The wait was over yesterday as I discovered that Topps had indeed issued Topps Now cards for the games. There are eight cards in all available on Topps Japan's website - four for each game. The Game One cards are for Munetaka Murakami, Kotaro Kurebayashi, Kensuke Kondoh and Shunpeita Yamashita while the Game Two cards are for Yudai Yamamoto, Chusei Mannami, Sosuke Genda and a group shot of the six pitchers who combined to throw a perfect game. The pitchers aren't named on the card (not enough room on the front and the backs are generic as always) which possibly allows Topps to get around any licensing issues with the two collegiate pitchers (although I don't know if there really is an issue).
Each card is listed at 1243 yen (around $8.25) but that's a little deceptive as that includes tax for Japanese consumers. If you're buying the cards from outside of Japan, they're 1130 yen apiece or about $7.50. Of course, you have to pay for them to ship outside of Japan and shipping even just a single card to the US will run 2000 yen (around $13.25).
For the first time since Topps Japan started doing these, you can buy all the cards in one bundle at a substantial discount. The eight card bundle sells for 5800 yen (about $38.50) for outside of Japan and 6380 yen ($42-ish) inside of Japan. The total with shipping to the US for the bundle would be 7800 yen or right around $52.
The cards will be available until 1 AM EDT on April 18th.
I will be curious to see if Topps Japan issues a complete team set for this iteration of Samurai Japan like they've done for the other two that they've issued the Topps Now cards for. It would be cool to get "pre-rookie" cards of the four collegiate players.
I think it's probably safe to assume now that Topps will be issuing Topps Now cards for the Premier 12 team this fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment