Shohei Ohtani - The 2013 Japanese BBM Flagship Series 1 Rookie Card Guide

There is nothing hotter than Shohei Ohtani right now in Major League Baseball.  He is on fire and looks to make a run for MVP this year....if he keeps this stat trend through the remainder of the year, I am going to call him a shoe in.  Believe it or not, Ohtani has been doing this for 8 years now and before he made an impact on the MLB scene in 2018, he was the two-way star of Japan destined for bigger and better things.  He has a ton of Japanese cards and a good handful of rookie cards from 2013, but none are more iconic than his 2013 Japanese BBM Flagship Series 1 Rookie #183.  Here is a guide to the 11 variations of his important, iconic, and impactful rookie card.  I apologize in advance as some of the images are taken from Yahoo Japan Auctions website.

2013 BBM Series 1 Box

This is the box that could land you the Red #183, Red #183 - Silver Signature, Red #183 - Gold Signature, Red #183 - Holofoil Signature Rookies, Red #183 - Red Signature, Red #183 - Blue Signature, and Green #183 - Rookie Parallel.

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183

Ohtani's most popular and iconic rookie card.

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183 - Silver Signature

Affordable silver facsimile signature parallel that is unnumbered. (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183 - Gold Signature #ed/100

Spendy gold facsimile signature parallel numbered to 100.  Difficult to find. (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183 - Holofoil Signature #ed/50

Very difficult to find & expensive hologram foil parallel numbered to only 50.  (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183 - Red Signature #ed/25

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2013 BBM Series 1 Red #183 - Blue Signature #ed/1

No image available.

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2013 BBM Series 1 Green #183 - Rookie Foil Parallel #ed/100

I have only seen one of these ever show up for auction.  Very expensive and numbered to 100.  (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Green #KP2

Handed out during a family event at Kamagaya Stadium (Photo courtesy of Ameba)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Pink #SL07

Handed out at another stadium event (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM Series 1 Purple #183 - Sports Card Magazine (SCM)

Issue #98 of Sports Card Magazine had 5 original promotional cards including this one of Ohtani.

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2013 BBM Series 1 Purple #183 - Sports Card Magazine (SCM) Silver Signature

Randomly inserted in SCM #98 were silver facsimile signature parallels.  (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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There you have it.  I hope everyone has a great time watching the All Star Game and Ohtani in the Home Run Derby!  Sayonara!

Hulk Hogan - 1983 Pony Cassette Card - New Find!

There are still a lot of unique Japanese sports cards to be found as a lot of them are still unchecklisted and quite rare.  Once such card is this new card find of Hulk Hogan from 1983.  It is a card that came in a cassette case for what appears to be entrance music for the Hulkster, or Ichiban, as he was known in Japan when he first debuted.  It's about the size of a regular trading card and blank backed.  Now all I need is a Walkman to listen!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and sayonara!

Pre-War Japanese Menko! The 1940 Circle Back 5 set does not disappoint!

It never ceases to amaze me how many pre-war sets are still out there that weren't destroyed in the war in Japan.  I've mentioned several times on this blog that the amount of destruction and devastation, along with paper drives and commodity scacity, would have seemingly wiped out all of the paper products and children's games for the most part.  When I uncover sets like this, it makes me realize how important these likely were to families back then and worth keeping.  I am glad I am able to document them for history's sake!

This M405: 1940 Circle Back 5 set looks like it was well loved and used in lots of menko games bringing a smile to some child's face.  In terms of design it is fairly standard, but with some great background designs on the front behind the wrestler.  When these were newly issued, the colors must have been really vivid!  The backs contain the standard birthplace, height, weight, favorite technique and stable information with a dominate circle at the top and 5-digit Fighting Number at the bottom.

Interestingly, no yokozuna appeared in the auction I won....likely those menko were the most cherished and fell apart many decades ago from hundreds of rounds of menko.

Thanks for stopping by...I hope everyone has a great weekend and sayonara!

Back at it!

Wow, I did not expect to take that much time off of blogging...almost two months.  Work just happened to get really crazy with a project we are working on right when a lot of things started opening back up as we all start getting vaccinated.  Hence, I have not had a chance to sit in front of my computer much, nor work on many hobbies.  Anyway...am hoping to be back blogging once or twice a week.

I've been clearing out my sets that need checklisted, documented in my book, and then put in binders.  This M-Series set has been staring in my face since the pandemic...I purchased it during quarantine and have now just finally got around to documenting it.  It's a beauty and the first, and only, time I have seen any menko from this set indicating how rare it is out there.  One of the main reasons it is so rare is it was made in the middle of World War II.  1944 in fact.  How it survived all these years is a wonder and we'll never know.  However, we can now document it as the M441: 1944 Gunbai Math 2-3 set.  The drawings of the rikishi are crude, but totally fit in with the austere war conditions in Japan during the time.  The backs have an image of the judge's fan, or gunbai, and are printed in a vivid, red ink.  Inside this gunbai are the wrestlers names across the top (read from right to left) as well as birthplace, height, weight, favorite technique and stable information in the gunbai.  Also common during this time was a math equation and indicates it could have been issued in a children's school magazine.  They measure about 1 1/8" x 2 7/8" so a bit on the small side.

I hope everyone has a great week!  Sayonara!