This set is one of the few vintage menko baseball sets that is easier to find in the United States than it is in Japan. Back in the 1960s Americans Bud Ackerman and Mel Bailey imported a lot of Japanese cards to the US and this set was among them. You can read about it more on Dave's excellent post about the history here.
So in the US its quite a bit easier to find than other menko sets. In Japan in contrast its not really noticeably easier or harder to find than most other sets from the same era.
This sheet never left Japan. The ones that were imported to the US (by Buck Ackerman with this set) had numbers stamped on the backs. This one doesn't have any numbers stamped on it which, along with the fact that I bought it in Japan, means it wasn't among those exported:
Another point of interest about the backs of this one is that it is printed in green ink. According to Engel this set is most commonly found with brown ink backs, while green ink backs are rarer. I'm a bit curious if all of the exported ones were brown ink backs, while the green ink backs like this were never exported, which might explain why they are rarer.
This sheet is missing the key card from this set - Sadaharu Oh - but it has two of the other big names. Isao Harimoto, Japan's all time hits leader and all around amazing guy, is on the lower right card while Katsuya Nomura, #2 on NPB's career home run list is on the top right one.
Awesome. Surprising that this sheet survived in such great condition. Too bad there is no Sadaharu Oh on that sheet.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there is some light wear on the corners but otherwise its really nice. Actually that is the really annoying thing about this: the two key cards are both located in the corners so they are the only ones with any corner wear!
DeleteI guess this would explain why I've seen this set so much on Twitter over the last year or so. I had sort of been wondering how so many people were finding them here, and now I know why!
ReplyDeleteYes, this is one of the handful of old Japanese menko sets that you tend to see a lot of thanks to them having been imported.
DeleteI think Ackerman cut up all the sheets of cards he had as well so that's another clue that these weren't from the imported sets. I'd be curious to know how many of the stamped cards have made their way back to Japan.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious about that too. I have several cards from this set which were cut from the sheets but I've never found one with a number on it, so I think those ones are actually quite rare in Japan!
DeleteThese cards are gorgeous... and having an uncut sheet makes these even more interesting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the uncut sheet form really makes them look nice!
DeleteWhat a nice-looking set of cards. I don't think I've ever owned an uncut sheet of anything, but it's a cool thing to add to a collection. How would you store something like this?
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by uncut sheets. I bought a 1989 O-Pee-Chee baseball uncut sheet of 132 cards back in about 1990 or so at a card show and I really loved it, but they are a pain to store. This one is significantly smaller, but is super awkward to store since it is not the same dimensions as any modern standard photo or paper sizes so its hard to find something to put it in. Right now I keep it stored along with a few other uncut sheets in an oversized folder, but its not really an adequate solution!
DeleteI have some oversized items that I store in binders. Get some of those full-page plastic page protectors and slide them in. Assuming you've got cards in binders, it'll work for anything up to 8.5x11" (or A4, I don't know what they use in Japan).
DeleteI have some of those for smaller sheets. The problem with this one is it is longer than a standard A4 size sheet of paper, so one end will stick out. I had to get a folder that will hold B4 sized papers for it, which is kind of awkward as it is too big to fit upright on a shelf.
DeleteThose are neat cards. They would look sharp in a frame
ReplyDeleteTHanks, yes they sure would!
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