Cards From Ryan

I wanted to do one more post on cards I got from Ryan last week.  These are just some random cards he found for me.

I spent most of my recent Japan trip thinking that the only card I need to complete the 1998 BBM set was Hirokazu Ibata's rookie card (it turns out I also need the Hawks team card).  I went through card shops from Tokyo to Fukuoka but I could not find one.  After i got home I found one offered for 200 yen on Yahoo! Japan Auctions and I asked Ryan to pick it up for me:

1998 BBM #389

Another card that I search for unsuccessfully was the final "secret" version card I needed from the 2017 BBM 2nd Version set - the one for Ami Inamura.  I found this on Yahoo! Japan Auctions as well but it was much more expensive - 1600 yen!  I justified the high price to myself for a couple reasons - I wasn't able to find the card anywhere and it was the final "secret" version card I would ever go out of my way for.  I now have 14 "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards of Inamura - 3 cards from 2nd Version sets, 3 cards from Fusion sets, 2 cards from Epoch JWBL sets and six SCM cards.

2017 BBM 2nd Version #FP05 (Secret Version)

I've been pretty much ignoring Epoch's "comprehensive" team sets this year except for when they feature either players or coaches not in BBM's team sets.  Their Dragons set this year (like last year) included a card for farm team manager Michihiro Ogasawara:

2019 Epoch Dragons Rookies & Stars #08

I had written before about an oddball 1998 Yoshinobu Takahashi card I'd gotten at Mint Ponyland in Nagoya.  It was part of a four card set that appeared to be a combination of a celebration of the Tokyo Dome's 10th Anniversary and an ad for a card show at the Dome in December of 1998.  I found a complete set on Yahoo! Japan Auctions for something like 480 yen so I asked Ryan to pick it up for me:

The box from Ryan also included the remaining six BBM team sets that I didn't get while I was in Japan - either from Ryan directly or by buying in a card store.  I'll be covering them in my usual BBM team set round up in the next week or so.