European Handball - I just can't get into it

I feel like I have a pretty diverse interest when it comes to sports, but when it comes to European Handball, I just can't get into it.  Even as an Olympic sport it is isn't my jam.  There is something about it being a game that focuses too much on the offense and scoring seems way too easy.  Pull up YouTube and let me know what you think.

 

European Handball, described as a mix of soccer, water polo, and basketball is extremely popular over here in Germany.  There are tons of local clubs and the German Handball Bundsliga, or DKB, organizes the teams and players as well as controls merchandizing.  DKB issued a license this year to Victus GmbH to manufacture these stickers which is something I can get into even if I can't get into the sport itself.  Issued in paper packs with 5 stickers to a pack (see above), this method of distribution and manufacturing is popular here in Europe as collectors like to stick their cards in albums rather than plastic sleeves.  I don't have the album unfortunately.  Let's take a quick look inside this pack:


Card 1 (#184) is of Hendrik Pekeler, a 2016 Bronze Medal Olympian and winner of the 2017 World Staring Contest.

Card 2 (#437) is a mascot card of Viaduck of the SG BBM Bietigheim team.  (Wait what, BBM??)

Card 3 (#19) sparkly trophy card.

Card 4 (#494) A team photo of the Second Tier team Handball Sport Verein Hamburg.

Card 5 (#9) This looks to be the last sticker of a 9-sticker puzzle of the championship team victory celebration.  The guy holding the trophy looks a lot like Tony Romo, but it can't be since he is on a championship team.....zingggggggg.

Obligatory scan of the back.

There you have it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this set!

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!