Tuffy Rhodes, Ichiro and the international market

[AGuinness]

I had a little time to kill yesterday and ended up watching part of a YouTube break that included a pack of 1991 Upper Deck. (That sentence seems pretty sad, now that I wrote it...)
Anyway, one card was the Gonzalez/Bagwell/Tuffy Rhodes card and it was noted what a great career Rhodes had in Japan. 464 home runs (13th all time for Nippon) and .940 OPS, all in just 13 years there (in this limited scope, those are basically the numbers that Miguel Cabrera has for his career at this point). That got me thinking a little...
I assume that American-produced baseball cards of Ichiro have the demand from Japan "baked into" the price, as I'm sure there must be collectors over there who buy them. But what about the non-Japanese players who have success in Nippon, like Tuffy Rhodes? Is there a bump in prices for their American-produced cards due to demand from abroad? The same could be asked for similar players in the Korean league, etc.
A cursory glance at eBay sales and at COMC would indicate no, at least for Tuffy, but I can't say I'd know what issues to look for that might be desirable in Japan.
Anybody else look into this with a little more depth and have any insight?

[mrmopar]

Member DaClyde has a vast Rhodes collection that goes pretty deep into his issues, including Japanese cards. He may know if there is much of a market for Rhodes, in general, especially in Japan.

[seanofjapan]

I live in Japan.

There are collectors here who do go after American cards of US players who came over here but since most of them for guys like Rhodes are from the junk wax era (and since the market isn't that big) I doubt it moves prices.

I just found a copy of that 91 Upper Deck card you mention for sale on Yahoo Japan Auctions (Japan's version of Ebay) with a BIN price of 300 Yen (about US $2.50) here:

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/j461165778

As with Ebay though BIN prices for stuff like that aren't indicative of actual market price, here is another auction for a lot of 68 MLB cards of US players who played in Japan with a 500 Yen starting bid (about US $4) and no takers:

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q280075691

About 15 years ago the cards of Randy Bass from the early 80s, which are commons in the US, used to sell for a premium here, but these days that seems to have dried up. Japanese collectors are now wise to the fact that US cards from the 80s and 90s are basically worthless.

With Randy Bass, his Japanese cards from the 80s are quite valuable (the 80s in Japan was not a junk era and the Calbee sets from that decade are extremely hard to put together). For Rhodes though even his Japanese cards sell for the same price as commons despite his impressive career here (also he played here in the 2000s, which is kind of the Japanese version of the junk wax era). He played mostly for Kintetsu, which isn't a super popular team (in contrast to Bass who played for the popular Tigers and is still a legend here. Warren Cromartie played for the popular Giants and his Japanese cards also sell well).