Random Japanese eBay Haul

     Occasionally, I'll just do random searches on eBay's Sports Cards and Memorabilia section for "japanese" and see what pops up. A few weeks ago I did that, caught a seller unloading a nifty assortment of random Japanese baseball goodness and put in a token minimum $.99 bid (+$4 S&H). About a week later, this is what turned up:

Three 1988 Calbee cards and six 1988 Calbee wrappers:

     The blurry one is card #117 of Rick Lancelotti. Until I saw this card, I don't think I'd ever seen a worse photo on a baseball card. And that includes some of the truly bad photos from some of those Venezuelan stickers I looked through while working on that earlier post. It really looks like a capture from a television screen. Or an actual photo of a television screen.

     The other two are #122, Toru Sugiura of the Yakult Swallows and #134 Shuji Fujimoto of the Nankai Hawks. 1988 Calbee were 2" x 2 5/8" or roughly the size of the Topps Leaders cards from 1986-1990, or your average Topps sticker from 1986-1990.

     Next in the package were three cards from the 1987 Amada Heat Sensitive Yomiuri Giants set, and what I'm assuming were the three packs they came in (mainly because the photo on the back of the pack matches the card of Kuwata, along with his signature):

#7 Sadaaki Yoshimura
#8 Tatsunori Hara
#18 Masumi Kuwata

     According to Gary Engel's Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide, 7th Edition, these cards are intended for some sort of combination of baseball and paper/rock/scissors game. Holding a finger on the black boxes at the top reveal the outcome of some sort of play, and the bottom three circles reveal paper/rock/scissors symbols.  If you click on the scan of the back, you can faintly see the results under each heat-sensitive box. He also says there were three different cards of each of 9 players, for a total of 36 cards. The cards are 2 5/16" x 3 3/8", so they're slightly smaller than a standard card. The packaging is about 3 1/8" x 5 1/4", and has a puncture in the top, as if it had been displayed on a pegboard hook, instead of in a box.

     The last few items present something of a puzzle, as I can't find them listed in Mr. Engel's guide, and they are unlikely to be connected due to the large difference in size. There are three small (1 1/4" x 1 9/16") magnets of Yomiuri Giants players. Two of #6 Toshio Shinozuka and one of #45 Kaoru Okazaki. Help identifying these would be much appreciated.

     The remaining packages, I'm guessing, are not what the magnets were packaged in as they are 3 3/4" x 6 5/8", about 4 times the size of the magnets.  Though having said that, I notice the Shinozuka photo from the magnet in the middle is on the lower left of the back of the wrapper.  Who knows? 

     Since measurement numbers don't always correlate to an good visual of size, I scanned each of these cards next to a standard sized card for comparison.

Hensley Meulens, truly a "rising" star!

    I first caught this story about a week or so ago, on a Dutch site, and didn't say anything because I thought it might just be a gag. Then I saw it repeated again today:

Bam-Bam's odyssey is truly out of this world

     Apparently, Bam Bam is headed for the final frontier, courtesy of Space Expedition Curaçao, a new space program supported by Curaçao's government.

Or you can read the original snippet in Dutch:

Retourtje ruimte voor Hensley Meulens

      Naturally, when I found this, I had to figure out which card or cards to attach to the post.  What better than his "Rising Star" issues from Score? 

      Starting in 1989, until 1992, Score released a 100 card set of Rising Stars, and a 100 card set of Superstars. The sets were sold in large, plastic blisters, along with a magazine-style book with slightly more thorough biographies of each player. Aside from super-hyped rookie Gregg Jefferies holding the #1 spot in the inaugural set, there wasn't any particular order to the card numbering.

      They were usually sold for $9.95-$12.95 almost anywhere baseball cards were sold. The 1989 issue was fairly popular, but as with the regular 1989 Score base cards, were so over-produced that supply far outpaced demand, and even today, these sets are very easy to find unopened, usually for less than $5 (plus shipping & handling).

      I'll go back and research the checklists, but Meulens has got to hold the record for most appearances in Score's Rising Star sets.  Had 1992 not been the final year of those sets, one has to wonder if he would have made a 5th appearance!

     In any case, I guess all that rising amounted to something after all.  Perhaps he will keep these specific cards in a pocket of his flight suit as he blasts off into space, thinking to himself how the Yankees had given up on him too soon.  Godspeed, Mr. Meulens!

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Dave Winfield #126 Rainbow

     I don't hide that I don't particularly like variations and parallels in baseball cards. I just think they're the product of an extremely lazy attitude toward baseball card production. It's bad enough that the companies reuse the same photographs over and over, year after year, but to basically make the same card, over and over, with no change aside from color, ELEVEN TIMES, is borderline contempt toward the collector from the manufacturer. That's probably why it took me three whole years to complete the 2008 Upper Deck Heroes rainbow of Dave Winfield's base card; my heart just wasn't in it.  Sort of like my never ending, but somewhat lackadaisical, pursuit of the 100 Winfield cards in the Yankee Stadium Legacy set . Here, in all it's glory, in descending order of commonality:

Base Card	Black	Emerald #/499
Charcoal #/399	Beige #/299	Red #/249
Navy Blue #/199	Brown #/149	Sea Green #/99
Light Blue #/49	Purple #/25	Base Card Back

     As you'll notice, the "beige" is basically a serial numbered version of the base card. Apparently someone at Upper Deck's printer messed up because some of the #/299 cards are a beige color somewhere between the base and brown editions, while others are just the base card with a number stamped on them. However, I don't think there are both beige and base numbered variations. I think the beige set is just scrambled. Of all of these, the Light Blue was the hardest to find. The Purple actually came to me in a trade offer on The Bench, so that was nice. As far as I know, I'm just three jersey cards away from the jersey rainbow for #126, but have a lot of colors to go on card #190.

