With Shohei Ohtani returning to the Angels' lineup last night I thought I'd do a quick post listing the cards that he had that were included in
Sports Card Magazine between 2013 and 2017 (when the magazine ceased publication). Ohtani had six such cards which is more than most players although not the most - as far as I can tell Hideki Matsui had the most SCM cards with 8 while Hayato Sakamoto was second with 7. I think Ohtani is tied for third with Ami Inamura.
Ohtani's first SCM card was in SCM #97 that was published in January of 2013. The 2013 BBM Rookie Edition set included two cards of Ohtani that had a card number of 42 - one showing him "pitching" and one showing him "batting". This SCM card is a promo version of the "pitching" card. I believe this is the first card ever issued for him as it came out a couple weeks before the set was published. This is facsimile autograph parallel version of the card:
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| SCM #206 |
His second SCM card is the only one I don't actually own but David Saba shared an image of his card with me a few years back. This card was in SCM #98 which came out in March of 2013 and is a promo version of his rookie card from the 2013 BBM 1st Version set (#183). This is also the facsimile autograph version of the card:
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| SCM #208 |
His next SCM card is the only one that is an "original" card rather than a promo card. 2014 is the only year since 2009 that BBM didn't do some sort of "cross" set with their flagship sets or their team sets (or both). Instead BBM issued a 36 card set through SCM called "Cosmic Cross". Each issue of SCM in 2014 included 12 total insert card - six of which were "Cosmic Cross" cards. Ohtani's card from this set was included in SCM #103 which came out in January of 2014:
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| SCM #225 |
The following issue (#104 that was published in March of 2014) contained promo cards for Ohtani's cards in the 2014 BBM 1st Version set. As they did in the 2013 Rookie Edition set, BBM included two different cards with the same number (#137) in the 2014 1st Version set - one with him pitching and the other with him hitting. SCM included a promo version of both cards:
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| SCM #242 |
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| SCM #243 |
After including five cards of Ohtani in the eight issues of the magazine (and 42 cards) between SCM #98 in January, 2013 and SCM #104 in March, 2014, it would be another two years before they included another card for him.
SCM #116, published in March of 2016, included a promo version of Ohtani's card (#04) from the 2016 edition of BBM's annual Icons box set. The theme that year was "Speed":
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| SCM #365 |
This was the final SCM card for Ohtani as BBM would stop publishing the magazine after
issue #121 in January, 2017.
6 comments:
Hello NPB Card Guy,
I bought a Sports Card Magazine issue No.97, and as you have mentioned, it was issued/published in January 2013. The front cover actually has a specific publication date of January 26, 2013. You have said that you believe the Ohtani SCM #206 card, which was distributed with this issue, is his very first rookie card ever published. Is that still your opinion? If so and you don't mind, could you expand on why you think that ... according to your knowledge of when pack boxes, set boxes, and any other promotional cards were distributed in Japan that year? I get that the "red wing" 2013 BBM 1st Version #183 is the "flagship" card, but I really like collecting the "very first" rookie card issued. Thank you for sharing your expertise.
Hi there,
So there's no question that the first Ohtani cards that came out of a pack were in the 2013 BBM Rookie Edition set which came out in (I think) mid to late February of 2013. Because - as you said - that edition of SCM came out in late January of 2013, the promo card in it predates the Rookie Edition set by a couple weeks. Now there's at least two other promo versions of either of his Rookie Edition cards - one was issued with the February 20th issue of Shukan (Baseball) Weekly - while the other was in a six card "Card Shop Promotion" set of double sided cards featuring all 12 of the 2012 first round draft picks (Ohtani's on the backside of the Tomoyuki Sugano card). I think the issue of Shukan Baseball was actually published around February 6th so the SCM card would be earlier but I don't know when the "Card Shop Promotion" set came out. So, yes, I still think the SCM card was first but I'm not positive. I hope that helps.
Great info! Thanks much for replying and sharing your knowledge of Japanese baseball cards!
PROBSTEIN123 on ebay is selling a 9 card bundle of two sided #42 with both the batting and pitching stance. He's sold over a millon items and typically is legit on 100% of his cards. I'm being told that the two sided pitching and batting #42 is fake yet on his ebay posting it says it was a promo card of some sort. Wouldn't that do a lot of damage to his reputation if he's selling peoples fake art cards?
I reported the auction to Ebay for all the good that will do. I don't think Probstein123 is being a scammer here but I do think they are misrepresenting what the card is. It's not a legitimate BBM promo issue but an art card someone made up a few years back. It's likely that they don't know what it is they're selling. They also don't appear to be the only ones on Ebay selling this. I don't think I've ever seen a promo card from BBM that wasn't clearly marked as a promo card with something like "SCM" or "Card Shop Promo" or "Weekly Baseball" across the front of it.
I suspect that this card is going to end up being like the Hilo Stars Ichiro card - something I'll constantly point out is likely not legitimate and yet constantly see folks sell for big money.
Ebay said the auction didn't violate any of their standards.
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