Showing posts with label Masterpiece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masterpiece. Show all posts

Monday, February 1, 2021

2016 Japanese BBM Masterpiece "Stay Gold" Card - Yokozuna Hokutoumi

In the not-so-distant past, BBM was doing some interesting things with their multi-sport sets.  BBM, in a break from their normal conservatism, issued "Super Metallic Cards" [スーパーメタリックカード] of a handful of athletes as part of the Stay Gold subset to the 2016 BBM Masterpiece set.  2016 BBM Masterpiece has a slew of other cool subsets as well: the lenticular "Glorious 3D" subset, the holographic "Superstar" subset, the "Sparkling Hero" subset, and combo, vertical, horizontal autograph subsets.  One of the athletes they captured within the Stay Gold set is Yokozuna Hokutoumi who had risen through the ranks during the same time as the legendary Yokozuna Chiyonofuji.  Hokutoumi was strong, but his true potential was tapped down by Chiyonofuji's sheer dominance.  He ended his career in 1992 with 8 respectable championships.

These Stay Gold cards are heavy....almost 1 oz!  Since inserting these in card packs would have certainly been detected due to their weight, BBM issued redemption cards that a lucky winner would send off in return for one of these.  I have seen Stay Gold cards pop up from time to time, but I have never seen the corresponding return letter than BBM also included with the card....until recently.  I was able to pick up both the card and the letter from eBay recently.  It also reveals that even though BBM issued these as part of their Stay Gold subset, they refer to them as Super Metallic Cards!  Maybe insignificant to most, but part of the entire story that inspires me as a collector.

These don't scan well, but here are a few photos I was able to snap along with BBM's correspondence.





Have a great week and stay safe!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

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!