Shohei Ohtani - Japanese BBM 2013 1st Version "Wing" Rookie Cards

Shohei Ohtani is having another great year and I thought it might be a good idea to dust this post off and update it slightly for accuracy. Ohtani's Japanese rookie cards often get overlooked or ignored by many collectors because of the difficulty in understanding the Japanese baseball card market.  BBM, much like Topps, is the dominate company distributing baseball cards in Japan and has been producing baseball cards since 1991.  There are numerous other collectors out there that are much more knowledgeable than me on Japanese baseball cards, but I wanted to highlight Ohtani's first true rookie cards from the 2013 Japanese BBM 1st Version Set.  This is the first regular BBM set that features Ohtani (not counting the Rookie Edition set) and features 11 different cards based on the iconic #183 pitching image!  BBM calls their releases 1st Version and 2nd Version which is comparable to Topps Series 1 and Series 2.  Check out my YouTube video at the very end!

2013 BBM 1st Version Box

This is the box that could land you the following cards:

* Red Wing #183 - Base

* Red Wing #183 - Silver Foil Signature

* Red Wing #183 - Gold Foil Signature #ed to 100

* Red Wing #183 - Holo Foil Signature #ed to 50

* Red Wing #183 - Red Foil Signature #ed to 25

* Red Wing #183 - Blue Foil Signature #ed to 1

* Green Wing  #183 - Rookie Foil #ed to 100

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2013 BBM 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Base

Ohtani's most popular and iconic rookie card.

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2013 BBM 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Silver Foil Signature

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

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2013 BBM 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Gold Foil Signature #ed/100

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

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2013 BBM 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Holo Foil 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 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Red Foil Signature #ed/25

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2013 BBM 1st Version Red Wing #183 - Blue Foil Signature #ed/1

No image available.

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2013 BBM 1st Version Green Wing #183 - Rookie Foil #ed/100

A few of these show up for auction on occasion.  Very expensive and numbered to 100.  (Photo courtesy of YJA)

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2013 BBM 1st Version Green Wing #KP2

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

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2013 BBM 1st Version Pink Wing #SL07

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

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2013 BBM 1st Version Purple Wing #183 - Sports Card Magazine (SCM) Base

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

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2013 BBM 1st Version Purple Wing #183 - Sports Card Magazine (SCM) Silver Foil

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

Check out my YouTube Video!

My 2021 National Recap

What a weekend spent in Chicago at The 2021 National.  One of my bucket list items for quite a while...I was actually on my way to The National 10 years ago when a family emergency forced me to turn around and miss the event.  Didn't miss it this time and had a great and amazing experience.  There are dozens and dozens of other collector reports of The National and I thought I'd also post my thoughts here of my Saturday and Sunday experience.

1. The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center is huge.  It took my brother and I 12 hours to walk and look at every single booth while stopping at about 10-20% of them to look through boxes.  If I was to do it again 3 days would have been perfect.  We walked 9 miles around the convention floor weaving in and out.

2.  The modern-card hobby is in a boom right now for sure as there were a ton of people.  I can't help think the modern cards market is going to collapse in on itself soon with the prices being thrown around.

3.  There is plenty of vintage at The National...don't let the modern-card YouTubers lead you to believe otherwise.

4.  1986-1987 Fleer Jordan rookie cards are not rare, however, they are rare in the PSA 9 and PSA 10.  I could have walked away with 2-3 dozen graded examples PSA8 and below.

5.  Likewise, 1951 Bowman Mantle and Mays rookie cards are not rare either.  Surprising how many The National brings out of the woodworks.

6.  After plenty of research, we ate a big breakfast and brought sandwiches and power bars for lunch and snacks so we didn't have to wait in line and pay the crazy vendor prices.  People always seem to be complaining, but with a little preparation we were just fine and saved all that time.  They did need more tables and chairs around the perimeters though.

7.  I have a good sense of smell and I didn't smell nasty BO until the last day with one of the venders.  Thanks to all the collectors out there for showering.

8.  Absolutely bring good shoes.  My hip flexors were really sore after two days of shuffling on the concrete floor and bending over looking at cases.

9.  The aisleways did get crowded and I did run in a fellow sumo card collector so I was probably guilty of clogging the aisles.  The convention center needs about 15% more space to spread out and give people a bit more room to maneuver in the aisles.

10.  People were really polite as well as the dealers.  I didn't have one negative interaction!

11.  I asked about 6 dealers and they all said they had an amazing show as far as sales.  Money was flying around no doubt.

12. The modern-card YouTubers were out and about, but I very rarely saw them...I only saw their videos afterwards.

13.  People say there were a bunch of kids there and they definitely were, but this hobby and industry really isn't for them anymore.

14.  People carrying lock boxes around with tens of thousands of dollars in slabbed cards is a site to behold.  When it is a 10-year old kid it makes me sad though.

15.  There is plenty of stuff to do: autographs, memorabilia, box breaking, card shopping, dime boxes, dollar boxes, corporate booth festivities.  There is not a shortage of fun.

16.  There were good deals abound, but you had to search.  I was surprised how much inventory was still sitting around at the end of the show leading me to believe the prices were a bit high for most buyers.

17.  Beer at The National.  A brilliant idea designed to pry more dollars out of people's hands.

18.  NASCAR card collecting is dead at the moment.  I saw maybe one or two booths with unopened, but no one was selling any singles.  Soccer, Wrestling, MMA, and F1 have all overtaken NASCAR at this point.  Again it's pretty sad to see how far NASCAR has fallen.

19.  I'm not sure we'd do the VIP Passes again.  Unless you are going to be there all 5 days, it really wasn't worth the price for what we did.

20.  I bought 5 items there...yes only 5 items:

    a)  An unopened taba pack of late 1950 sumo bromide cards!

    b) A box of 1987 Donruss to rip back at the hotel and relive my youth!

    c) A 1990 Donruss Nolan Ryan Learning Series Card

    d) A SGC 7.5 2018 Topps Chrome Ohtani - I wanted to own an SGC slab to have in my collection, but didn't want to spend a ton of money so I rescued this one.

    e) A full set of 1991 Kicks American Taekwondo Association Cards 

Well, there you have it.  Would I go to The 2022 National in Atlantic City?  You bet!

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!

Ultra-Rare 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars Ted Simmons

According to Trading Card Database, only 143 people in the world have the #9 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars Ted Simmons card with only a handful for sale on eBay.  Not sure why this is card falls in the ultra-rare category, but Diamond Jesters helps highlight the set.