New Non-BBM sets

A couple of new sets have come to my attention that are either already out or will be out soon:

- Ryan of This Card Is Cool had a post up recently where he put up a card from Hiroshima Athlete Magazine's "Carp Starting Lineup" set.  It's a 28 card boxed set (27 "regular" cards plus one "special" card) featuring (obviously) the Carp.  I think this was released to celebrate the magazine's 10th Anniversary but I'm not sure - it looks like the set only has current players in it so it's not an "Anniversary" set in the manner that BBM has had anniversary sets.  There are apparently possible autographed cards with the set.

- Hiroshima Athlete Magazine will also be releasing another 28 card box set in April called something like "Carp Stars and Legends".  This set will feature both active and OB Carp players in it.  It looks like again that there will be 27 "regular" cards plus one "special" card.  I'm not positive but it may be the case that each set will contain an autograph card.

- In the same post that I mentioned before, Ryan pointed out that Sports Graphic Magazine will be releasing a set dedicated to Kenta Maeda of the Carp (we're just wallowing in Carp sets today).  The set may actually have been released this past week.  It's a box set containing 81 "regular" cards plus one (or more - not really sure) "special" cards which could include autograph or memorabilia cards.

- Ryan also mentioned in that same post that the Japan Baseball Promotion Association (formerly known as the All Japan Baseball Foundation) was releasing "The History Of Best Nine Part Two" boxed set in late February (the 23rd).  It's a 46 card box set (45 "regular" cards plus one autograph card) that follows up the "Part One" set they released in December.

- I found some information online about a Saitama Seibu Lions "Rookies And Young Stars" box set.  I'm not sure who is putting the set out, but it will contain 27 "regular" cards plus an autograph card.  The set will be out in March.

- Jamabalaya added scans this week for a set called something like "Sakura Meikyukai".  This is a 45 card set (I'm guessing it's probably a box set) featuring Meikyukai players.  From looking at the list of Meikyukai players on their website (which oddly doesn't appear to list Masaichi Kaneda who founded it), I think there's 60 current members (including Kaneda).  So there are 15 members who are not in the set.  I didn't do a thorough look through, but it appears that only five active players are included - Michihiro Ogasawara, Tomonori Maeda, Hitoki Iwase, Kazuo Matsui and Masahiro Yamamoto, which leaves out Ichiro, Atsunori Inaba and Shinya Miyamoto.  The recently retired Hideki Matsui, Takuro Ishii and Tomoaki Kanemoto are in the set, but Hiroki Kokubo is not.  Others that I noticed missing were Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Kazuhiro Sasaki and Hideo Nomo.   Choji Murata, who almost never shows up in an OB set, shows up in this one, but Masaichi Kaneda and Katsuya Nomura who also almost never show up in OB sets, are no shows in this one as well.   I assume that "Sakura" is the company releasing the cards but I could be wrong.