2020 BBM Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards Arrive Next Week!

Here we go, BBM's first sumo wrestling set of the year goes on sale next week to coincide with the first tournament of the year.  BBM has timed this annual release to be at the fingertips of collectors when their favorite wrestlers are battling it out in the ring during the January tournament.  A very much predictable release of 90 cards with the chance at an autograph in about every other box, this set is one of the more eye appealing in recent years.  Three subsets are intertwined in the 90-card set with the usual Young Hands (Up-and-Comers), Off-Shots (Candid - Back Stage Pass), and a special 1-card subset to commemorate Yokozuna Kisenosato's retirement.  Take a look and let me know what you think of this set. 

 

2018 BBM Infinity Sumo Wrestling - Ozeki Tochiazuma Auto!

As a parent, you always want your child to do better and be more successful than you.  There is something about parental pride that pushes us to raise kids this way.  One successful sumo wrestling family is that of the Hayao father-son duo. The elder Hayao, competing under the name Tochiazuma, had a very productive 16-year career making it to the 3rd-highest rank of Sekiwake in 1970.  In 1976, his son was born and subsequently entered sumo wrestling in 1994 at the age of 18.  How did the younger Hayao/Tochiazuma do?   He made it to sumo wrestling's 2nd-highest rank of Ozeki and won three championships over 22 years of competing....far surpassing his father's successes.  In 2018, BBM issued their annual multi-sport set titled "Infinity" which focuses on families and family ties.  In fact, their family-themed subset is called "Family Ties" and card #99 captured the Tochiazuma father/son duo.  I recently opened a box of these on my YouTube channel and overcame the odds to get the younger Tochiazuma's Autographed Card!  My father and mother would be proud.....

2011 Bowman Chrome Baseball Superfractor - Brandon Laird 1/1

A month or so ago I was updating the Brandon Laird section of the Trading Card Database with photos and cleaning up a few other odds and ends.  I noticed the empty photo holes for the 2008 and 2011 Superfractors and figured they would stay empty for a long time.  A few weeks ago, however, eBay worked its magic and the 2011 Bowman Chrome Superfractor popped up.  The seller and I worked a deal and now I finally own a graded card.....my first ever....although I will likely crack it out of its plastic prison soon.

The good news is that I have far exceeded my #11 collecting goal this year with this purchase.  Maybe I'll add a few inexpensive Yuta Tabuse cards and call that goal complete.

By the way, Brandon moved teams in the offseason and will now be playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines.

 

Unfortunately my scanner really sucks with graded cards, but it is on our list of new things to purchase this year so maybe I'll get a better scan at some point

2018 BBM Rikishi Sumo Wrestling Card - Box Break

I have to say this is one of my favorite set designs that BBM has done in a while.  In total there are 81 cards in the set with two different autograph insert sets to chase.  The background design on the front of the 42-card main set (1 card for each of the wrestlers in the top division) is very Japanese and the colors are vibrant with the rikishi in their kesho-mawashi.  The background color on this 42-card are different for the different ranks: Orange for Yokozuna, Purple for Ozeki/Sekiwake/Komosubi, & Green for Maegashira.  The backs have a picture of the rikishi during the shikiri as well as the top-three winning moves the rikishi uses broken down by percentage.  At the very bottom is statistical info and an anecdotal write-up.  In Hakuho's, for example, it talks about his father passing away in Mongolia back in April and who was also a 5-time Olympic medalist.  There are four subsets as well that are pretty interesting with more details below under the photos: Fight (12-cards), Early Days (9 cards), Next Generation (12 cards), & Upset (6 cards).  My biggest complaint is the amount of doubles in the box...especially for a ~$70.00 pricetag.  I can get complete sets for half of that amount at YJA, and for a set collector like me, I am not interesting in chasing the autographs.  I lose the thrill of opening packs, though, so I'll likely continue throwing money at BBM.  BBM, if you are listening, start including gold and silver facsimile auto parallels or some additional insert sets like you do with your baseball and basketball products.  Here is the breakdown from the opening:

Main 42-card Base Set: 36/42
Fight 12-card Subset: 11/12
Early Days 9-card Subset: 7/9
Next Generation 12-card Subset: 11/12
Upset 6-card Subset: 4/6
Autographs: 1

Total: 69/81 - 85%

Here are the cards in the main 42-card set.  Hakuho and Tochinoshin.  One of these gentlemen is going to be the May 2018 tournament winner I believe.

