Epoch's 2024 output was kind of like BBM's - a little on the mundane side with no real surprises. They only put out 19 sets which was two fewer than 2023. One of those 19, however, was a set with a 2023 "cover date". The 2023 "OB Club Holographica" set was not published until February of this past year (and I suspect that the 2024 edition will be similarly delayed since it hasn't been announced yet and there's only a couple days left in the year).
Epoch's flagship "NPB" set was back for the seventh consecutive year but was reduced in size from 444 cards to 348. For the third year in a row, Epoch released an "NPB Luxury" set that used a similar design but with a smaller checklist and different photos. Each base card was serially numbered and limited to 86.
Epoch also released their "Pacific League Rookies" box set for the seventh consecutive year.
The number of their "reasonably priced" team sets called "Premier Edition" dropped from ten in 2023 back to eight this past year (like it was in 2022). Each set had between 38 and 45 cards and some of the cards were for OB players in addition to the active players. The teams Epoch did sets for were the Baystars, Buffaloes, Carp, Dragons, Fighters, Lions, Swallows and Tigers. They dropped the Eagles although they collaborated with Rakuten on the Eagles' annual team produced set. The Hawks were the other team that they did in 2023 but dropped this past year, joining the Marines and Giants.
Oddly enough, though, those three teams - the Marines, Giants and Hawks - were three of the four teams that Epoch did their ultra high-end active/OB "Stars & Legends" team sets for (with the Tigers being the fourth team).
The remaining sets from Epoch in 2024 were more of their ultra high-end sets, two of which - "Pacific League Premier Edition" and "OB Club Career Achievement" - are pretty much annual issues. The remaining one was an OB set for Kintetsu called "Memories Of The Kintetsu Buffaloes".
Epoch's on-line, on-demand Epoch One cards were back again for their eighth season. There were ultimately 1238 cards done in 2024 for ten of the twelve NPB teams - everyone except the Carp and Buffaloes. The big change Epoch did with the cards this year involved draft picks. In previous years, Epoch would do Epoch One cards for a couple team's draft picks in the same year that the draft occurred. For example, in 2018, they issued six cards for the Dragons' 2018 draft picks. It was kind of neat as these cards then ended up predating BBM's Rookie Edition cards as the earliest cards for the players. But after doing draft pick cards for six teams in the 2022 edition, they did none in the 2023 set. For the 2024 cards, they did cards for the 2023 draft picks for all ten teams they did cards for. I found this to be a lot less interesting than when they did them the same year so I didn't end up getting any of them.
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