Navigating through a Japanese repack

I was fortunate to be able to travel for a couple of weeks to Japan the past year - mostly taking photo ops at various sighteeing sites.

When I could, I tried to look for cards and seek out places where they were sold - this blog was instrumental in helping find a few card shops, where I sought a few places out to get a look at the Japanese baseball card scene.

In my second trip to Yellow Submarine Akihabara, where it's part of a multi-floor 'department store,' made up of different shops for various hobbies / interests I might be too old for [or not] - there was a dedicated section for sports cards and other trading cards with bulk bins to rummage through, packs for sale, supplies and single cards displayed behind glass.

There might have been a display table with repacks and after browsing around for miscellanous 'non-sport singles' featured behind glass - I grabbed a couple of bulk baseball card repacks in plastic for 200 yen or around $1.30.

I saw another person grabbing and stacking 5-10 repacks together and while it wasn't all that serious - I wondered if I should stake my claim before they all disappeared for the day.

I do not know about Japanese baseball cards at all, so maybe the nuances about collecting specific ones didn't matter as much as getting a bunch of cards to take home with me - I ended up thumbing through the contents and while these might not be valued cards, I tried to separate them where I had keepers for my collection.

Cards of Atsuya Furata and Shigeo Nagashima - I didn't know who Furata was and his card ends up an odd duck for me, but looking him up online, he ends up being a legendary catcher and Japanese baseball Hall of Famer.

Nagashima ends up a legend I may have heard of in passing where an American collector on YouTube collects him - go figure, I ended up buying a copy of the card from the bulk bins of the card shop, where I didn't go through the repack until I was back home.

Some retro cards of Japanese baseball legends - adds some historicity in my pack, even if the cards are actually fairly recent.

Japanese cards of guys who played in the big leagues - just like the Nagashima, I may or may not have picked up a copy of the Masahiro Tanaka card I found in the repack

A couple of cards of a pair of Japanese players expected to sign with big league teams - the cards may only be regular cards, but it's a novelty where I only really have the chance to collect MLB cards.

Cards of a couple of gaijin players who played in Japan - after a dominant season pitching in Korea, Cody Ponce signed a three year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays to see whether he can build on his overseas performance.

Some odds and ends - a couple of the same cards found of Shinnosuke Ogasawara, a Japanese pitcher who played for the Washington Nationals in 2025 and a trio of gaijin players.

These may not be the best example, but for guys who have had their share of mainstream American cards - it's always interesting to see examples of their Japanese cards.

Parallels / inserts - these might not be high brow cards of better players, but anything different besides regular cards ends up as a teaser.

Standouts - even if only regular cards, I went ahead and used Baseball Reference to check up on players and see whether they were 'good or not.'

I wanted to separate the bulk repack cards of guys who might be better than the rank-and-file players at best - where maybe if young enough, have the chance to eventually big leaguers, if that is a path they decide to choose.

Maybe I will look to get a beat on keeping up with the Japanese baseball season in 2026 - where it might be fun keeping up with certain guys whose cards I've pulled and made keepers of.

More standouts - maybe I can make a themed curated set out of this repack, where it ends up being a scrapbook, rather than trying to squirrel the cards in different places.

There were a couple of instances were I was bipped with the same player - I wasn't sure who Sachiya Yamasaki was, but he pitched for the Nippon Ham Fighters the past three seasons and has generally been a solid veteran.

Cards of old dudes - there might be a more cards of older players set aside in my standouts portion, but these end up as notable 'super veterans.'

I found a card of Takumi Kuriyama, a 41-year old who hung on to play his 22nd season with one team, the Seibu Lions - where everyone gets old, it's pretty neat to see a pro baseball player still active in his 40s.

I also found a card of Masanori Ishikawa, who is even older at 45 and was still pitching through 2025, all with the Yakult Swallows - he has a losing career record of 198-203, but it looks like he chasing 200 wins, so he might be back next season.

Card show trip - picking through binned singles - Ichiros

These were more pick ups from the last show I went to over the summer - this should be the last roundup, where I have dragged things out.

