- BBM's annual set for retiring players is coming out in mid-February (Card Fanatic says the 18th), a few weeks later than normal. The set's a little bit different this year as that it not only includes baseball players but also retiring athletes from other sports such as sumo, soccer, boxing, horse racing and pro wrestling. The name of the set has changed a little - it's now 惜別 or "Sekibetsu" (Farewell) while it was previously 惜別球人 or "Sekibetsu Kyū hito" (Farewell Ballplayers). It's a box set containing 37 cards - a 36 card base set plus one autographed card. I don't know how many baseball players are in the set but it includes Kyuji Fujikawa, Hisashi Iwakuma, Ryota Igarashi and Yoshiyuki Ishihara. Since the set includes an autographed card it's a bit pricey - 8000 yen or around $76.
- BBM's annual set at the other end of the career spectrum - Rookie Edition - is also supposedly coming out in mid-February although Card Fanatic's schedule has it's release date as March 4th. This is a pack based set featuring all the players taken in last fall's draft. The base set will have 135 cards - 123 cards for the draft picks plus a 12 card "Early Days" subset showing current or OB players (one from each team) when they got drafted. There are three insert sets available - "Next Generation" (12 cards featuring a young player from each team), "Rookie Of The Year" (two cards featuring each league's award winner from 2020) and "Close Relationship" (six cards featuring a pair of 2020 draftees from the same high school or college). There are also a wide variety of autograph cards available including the players featured in the "Early Days" subset and exchange cards for autographs of the draft picks.
- After it seems like every set has been coming out a bit later than normal for the last 10 months or so, it's kind of nice to see that this year's edition of BBM's 1st Version set is scheduled to come out in mid-April as usual. The details for the set are pretty much the same as they have been for the past seven years. The base set will contain 372 cards - 324 player cards (27 per team), 12 team checklist cards and 36 "Cross Torrent" subset cards - this last is a cross set subset that will be completed in 2nd Version later in the year. There's the usual assortment of signature parallels for 108 of the player cards (9 per team) plus parallel versions of the rookie cards, including a "1-of-1" for all them (I think previously it was just the first round picks). 12 cards have "secret" versions - short printed photo variations and 12 other cards have "ultra secret" version - even shorter printed photo variations. There are four 12 card insert sets - "Japonism", "Growing Up", "3D Cross Torrent" and something called "Cross Foil Signing". There is also the usual assortment of autograph cards plus memorabilia cards.
- Epoch is issuing a set in conjunction with the Japan Retired Foreign Players Association (JRFPA) that features...uh...Retired Foreign Players. This looks to be a 43 card box set that includes the 41 card base set, a "foil signature" parallel card and an autographed card. It's an interesting collection of gaijin including Warren Cromartie, Boomer Wells, Tuffy Rhodes, Randy Bass, Leon Lee, Andruw Jones and, hey, George Arias! The boxes are priced at 11,000 yen (~$105) and will be released on March 14th.
- TIC or Hits or whatever their name actually is is back with their first "Mini Colored Paper" set in almost a year. The new set is for the Hawks and has a base set of 20 "cards". Each box contains 10 pack containing one card each. I think there are possible autographed cards available randomly in packs. The set will be in stores on March 26th.
- After all the delays in set releases it was a bit refreshing this past week to be surprised about a set coming out early. Way early as a matter of face. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have been publishing a team issued set that's more or less available nationally since at least 2013. Normally this set will come out in April or May but this year they published it in the first week of February! As you might expect with it coming out this early the photos are either from last year for the established players or from the the team's introductory press conference for the 2020 draftees. None of the players who joined the team over the winter (Brandon Dixon, Adam Conley, Rusney Castillo or Masahiro Tanaka) are in the set. Neither is new manager Kazuhisa Ishii. The base set has 71 cards - one card for each of the players on the 70 man roster (other than the ones I mentioned) plus the ikusei squad. Each card has a silver facsimile signature parallel. There's a 12 card insert set called "Iconic Moment" that features players reaching some milestone during the 2020 season - each insert card has a parallel version. There are also two checklist cards that I don't think are considered part of the base set. From what I've seen on Twitter, I think there are also autographed cards available in the packs. All the base cards and some of the inserts can be seen over at Jambalaya. Jambalaya refers to the set as something like "Eagles 1st Version" which would imply that there will be a 2nd Version at some point.
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