark I own. Until I can actually get a stadium seat. Ah, more stuff I can't have for a house I don't have...)

I've updated the original 1975-76 post with these images, and I'll continue updating as I gather new type cards for Calbee subsets over the year.

So until next time...

Two Vintage, Not Too Vintage

I've recently come across a couple cards I need for my type collection. That's not so strange - there are hundreds of singles in any shop's showcase I need, though they're usually priced higher than I'd like to pay. And tons on Yahoo Auctions, but I'm not scouring through thousands of listings at this point.

But something pops up in a random search, or some card catches my eye, and I end up with a card that's eluded me for the past eight years.

 You might have seen this image on this blog before. This is from Calbee's first set, and it's quite the iconic image. Tigers players Yutaka Enatsu and Tabuchi in a studio shot, with that great 1970s Kodachrome color. I'm assuming it's Kodachrome... is there anything else? Fuji Film, since this is Japan?

Enatsu is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. In 1968, he struck out 401 batters. Even Nolan Ryan couldn't reach that... and the only players who had more than him pitched in the 19th century. He retired with more than 200 wins and nearly 3000 strikeouts over a 17-year career. That's pretty impressive when you realize that for about half of his career, he was a relief pitcher, racking up 193 saves.

Koichi Tabuchi was a home-run hitting catcher for the Tigers, with 474 over his career; in 1973 he hit four consecutive home runs. He was also pretty good behind the plate, with one of the highest caught-stealing rates; he lead the league in this category twice.

This isn't the regular Calbee card, though. That card is pretty valuable and popular, but this is the blank-backed, postcard-sized "large premium" which is much rarer. Unfortunately, this particular card is fairly damaged; you can see some dirt and rough top-right corner. I don't care! I don't remember the last time I actually saw a card from this set, if ever. And I got it for a price far lower than I expected to pay. If this card were in mint condition, it would be worth $700. I didn't pay that. And I'm happy!

Hiromu Matsuoka pitched for the Swallows for nearly 20 years, compiling a nearly-even 191-190 record with a 3.33 ERA, and just barely reaching the 2000-strikeout milestone (he retired with 2008 K's). This card is from the 1976 Yamakatsu Blank Back Green Box set; it's about 7x10 (not a typo), making this quite large. It's too narrow to fit in a US 8x10 photo frame, though the image is too large for a 5x7-centered matte... such is life. I'm not framing it anyway, though as a kid I bet I would have.

Yamakatsu issued a bunch of these oversized cards, but identifying them is difficult. I was glad to find that I really did need an example from this particular set, and even happier to pick it up for just a couple dollars. I was looking for Calbee over the New Years holidays and saw it hanging on the wall at a card shop. A quick check of the (blank) back, and a much more scrutinizing look at Engel's vintage guide, confirmed that it was from a set I hadn't seen yet!

Now if I could only find some of those other 1970s Calbee cards I need for my type collection, and one of those Holograph hologram cards from 1989. And all those other oddball vintage cards.

Until next time!

2007 Calbee Discovery: Corocoro Comics Promo

A couple weeks ago, I was sifting through some of my extra cards, looking for ones that might fit some of my newer collections. And as I was checking the years on some Calbees, I saw this:

At first glance, it looks like a normal Calbee card. But more than just a simple glance reveals it's not: on the front, the card number is P-4, and the back has the same card number and a Corocoro Comic logo at the bottom.

This card had just randomly come to me at some point, possibly just protective filler for an auction, or perhaps part of a lot where I only needed certain cards.

So I've done some research, and I've found that at least four Calbee cards have been inserted into Corocoro Comic magazines that are related to baseball. There also seem to be at least four Kamen Rider Calbee cards, but that's a story for another post, or even another blog.

Only one real player appears in the set, and you see that card above. Hichori Morimoto is a Korean-Japanese (Korean descent, born in Tokyo) former baseball player who was drafted in the fourth round back in 1999. He played for the Fighters through 2010, and then he played for the BayStars (2011-2013) and Lions (2014-15). 2007 was his career year, batting an even .300.

