2016 Calbee Cards are Here! And they have Kanji on them!!!!!

I was at the convenience store this morning and much to my surprise saw that they had a pile of bags of Calbee chips on sale.  They seem to have released them much earlier than normal this year, usually I don't see them until the first week of April. So naturally I bought a bag even though I wasn't specifically in the store to buy chips.

From my first bag I can tell you that there are some significant changes this year.  Well, "significant" is a relative term, for a set that has hardly changed at all in about 18 years almost any change counts as significant.

First, the bags look different than they have in past years.  The elements of the design are similar, but they are horizontally rather than vertically oriented as they have been ever since I started collecting Calbees.  Also, the card is attached to the front of the bag rather than the back, something that I have also never seen before.

The most significant change though is on the front of the cards.  Last year I wrote a post on here lamenting the demise of the use of kanji on the front of Japanese baseball cards.  

While I sincerely doubt that anybody at Calbee reads an English language blog that averages about 15 page views a day, they nonetheless seem to have somehow received my message because this year the player's names on the regular cards are written exclusively in kanji and they are fantastic!!

This is actually a really radical departure for the set, other than the company name "Calbee" and the team logo there is no English text anywhere on the cards, including the backs.  This is the first time since 1989 that Calbee cards haven't at least had the player's name written in English somewhere on the card to make them more accessible to foreign collectors and I wonder if this represents Calbee's abandonment of its attempts to woo those collectors.

I personally welcome the change.  As I wrote in my post last year, having the player names written in kanji really distinguishes these cards as a "Japanese" baseball card set rather than a more generic set geared towards an international market.  While it does make collecting them a bit more of a challenge, that very challenge in my opinion is what makes collecting them interesting in the first place.

So anyway, this has me really excited about collecting this year's set.  As the above photo indicates I now have the cards of Yasuhiro Ogawa and Ginji.  I'll have to look up the checklist to figure out how many more I have to go.....

1990 Calbee First Series: Complete!

 As I mentioned in my previous post, I thought I would try to do some updates on collecting goals I reached in 2015.  Probably the biggest is that I finally completed one of the 1980s mini-sized Calbee sets.  Sort of.

The first series of the 1990 Calbee set is kind of an oddball one since it is the last series of Calbee cards to have that mini size, but it isn`t technically a set, since there were more seriest produced that year which were of a completely different design and size (basically identical to the 1991 Calbee set).  I don`t have the full 1990 set including those upper series cards, but I did complete the first series of 55 cards, which are the last Calbees in the mini size era.  I am going to refer to it as a set from here on however just to keep it simple.

Owing to only containing 55 cards, the 1990 1st series is definitely the easiest of the mini card Calbee sets to put together, so it sort of represents the lowest hanging fruit for mini card era collectors.

I`m quite pleased with it. Though there aren`t many in the set they are still a bit hard to find, Yahoo Auctions only has a few singles listed most of the time.  Its got some notable cards, like Warren Cromartie`s last card from his NPB playing days (though not his last card period, since he returned to play for the KC Royals after leaving Japan and had some MLB cards in the 1991 and 1992 sets if my memory is correct).

It also had one card of one player who was still active as of last season (though he has now retired), Dragon`s catcher/manager Motonobu Tanishige;

There is a certain sense of satisfaction one gets from completing a vintage set, even a small one like this.  My 1987 Calbees are probably next on the radar for completion in 2016, I am about 80% of the way to finishing that one (but at almost 400 cards that is still more of a challenge than these ones were)!

1975-76 Calbee

 Happy 2016 everyone. 

I didn`t post too often here during 2015 (having a baby will cut down on your blogging) but I actually did add quite a few goodies to my collection last year so I thought I`d try to do a few posts this month to share some of the highlights.

Mainly I focused on older Calbee cards (1991 and earlier) this past year.  One set which I have particularly fallen in love with, and is the subject of this post, is the 1975-76 Calbee set.

The set is probably one of the hardest ones out there to collect due to its size (almost 1500 cards) and the difficulty of tracking down older Calbee cards in volume like that.  I`m not sure if I would describe myself as putting a set together due to those obstacles, but I did get quite a few of them this year.  In fact I now possess a little over 300 different cards from the set (and a few doubles).

I have done this through a mix of buying lots and singles here and there, mostly online.  It is hard to find large lots of Calbees from that era so I`ve mostly been getting them in groups of between 4 and 12 at a time.

The thing that really attracts me to them is the photography.  These cards are amazing - in addition to the full bleed photos almost none of the cards feature posed photographs.  There are tons of in-action shots or just candid ones from batting practice.

Some beauties include Koji Yamamoto rounding the bases after hitting a home run.  I love how this  gets both him and the dejected pitcher in the same shot.

The scenery sometimes overtakes the subject of the card, which is also cool, like this one of Shigeo Nagashima being given a victory lap surrounded by fans.

