FAQ

1. Where do you get your cards?
See this.

2. Do you own all the cards you show on your blog?
Unless I specifically say so, everything I show on the blog is something I own.

3. Can you help me identify a card?
Sure.  Send me a scan at npbcardguy@gmail.com and I'll do my best.

4. Are your cards for sale?
I'm not really looking to sell anything but if you're really interested in something, make me an offer.  I once put something in a post that I had no intention to sell and someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

5. Who died and made you the expert on Japanese cards?
I'm not an expert - I'm just a collector looking to share information.  The experts are guys like Rob Fitts, Gary Engel, Robert Klevens, Ralph Pearce and others who pretty much invented the American hobby of Japanese baseball card collecting in the 1980's and 90's.

6. Can I use your pictures for something?
I don't have a problem with you using anything I've posted but I'd appreciate it if you'd give me credit.

7. Why Japanese baseball cards?
I was asked this question by people a couple of times in Japan and I realized that I really didn't have a good answer.  I've always been interested in Japan and I've always been interested in baseball.  I've read a lot about the history of baseball in the US and have always found it fascinating.  Japan is really the only other country that has as compelling a baseball history as the US.

I remember once walking into a sporting goods store in Sydney, Australia filled with merchandise for football, rugby and cricket and realizing that there was a history to all of this that I knew nothing about. It's the same with Japanese baseball.  I've learned quite a bit since I started collecting nothing but Japanese cards but mostly I learn how much more there is to find out about.

8. Where can I find checklists for Japanese cards?
The best location in English is the Trading Card Database.  Browse the baseball sets for any particular year and there'll be a list of some of the more significant Japanese and Korean sets. 

Calbee's web site has the checklists for their sets in Japanese going back to 1998.  The checklists in Japanese for the latest Epoch and BBM sets can be found on pdf files available from the web pages for the individual sets on the respective company's website.  For Epoch sets you'll see a link labeled with Japanese characters that translates to "Recording List" while for the BBM sets you'll see a blue box labeled with yellow Japanese text (that doesn't translate automatically).  Clicking on these links will bring up a pdf file with the set's checklist.

9. Where can I sell my Japanese baseball cards?

I would recommend you talk to either Rob Fitts or Prestige Collectibles, the main two US Japanese card dealers.

10. Is there a price guide for Japanese cards?

Not really.  Gary Engel used to publish a checklist/price guide for all Japanese cards but the last one of those was published in 2008.  He's since only published a vintage guide featuring cards from before 1991.  SportsCard Magazine in Japan had a rotating set of checklists and price guides but the magazine stopped being published in 2017.  Probably the best way to get a feel for how much something is worth is to see what it's being sold for either on Ebay or Yahoo! Japan Auctions.