At one seller table, I found myself thumbing through what I think were Japanese Menko cards, but wasn't familiar with them at all - so maybe I was a little unsure if I was going to find some probable [impulse] buys.

I think the seller said "hello again" as if he remembered me from somewhere and explained there were different kinds of Menko cards - depending on whether I was interest in sports / non-sports / etc.

It took me a moment to realize I bought a couple of cards [$10-$15 each] from the seller at another show back in 2024 - I ended up going through the binned singles with Japanese MLB players and figured I was going to pick up at least one more Japanese era Ichiro card [just like in 2024].

For years, maybe Ichiro's Japanese cards were out of sight, out of mind - but I saw one that piqued my interest at a seller table at a local card show.

I passed on that random card, but started seeing posts on the Dime Boxes blog about picking them up every so often - so maybe I was 'inspired' to be on the look out pre-MLB Ichiro releases.

Ichiro may have been that Japanese import, the past 25 years that became an all-around star to look up to or collect - with Shohei Ohtani being that 'here and now' guy from Japan, perhaps the interest in Ichiro has been muted.

In my dig, I tried to look for more unique Ichiros, where they might jumble together in the bin [with varying prices] - I picked out a couple of loose singles [$10 each] that looks like they had a lenticular surface, so even if I paid more than what they where worth, I thought I had a pair of unique looking cards to make keepers.

The third Ichiro I picked up ended up being a graded card for $15 - it might be a case where I did not look hard enough with spotty vision, but the card looks like it has an acetate finish, where that made it a little 'cooler' to make a keeper out of.

My favorite find of the show was off a booth promoting a Japan based commerce Web site that also had cards such as binned singles for sale - it's a graded 2000 Upper Deck Ovation Japan Ichiro #41 [$30].

In a collecting world where PSA 10s rule, I only got myself a PSA 7 copy - but the way I look at it, I could pick up a raw card, spend to get it graded just the same and have the card in a slab with the same numerical grade.

It ends up easier making a decision on a graded card rather than a raw one - as long as the price on the label is still fairly reasonable.

The card might just been another Japanese era, Ichiro card where he was pictured as a longtime veteran - but the cards were patterned after the 2000 Upper Deck Ovation set, which was embossed to mimic a baseball, which was a pretty neat thing to this day.

The card was printed the year before Ichiro would debut in the big leagues - so I almost associate it as a pre-rookie card rather than an 8th year base card of an all-time legend.

FWIW, I picked up the Ichiros knowing that I might have been going to Japan to do some traveling [which eventually happened this past November] - maybe my finds were designed to take the pressure out of seeking out card shops or card related things, where it didn't have to be a do-or-die mission if I came up short.

Card show trip - picking through binned singles

These were more pick ups from the last show I went to over the summer - I may have a couple of more things to show, though it might be up in the air whether future roundup posts will ever be made, where I drag things out through the end of the year.

At a pit stop at one table, there was a Todd Helton game used base card I thumbed through and put back - Helton has ended up one guy whose cards I end up looking for as a non-geographical player / Hall of Famer to collect.

Maybe a philosophy I have digging through binned singles or value boxes is never looking back, where I may have interest in a card - but I put it back and it gets lost amongst endless cards, I'm not bothering to find it again.

However it might have been a self-imposed challenge to find the table again and see whether I can dig for the unique Helton card - time is a valuable thing, but I find myself languishing at a card show where there is a little personal intermission where I'm just wandering around.

I find the table with the binned singles and start digging - I even find a Helton sticker / hologram auto that may have tempted me, but the signature was running off the label.

I eventually find the Helton I was looking for, but maybe $20 was still a bit steep - there was some corner wear, though it's a thicker card, so harder to avoid such a blemish.

Instead, I settled on a Helton relic [$5], which gave me the satisfaction of picking up a unique [if decidedly low end] Helton single for my collection - while I tried to build on other odds and ends, that I ended up being charged $35 for.

I made a Johnny Cueto pack pulled autograph a keeper - he was a longtime star for sure, but it goes into my all-time Angels autograph collection, for his short, odd stint with the team in 2024.

