Checklist Translations: Smart '99 Chinese Pro-Baseball

     The primary set (issued in 2000) covering the 1999 CPBL season was issued by a new company, Sunrich Cards, Inc.  Each card had a foil logo featuring a pitcher and the word "SMART" written vertically, accompanied by "'99 CHINESE PRO-BASEBALL" sideways down the right side of each base card.  A special logo in the lower corner of each card marked the 10th anniversary of the CPBL.  The set was limited to 2000 copies (each card showing 1/2000 on the back), but only cards 183-226 were actually stamped with serial numbers.  While I haven't been able to tell for sure, based on the collections of like-numbered serial stamped cards I've seen on auction sites, I suspect this set may have only been issued in complete sets.

     The set contained 228 cards covering all of the teams (1-172), team logos (173-178), '99 post season (179-182), monthly MVP winners (183-196), the league's Best 9 (197-205), Glod Glove winners (206-214), '99 award winners and statistical leaders (215-226) and two unnumbered checklists.

The set is described in this blog post:
http://jackli7751.pixnet.net/blog/post/28149093

Cards 1-172 can be seen in this album:
http://jackli7751.pixnet.net/album/set/16814966

The Award Winner subset is shown here:
http://jackli7751.pixnet.net/blog/post/41548325

The Gold Glove subset is shown here:
http://jackli7751.pixnet.net/blog/post/41883136

The standard base card front and back:

Chien-Fu Kuo Lee

(As Yet) Unidentified Baseball Sets From Korea

The following are images I've picked up during my various research forays into the more Korean parts of the web.  Most of these I found on auction sites or blogs, but were accompanied with very little identifying information aside from perhaps year of issue.  I post them here in hopes that someone may be able to shed some light on their origins.  As a result of how I found the images, I know next to nothing about them, but if hard-pressed, could probably turn up the page where I found them.

As best I can tell, based on the blog I found these on, they are from 1980 and were inserted with Lotte Choco Pies.

1994 Uni-President Lions Playing Cards

 

I recently acquired this set on eBay from a seller that had picked up a few baseball-related souvenirs on a trip to Taiwan back in the mid 1990s. All of the face cards feature photos of players from the 1994 Uni-President Lions team.  The box, and all card backs, feature artwork of Lions' pitcher Chang-Heng Hsieh. If there is any particular significance to the arrangement, it escapes me.

Inconsequential Variations (Part the First): 1990 CMC Pre-Rookie #441 Bill McGuire

     Welcome back, everyone, as it is time, once again, for the introductory installment of everyone's favorite recurring series where we explore the unknown depths of the obscure backwater that is inconsequential variations amongst baseball cards.

Non-eBay Card Shopping (w/Winfield mailday)

Sorry, I'm having Indian food tonight :/

       On any given day, one can visit a sports card trading message board (and I'd be willing to bet this occurs on all manner of collecting-based hobby forums, as well), someone is bemoaning the lack of an alternative to eBay.  Oh, feebay, why doest thou taxeth us so, stealing the very nickels and dimes upon which we hoped to build our dreams?  There's so much shill bidding!  There is no seller protection from scammers!  Why, oh, why can't there be any where else we can go?

1990 Columbus Clippers Team Issue Perforated Stadium Giveaway

      As a follow up to this post, I was finally able to acquire a copy of the full 1990 Columbus Clippers set that was given away at Cooper Stadium in 1990 as a single perforated sheet.  Sponsored by Kodak and the local Nickles Bakery, the set was topped with a team photo and included 25 cards.  At the bottom of the sheet are two coupons, one for a "free" watch (with 8 proofs of purchase from Kodak film) and one to save $20 on photofinishing with purchase of a 35mm Kodak camera.

     Here is the checklist, organized by uniform number (not necessarily how they are arranged in the uncut set):

NA Team Photo
2 Mark Wasinger
4 Jim Walewander
9 Oscar Azocar
13 Bob Davidson
14 Jim Leyritz
16 Dave Sax
18 Andy Stankiewicz
21 John Fishel
22 Stump Merrill MGR
23 Darrin Chapin
24 John Habyan
25 Dave Eiland
26 Jason Maas
27 Mark Leiter
28 Kevni Mmahat
29 Van Snider
30 Rich Monteleone
31 Hensley Meulens
34 Brian Dorsett
35 Steve Adkins
37 Kevin Maas
38 Rob Sepanek

40 Jimmy Jones
44 Clay Parker
NNO Clete Boyer / Stump Merrill / Ken Rowe / Trey Hillman / Mike Heifferon (Coaching Staff)

     Currently, this set is not cataloged by Beckett (though I did recently send them the set information), but is is cataloged by the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  I've also posted the checklist to SportsCardForum.com, Zistle.com and TradingCardDB.com.  The three copies I received from a seller on eBay all had a fairly significant bit of corner damage to the cards on the corners of the set when it was folded.  Most of that looks to be old wear, and not a result of shipping.  I guess people weren't so keen to take care of minor league sets of this nature as they might have been for the similar Lykes-sponsored Atlanta Braves sets that were issued in the 1990s.  As a result, finding copy of the set in mint condition is unlikely.