Review: 2015 Yomiuri Giants Game Used Bat Edition

Frontier's first offering of 2015 is another super-limited box set that focuses on the hits. This time, it's bats.

 The base set has only 14 cards, with two different designs. The first half of the set uses an orange running track-shaped border around the photo with all the text at the bottom. The shape is carried over to the back; note that all 14 cards have the same back design.

The second half of the set uses a white, black and orange abstract background, and Frontier calls this a subset. Also of note on the card backs is a picture of the player's bat that was used for the relic cards.

You should not be surprised that bat relics are the big draw here, and there are several. Here is a promotional image showing premium cards in the set:

Two special cards come in addition to the 14 regular cards in the set. Each premium set has a seven-card checklist. They break down as follows:

• foil signature card (parallel of "subset" from base set)
• silver: 4-48 copies per
• gold: 2-24 copies per
• red: 40-50 copies per
• bat relic cards
• Level 1 (horizontal, fire cloud design): regular bat relics
• G: 60 or 120 copies per
• GIANTS: 3 or 5 copies per
• square window: 3-10 copies per
• Level 2 (vertical, base subset card design)
• circle: 24 or 28 copies per
• bat knob: 1 copy per
• Level 3 (horizontal, fire volcano design): bat barrel version
• most players have two cards, while one has three

Based on the print runs, I come up with a total of 1339 sets, which is pretty low. Full sets with two "hits" had an original retail price of 10,800 yen.

Review: 2014 Frontier Chiba Lotte Marines Mizuno

Spend enough time in Japan (a day, if you're observant enough) and you'll random Xs. What does that mean? It's a cross-promotion. So at the gift shop, you might find Hello Kitty dressed up as One Piece characters. Check the package, and you should see "Hello Kitty x One Piece" somewhere.

Frontier issued two team box sets late last year showing collaborations between Mizuno and the Hiroshima Carp and the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Like the Carp set, a fancy black crown design at the bottom of the front has the player's jersey number, position, and name. The team and Mizuno logos appear on the photo on both the front and back. The back photo has a small box around a particular piece of Mizuno sporting goods the player is wearing or using.

There are 15 cards in the base set, and some players can have multiple cards if they provided multiple pieces of equipment. Each box came with two special cards, which could be from any of the options below. Boxes included either one relic and one autograph, or two relics.

• Rookie autograph (one card with base design, #16): black ink 29 copies, red ink 10 copies
• Authentic Signatures
• two types; yellow background (6 players) and grey background (7 players)
• each type has black ink signatures (30-35 copies) and red ink signatures (10-15 copies)
• Game Used Equipment
• Level 1 (undershirt): 4 players, 125 copies each
• Level 2 (signed undershirt): 4 players, 3-5 copies each
• Level 2 (signed spikes): 3 players, 2 copies each
• Bats: 2 players, 35 copies each
• Signed Bats: 2 players, 5 copies each

I bought a full Carp base set because I like the concept of highlighting something different (the equipment in this case). Also, the design of the regular cards isn't ugly. I have not yet picked up a Marines set, though I might eventually. Unfortunately, this is one in a long line of "high end" products which is flooding the market with hits. Hopefully things don't get too out of hand like has happened in the US.

Review: 2015 BBM 惜別球人 (Commemorative Retirement Set)

I've never been really happy with the English title we've given this set. Almost literally, 惜別球人 (Sekibetsu  Kyuuhito) translates as "Regret of Departing Ball People" but that certainly makes no sense. Last year, I called the set the Farewell set. I've settled on "Commemorative Retirement Set" for this year's title, and am open to discussion on this.

Anyway, this is an annual tradition that BBM has issued including pretty much everyone who retired from professional baseball in the prior year. Issued as a box set, there are 36 base cards in the regular set, plus one additional card included in each box set.

The base cards are nothing special, though the design is pleasant. Actually, the top of the photo is full bleed, a design characteristic which carries over the back side. There are 36 cards in the base set, but that doesn't mean there are 36 players - several have multiple cards. About half of the cards feature retirement ceremony images and the other half have action shots. Again, some players have both types, while others have only one. The design remains the same. Ramirez, above, has two cards in the set: an action card which pictures him with the Giants, and a ceremony card with the Swallows. Backs of cards include a list of honors, career statistics (with NPB), and a short write-up.

There are two types of premium cards, inserted one per box. The less desirable are the Printed Autograph cards. The more common gold version has a print run of 82 copies, while the rarer blue foil is serial numbered to 30 copies each. There are 9 cards in the set, so a total of 1008 printed autograph cards were inserted into boxes.

More common yet more desirable are the authentic autographs. Most players signed on-card, though three have sticker autographs. Print runs vary but are around 100 copies each. Twenty players are in the set, with a total of 1992 autographs.

I'm not sure why, but I haven't seen much opened product from this set available for sale. I was able to get my base card single from my usual card shop.