Baseball Card Shopping, Part 4 - Cheaper By The Dozen

I never did finish writing up all of the Mint stores in Tokyo, but I just revisited Mint Ikebukuro this weekend, and they have a MAD sale on old boxes of packs. I got a box of 2002 Preview (15 packs, 8 cards per pack) for Y597, and a box of 2003 2nd Version light packs (20 packs, 4 cards per pack) for Y630. They've also got a ton of great interesting game-collected stuff now -- including a series of Lawson's cards that are only available at the Sapporo Dome, apparently. I couldn't justify buying them at around 800-1000 per card, but they featured things like the 9-man hero interview, funny pictures of guys like Kensuke and Naoto dressed up as chefs, special cards for the cheer girls and other Sapporo Dome things, and so on.

Also, if you want collated sets of some of the recent boxes, with no insert cards, you can get things like the Seibu 30th Anniversary regular cards for Y1260. They've also got the Tokyo Big 6 College set, normally 2000 for all 6 teams, broken out so you can get each team's set for Y450 (but of course they had none of Waseda and Rikkio). I also poked through the Hakata Lions historical set (which is only worth it for the Inao cards IMO), and they also had the Johnny Kuroki set collated out for... I forget, it was like 900 yen maybe. Oh, and in further awesomeness, they had IBARAKI GOLDEN GOLDS CARDS! I wonder how hard it is to get one of Ayumi Kataoka...

And if you are a Tigers fan or Baystars fan you can look through the ridiculously cute little figurines they have. It's 315 to buy a box with one unknown one in there, or anywhere from 400 to 800 yen to choose the one you want (though to be fair, they didn't have any Kanemoto or Miura or whatnot, so it might get more expensive for those guys):



Also, I need to sort of take back what I said before about the proprietors there, because the guys who were there on Monday when I went were really funny. (Plus when I told them I hate the Giants and have cards/etc from the games, they were like "Please bring it here! We are happy to buy Giants crap from Giants-haters!")

But if you're looking for packs of cards, I would actually suggest going to Mint Akihabara, of all places.

Mint Akihabara

Location: 東京都千代田区外神田1-15-16　秋葉原ラジオ会館2F (Google Map)
Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Sotokanda 1-15-16, Akihabara Radio Kaikan 2nd Floor

Hours: 11am - 8pm, every day

Directions: Exit the JR Akihabara station for Akihabara Electric Town (the west side). Take the south choice of the two exits on that side, and Radio Kaikan will be right across the street. Go up the stairs to the second floor and turn left, then right, and you should see it. (There might be more than one stair, though.)

Size / Type: Mall store. Small.

People: Eh. I actually think I heard them talking about me, but I am used to ignoring it now, so maybe I was just imagining it.

Stock of interest: Not much, BUT, they have TONS OF PACKS ON SALE. AND MAJORLY ON SALE AT THAT. LIKE 15% OFF SALE.

2008 BBM 1st Version packs were going for 178 each, as opposed to the normal 210. That's just crazy mad sale. Team packs, normally 420, were selling for 357. They had the Tokyo Big Six box set for 1800 yen (10% off). They also had boxes of team packs and of the normal BBM packs, though I forget the price exactly. It was a good price, in the 25% off range, IIRC.

On the other hand their prices for single cards was retarded. Stuff that would be 50 yen, or 30 yen, or even 10 yen at other Mint stores, was all in the 80 yen - 200 yen range here. And their collections of single cards was terrible. The only funny part was that I found an I.D. 1993 card of Takuro Ishii for 30 yen. The guy had this look of "Why is this so cheap?" combined with "Why does this crazy American want it?" when I bought it.

Also, the store is like 80% gal cards, ie, the cards of women in bikinis and stuff like that. Then 15% is soccer cards, which leaves like 5% for baseball.

Basically, I think the reason to go here is if you are already in Akihabara for other reasons and were thinking of picking up packs of baseball cards, you can get a pretty darn good deal.

Now, if you live in Saitama, I would highly recommend Mint Urawa or Mint Minami-Koshigaya. Koshigaya for their prices, Urawa for their INSANE awesome stash of cards which I still haven't finished going through after 3 visits.

