2024 BBM 1st Version Set

 2024 BBM 1st Version Set Summary

Size: 372 cards numbered 1-336, CE01-CE36
Cards Per Team:  28 (team card, manager + 26 players)
Team Card Theme:  Spring Training
Number Of Leader Cards:  N/A
Checklists:  None
Subsets:  Cross Earth (36)
Inserts:  Japonism (12), Prince Of The Team (12), Amazing (24), 3D Cross Earth (12, #'d to 25), Cross Foil Signing (6 - all Giants, #'d to 15)
Memorabilia Cards: Jersey cards for Shoki Murakami, Roki Sasaki, Munetaka Murakami and Shunpeita Yamashita.  Each jersey card is serially numbered to 300 plus a parallel patch version numbered to 20.  There are also two different two player jersey cards (the two Murakamis on one and Sasaki and Yamashita on the other) numbered to 20 each with a parallel patch version of each numbered to 5.  There's also a "quad" memorabilia card with all four players on it serially numbered to 10 with a parallel patch version serially numbered to 5.  There are four different types of autographed card available - "Cross Signature", "Special Signature", "Japonism" and "Buyback Autographs".  The last features "buyback" BBM cards for 20 current and former players including Takahiro Arai, Munetaka Murakami, Atsunori Inaba and Go Matsumoto.  There is also a "Combo Autograph" card featuring Kaito Shimomura and Hayato Tsunehiro.
Parallels:  12 regular player cards have a "secret" short printed alternate photo version.  Another 12 have an "ultra secret" much more rare short printed alternate photo version and 12 others have a "super ultra secret" extremely rare short printed alternate photo version .  108 regular players cards (9 per team) have seven facsimile autograph parallels - silver, gold (#'d to 100), "holo blue" (#'d to 75), holograph (#'d to 50), red (#'d to 25), purple (#'d to 10) and sky blue (1 of 1) - this includes the "secret" versions of the cards as well (and I assume the numbering is separate but I don't know that for sure).  Additionally each of the 108 cards also has a "kira" parallel.  71 of the rookie cards (which I think is all of them) have eight numbered parallel versions - "Silver" (#'d to 300), "Blue" (#'d to 200), "Gold" (#'d to 100), "Pink" (#'d to 75), "Light Green" (#'d to 50), "Holo Foil" (#'d to 25), "Purple" (#'d to 10) and "Sky Blue Foil" (1 of 1).  The "Cross Earth" cards have two parallel versions - "Holo" (numbered to 100) and  "1 of 1".  There are four parallel versions for the "Prince Of The Team" inserts - "Gold" (#'d to 200), "Light Blue" (#'d to 100), ", "Light Green" (#'d to 40) and "Pink" (#'d to 25). The "Japonism" cards have seven parallels - "Gold" (#'d to 300), "Green" (#'d to 200), "Blue" (#'d to 100), "Holo" (#'d to 50), "Red" (#'d to 25), "Royal Purple" (#'d to 10) and "Sky Blue" (1 to 1).

Notable Rookies: Natsuki Takeuchi, Ryuki Watarai

I'm late getting around to writing about this set this year.  It was released back in late April so it's been out for over two months.  Normally I would have bought this set when it came out via ZenMarket or some other proxy bidder but it seemed kind of silly to pay the proxy fee as well as pay for international shipping to receive the set just a couple days before I left for Japan.  It made a lot more sense to get the set when I got to Japan, either by having Ryan pick one up for me from Yahoo! Japan Auctions or finding one in a store.  As it turned out, Ryan had gotten one for me before I arrived and handed it to me when we met up in Tokyo.

BBM issues their flagship set in three parts and this is the first part (which I guess is pretty obvious since it's called "1st Version").  For the tenth year in a row, it's a 372 card set which includes 324 "regular" player cards (27 per team including the manager), 12 team checklist cards and 36 cross set subset cards - the theme of them this year is "Cross Earth".

BBM has done an impressive job the past few years of combining an attractive card design with really good photography and this set is another example of that.  Here's a handful of sample cards - these aren't necessarily the best photos but I think a pretty good representation of what the cards in the set look like:

#153

#218

#075

#094

#314

#204

#114

One of the impressive things about BBM is their sets are always as up-to-date as possible.  This year's 1st Version set not only includes cards of players who changed teams over the winter like Sachiya Yamasaki, Hotaka Yamakawa and Cody Ponce, it also includes cards of many of the new import players like Franmil Reyes, Jesus Aguilar and Alex Dickerson.  Obviously all of those photos on those cards were taken this spring - as was the photo of Yuki Okabayashi on the card above (he switched his uniform number to #1 over the winter).  And unlike other manufacturers whose sets came out months after this set, all of the cards of the 2024 rookie class show them in action in training camp as opposed to posed shots from the team's introductory press conference or photo day (with exception of Sho Kusaka of the Dragons who had Tommy John surgery in January - his photo is a posed shot).  Here's rookie Natsuki Taneuchi of the Lions as an example:

#291

That said, there's at least a couple of guys who switched teams over the winter who aren't in this set - Neftali Soto of the Marines is the first person who comes to mind.  I assume he (and others like him) will be in the 2nd Version set when it gets released in August.

Here's what the card backs look like - pretty much the same as they've been for years:

#047 (Shogo Akiyama)

I picked up two of the "secret version" photo variant parallels at Quad Sports while I was in Japan.  To be fair, the photos on the base cards are pretty good too.  In each of the following pairs, the base card is on the left while the "secret version" is on the right:

#175

#283

As has been the case for the past few years (going back to 2016 actually), the photos on the team checklists were all taken during training camp.  They're all nice although I don't think any of them really stand out.  Here's the one for the Tigers - I'm not quite sure what this is:

#325

The "Cross Earth" cards are half of BBM's annual "cross set subset" - the other half will be in the 2nd Version set.  As usual the fronts of these feature a photo of a player superimposed on some common background while the backs show the original photo.  The background this year appears to be a lunar landscape with the Earth in the background.  They're not unattractive but I got bored with this concept ten years ago so I'm pretty much "meh" about them:

#CE23

The backs are a little different this year.  The player's photo appears in the outline of the Earth rather than just a standard rectangular photo:

#CE23

As always, you can see all the cards in the set (including parallels and inserts) over at Jambalaya.