I actually completed the 1978 Yamakatsu set a couple of years ago. Its one of the more popular ones owing to the fact that out of the many sets Yamakatsu made over the years its the only one whose cards are more or less normally sized. All the others are either huge , like those 1977s, or tiny like the 1979 and 1980 mini sized sets.
Until I bought this a few weeks ago I had never seen unopened packs of 1978 Yamakatsu before. The box I bought had 13 unopened packs in it, each of which seems to hold only one card.
In addition to the regular packs, the box also contained two packs with jumbo cards in them, which would have been given out as prizes to those who pulled winner cards from the regular packs.
And it also had an envelope with two grand prizes, a card album and a giant sized card with a whole bunch of printed signatures on it. The need to accommodate these prizes explains why the box is so big despite the regular cards being standard sized.
Since I already have the set, I’m going to keep these sealed. I’m not generally an unopened box or pack collector, but I’ve put together a pretty decent collection on unopened Yamakatsu stuff from the late 70s mostly through “that is just too good a deal to pass up” type impulse purchases (this box cost me about 40 bucks with shipping).
Seems like an absolute steal for that price! There's a lot of cool stuff in that box. What a great addition to the collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks! yeah, its nice to still find bargains out there!
Delete$40 for all of that unopened vintage? That's an awesome buy. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks, it was a pretty good deal!
DeleteThey sure liked their jumbo cards back then, didn't they?
ReplyDeleteThat they did indeed!
DeleteInteresting that the artwork on the packs is very similar to that of the Calbee packs from the late 70's to the mid-80's or so.
ReplyDeleteSo what are the cards in the "jumbo" packs? Engel only mentions the relationship between the JY 6 (the "regular" 1978 cards) and the JY 7 (the giant Kakefu card) sets. The wrapper on the packs implies that they're pre-1977 as they have the Taiheiyo Club Lions logo (1972-76) rather than the Crown Lighter Lions logo (1977-78) although that may not really mean anything.
I'm curious now. I haven't opened them up, but you are right about that Taiheyo logo. I might crack one open to see whats inside.....
DeleteKind of wondering if someone just shoved them in the box
DeleteThat is also possible, I've bought other Yamakatsu stuff where the box and contents didn't seem to match and "someone just shoved them in there randomly" was the best explanation.
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