New Cards and Whatnots

I don't think I have any particular way of introducing these cards as anything other than "A bunch of random stuff I haven't shown you yet, and the reasons why they are in my collection." Are you going to yawn?

 I haven't seen many promos this year, but this Marines team set "Limited Edition" card was found at one of my local card shops. I believe there are Carp promos too.

Speaking of Hiroshima, I'm now one hologram away from a full set of 1993 BBM cards - for the Carp. The 1993 set is notable as it has the rookie cards of Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. Technically, the set is complete without the holograms, but I came across a large group of them at a good price and decided to go for the "master" set. But no, I won't get the other issues, like the All-Star and Japan Series sets.

 Tsukasa, another Japanese wrestler. Autograph: check! I'm down to six on the want list, if I do actually go after all of them.

The remainder of these cards serve as a "type collection update" for many of this year's parallels.

 This 2017 Carp Fighting Spirit insert shows the #/50 holofoil parallel style.

 2017 Swallows autograph.

 This 2017 Carp Fighting Spirit insert shows the lack of style in the #/100 parallel. I think it's the same as the regular cards, just with a serial number.

 2017 BBM First Version rookie parallel, serial #/150.

 The holofoil rookie parallel #/50.

 2017 BBM 1st Version gold signatures, #/100.

 Cross-brand insert Cross Squall, #/100.

 2017 Swallows Seasoned Pro insert, #/50. I don't really see much difference from the regular insert.

Finally, a 2017 Carp jersey card.

Exciting, huh? I am a bit surprised that I could get some of these insert parallels so quickly. A little bit of luck in the auctions, I guess!

New Release: 2017 Epoch Lions

For Japanese card collectors, Epoch has represented a true third-tier product. Where BBM has been issuing the most comprehensive collection of sets and the largest flagship set, and Calbee has been the longest-running issue and best-looking, Epoch has been just sitting off to the side, finding niches to fill. Several of their sets have been box issues focused on JBPA OB Club themes.

Those box sets have been decreasing, though - Epoch has issued a few super-premium boxes lately but they don't even come with full sets, looking more like a Topps Museum Collection or Panini Immaculate release. Last year, they issued what I believe is their first reasonably-priced pack-based baseball product: a set based around the JWBL (Japanese Women's Baseball League). That was a pretty simple issue - just base cards and autographs - but might have inspired Epoch to continue with some NPB issues.

By the way, I really hope Epoch makes the JWBL set an annual issue. I am 100% into that.

Anyway, the Lions team set is the first issue this year in this new format. It was released in late May.

 Similar to BBM team issues, the design is attractive but simple. Epoch used a bit more border space here than BBM's sets, with a home plate-shaped rectangle (huh?) for the photo and team logo; the bottom blue box has the Epoch name (despite the Epoch logo in the top corner) and player name along with the player's jersey number and position. Backs have basic biographical information (Mejia's mentions his US baseball experience.

  The 27-card base set comes in three variations. As you can see here, they are progressively tighter crops, which I guess is interesting at first. It's different from "look at different border colors!" or "we used different colors of foil!".

For those without the entire 102-card "base set" there is a notation on the back to help you figure out which version you have. If you check the original card back above, the "Printed in Japan" line has no stars. The card back here has three stars, indicating the third level of variation.

 There is a 27-card parallel set, as well. Notice that the design and backs are identical to the regular cards, but all of the cards have photo variations on the front, which don't carry over to the back. And they carry RP- prefixes on their card numbers.

 A series of insert and special cards can be found in the issue, partly involving a point system. The insert cards are called Holografica, and there are four types: Sluggers (9 cards), Hurlers (12 cards), Rookies (6 cards), and Combos (9 cards). I should mention that the Combos cards each have only one player but two photos.

Based on odds announced by Epoch for some other team sets this year, the Holografica appear two per box. However, I don't know of any announced odds for the Lions set.

There are nine autographed cards for eight different players. I believe that the autograph cards can only be obtained by collecting 100 points. I'm not sure how many points you'll get from one box; scratch cards have random amounts of points and I'm not sure exactly how many scratch cards come in a box. Each pack contains one scratch card or one "PR" card, which might just be a filler. I have yet to see any PR cards for sale from any sets in shops.

Note that Epoch announced 102 regular cards with variations, 33 parallels, 36 inserts, and 9 autographs. If 27 cards have three photo crop variations, that's 108 cards. And the checklist has 27 RP cards, despite announcing 33 parallels. Do six cards have two parallels and only two crop variations? Or is that due to math errors on Epoch's part?

New Release: 2017 BBM Saitama Seibu Lions

The team sets just keep coming out. Actually, as of this writing, two BBM sets still have yet to be released, though they will be by the end of the month. This issue made its way to shelves at the end of May.

 The Lions set follows the same formula as the rest, which makes things easy. 81 cards, the first 70 being classified as "regular" as you see above. There are no parallels for this issue.

 Kicking off the subsets is Mega Impact, a 5-card set that seems to be confused as to whether it's a cartoon panel or a newspaper. I still like it for its boldness and departure from the usual.

 Next comes High Velocity, with players who run fast. Three players are on the list here. The back has a month-by month and team-by-team breakdown of stolen bases for the player - a nice collection of stats!

 The final three-card subset is New Energy, with confusing stats on the back. There are two sets of 2017 stats, one for "open" and the other for April 17th. Huh? If it hadn't have been for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.

Let's move on to the inserts. There are 18 regular inserts.

 Bright Light (6 cards).

 Shutdown Relievers (3 cards).

Center Stage Heroes (9 cards).

What those three inserts actually stand for is generally beyond me. Shutdown Relievers has the three main members of the closing staff. And Center Stage is probably the usual starting nine. Bright Light? New team members, or younger rookies, perhaps? Anyway, all three sets have three parallels each: gold (90 copies), holo (60 copies), and holo with gold (30 copies).

Phantom makes its expected appearance. Twelve Lions appear in this set serial-numbered to 25 copies each.

Finally, a series of autograph cards can be found. Regular Autographs are limited to only 50 copies or less here, Combo Autographs (two cards) are 5 copies each (a dual-mascot autograph card has 50 copies), Silver Foil cards (9 subjects) are limited to 10 copies each, with a Gold Foil parallel limited as 1/1. Three players appear in the Cross Sign cross-brand insert set, limited to 10 copies each, and Rookie Autographs cards were issued for six players, numbered to 10 copies each.