I picked up a relic card of Dick Allen - the card maybe at least 25 years old already, which is kind of hard to believe how long ago since it was made.

Allen probably wouldn't have registered besides just another old-school / vintage player who may have had a case for the Hall of Fame - since he was eventually inducted where that certifies him as a legend, I'm more inclined to keep an eye out for his cards in general [even as others have done so, long ago].

Card show trip - some more vintage

These were more pick ups from the last show I went to over the summer - I may have two or three more things to show, though it might be up in the air whether future roundup posts will ever be made.

The individually priced vintage bins from a familiar enough seller table may have been picked over just the same - but I tried to rummage around to flag some vintage odds and ends, then moved over to the $0.50 bins with the newest cards, but wasn’t patient enough to pick through that.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Duke Snider #468 [$10.00] - on my blog, this has been on my collecting topics wantlist - Top 10-15 wants, so I finally knocked it out.

1964 Topps Coins Roberto Clemente #150 [$10.00] - a vintage oddball item picturing an iconic Hall of Fame has symbolic value, even when a cliche I spit out is something being only worth what I paid. 

1967 Topps Dick Allen / Hank Aaron Roberto / Clemente #242 [$10.00] - a trifecta of Hall of Famers makes this leaders card keeper.

1967 Topps Lou Brock #285 [$5.00] - there might be infinitely better cards than a vintage base card of a Hall of Famer, but I'll take it for what I paid. 

Card show trip - some odds and ends

Maybe I've slowed down on going to card shows over the past year, but towards the end of the summer, I went to a higher profile card show - I usually like to make the rounds at sellers' dollar and under boxes, but since I had to pay admission, maybe I tried to be a little pickier where I spent my time at.

I can't completely avoid rummaging through sellers' cheap-o bins however and these were my finds over three such tables - because of the admission fee to the show, I tack on a premium to my total paid per seller in my mind, so the price per card ends up more like $2 each.

Future stars - with how Bowman products are priced out of the gate, I might be more content to round up various base cards and inserts of top prospects in order for me have something for me to build up, rather than overlook them just the same as filler material for most modern prospectors.

Some fun stuff - that was only worth what I paid, but I have no regrets about adding them to my keeper pile.

Ichiro - I try to make Topps Now cards keepers in the wild, where they are still a little different.

After digging through one dollar bin, I was content to put whatever I'd found back and walk away - but thinking about the pack pulled autograph of Chuckie Robinson with him blowing a bubble made me go back.

Vintage that was a dollar each or 3 for $2.50 - I tried to make a pile of mostly Angels keepers for my all-time Angels register project or my Angels Opening Day starters project, but after a certain point, was content to cut my original keeper pile in half.

When it comes to vintage cards, it ends up just being way before my time - but I do try to attach some meaning to cards of subjects I might have read about in passing.

I found a 1969 Topps Mel Queen card which may just be another common - but it has stat lines for both pitching and hitting, where he might have been one or the other at different points of his playing career.

Random claims from an online purchase - Part two

1980s stars whose cheap cards I still like to make keepers in various ways - Sandberg was a pillar of the decade, so it was a moment for me seeing the posts on social media where he had passed, R.I.P.

Guys like Brett, Schmidt, Winfield and Ryan will be sorted according to the decades when they made their MLB debuts - but I wanted to show how their playing careers overlapped through the 1980s and the mid 1990s.

I'll probably add the 1987 Topps Clark rookie to a junk wax era themed curated set I'm trying to get off the ground - while pairing it with a newer faux version for comparison sake.

McGwire's card has been added as part of my mini-collections - where players are tipping their caps to the crowd.

1990s stars whose cheap cards I still like to make keepers in various ways - I actively collect Vladimir Guerrero [Sr.], where for other notable players, the lingering sentiment comes and goes.

I like the father and son duo card - though for now, I don't collect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. cards like Vladdy Sr.

2000s stars whose cheap cards I still like to make keepers in various ways - I'll pick up the unique insert or base card, but I like the idea of letting things be, where former players from previous decades might be out sight, out of mind.

