I did something last year that I've never done before - I decided to get all of the pack based team sets that BBM issues for the 12 NPB teams. I felt that the flagship BBM sets were simply leaving too many players out and I wanted to get cards of as many players as possible. I also wanted to see how easily and how cheaply it could be done.
BBM streamlined the team sets to some extent in 2015. In previous years, each team set's base set could have between 81 and 126 cards and the size of the set could vary by team. For example, in 2014 the Marines set had only 81 cards but the Giants set had 117. But in 2015, all 12 sets had a base set size of 81 cards.
Each set contained cards of pretty much every player on the team's
70 man roster along with the team's manager. Most sets also contained at least one card for the team's mascot(s). Several sets had a team card/checklist as well. All sets also contained at least two subsets. Here's a breakdown of the cards in each team set:
| Team | Player/Manager Cards | Mascot Cards | Checklist | Subsets |
|---|
| Chiba Lotte Marines | 67 | 4 | 1 | Ageless Wonder (3), Real Steal (3), Foreign Impact (3) |
| Chunichi Dragons | 67 | 3 | 1 | Award Winner (1), Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Fukuoka Softbank Hawks | 69 | 0 | 0 | Puzzle (3), Road To Record (3), Award Winner (4), Next Decade (1), 2014 Champs (1) |
| Hanshin Tigers | 68 | 1 | 0 | Reliable Pitching Staff (5), Dynamite Row (7) |
| Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 69 | 1 | 0 | Big Comeback (2), Shining Order (9) |
| Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters | 68 | 3 | 1 | Make History (3), Award Winner (3), Veteran's Comeback (3) |
| Orix Buffaloes | 69 | 2 | 0 | Dominators (4), High Standard (3), Big Boost (3) |
| Saitama Seibu Lions | 68 | 1 | 1 | Combination (3), Puzzle (6), Award Winner (2) |
| Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 68 | 3 | 1 | Puzzle (3), Calendar (6) |
| Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 68 | 3 | 1 | Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Yokohama DeNA Baystars | 65 | 3 | 1 | Pitch, Hit & Run? (3), Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Yomiuri Giants | 70 | 1 | 0 | Master Skill (3), Star-To-Be (7) |
There's a number of significant players whose only BBM cards this year were in the team sets rather than the flagship sets - Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Kenshin Kawakami, Kei Igawa, Fumiya Nishiguchi and Takashi Saitoh all come to mind. Here's an example card from each set showing a player who did not make the 1st Version set this year (and I think Mima is the only one to make the 2nd Version set):
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| 2015 BBM Marines #M51 |
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| 2015 BBM Dragons #D02 |
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| 2015 BBM Hawks #H46 |
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| @015 BBM Tigers #T67 |
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| 2015 BBM Carp #C03 |
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F08 |
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| 2015 BBM Buffaloes #Bs15 |
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| 2015 BBM Lions #L57 |
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| 2015 BBM Eagles #E14 |
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| 2015 BBM Swallows #S68 |
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| 2015 BBM Baystars #DB37 |
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| 2015 BBM Giants #G56 |
As you can see, each team set had its own card design. Some of them are a little busier than I like in a card design but I don't think any of them are out and out ugly.
The sets were released over a five month period between March and July. An odd thing happened due to the schedule of the team set released - in June, the Fighters and Giants made a trade with Kenji Yano and Hideki Sunaga going to the Fighters for Toshiyuki Yanuki and Atsushi Kita. Because the Fighters set had already been released but the Giants set was released at least a month later, Yano and Sunaga don't appear in either set but Yanuki and Kita appear in both.
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F62 and Giants #G69 |
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F18 and Giants #G21 |
I was hoping to be able to pick up the sets without spending a lot of money but that presented some obstacles. I was planning on being able to buy multiple teams from the same sellers on Yahoo! Japan Auctions and try to minimize the proxy bidding fees from kuboTEN or JAUCE but I didn't see many opportunities for that. I ended up only getting the Carp and Eagles sets using a proxy bidder.
Ryan was gracious enough (as always) to pick up sets for me both in stores and off YJA and he was able to find the remaining 10 sets. I hoped to keep the expenses down to roughly 1000 yen per set. Ryan found some great deals for me that made it almost seem possible but the last two sets (the Baystars and Giants) pretty much blew the budget - the Baystars set was around 1500 yen and the Giants set was 2000 yen. Total cost of all 12 sets is difficult to calculate as isolating the costs from the other sets Ryan found for me is close to impossible but I figure including the shipping to the US, the total amount I spent on the 12 sets was around $200.
Would I recommend doing this? If you want cards of almost everyone on a 70 man roster in Japan, this is the best (only) way to do it - unless you live near a card shop where you can pick up just the singles for the players who weren't in the flagship sets. For most people, I would probably recommend only buying the team set for their favorite team(s).
Will I do this again? Not sure yet. I think it will depend on how cheaply I can do it and how willing Ryan is to continue to find stuff for me. So far I have not exhausted Ryan's patience (and I am not viewing that as a challenge) so I will likely do this again.
