Thursday, January 6, 2022

2021 In Review - Epoch

2021 was another steady year for Epoch.  They issued 25 sets which was the same as what they'd done in 2020.  As usual their output was split between "reasonably" priced sets and "ultra high end" sets.

First the cheap stuff:  Epoch issued their flagship "NPB" set and their "Pacific League Rookies" box set for the fourth straight year.  They again issued 36 card (non-comprehensive) team sets for nine of the twelve NPB teams - the Dragons, Hawks, Tigers, Carp, Fighters, Buffaloes, Lions, Swallows and Baystars - under the label "Rookies & Stars".  They also did a box set in conjunction with the Japan Retired Foreign Players Association.

The other half of Epoch's offerings were much higher priced.  Generally these were sold as boxes containing four to six cards for 16,500 yen (or $150-ish) - with guarantees that at least one of the cards was an autograph.  Epoch's been doing a series of combination OB/active player team sets for the last several years called "Stars & Legends" and this year the series contained sets for 11 of the NPB teams - the Dragons, Hawks, Tigers, Carp, Fighters, Buffaloes, Lions, Eagles, Swallows, Baystars and Giants (or everybody but the Marines).  Additionally they did a "Pacific League Premier Edition" featuring active players from the six Pacific League teams for the sixth straight year.  They also did just one set in conjunction with the Japan Baseball Promotion Association (JBPA) - aka the OB Club - instead of their usual two.  They issued "Career Achievements" back in September but their usual second OB Club set - Holographica - got delayed from it's usual December release date until late January of 2022.

In addition to their sets, Epoch once again had on-demand cards available.  Their Epoch One series featured cards for the Marines, Dragons, Hawks, Tigers, Fighters, Lions, Eagles, Swallows and Giants.  There were a total of 728 cards available which makes it the second largest edition in the set's four year history behind the 766 cards issued in 2019.

No comments: