But for the sake of throwing some rain on my own parade I thought I'd raise one complaint I have with the set. Too many damn Title Holder cards.
For many years Calbee has been fairly consistent with how it structures its sets. With each series you get the regular base set, plus several subsets. The subsets usually consist of:
1) a 24 card "Star Card" set that is a bit harder to find than the regular cards (as noted in my previous post these have a parralel version that are the main "chase" cards in the set).
2) A checklist subset that is usually 4 cards per series. These are usually my favorite since they tend to feature the best photography.
3) Some kind of throwback subset, often featuring reprints of older Calbee cards. Numbers in these sets have varied. These are pretty cool.
4) Some "other set". Depending on the Series they throw in another kind of random set with some sort of theme - Title Holders, Opening Day, Exciting Scenes, Draft Picks, All Stars, etc etc. These usually have between 18 and 24 cards, though it varies by year and series.
With these "other sets" the quality is pretty hit and miss. Last year Series 2 for example had a First Victory set that I liked since it featured cool photography from each team's first win of the season that broke with the usually boring Calbee photo selection/framing. Other sets though often have really dreary designs and when they do its always a let down to find one in a pack.
This year the "other" set is a 2023 Title Holder subset which features league leaders in various categories. Its got the worst design possible - the player is superimposed on an extremely generic background of out-of-focus lights of some sort, with "2023 Title Holder" in big white letters. Every card in the set has the exact same background which means that they all look exactly the same. Its almost as though the folks at Calbee were challenging themselves to design a subset of cards which would make the regular cards with their predictable, standardized photography look thrilling in comparison.
The really super annoying thing I've noticed this year, which is prompting my complaint, is that due to Calbee's reduction of the regular base set to 60 cards from 72 the ratio at which you pull these awful Title Holder cards is a lot higher than it previously was. Over the past 6 packs my kids and I have opened we've pulled 7 regular cards and 5 Title Holder cards.
These things are truly miserable.
I noticed a subtle difference in this Series. Usually if the "regular" cards have the player names in Japanese, the "other set" has the player names in English and vice versa. For this set, both the "regular" cards and the "Title Holder" cards have the names in Japanese. It's not the first time - it happened in Series Three two years ago too and it may be more common than I think - but I feel like it's notable any time Calbee deviates from their norm.
ReplyDeleteI like that one has to scrutinize things that much in order to find changes in Calbee set designs from year to year!
DeleteIf this is your subtle way of telling me I need to get a life, I agree :-)
DeleteHa, finding obscure baseball card related facts IS life!
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