Here is the design of the Fight subset.  Mid-ranked wrestlers with exceptional skill are highlighted in this set.

 The Early Days subset shows photos of the high-ranking wresters back when they first got into sumo.  I am not a fan of the mosaic pattern in the background.

This Next Generation subset shows the up-and-comers that are new to the Juryo division and have potential to go higher.

The final subset is the Upset series depicting some of the famous "upsets" in recent sumo history....or really when a Maegashira wins the tournament like when Tochinoshin won the tournament back in March.  Some of these go back to the 1980s.

There are 2 types of autograph inserts.  This one is the regular auto and then there is an Upset autograph set that features autographs of the rikishi that are on the regular Upset set.  All autos are sticker autographs unfortunately.

2008 Japanese BBM Osaki Handball Team Cards

That's right, we are looking at official licensed handball team cards from 2008.  This particular set has 22 cards in it...21 base cards and 1 special autograph card.  For ~$8, I couldn't pass this up to take a look and see what wonders lie within for the 2008 Osaki OSOL Sky Magic!! set.  The box advertises 2000 total sets produced. 

There is a Japan Handball League (日本ハンドボールリーグ) with 10 teams.  I'd love to watch a game in person, but YouTube has quite a few games.  I don't quite understand the rules, but looks like Basketball, Soccer, and Lacrosse mixed together.

Opening the box shows the game schedule on the inside of the top flap as well as a team photo.  The set number is stamped in gold in the upper right corner....I got set #1834 in this instance.

Cards come wrapped in a paper sleeve and are printed on BBMs standard high-gloss paper.  Each card is numbered and shows an action shot with a smaller posed shot in the bottom corners.  The imagery is pretty cool.  The backs have personal data as well as another action shop and statistics.  Each players is presented in order of their uniform number so the goal keeper, with uniform #1, is first in the set.  There are 18 cards in the base set and 3 "Shining Moment" card of Daisuke Miyazaki which are basically interview cards to get to know him better.  Daisuke appears to be the star of the team since he got his own 3-card Shining Moment subset as well as appears on the box cover.  He also is touted as the star on the inside front cover and he is standing in the front row of his team photo.  Surprisingly, I also got an on-card autograph of his as my special insert!  It is numbered 52 of 75.  They only made this set of handball cards and only of this team.  I bought two sets and am planning on keeping the other one sealed.  Pretty cool stuff!

Favorite Card of 2016

Fuji over at The Chronicles of Fuji pointed me to a contest P-Town Tom was running through 9 January 2017.  The basic premise is to post your favorite card of 2016 and you are entered into a contest to win a 2017 Topps S1 blaster.  I have too many sumo cards to choose from, but one "other" card that I do consider to be one of my favorite is this 2016 BBM Masterpiece of Sunao Takizawa who is the captain of the Japanese NEC Green Hornets rugby team.

There are three reasons this card is my favorite:

1. Takizawa-san's legs are bigger than my waist...look at those things.  Plus, his hair is flying up because he is lowering his head to ruin someone's day.  This is one of the most menacing cards I have ever seen.

2. I owned exactly one autographed card before this one.  It is a Laura Prepon 2015 Panini Americana that I picked up cheap at the Chantilly Card Show.  Other than that, this is it (Actually, this card is on its way over from Japan, but this is the auction photo of it).  Takizawa-san's signature is a really beauty and when I saw this card, I knew I needed to have it.

3. This card would not have been possible without the help of Raz over at The Raz Card Blog.  I shot him a small care package a few weeks ago and he unexpectedly dropped a little extra in my PayPal account to say thanks.  A huge gesture and this card represents the great folks I have met over the past year of blogging.  Thanks Raz!

Thanks to P-Town Tom as well for running your contest.  Cheers everyone!