Epoch One Cards

Along with the trip overview posts I also wanted to post (brag) about the cards I picked up while I was in Japan.  I'll start with the Epoch One cards I got.

Epoch One is Japan's version of Topps Now.  Epoch makes cards available on their website for purchase for three days.  Each card costs 500 yen which includes shipping.  Like the Topps Now cards, the print runs for the cards depend on how many orders they get for the cards.

I learned two new things about the Epoch One cards while I was in Japan.  The first is that unlike Topps, which appears to put all the new Topps Now cards they are selling up at once at I believe noon Eastern time daily, Epoch doesn't have a set time they announce their cards.  They announce them at apparently random intervals.  This is difficult to notice from the US East Coast since the cards get announced in what for me is the overnight hours when I'm asleep but you can tell this is the case by looking at the time remaining for cards on their site - the cards don't all expire at the same time.

The second (and much more interesting) thing is that Epoch One cards are relatively easy to find in card shops in Japan, especially Mint stores.  I remember seeing them for sale at Mint Shinjuku, Coletre, Mint Ikebukuro, Nagoya BITS, Mint Hiroshima and Mint Chiba but other stores had them as well.  "Commons" are generally 600 yen but cards that are in more demand run higher.  The most I personally paid for one was 1000 yen (Akira Neo) but I'm pretty sure I saw some in the 2000-2500 yen (although off hand I couldn't tell you what those cards were - it wouldn't surprise me if one of them was for Kotaro Kiyomiya).

I brought home 14 Epoch One cards, 8 from 2018 and 6 from 2019.  I bought all of the 2018 cards and one of the 2019 in shops.  Ryan Gluesing had ordered the other 2019 cards for me directly from Epoch.  Here are the 2018 cards:

#73/YG-011

#580/CM-065

#675/CD-079

#676/CD-080

#677/CD-081

#678/CD-082

#679/CD-083

#680/CD-084

I picked up the Sakamoto and Yasuda cards for the uniforms in case I ever update my uniform posts again.  The Dragons draft pick cards I picked up just to have the absolutely first cards for these players - they came out two months earlier than BBM's 2019 Rookie Edition set.  Each card was 600 yen except the Neo (1000 yen like I mentioned) and the Umetsu (800 yen).  I saw the Neo selling for 1200-1500 yen at other stores but I got it relatively cheaply at Coletre.

Here are the 2019 cards I got:

#002/SL-002

#143/HC-018

#148/YG-020

#157/SH-018

#181/HC-019

#193/SH-024

The first Batista card and the Sakamoto card commemorate the last home run of the Heisei Era and the first home run of the Reiwa Era respectively - this Batista card I bought at Mint Hiroshima for 600 yen.  The Akashi card shows him in the middle of his backflip after hitting a sayonara home run against the Buffaloes on April 25th.

Ryan gave me the second Batista and the Kawashima cards in their original packaging direct from Epoch.  They were delivered to him in an individual big black envelope for each card.  Each card was packaged in a penny sleeve which was then placed in a top loader and finally wrapped in a clear bag.  Here are photos I took of the two envelopes and their contents (and hopefully I've obscured Ryan's address):

UPDATE - I remembered something I wanted to mention after I posted this.  I was expecting that there'd be several Epoch One cards issued for games I attended in Japan as all but one of the games I went to featured at least one team that Epoch was issuing these cards for (everyone except the Buffaloes, Eagles and Baystars).  I was kind of disappointed to discover that there were only three cards issued, all of which featured Tiger players!  I've asked Ryan to get them for me.