This card of Koichi Tabuchi is also pretty cool.  I like the way the audience in the bleachers seem to be shrowded in mist behind him.  Must have been a rainy night game.

Sometimes the photos convey some unintended messages, such as this one attesting to the attendance at Crown Fighter Lions games in Fukuoka back in the day.  Guess that is why they moved.

This one I like just because of the way the billboard in the upper background kind of frames the player.

This one of Yokozuna Wajima throwing out a first pitch is also awesome.

And any card with a purple Taiheiyo uniform looks cool.

As does Sadaharu Oh`s leg kick

The All Star game highlight cards are all fantastic too

Compare these to the dregs of Topps baseball card photography from the mid 1970s (or more recent for that matter).  In addition to the lack of full bleed photos, most of them are posed shots obviously taken in spring training facilities rather than the team`s normal stadium.  You don`t get a very good feel of what Major League baseball games in the 1970s look and felt like by looking at contemporary baseball cards.  But Calbee does just that with this set, which is why I have become quite fascinated with it.

Another thing I like too is that in 1975 all Japanese baseball games were played outdoors on natural grass and dirt infields.   That looks good on cards.  One thing I actively dislike about today`s Japanese cards is that half the teams (Giants, Hawks, Buffaloes, Fighters, Lions and Dragons) play in domes, so about half the cards have photos taken indoors on them.  These photos are universally repellant to me.  The artificial grass, the flourescent lighting, the lack of dirt, it all just looks so sterile and lifeless compared to the images of games played outdoors in the 1970s (or games played today in the Tigers, Carp, Baystars, Swallows, Eagles or Marines` home stadiums).

One other thing which makes this set interesting is just how many of the biggest names in Japanese baseball history were active at the time.  It is brimming with cards of Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima (then as a manager), Isao Harimoto, Sachio Kinugasa, Katsuya Nomura, Koji Yamamoto and a ton of other guys. 

We`ll see how many more I add to it in 2016.  Probably not another 300 but maybe a few more here and there!

Calbee Series 2 and My First Post in, like, Forevers

 It has been a few months since my last post, which is unusual given that it is the middle of the baseball season which usually coincides with my peak collecting time in any year.

All I can say is that it is true what they say about parenthood - being a father becomes your only hobby because it kills all the others.  I have a 10 month old at home who can now move around and get himself into all sorts of mischief (I mean that in both an endearing and a "Oh my god, that is so dangerous stop that right now" sort of way) so pretty much every minute of my day is either spent at work or at home with him. 

Which is great, but it leaves no time for collecting baseball cards, let alone blogging about baseball cards, hence the lack of posts here recently.

I did just manage to pick up my first bag of Calbee Series 2 though so I thought I would do a quick post about them here during my lunch break as I eat the chips. 

As usual the stores seem to be stocking bags of Series 2 way later than the official release date provided by Calbee, it is almost September already but its only in the past week or two that these have started to appear on most store shelves here in Nagoya.

The bags are green.  They pretty much look like every other bag of Calbee chips released in the past 15 years or so.

My first bag contained (drum roll)

Regular cards of Takahiro Shiomi and Hirokazu Sawamura!

OK, not exactly the best cards I could have gotten but since they are the first they are both on my want list so I cannot complain.

I definitely won't have the time to be going to shops buying these very often so I'll probably just get the odd bag at lunch rather than trying to put the full set together (a job I will likely delegate to Yahoo Auctions).  Still, it wouldn't seem like a proper summer without getting some bags of these chips so I am glad to have found them.

Calbee Baseball Chips in the Wild

 When I look around baseball card websites, blogs and magazines I see a lot of pictures of baseball cards.  Pretty much any baseball card out there you can see a picture of it in an instant.

What there are a lot fewer photos of out there are baseball cards in their everday context, particularly in the time at which they were issued. I can see a picture of any 1952 Topps card, for example, but it is almost impossible to find pictures of shops in 1952 with wax packs of Topps cards available for sale.

This latter thing is much more interesting from a historical point of view but for some reason nobody ever thinks to actually take pictures like that and post them.  I`d be really interested to see what a counter display with 1952 Topps packs would have looked like back in the day. We can easily find out what the packs and boxes looked like, but what did the rest of the shelf look like?  What kind of products were being sold next to them?  Candy and the like?  Or toys?  I`m sure for people old enough to remember buying packs of 1952 Topps cards (like my dad) this sort of thing seems second nature, but for the rest of us its a bit of a mystery.  Heck, you don`t even need to go back to 1952, try finding pictures of interiors of baseball card stores from the 1980s and there aren`t that many of those on the internet either.

 Anyway, I thought I`d do my own extremely small part to alleviate this lacunae in internet image search engines by putting up some pictures of this year`s Calbee cards as they appear in shops near my place in Nagoya, for posterity`s sake. 

