New member intro: Greetings from Japan

[seanofjapan]

Hi,

I just registered (long time lurker) and thought I`d introduce myself since this forum includes new member introductions.

I live in Japan (am Canadian though) and collect a mix of Japanese and American vintage baseball cards (focusing mostly on 70s/80s stuff in Japan, pre-war and Expos stuff in MLB). I can probably answer any questions about Japanese stuff anyone has.

Nice to meet you all.

[Huck]

Hello Sean,

I used to live in Japan (Yokohama, Yokosuka) back in the late 60's. What is the card market like there? Is Ichiro all the craze? I wish that I had collected a ton of Sadaharu Oh cards when I lived there.

[ullmandds]

Grettings...so there seems to be a steady supply of shonen ruth postcards coming from japan. How commonly found are these in japan??

[EvilKing00]

Welcome to the forum!


001.jpg

[Leon]

Welcome Sean!! Hope you enjoy your stay. We have some other Japanese collectors on the board too. Happy Collecting!!

[ALR-bishop]

Welcome Sean

Sincerely, Tuffy Rhodes

Drop by post war when you have a chance

[seanofjapan]

Thanks for the kind words of welcome everyone!

Originally Posted by biohazard

Hello Sean,

I used to live in Japan (Yokohama, Yokosuka) back in the late 60's. What is the card market like there? Is Ichiro all the craze? I wish that I had collected a ton of Sadaharu Oh cards when I lived there.

Thanks. I live in Nagoya but have been to Yokohama a few times, its a great city (probably its changed quite a bit since the 60s though!)

There is a pretty active market for cards here, mostly Japanese ones. Its not as developed as the US one, which I kind of like (keeps things simple).

Ichiro of course is huge, especially with his accomplishments this season!

Grettings...so there seems to be a steady supply of shonen ruth postcards coming from japan. How commonly found are these in japan??

I got my own copy of the Shonen Ruth postcard a few months ago. They are actually a bit hard to find these days. I check Yahoo Auctions Japan (Japan`s version of Ebay) for them regularly and copies only show up once every 2-3 months or so.

I suspect that most copies have already left the country to the US market, where the demand (and prices for them) were quite a bit higher until recently, so there probably aren`t a lot left actually in Japan anymore. The prices here for them have more or less caught up by now (I paid almost $200 for mine, which seems to be about what they go for in mid-range in US auctions).

Incidentally the standard catalogue (and PSA, SCG and other grading companies) have made some pretty big errors in describing that postcard. It was actually issued in 1929, not 1928, and the correct title is "Shonen Kurabu" or possibly "Shonen Club" rather than "Shonen Kulubu".

Kawika, Evilking000, glchen, h2oya311, packs -love those cards! My main collecting interest these days is Calbee cards from the 1970s and 80s. My main project at the moment is(over-ambitiously) trying to put together a full set of the 1975-76 Calbees, which is almost 1500 cards. I put some photos of the highlights on my blog if you are interested: http://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspot.jp/

I`ll try to put some pics up here too as I get new (and hopefully interesting) stuff.

I lived in Tokyo (Azabu Juban) in the early-mid seventies and found collecting North American sports cards back then almost impossible. Dealers, didn't want to ship internationally, auction houses were not as ubiquitous as now, etc. So being now a Tokyo boy, I became a Yomiuri Giants fan, went to many of their games, (the Japanese fans loved the fact that I was a gaijin supporter, sitting in their section of the stands, and collected a few Nagashima and Oh cards, now long disappeared. I suspect my ex-wife who organized our departure might have had something to do with it. Great memories. Welcome to the board, and I hope we will hear from our Asian correspondent often.
P.S. One of the fascinating things about Japanese baseball back then was the practice of when a batter hit a foul ball, a parade of young pretty Japanese girls armed with gloves would rush the field and whoever caught the ball would dutiful toss it back to one of them. It never failed to amaze me, exemplified Japanese group discipline, but I doubt would ever work at Yankee Stadium. Does this still go on? However, when there was a home run a lucky fan got to keep the ball.

Oh wow, the favorite cards in my collection are my mid-70s ones (which mostly feature the Giants) - I would love to have been able to take in a game back then. I think spectators are allowed to keep the balls nowadays, though I read about that practice before. I`ve been to games in a few different stadiums here (Koshien Stadium (the greatest place to watch a game in Japan), Nagoya Dome, Fukuoka Dome and Green Stadium) but never caught a foul ball so I`m not sure if they all have given that up or not.

Fortunately collecting US cards is a bit easier these days thanks to Ebay. Unfortunately most sellers still don`t ship overseas (or charge an arm and a leg for it) but there are some that are accomodating!

[prestigecollectibles]

The Babe Ruth postcard is from the August 1929 issue of Shonen Club. SGC is grading them with the correct details and after a long battle with PSA they are finally doing them correctly too. If you have them graded as a 1928 Shonen Kulubu they should redo the holder.

[the 'stache]

Welcome to the forum, Sean! Make yourself at home, and if you have any questions (even something as simple as "how do I find ___"), please feel free to ask. My inbox is always open.

Have fun. You're going to love this place.

Bill

[h2oya311]

'75-76 Calbee for your viewing pleasure, since you said you're working on the set.



That would be quite the feat to finish the set!!

Yutaka Fukumoto - second only to Rickey Henderson in stolen bases across the two leagues. I think he also has a '74-75 Calbee, but I have yet to find one.

[seanofjapan]

Prestige - I read an article at Old Cardboard based on research you did to track down which issue of Shonen Club that Ruth card came from, that must have been a lot of work!

the `stache - Thanks a lot, I will be sure to drop a line when I (inevitably) have questions!

h2oya311 - you have good taste! I love Fukumoto cards, these are a few of his from my collection (73 Calbee, 75-76 Calbee and 79 Calbee. I`m pretty sure he also appeared in the 74 set. He has a lot of cards in the 75-76 one!)

[MacDice]

Looking for some cards of Leon Lee. Please let me know if you have any to trade or sell

[h2oya311]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

h2oya311 - you have good taste! I love Fukumoto cards, these are a few of his from my collection (73 Calbee, 75-76 Calbee and 79 Calbee. I`m pretty sure he also appeared in the 74 set. He has a lot of cards in the 75-76 one!)

Wow! Awesome! Didn't know about that '73 card! Thanks for sharing!

[prestigecollectibles]

[QUOTE=seanofjapan;1577096]Prestige - I read an article at Old Cardboard based on research you did to track down which issue of Shonen Club that Ruth card came from, that must have been a lot of work!

Thanks, I have the original August 1929 issue of Shonen Club.
These items are not for sale but you can view most of my collection here. http://imageevent.com/yakyu

[Buythatcard]

Welcome to board Sean.

I have been selling vintage cards for 14 years on eBay but have never come across a card from Japan. I don't know anything about them and would love to get hold of some to try and sell.


What were the earliest Japanese cards produced? Which ones were considered "The Holy Grail" of Japanese cards? Do you know of any good publications out there that talk about Japanese cards? Are most of the consumers Americans that collect the cards?