Monday, February 27, 2017

Korean referenced U.S. cards: 2013 Bowman & 2013 Bowman Prospects

I think this Bowman design is rather boring but I like the country flag in the background. Another front white border set great for grading but a bore on the eyes. The base back presents us with a gray back. The three Koreans represented between both sets are Shin-Soo Choo (신수추), Hyun-Jin Ryu (현진류) (RC), and Ji-Man Choi (최지만).





Korean referenced U.S. cards: 2002 Leaf League of Nations

I will be sharing US issued sets that have Korean players in them when referencing the country or WBC. This set has 10 total cards, 3 of which are Korean players. Chan-Ho Park (박찬호), Byung-Hyun Kim (김병현), and Sun-Woo Kim (김선우). The set also includes three Japanese, one Netherlands, one Australian, one Canadian and one Cuban.

I like the design of this set. I like how the country flag is in the corner of the card and the "League of Nations" has a raised font which is cool. What's ultra cool is that Leaf actually included both languages for the bio on the back of the card. I can't say I have ever seen that.





Sunday, February 12, 2017

1999 Teleca samples

I love when stuff like this happens. While searching for 1999 Teleca (테레카) singles to buy I also came across these gems and had to buy what I could. I don't know if an entire sample set was released but I found of eleven of them so perhaps we can presume so? Nothing was different on the front of the cards.



What I found interesting was one of the samples had "스포즈서울" (SportsSeoul) on the back of one. So I am unsure if an entire set was released with this stamping.



Friday, February 10, 2017

2016-17 SMG Ntreev Super Star Black Edition

Like the Gold edition before it, the Black edition has some similarities, so let's start with the layout.  The layout of the set remains the same.

001-018 (SS) Superstar
019-063 (AS) All-Star
064-113 (N/GN) Normal/Gold Normal
114-133 (SP) Super Piece
134-143 (SD) Super Dual
144-357 (SA) Super Autograph
358-371 (SC) Super

The card pull order possibilities for packs is as follows:
normal, gold normal, all-star square parallel, base all-star
normal, gold normal, all-star wave parallel, auto
normal, gold normal, all-star wave paralle, superstar
normal, relic

So after reviewing my box break videos, the rare all-star wave paralells will be packed with the autos and superstars.

Normal (N) & Gold Normal (GN)
The similarities start with the normal and gold normal cards, which I feel should have been either changed or not produced again. Do we need to see the same card with a gold frame around it? The difference isn't flashy enough for me to really care. It's more of a chore seeing those cards back to back when you open packs. I also do not care for the new look of these cards. I don't mind the team color coding but the design leaves more to be desired. I pulled 19-20 Normal and Gold Normal from each box.


Normal (N)

Gold Normal (GN)

Back


Superstar (SS)
The superstar cards are same in number and kick off the set at card #001. This is a much different look form the Gold version and I'm always one for changing a look with each set. These SS cards also have different serials. In his last year, Seung-Yeop Lee starts off the set.


Seung-Yeop Lee (#SBCBK-001-SS)

back


All-Star (AS)
Along with the increased relics and autos, the All-Star cards have a change as well.  This time around the creators have gone back to an oldie.  The base All-Star card is the same as the original from the 2014 Superstar Baseball Card Season One set.

All Star base
All Star Squares parallel
All Star Waves parallel


There are still three variations of All-Star cards. The (1) base, (2) a new, square parallel, and the (3) wave parallel, the last of which was introduced in the Gold edition. The wave parallel is the rarest of the three, whereas the sparkle was the rarest in the Gold edition set. I loved the sparkle parallel and wish they would have used it again. From my three boxes, I pulled 19-20 All-Star parallel cards, always getting two waves and the remainder, squares. Each box also gives 17-18 base All-Star cards.


2014 Season One All Star

2016 Black Edition All Star


Above is a comparison of the background used in the All Stars for the 2014 Superstar Season One and the Black Edition.

Relics/Game Used and Autographs (SD SA SP)
In my three boxes I pulled five hits which were three autos and two relics. Each of my autos were of /10 and relics of /40. In this set, cards #114-#371 are relics or autos.



The single-piece game used jerseys are numbered #114-#133. The duals are numbered #134-#143. I am unsure if all the single-piece relics are serial'd to /40. Don't know the dual-piece serials.



The autographed cards are numbered #144-#357 !! That's 213 autographs! Some teams have as many as 30 guys signing. I believe all autos are serial'd to /10.

My Thoughts on the set
As mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of the GN normal parallel but I do like that the gold frame on this version is a hologram, whereas the Gold Edition GN were gold without any kind of reflection.

I enjoyed the addition of the Square parallels to this set but would have preferred the Sparkles over the Waves for the rare all-stars. I also like the re-use of the original All-Star look from the 2014 set.

This set has even more autos and relics than the Gold. So those who love chasing and/or buying hits, this set is for you.

Because I'm more of a Korean set and Lee Seung-yeop collector, I will be more interested in completing the set (minus relics and autos) and trading those hits for any Lee cards. And being me, I look forward to enjoying the scanning, cropping and uploading of this set to tradingcarddb.com. I uploaded this set here.