New Stuff From BBM

BBM has recently announced three sets that will be released in the next month or so.

- The annual "Retirement" or "Farewell" box set will be released in late January.  I never really know what to call this set since its Japanese title translates to something like "Regret at Parting Ball Players" but this set is dedicated to the players who retired in 2017.  Each box contains 34 cards - a 33 card base set plus one special insert card that could be an autographed card.  Players appearing in the set include Masahiko Morino, Tadahito Iguchi and Ryoji Aikawa.

- BBM's annual set dedicated to the other end of the player career spectrum - Rookie Edition - will be released in mid-February.  As usual this set is dedicated to the players who were taken in last October's draft.  This is a pack-based set that has a 126 card base set - 114 cards for the 2017 draftees and a 12 card "Early Days" subset (which if it's like the similarly named subsets from the past few years will feature one draftee per team paired with an OB or active player).  There are two insert sets - a 2 card "Rookie Of The Year" set (that I assume features Sosuke Genda and Yota Kyoda) and a 12 card "Next Generation" set.  There will also be various parallel issues for the cards of the draftees and autographed cards available.  Not completely sure if the autographs will be inserted into pack or available via some sort of redemption process (or both).  And looking at the sample cards I can now answer the question I asked last year about the shapes on the card.  After the 2016 set had the players in circles and last year's set had them in triangles, I wondered if this year would be squares, trapezoids or hexagons.  It turns out that they are pentagons.

- BBM is celebrating Shohei Ohtani's departure to MLB with a set called "Grateful Days".  This is a 20 card box set that will be released in mid-February.  The 19 card base set will highlight key events in Ohtani's five years in NPB including his signing with the Fighters, the Fighters' championship in 2016 and his farewell press conference on Christmas Day 2017.  The other card in the set will either be a 3D card, a memorabilia card or an autographed card.  The set will be limited to 3000 and will retail for 5000 yen.