New Release: 2018 Epoch Lions Rookies & Stars

The Lions pack-based set from Epoch hit shelves on April 14th, with the standard five cards per 400-yen pack, 20 packs per box, and 12 boxes per case.

 Base cards are numbered 01-69. Base cards have a lot of border at the bottom, but I don't dislike the design.

 While 69 players are in the set, a complete set has 90 cards, because there are 21 image variations. I'm not exactly sure how to distinguish the original image from the variation, but it might be the location of the card number on the back. Image variations are not short printed, and considered part of a full set.

 There are two parallels with border color differences. Sapphire Parallels have SP prefix card numbers.

Ruby Parallels have RP prefix card numbers. Both parallels have 13 cards, and the checklist for Sapphire is identical to Ruby. As far as I can tell, the parallels aren't very limited and might have similar or identical print runs (neither parallel is more rare than the other).

One limited insert set can be found in packs. Holografika can be found in either Silver (#/90) or Gold (#/45) versions. Two autograph sets are also randomly inserted into packs. Authentic Signatures has 27 cards #AS-01 to #AS-28; there is no card 8. Cards are #/79 or less. Rookie Signatures has 8 cards, #/50 or less.

New Release: 2018 Epoch Legends of Yokohama

Let's take a break from all of Epoch's pack-based team sets to look at one of Epoch's recent high-end team sets.

Legends of Yokohama isn't really a "one team" set, but it does follow the same franchise. Yokohama is currently the home of the BayStars, but not terribly long ago they were known as the Whales. It's the same team, but Epoch distinguishes between the two teams in its premium cards in this release.

The base cards are printed on foilboard, with foil highlights on the front. As usual, not too much thought went into design for the base cards, though the color scheme is decent. Unfortunately, the same picture is found on the front and back. While the back does have a career stat line and highlights with the team, I can't help but feel this card is just one tiny step away from being the same as BBM and Epoch's meaningless inserts.

There are 23 base cards in a complete set, and each card has a parallel version #/75. Cards 1-9 are Whales players, while 10-23 are BayStars.

There are 14 premium insert sets with autographs. These are:

• Authentic Signatures - Whales - Vertical (8 cards, #/21 or less)
• kanji signatures; many have inscriptions
• Authentic Signatures - Whales - Horizontal (8 cards, #/31 or less)
• regular signatures; one player has an inscription
• Authentic Signatures - BayStars - Vertical (15 cards, #/21 or less)
• many have kanji signatures and inscriptions; foreigners have regular autographs
• Authentic Signatures - BayStars - Horizontal (15 cards, #/31 or less)
• regular signatures
• Legendary Signatures - Whales - Vertical Gold (12 cards, #/6 or less)
• kanji signatures and/or inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - Whales - Vertical White (13 cards, #/11 or less)
• most have kanji signatures and inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Vertical Gold (13 cards, #/6 or less)
• most have kanji signatures and inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Vertical White (11 cards, #/11 or less)
• most have kanji signatures and inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Vertical Grey (2 cards, #/11 or less)
• kanji signatures and inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - Whales - Horizontal Grey (12 cards, #/16 or less)
• regular signatures; one card has inscription
• Legendary Signatures - Whales - Horizontal Gold (12 cards, #/6 or less)
• regular signatures; four cards have inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Horizontal Grey (11 cards, #/16 or less)
• regular signatures
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Horizontal Gold (13 cards, #/6 or less)
• regular signatures, five have inscriptions
• Legendary Signatures - BayStars - Horizontal White (2 cards, #/18 or less)
• regular signatures

Boxes each contain two autographs and one parallel card, plus three base cards. Given the number of parallels, there are 1725 boxes out there. This is actually a higher number of boxes than Epoch's pack-based team sets, but with only six cards per box here, instead, of 100, there are far fewer cards overall.

One box carries a suggested retail price of 13,000 yen.

The image above of autographed cards is a promotional image from Epoch.

New Release: 2018 Epoch Swallows Rookies & Stars

The Rookies & Stars line is Epoch's version of team sets, and while the cards aren't as cheap as last year's pack-based sets, they come at a lower price point than most of Epoch's offerings.

The Swallows set has five cards per 400-yen pack, with 20 packs per box and 12 boxes per case.

 The Swallows base set is complete at 90 cards, but that includes several variations. Cards are numbered 1-72, but players with variations have "a" and "b" (and occasionally "c") card numbers, as you see in Yamada's card above.

Epoch calls this insert "Rookies & Stars", and the card numbering (RS- prefix) and text on the front matches that, but the Swallows Rising logo on the back of the card is more prominent than the insert name. There are 27 cards in this set.

Holografika has 18 cards, numbered 60 copies each for players and 35 for the mascot.

There are 27 cards in the Autographs A set (857 cards), with 18 cards in Autographs B (198 cards). Players in B also appear in A, making B a parallel of sorts. I believe the horizontal cards are in the A group, with vertical cards in B. As you can see, the mascot appears in both autographed sets.

Each box of Swallows Rookies & Stars includes 95 base cards, 4 inserts, and 1 autograph. With 1055 autographs accounted for above, and 1055 Holografika cards, the numbering works out that there are 1055 boxes. That makes one box short of 88 cases, and a very small number of base sets in all (about 1100).