2010s-2020s stars whose cheap cards maybe worth making keepers in various ways - Jose Ramirez maybe a player I am trying to catch up on collecting in catch-all sort of way.

Maybe I'm obligated to appreciate the metronomic consistency to a non-geographic star - that has been under the radar for so long.

Six years into the current decade and I'm still trying to figure out who are the players that are going to have some lasting power on a national level - Henderson and JRod have shown flashes of stardom, so maybe they are two players to think about as long term stars.

GOATS - I'll make keepers out of the random cards of legendary and/or iconic players, even if I've never had their original vintage issues in-hand.

A pair of stragglers to finish off the portion I'll end up showing off - I don't know what I find more appealing about the Arraez card, either the throwback [Florida] Marlins uniform or the idea it's caked up with dirt.

Nootbaar is not a star by any means - but there is still novelty in the idea that he played for Team Japan in the WBC three years ago.

Random claims from an online purchase

These are some of the cards I've picked up lately - where I absorb someone else's odds and ends towards my collection, through various sales of dollar and under bulk.

Angels material - it’s like a reward to make keepers out of random Halos cards, where my focus isn’t always on them.

I probably haven’t considered picking up any Jo Adell cards in a couple of years - but through the first half of the MLB season, he looks to finally have blossomed from a bust into a serviceable MLB hitter with pop.

Maybe he ends up someone to collect all over again - where unique looking base cards and inserts end up being worth taking fliers on.

The Kikuchi card is a Houston Astros insert from 2024 Topps Japan Edition - it’s not an Angels card, but I might be looking to make keepers out some non-Angels stragglers.

I never trusted Kikuchi as a pitcher who could never avoid languishing with his control and gave up too many runs - despite the ability to tease nasty stuff.

A late 2024 run with the Astros seems to have turned his career around - where he has pitcher really well through the first half with the Angels in 2025.

I claimed the Ryan because it kind of ends up a neat card - but it looks like soft corners / wear.

I don't know about DeJesus but grabbed the card because it's a shiny first year Bowman Sapphire - where I don't really end up with hardly any cards from the countless Bowman releases during a particular year.

I already had a copy of the 2024 Topps Archives Schanuel rookie - but may squirrel away one into a themed curated set [100 cards] for the Angels.

Mix - mix - Hall of Famers Hoffman and Murray are part of my decade / binder stars collections, where I collect cards of all subjects lumped under that umbrella by default.

I'll passively make keepers out of unique looking base cards or inserts that catch my eye - where I am obligated to supplant the player collections I already have, even on a snail's pace where I kind of have to let things be sometimes.

I sometimes worry about the lasting power as far as a subject I want to keep picking up cards for under my decade stars umbrella - maybe it doesn't matter, but sometimes I feel like there should be standards as far as stars or superstars.

Valdez has been a late bloomer and who knows when he is going to falter, get exposed or decline - but the lefty starting pitcher has done enough to be a deeper cut decade stars guy for me, where I make more of his unique, cheap cards keepers.

McCutchen - ancient and past his prime, he ends up just another old guy in my book, hanging on for a decade already.

I wonder if there is no lingering sentiment left for the longtime star - where he’ll finally retire one of these years and that will be that.

Maybe my dismissive view does his significant big league career a little disrespect - where he is in the same boat as a Hoffman or a Murray and keepers shall be made out of random cards as a micro-mini tribute.

Abrams - he was staying out at casinos till the crack of dawn last year, but may have turned a corner where he is a top flight offensive shortstop who has taken things to a new level.

Other sports - even if these more recent cards from four or five years ago tend to be considered junkier base, it’s hard not to pass up cards featuring legends / icons.

Shiny Panini Donruss - it’s hard not to pass up unique parallels and/or inserts for cheap such as the Klein and Wynn, even if those Hall of Famer subjects are a little no context in my collection at large.

The Molitor ends up a little jazzier than a regular base card since it is Carolina Blue parallel - it’s primarily a stadium card for me, where I’ve tried to gather visiting players cards from different eras shown at my one-time home MLB team ballpark.

