Sadly, SCM's last publication was a few months ago after a glorious 21-year run.  We'll see what venue BBM insert cards get distributed, if any, from here on out, but over the years there have been a fair amount of sumo wrestling cards issued with the magazine.  It looks like in the 2000 timeframe the cards went from being marked "sample" and of the same cards you would get in sets, to SCM Original formatted cards...at least for the sumo cards.  Here are the 12 that I have....not sure if there are any others and there could very well be variations of these so any assistance with this checklist would be greatly appreciated.

Issue #5: #1 1997 BBM Yokozuna Takanohana (Marked 見本（Sample))
Issue #7: 1998 BBM East Series - Maegashira Konishiki (Marked "Life Goes On! Never give up! 1997-12-9)
Issue #10: #01 1998 BBM West Series - Yokozuna Wakanohana (Marked Sample)
Issue #12: #1 1999 Upper Half Series - Yokozuna Takanohana (Marked Sample)
Issue #16: #117 1999 Lower Half Series - Yokozuna Musashimaru (Marked Sample)
Issue #19: #8 2000 BBM - Demon Kogure and Juryo Mainoumi (SCM Original)
Issue #44: #36 2004 BBM - Maegashira Takamisakari (SCM Original)
Issue #44: #36 2004 BBM - Maegashira Takamisakari Foil Signature Parallel (SCM Original)
Issue #55: #100 2006 BBM - Ozeki Kotooshu (SCM Original)
Issue #99: 2012 BBM - Yokozuna Chiyonofuji (SCM Original)
Issue #103: #235 2014 BBM - Maegashira Endo (SCM Original)
Issue #111: #01 2015 BBM Essence - Yokozuna Hakuho (SCM Original)
Issue #111: #67 2015 BBM Essence - Ozeki Kisenosato (SCM Original)
Issue #116: #03/366 2016 BBM - Ozeki Kotoshogiku (SCM Original)
Issue #116: #03/366 2016 BBM - Ozeki Kotoshogiku Purple Foil Signature Parallel (SCM Original)

The latest issue of SCM (#121)came out a few weeks ago and I got mine not too long after that.  Dave over at the Japanese Baseball Cards blog did a nice summary of the issue.  One thing that has always been interesting for me in the magazine is the box break competition that they do in almost every issue.  The basic premise is 4 Mint Card Shop owners (or a substitute from the card industry if one of the owners can't do it) open boxes of new BBM product and then compare their hits and declare a winner.  Here is the spread from the issue:


My question is would any of my fellow bloggers or readers be interested in forming a similar group?

Obviously some details we'd need to work out if there is any interest, but I think it would be a great way to open some unique Japanese products and showcase the sets for others on our blogs.
To get started on gauging interest, here are some high level details that I was thinking:

1.  Open between 4-6 products throughout the year.  We'd have to agree generally what the products would be.  As a suggestion here are some options (Pure Heart Wrestling, Sumo Wrestling, a ton of baseball products, Shining Venus, Soccer, P.League Bowling, Rugby)
2. We don't even have to open 2017 stuff, or even BBM...there is some older stuff we can still snap up for cheap.
3.  Get commitments from between 4-6 people.  There would be some cost to this as we'd all have to buy our own boxes and have them shipped.  There could be some costs savings buying in bulk (one person buys), but those are details to work later.  It could be anywhere between $60-$100 per break depending on how you get your box.
4.  Determine a point system per break so a winner is declared each break.  I was thinking highest % of base set completion, points for autographs, and inserts would earn points.  We would have to decide a point system each box break since each product will have different content.  I don't mind donating a $20 gift card or something like that to the winner of each break.
5. Overall winner at the end of the year (most points, or highest average points per box) would be the annual winner.  Maybe all the "losers" could pitch in $15-$20 each at the end to buy the winner a box of something.
6. Each person would post break results on their blogs at a set time.
7. Each person could maybe "miss" one box break and still be eligible for the overall winner.

Anyway, something fun I thought we could try.  If there is any interest, or questions, send a reply in this blog entry.  If we get enough interest, and eventual commitments after the details are hammered out better, we can press ahead and I don't mind organizing it all.  Thanks!

I got my copy of Sports Card Magazine (#120) last week.  Dave over at Japanese Baseball Cards did a nice review of the contents of #120, so I won't rehash any of his points here, but I did want to highlight a few specifics from the issue.


