Future Bee

For four years from 1998 to 2001 there was another brand available in the Japanese card market.  An outfit called "Collection Card Assortment" or "CollecCarA" issued cards for the Baystars, Marines and Swallows under the name "Future Bee".

Future Bee's first set was in 1998 for the Baystars.  It was issued in packs and the base set contained 29 cards - 26 cards for players on the team, a card for manager Hiroshi Gondoh and two checklist cards.  Two checklist cards might seem extreme for a 29 cards set but there were also two parallel versions - all 27 player/manager cards had a "Best Winner" version and the first 18 cards had a "Premium Gold" version.  There were also several insert sets - "Daimajin Special" (9 cards for Kazuhiro Sasaki), Team MVP (2 cards - Sasaki and Takanori Suzuki), and "Player's Proof" (15 cards featuring a facsimile autograph).  There's also something that Engel has labelled as "24K Card" which I think is a parallel version of one of the checklist cards which celebrates the 1998 Central League Championship.  It appears that the cards were issued late in the year as the backs of the player cards have statistics for 1998 through September 10th and the checklist card celebrates the team winning the pennant.  Here's the front and back of a base card along with a "Best Winner" and a "Premium Gold" parallel:

#8

Back of #8

#5B

#PG-9

Future Bee issued separate sets in 1999 for the Marines, Swallows and Baystars.  The cards used a similar design but were sold in separate packs.  The Marines and Baystars sets each had base sets of 38 cards (36 players plus cards for the manager and the 1999 rookie class) while the Swallows set had 36 cards (34 players plus cards for the manager and the 1999 rookie class).  There were parallel ("Silver Background") cards for all the manager and player cards and three insert sets - Leaders (each set had three), "Printed Sign" (nine cards for the Baystars, 11 for the Marines and 17 for the Swallows) and "Super Stars" (14 for the Baystars, 13 for the Marines and 15 for the Swallows).  There were also autographed cards available with the Baystars and Marines sets - at least six different ones with the Baystars and three with the Marines.  Once again the sets were apparently issued late in the year as there's a notation on the back that the stats are through October 15th (which was likely the end of the regular season).  Here are sample base cards from each team:

Marines #028

Swallows #022

Baystars #017

Here's a sample back:

Here's a card showing the 1999 Swallows rookie class with an unfortunately stereotypical typo:

One of the "Silver Background" parallels (which looks better in person than in the scan):

Baystars #12A

Future Bee evened things up some for 2000.  Once again they did separate sets for the three teams.  The base set for each team contained 38 total cards - 35 players cards, a card for the team's manager and two checklist cards.  Each of the base cards except the checklists had a parallel version which apparently consisted of the addition of a shiny silver background (I don't have any of these parallels).  Each set had three insert sets - "Super Stars" (15 cards), "Printed Sign" (18 cards) and "Team Leaders" (3 cards).  Once again the Baystars and Marines sets had associated autograph cards - 10 for the Baystars and six for the Marines.  The Baystars autographs were limited to 30 each while all the Marines ones were limited to 20 except for Makoto Kosaka which was limited to 10.  Again the cards came out late in the year as they had a notation on the back that the stats were through October 16th.  Here's example base cards from each set:

Marines #Lm-013

Swallows #Ys-014

Baystars #Yb-009

Here's what the backs looked like:

The 2001 Future Bee sets were essentially a duplicate of the 2000 sets.  The same three teams had sets that were sold separately and the base set of each one was 38 cards - 35 player cards, one manager card and two checklist cards.  Each of the base cards other than the checklists had a silver background parallel and each set had the same three insert sets again - "Super Stars" (15 cards), "Printed Sign" (18 cards) and "Team Leaders" (3 cards).  The big differences is the the Swallows had a nine card insert set celebrating them winning the 2001 Central League pennant (which the other teams don't have for obvious reasons), the backs of the cards have a vertical orientation rather than a horizontal one and while there were again autograph cards available for the Baystars and Marines cards, they were only available via redemption cards.  There were autographs for 12 Baystars (limited to 40 each) and 9 Marines (limited to 30 each).  There's no notation on the back of the cards but they appear to have the full 2001 stats (and there's the celebration of the CL Champion Swallows) so again the cards were published late in the year.  Here are example base cards for all three sets:

Marines #Lm-13

Swallows #Ys-36

Baystars #YB-23

Here's an example back:

And here's a parallel card and a "Super Stars" insert:

Baystars #Yb-P1

Baystars #Yb-S05 (Atsushi Kizuka)

CollecCarA was also responsible for the Power League collectible card game sets from 2000 and 2001.  I have no idea why they stopped publishing sets after 2001 unless they simply lost their license.