The Walker isn’t quite a color match - but the colors goes well with the Hall of Famer identified as a Colorado [Rockies] player.

The Wilhelm ends up a Pink Fireworks parallel - I randomly picked one seemingly more common parallel I liked from Panini Donruss products years ago and Pink Fireworks cards pop nice when in hand.

I don’t know if Panini still makes them in current year products - but I’ll make keepers out of most cards I spot in the wild.

TTM autographs received: Rich Harden

I got a straggler SASE in the mail box a couple of weeks ago and wondered who could it be since sending out TTMs has not been a thing for me - inside were the cards I sent out to the former big league pitcher on October 2020.

These were counted off as goners, but even if the eventual response took a while - it's a cheap thrill to get something back from a request I remember making a mission to send out.

It has been just such a long time from the early 2000s - but I remember trying to get Harden to sign in-person around the first time he got called up as a top flight pitching prospect with a rocket arm.

While Harden didn't have a metronomic run of success where he became a star pitcher in the big leagues - he was pretty good when relatively healthy and was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2023.

2025 Topps value box recap

Pack one

#484 Andrew Walters - High numbered short prints Chrome variation Pink Sparkle 

#187 Cole Ragans

#173 Luis Castillo

#284 Raisel Iglesias

#277 Hunter Feduccia

#264 Patrick Bailey

#NS-59 J. Robert Oppenheimer - Notable Americans insert

#212 Giancarlo Stanton

#38 José Berríos

Pack two

#105 Michael King

#255 Colt Keith

#250 Edmundo Sosa

#200 Seth Lugo / José Berríos / Tarik Skubal - 2024 AL Victory Leaders

#380 Aaron Judge

#425 Nick Gonzalez - SP

#129 Cody Bellinger

#172 Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Pack three

#53 Grant McRae - Dark Green border 

#194 Juan Soto / Anthony Santander / Aaron Judge - 2024 AL Home Run Leaders

#128 Dansby Swanson

#311 Mitchell Parker

#245 Colton Cowser

#181 Rhett Lowder RC

#TTY-20 Mike Trout - Through the Years insert

#100 Jordan Hicks

#341 Willie Mays - The Topps News All-Time All-Stars

Pack four 

#359 Max Muncy

#32 Heliot Ramos

#335 Framber Valdez

#207 Joey Ortiz

#278 Mark Vientos - This was a 'backwards' card out of the pack and ends up being an image variation

#484 Andrew Walter - High numbered short prints Chrome variation 

#213 Rob Refsnyder

#319 Justin Wrobleski RC

Pack five

#497 Matt Waldron - High numbered short prints Chrome variation Pink Sparkle

#203 Zack Wheeler / Dylan Cease / Chris Sale - 2024 NL Strikeout Leaders

#184 Porter Hodge

#146 Mitch Keller

#4 Jose Miranda - Record Breakers

#103 Masyn Winn

#273 Nolan Schanuel

#358 Yuki Matsui

#197 Brice Turang / Shohei Ohtani / Elly De La Cruz - 2024 NL Stolen Base Leaders

Pack six 

#254 Lake Bachar RC

#331 Vaughn Grissom

#99 Michael Massey

#46 Tyler Stephenson

#309 Zebby Matthews RC

#413 Andrew Vaughn - SP

#27 Ryan Mountcastle

#227 Kyle Tucker

Pack seven

#198 Jazz Chisholm Jr. / José Caballero / José Ramírez - 2024 AL Stolen Base Leaders - Dark Green border

#97 Jorge Polanco

#346 Hank Aaron - The Topps News All-Time All-Stars

#39 Luis Arraez

#191 Luis Arraez / Marcell Ozuna / Shohei Ohtani - 2024 NL Batting Leaders

#318 Lance Lynn

#219 Cade Povich RC

#149 Jared Jones

#3 Aaron Judge - Record Breakers

Pack eight

#365 Ozzie Albies

#71 Jace Jung

#52 Nico Hoerner

#362 Shay Whitcomb RC

#328 Mike Burrows RC

#160 Sean Reynolds - Chrome variation

#257 Chris Sale

#94 Andy Ibáñez