Topps Now World Baseball Classic Cards

For the third straight tournament Topps has the license to produce baseball cards for the World Baseball Classic.  I don't know what plans they have for sets later this year (or if they have plans for sets later this year) but I was tipped off by Zippy Zappy a little while back that they were producing Topps Now cards for the tournament.

For those that don't know, Topps Now cards are cards that Topps sells directly on their website that commemorate a particular event.  Each card is usually available for only 24 hours.  Topps has issued roughly 50 for the tournament so far - currently the only ones you can buy from them are three dealing with the US beating the Dominican Republic last night.  Each card is $9.99 although there is usually a deal to buy all the cards issued for a day at a slight discount - for example you can buy all three cards they're selling today for $24.99.  The cards can usually be found slightly cheaper on Ebay - I bought a card for Japan's victory over Cuba on March 7th showing Nobuhiro Matsuda for only $6.50.  I'd love to pick up a complete run but even at $6.50 a card, a 50 card set is going to be $325.  I'll probably just settle for getting the Samurai Japan cards.

In addition to the "regular" WBC cards, Topps is also selling 10 card team sets for each of the four teams that have made it to the final round - Japan, The Netherlands, Puerto Rico and the US.  Each set is $34.99.  The 10 cards for each team are pretty much a batting lineup including DH plus a pitcher.  The preliminary set list for Japan is Tetsuto Yamada, Sho Nakata, Seiji Kobayashi, Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh, Hayato Sakamoto, Nobuhiro Matsuda, Shogo Akiyama, Ryosuke Kikuchi, Nori Aoki and Shintaro Fujinami.  Fujinami is kind of an odd choice for pitcher since he's only appeared in two innings in the tournament but maybe the actual set will have someone else.  Topps says that purchasers of the team sets will earn bonus cards if that particular team advances to the final game, especially if they win it.  The team sets can be bought now but will only remain available until 24 hours after the team has been eliminated or wins the WBC.

Topps had also been selling a six card "Throwback Thursday" WBC set a week or so ago but it is no longer available from them.  The six cards were in the 1988 Topps designed and showed a single player on each card.  Nori Aoki was the only member of Samurai Japan included in the set.  The sets are available on Ebay but unlike the Topps Now cards, they're much more expensive than they were on Topps website.