On the inside cover (these magazine pages turn right to left like the American style) is a nice ad for Mint Mall.  I haven't bought anything through them as my collection focus has been mainly on the vintage stuff.  Mint Mall has made a big push to advertising to the American market and they have an add in the latest Beckett Baseball.  When I have time I plan on spending a little more time browsing their selection.  It does look like their website is connected to the 12 or so brick-and-mortar stores they have around Japan.  It didn't look like there was an English-language tab on the website so some amount of knowledge of the Japanese language might be necessary to navigate your way around.


Try as I have, there is no presence of the Japan Sports Card Association on the web even though the price guide in the back of each issues is a touted as the "Official Price Guide".  There is a small snippet in the back of the magazine with more information about their mission statement of promoting interest in the hobby and establishing of prices.....they even have an physical address in Tokyo, but no online information.  I do see they are also listed as "Advisors" to the editorial staff....so they are a big deal it seems.  Anyone been to their office or have any further info?


One thing I love about Japanese card manufacturers these days is the variety of sports cards they are producing. When is the last time a recent set of bowling cards has come out in the United States?  I have a feeling if Panini or Topps released a set of these there might be a renewed interest in bowling in the U.S....especially with high school boys.  Check out some of the YouTube videos on P League bowling.  It seems to somewhat follow UFC fights in the fact that they have these occasional big events under the P League moniker. 

How the price guide works is once a year (each magazine is released every other month for a total of 6 a year) the entire checklist of cards for a certain sport will appear while the other sports will only get a checklist of the current year's release (2016 in this case) as well as any new sets from all sports that appeared since the last issue.  A lot of times the sets highlighted throughout the magazine are then checklisted in the New Card List.  This January 2017 issue has the entire Pro Wrestling checklist and price guide as well as 2016 sets from sumo, baseball, curling, soccer, etc... I believe they usually repeat year after year, but I am not sure about that.  Here is what the guide has for complete checklists for the previous 4 issues, this issue and March 2017's issue.

May 2016 - BBM Baseball Cards
July 2016 - Soccer and J-Cards (not sure what this one is)
Sept 2016 - Calbee Baseball Cards
Nov 2016 - Calbee Soccer Cards
Jan 2017 - Pro Wrestling (this issue)
March 2017 -Sumo and Other Cards


Every issue comes with 6 cards sealed in a paper enveloped within the magazine.  To maybe some people's dismay, I don't open the envelopes.  I know, I know, but I love unopened material and I love keeping these in their original state.  Randomly inserted in these packets is a facimile purple autograph card Ami Inamura's #390 card.  Dave has a pictures of a few of the cards plus the facimile autograph card here on his review.  Each SCM issue has 6 cards with one of the cards being randomly "autographed".



To wrap it up, each issue lists the shops across Japan, broken down by region.  I would love to be able to translate them into English sometime, but not sure I'll be able to find the time in the immediate future.  Several of the other Japanese baseball bloggers have been to several of them and it always looks like sure a fun time.  Hopefully I can visit a few during my trip in March.

Sorry for the long delay in posting.  Work took me away for 10 days and am now back.  Since my last post I received the latest copy of Sports Card Magazine #116 from Japan with the 6 cards attaching inside in a nice paper envelople.  NPB Card Guy over at Japanese Baseball Cards had a nice write up on the contents of this issue which mainly focuses on baseball releases.  You can read it here.

Issue #116 (Photo courtesy of sportsclick.jp)

 
The sumo card world does not have nearly as many new releases so this issue was fairly light on sumo news, although one of the 6 insert cards was of newly promoted Ozeki Kotoshogiku.  These insert cards are also unique as there are purple foil parallel versions as well that you can randomly pull from the magazines.



SCM issue #115 highlighted the newly released 2016 Regular Sumo BBM issue, but didn't checklist the 10-card signed card subset.  Issue #116 includes it in the back on page #126 as follows (ranks as of the March 2016 tournament):

- Yokozuna Kakuryu #ed to 60
- Maegashira Tochinoshin #ed to 60
- Sekiwake Yoshikaze #ed to 60
- Maegashira Aoiyama #ed to 60
- Maegashira Ikioi #ed to 58
- Maegashira Kaisei - #ed to 60
- Maegashira Takarafuji - #ed to 60
- Maegashira Shohozan - #ed to 60
- Maegashira Mitakeumi - #ed to 60
- Yokozuna Chiyonofuji - 60th Birthday Special - #ed to 90

The hot cards are obviously the Chiyonofuji as well as the Ikioi who has become quite popular after winning the runner-up championship a few tournaments ago.

Until next time, cheers!