Oddly, though this is numbered P-4, I couldn't find any evidence of P-1 to P-3. Perhaps (some of) the Kamen Rider cards fill in the numbering. I have discovered that cards P-1 through P-3 were issued through other magazines, and those three cards have two versions. I'll eventually get the proper information posted. (Edited 2020/01/17)

Checklist:

• P-4 H. Morimoto
• P-5 F. Miyamoto/Kuroemon (manga characters)
• PS-1 Kuroemon (manga character)
• PS-2 Miyamoto (manga character)

I just picked up the P-5 card (I should have it in hand by the time this post goes live, or in the next couple of days), and I hope to eventually get the other two (it seems PS-1 might be in the bag, too). PS- cards use the Starcard design. P-5 has two anime characters: Miyamoto is pitching and Kuroemon is batting. Each character has their own card in the Starcard design, and it looks like the images used on the Starcards are different from the P-5 card.

The characters come from a manga (Japanese comic) called Dorabase, which is a spinoff from the extremely popular Doraemon series. I might actually look into this more in the future, but for now I'm just happy to have discovered another rare/oddball Calbee card!

1973 Calbee: A Biggie

I wish it was a set I could finish this year, but I believe that the 1973 Calbee set will take quite a while to finish with all the SPs toward the end of the set.

However, I did come across some of those SPs last year at a couple shops and via some auctions:

 Calbee's 1973 set really has a classic Kodachrome feel to its photos. I also like how I can see the stadium clearly in two of those cards, quite likely photographed on the same day.

Those cards are great, but this card is key:

Literally. This is the most expensive card in the set, going by price guide values... except for Shigeo Nagashima's iconic card #1. Which I still need. It's a good photo, too, mainly because it's just one studio shot in a set full of in-field images. Uniqueness is key!

Inaugural Calbee: Short Prints Short Grabs

At this point, I grab 1973 Calbees whenever I can. The Crossed Bats set has 63 regular cards, and 28 short prints. Or so it seems. Anyway, I'm whittling down the SPs, and I grabbed two more a couple months ago (I'm that far behind on posting):

 Card 82: Taira Fujita. Imagine how much complaining people would do if Topps used a photo like this in a set this year. Then again, using a photo like this might be a novelty given how standardized Topps' photography seems to have become.

And #73 is Koichi Tabuchi. Nothing like a little soft toss, eh? I wonder if both photos were taken at the same time.

I'm glad to have these two cards knocked off the want list!

Ever So Close: 2000 Calbee

What a great find!

 The 2000 ON Card set features all Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima, and as such tends to carry premium prices. They really aren't limited cards, though, and I've seen 1973 Calbee original singles of Oh and Nagashima for less than the prices some people are asking.

 These cards were priced the same as commons, and I was happy to grab every single one I needed that they had.

 I finished my Title Holders set, too! These five cards mean I now have a complete Title Holders insert set.

After all this, what's left with 2000 Calbee? Just the Series 2 base set, and one ON Card single!

So that leaves the following in the Calbee race:

• 2000: Series 2, plus 1 insert
• 2004: 7 base, plus 3 inserts
• 2005: 1 insert
• 2016: 2 inserts (both are Ohtani)

Which set will be completed first? I'm hoping all four will be done by the end of the year!

Not New New Calbee

The race is on. 2000, 2004, 2005, and 2016 Calbee are all nearing completion. I hope to finish all four sets by the end of the year, and here are my pickups from late May explorations (I'm a bit behind on posting).

 2004. I've noticed that (except for Ichiro) players who go by just one name really aren't that good - at least, anymore. They're beloved local stars but they haven't been productive in years. Ah, the joy of playing baseball in Japan. Shinjo actually played in the MLB for three seasons, posting a .245 batting average. His NPB career average is .254. But he's known for his attitude, not his performance. As most of these guys are.

 The card on the right is a checklist from 2004.

 Only one card from 2005, and one from 2000. Those sets are very close to being in the books! Or, more accurately, in the box. There's no space for binders in my tiny Japanese apartment.

 Card #52 was the last basic common from the 1973 Calbee "Crossed Bats" set. I need several high numbers and the two iconic key cards in the set.

Here's one of those high numbers. For the longest time, I wasn't even sure they existed! This is my first, actually.

Which set do you think I'll finish first?