As you can see, they generally get put on shelves with potato chips and other snacks on them. If you live in Japan this probably seems ridiculously obvious, but I suppose for any collectors out there who have never been here this might be at least a bit interesting.  The top photo here is from a supermarket (AEON), while the lower two are from convenience stores.  They all charge 98 Yen per bag, plus tax.  The bottom photo is my favorite display, not only are the bags sold on the candy shelf rather than the chips shelf (some convenience stores do that, others don`t, I am not sure why), but they also have a cool hand-written sign for them.  Its kind of a nice touch.

The Baseball Card Liberation Front (BCLF) Strikes its First Blow! 1964 Topps Ernie Banks Freed in Daring Raid on Graded Card Holder

Above is a 1964 Topps card of Ernie Banks, the great Cub who recently left us for that doubleheader in the sky.

This is not a happy baseball card.  He is trapped in there, entombed by some Ebay dealer who sent him off to Beckett a few years ago to be graded.  He needs help.  He needs to run free.

One of my collecting goals is to have all my cards grown free-range, so I have always felt particularly bad about poor old Mr. Cub, trapped as he is in there. 

Therefore I am happy to announce that the much anticipated Baseball Card Liberation Front (BCLF) has struck a first blow against the Yankee imperialist dogs (er not those ones in the Bronx but more generally) in a minutes-long operation that succesfully released our brother Banks from the clutches of an evil Beckett card holder.

The operation began at 13:00 hours, the freedom fighter  using a single pair of rusty 100 Yen shop plyers (fellow freedom fighters take note: if you are planning a similar operation the rust is optional).

The struggle for freedom began where the card holder least expected it, in the upper right hand corner so as to avoid any risk to the innocent hostage held captive below:

The initial snip took that corner off nicely

We then moved on to the opposite corner, again being careful to keep as far away from Mr. Banks as possible

Finally, with an additional blow struck against the centre, an opening was created along the top ridge:

Removing the piece of paper with the condition (Good) we plunged the plyers deep into the belly of the capitalist machine of oppression (figuratively speaking of course):

The mission ran into a slight hiccup at this point as, instead of popping the two halves of the holder apart as envisaged, the outward pressure just broke the top part in half, leaving the hostage precariously nestled beneath its jagged edge

Undaunted, a bit of delicate pruning brought one corner of the card completely out of its prison for the first time in probably about a decade:

The rest of him soon followed.  1964 Topps Ernie Banks: the BCLF proudly declares you a free man (card)!

Among the privileges this entitles you to is the inalienable ability to be held in the hand of an actual human being as your creators intended for you back in 1964.

This was a sort of test operation, with the 1964 Topps Banks card in part chosen because being in Good condition there was a relatively low risk of any further damage being done.  We got him out safely.  Be warned, graded card holders, emboldened by our success in this battle we intend to move up the value chain and onto other, potentially more difficult to destroy, holders like the PSA one currently oppressing my 1964 Topps Pete Rose.

The war has begun.

Yamakatsu Taba - Star Wars, Voltron and Space Runaway Ideon

 Japanese baseball card collectors will be familiar with the post-card sized Yamakatsu cards from the 1970s, which are among the more attractive vintage sets out there.  One of my side-hobbies is collecting non-sports Yamakatsu sets from the late 70s/early 80s, in particular those with a sci-fi theme. I thought I would do a little post about them here because they are....just really awesome.

One of the more famous of these are the Star Wars cards.  The copyright on the back says 1977, but I believe these were actually released in 1978 (the film itself was originally released in spring of 1977 but would have come out later in Japan).  Topps had the license to produce Star Wars cards in the US and entered a joint venture with Yamakatsu to distribute these.  This actually makes these cards an oddity in trading card history - they are a Yamakatsu set but they do not have the Yamakatsu logo or name anywhere on them, the back just says Topps Chewing Gum Inc

There are 36 cards in this set, which all feature either scenes from the film or publicity photos of the stars in character

They were released in taba, pull-off envelopes which came 30 to a bundle and were sold individually for 20 yen each (kids just ripped one envelope off at a time).  Typically these taba would be displayed with a sample card taped to it, like mine here which is about half full (15 envelopes left on it) and has a Jawa card taped to it

I have a few others.  The popular animated series/toy line from the mid-80s known as Voltron was originally known as Beast King Five Lions in Japanese and was quite popular.  I have a mostly full taba of cards from that series which is in pretty beat up shape:

I actually remember watching that show when I was a kid and I had one of the lion toys (Yellow lion!)  If you had all 5 you could make the complete Voltron but nobody I knew had parents rich enough to get them all.

Space Runaway Idion is another early 80s animated series that got the Yamakatsu treatment. I am under the impression it was some sort of  Gundam spin off.  It must not have been too popular judging by the condition of my Yamakatsu taba, which is complete and looks like nobody even touched it back in the day:

There are quite a few other series out there and they make for a kind of interesting thing to collect, especially if you are someone like me with a fondness for 80s sci-fi kitsch.