    I participated in a 2008 Heroes case break on The Bench a couple of weeks ago, and out of all of those boxes of cards, there were multiple jersey/autos of Derek Jeter, Tim Lincecum and Victor Martinez, but not a single useful card of Dave Winfield. All I got for my trouble was a Matt Cain jersey auto, Josh Willingham jersey auto and a stack of Marlin base cards.  All for trade if anyone has any Winfields I need in exchange!

2005 Liga Mexicana de Beisbol Cards

      In 2005, La Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, known to most gringos as the "Mexican League", began a big marketing push, thanks to a new league president, and part of that effort included a set of league-produced baseball cards (tarjetas de beisbol). I managed to pick up 55 cards from the set on Mercado Libre, and after three weeks of shipping, they have finally arrived. Until I can get them all scanned and documented, here is a sample:

1992 La Liga Mexicana de Béisbol tarjetas (Mexican League baseball cards)

     A little over a year ago, I posted a query about some Mexican League cards I'd found on MercadoLibre.com.mx, eBay's partner site in Latin America.  Well, I contacted the seller, initially through a Spanish-speaking friend, learned that he did, indeed, speak English, and negotiated the purchase of all of the 1992 Mexican League cards he had.  Unfortunately, by this time, he only had five cards left, with one being a double.  We worked out our sales details and he thankfully was glad to accept PayPal, and yesterday, I had in my mailbox, my five shiny new 1992 Mexican League cards.  Here they are in all their glory:

     I had really hoped the backs of the cards might help illuminate their origins a bit better, but aside from the usual biographical details and statistics, there's nothing terribly useful here. The backs have a decidedly Donruss flavor to them, with the card number in the baseball icon in the corner, and maxing out at 5 years of "statisticas" (which I think is more Spanglish than Spanish. That should probably be "estadisticas").   The logo in the lower left corner has the initials "TCI" and "EDM"  around a small, stylized logo of the western hemisphere and a couple of yellow, right-pointing chevrons.

    The seller did say these cards were very rare and he had not seen many of them.  I've asked that he let me know if he finds any more as I would be interested.  Pity that the other 10 cards had already sold when I finally got around to contacting the seller.

     I went ahead and posted the meager 14 cards to SportsCardForum.com's Inventory Manager system, so they are available to the world to search. The highest card number I found was 147, but I would suspect the set contains at least 150.  I'll ask the seller if he can remember any more details and post them here.

    In other news, I also worked out a deal with the seller of a lot of 2005 Mexican League cards that were produced when the league inked a deal with a new marketing company who updated the league's logo and embarked on a more aggressive advertising and licensing campaign.  Apparently that campaign wasn't hugely successful, as this seller has only about 50 cards (though he kept the wrappers, so I'll be getting a couple of those), but there haven't been any further league-wide sets issued.  I'll post details on those once they arrive.  Again, I probably grossly overpaid, but they aren't easy to find.  Once I get them all scanned and cataloged, I'll make them available for trade or sale if anyone is interested.

Dave Henderson 1981-82 Venezuelan Sticker & Hendu Want List

     As I mentioned in my previous post on Venezuelan stickers, I finally received my 1981-82 Dave Henderson. I held off on this one for awhile due to the price, but then finally came to the conclusion that if I didn't pick it up, I'd miss it forever. This is actually a different sticker/card than the one posted months ago as the former had some black staining along the bottom edge on the front and this one looks a little cleaner.
     I mentioned that these were odd to be considered stickers, or to be pasted into albums, as some sets had information on the back, like this one. And, as is apparent in the scan, this one was pasted into an album at some point. I just don't understand. But now I have one, so that's something.

     As rare as these are, I guess this wasn't Hendu's rarest piece as I've now seen two copies (from the same seller) in the past year. The cards I'm having the most trouble with are below in my comprehensive (to date) Dave Henderson want list:

1981-1984?

Seem there are at least two more Mariners postcards out there I need for the Hendu collection:


1983
 
MLB Transparency Slide A3120


1985
MLB Transparency Slide A3120


1989
1989 Collect the Stars Baseball Magnetables #65

1991
1991 A's S.F. Examiner #5

1993
1993 Topps/R&N China porcelain #473

2004
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Autographs Gold #243 /5
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Autographs Platinum #243 /1
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Bronze #243 /50
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Gold #243 /5

2013
2013 Leaf Memories 91 Buyback Red #232 /1

2014
2014 ITG Past Present Future Cut Signature #CHDHE
2014 Leaf Memories 92 Buyback Gold #232 /5
2014 Leaf Memories 92 Buyback Red #232 /1


1982 Seattle Mariners team poster
1990s Oakland Athletics 4"x6" black & white photo w/facsimile signature
2000-ish Oakland Athletics Saturn/AL Champs 4"x6" black & white photo

2000s Seattle Mariners GetWell Tour black & white photo


2010s Seattle Mariners photo card