Thursday, September 5, 2013

Oh Wait, They Have Been Listing New Stuff

I've been a little frustrated lately because I knew BBM had some new stuff coming out but I hadn't seen any updates on their website in almost a month.  Last night I discovered the reason for this - BBM rearranged some stuff on their website and is now listing new sets here instead of here.  The updates have been there - I just have been looking in the wrong place for them.  So without further adieu, here's the new batch of upcoming BBM sets:

- I waited so long on this first one that it actually got released this week - a box set called "Hui Carp" which I think means "Bright Carp" but I'm not positive.  The set contains a mere 19 cards - 18 cards of current Carp players and a "special" card - possible jersey, patch or bat cards along with autograph cards of current as well as OB Carp players.  I don't usually care much for the box team sets but I have to say that I find the base cards in this set pretty attractive.

- To continue the theme with the "Young Lions" and "Young Fighters" sets BBM released last month, BBM is putting out a "Young Tigers" box set.  Like the two earlier sets, this is a box set containing 28 cards - 27 "regular" cards plus one "special" card.  The "special" card could possibly be a photo card, a foil autograph card, a real autograph card or a jersey card.  The set will be out in late September.

- Following the 2003 season, the Nippon Ham Fighters decided to relocate from Tokyo to Sapporo and renamed themselves the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.  To celebrate the Fighters' 10th anniversary of the move, BBM is putting out a pack based set called something like "10th Season With Hokkaido".  The base set will contain 90 cards but there are no details about any subsets to those cards.  There's a nine card insert set listed but again there aren't any details about it.  It looks like there will be autograph and jersey cards available as well.  This is the first time that the Fighters have had any sort of Anniversary or OB set, leaving the Eagles as the only team not to have had one done by BBM.  Given that next year will be the Eagles' 10th season, I suspect there will be something forthcoming.  The Fighters set will be out in late September.

Calbee also rearranged things on their website so I also discovered last night that they had information about Series Three available.  After increasing the number of "regular" cards in the set to 84 for Series Two, they've gone back to 72 (6 per team) for this set.  There are three subsets available with this set however - a 23 card All Star subset featuring the players elected by the fan vote (which is looking more and more like it'll be the only All Star related set this year as BBM still has not announced their annual set), a 2 card Hideki Matsui Memorial set featuring a reprint of his 2002 Calbee card and a card for his retirement ceremony, and the remaining four cards for the checklist subset which completes the team mascot theme.  There will also (as always) be a 24 card "Star" insert set (2 players per team) and another mail in box set - this time it's a 12 card set featuring a top strikeout pitcher for each team.  As usual, Calbee has put a checklist for the set online.  The set will be out on September 23.

UPDATE - I thought Calbee's website said the cards would be released September 23, but Jambalaya already has the cards listed so maybe it came out earlier than that.

4 comments:

Hardball Crazy (Derek) said...

sorry, this off topic from your post. Beyond collecting baseball, I also collect players from my alma mater, Michigan State. I just discovered a Rick Krueger 1979 TCMA card I need for MSU collection. How readily available are they on market? how much would Krueger go far? any availabe that you know of?

Derek

NPB Card Guy said...

I did a quick look on Ebay this morning and there's one going for $30 which seems high to me. I didn't get a chance to check Engel but I would expect you to be able to find one on Ebay for less than $10. Singles from that set show up fairly often although I can't say how often that particular one shows up.

Are you looking for only one card of Krueger from Japan or are you looking for all of them? I'm pretty sure there are other, less common cards out there.

Hardball Crazy (Derek) said...

Yeah.I saw the $30 one. Thought it was steep also. So, why I am asking for your expertise. I am looking for one Krueger card. He played one yr in Japan. So he has one card I believe. just want one card of him. He doesnt have any MLB cards from his brief career here

NPB Card Guy said...

Taking a quick look at Sports Card Forum, he does have a card in the 1979 Takara Giants set (which is incredibly rare and expensive). He doesn't appear to have a Calbee card. I have a card of him from something called the "Gekkan Giants" set which was a bunch of six card sheets included in a monthly Giants fan magazine. I've only ever seen the two sheets I picked up offered anywhere. So, yeah, the TCMA card is probably your best bet. Engel lists the card at $15.