Mint Minami-Koshigaya

Location: 埼玉県越谷市南越谷1-15-1　南越谷オーパ4F
Saitama-ken, Koshigaya-shi, Minami-Koshigaya 1-15-1, Minami-Koshigaya OPA 4F

Hours: 10am - 8pm, every day

Directions: From either the south exit of JR Minami-Koshigaya or the east exit of Tobu Minami-Koshigaya, go through the taxi turnaround and all, and turn left onto the main-street-seeming road (go past the pachinko parlor and the restaurant food court mall on your left). After walking a little bit you'll see a drugstore on your left if you're on the right street. Go two blocks -- they're two long blocks -- and you'll see the OPA mall kitty-cornered to you. Go in there, find the escalator, go to the 4th floor, you really can't miss this place.

Size/Type: Mall, but BIG for a mall store, relatively

People: Nice, friendly guys. I even forgot my point card there one time and the guy made me a special receipt so I could get my point card stamped the next time I came in.

Stock of interest: EVERYTHING IS CHEAP! Packs are all 10% off! Box sets are usually majorly discounted too! And single cards are almost free!

No, really:



The selection is kind of crappy, but depending on what you are looking for, and when you go, you can get some amazing deals here. Single cards from most BBM years are only 10 yen. Even from THIS YEAR, assuming they aren't popular players. (I got the "Goodbye Yukio Tanaka" card from the 2008 BBM 1st set for 10 yen.) Think about that -- a pack of 8 cards costs 189 yen there, but you can get 8 cards for 80 yen. Crazy, huh?

However, most player single cards from this year are 31 yen, or 100 yen for more popular ones, and so on. But still, if you are trying to collect a few obscure guys or weird farm team guys, you could really luck into some stuff here.

And the box discounts are nuts. I got the 2006 Nippon Series box for 1313 yen there a couple of months ago (50% off the normal 2625). Got a Fighters Spirit box, minus the insert card, for 700 yen. There were other boxes there for equally insane prices too.

I would recommend going to this place if you live close enough that it won't cost a ton to get there by train, or if you'll be in the area for some other reason (I can't really think of why, though; I usually go there on my way there or back from Chiba or Kamagaya since I take the Musashino-sen). The pack and box discounts are pretty awesome, but it might not offset the crazy cost of getting out there.


I'll have to write about Mint Urawa some other time (and Mint Hachioji, Tachikawa, Yokohama, Fujisawa, Komagome) when I'm not dead tired.

Today I'm going to the Marines-Dragons game in Chiba! Exciting! I hope it stops raining, and I hope the starters are Masa and Komiyama, because they both turn 43 later this season, and I really want to see a Masa start before it's too late. (The other thing I want to see in person is a Kenshin home run. I doubt that one will happen.)

Baseball Card Shopping, Part 3 - Mint Ikebukuro

Mint in Ikebukuro is actually two floors. The floors aren't connected; if you want to go up to the 2F store you have to exit the 1F store and go upstairs and enter the other half, which is odd but normal for Japanese buildings.

Mint Ikebukuro 1F
Mint Ikebukuro 2F
("Trading cards, sports figures")

Location: 東京都豊島区東池袋1-28-6 (Google Map)
Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Higashi Ikebukuro 1-28-6

Hours: 1F: 11am - 8pm (every day, both floors)

Directions: From the JR Ikebukuro station, pretend you're going to the Sunshine 60 building. Take the "Sunshine Exit", which is on the east side of the station, and walk forward until you can bear left and follow the crowds crossing the big intersection to "Sunshine Road" (there'll be a Lotteria on the left and a Sanrio Gift Gate on your right once you enter the correct street, also a Shakey's on your left). Walk down Sunshine Road for 3 blocks and turn right on the corner with the Sega arcade, the Matsuya, and most importantly, the 50-yen arcade with all the UFO catchers. Go halfway down that block and it'll be on your left.

Size / Type: Standalone store, relatively huge, TWO FLOORS!

People: Eh. I was sort of put off both by the proprietors and the clientele but I might have just been there at a bad time, plus I got angry listening to them talking about how they wished they'd gotten Ogasawara signed stuff when he was on the Fighters because now they're worth more with him on the Giants grrrrr.

Stock of interest: The first floor is mostly soccer stuff with a handful of baseball stuff, nothing too exciting, some random packs and a lot of rookie cards, some figurines, a bit of soccer memorabilia and some MLB stuff.

The second floor has lots of boxes full of single cards you can look through, plus ample counter space to do so -- two full counter/bookcases of baseball card boxes. Handful of interesting cards from the early 90's, lots from the later 90's. Team sets not as well-organized but they make up for it by having more sets of stuff to poke through. This store had a full array of Rookie Edition sets from both this year and a few past years, including lots of the insert cards, and team rookie sets. Pretty big amount of single cards labelled as normal, which means they cost 50 yen each, and that includes way old stuff too.

Lots of packs but nothing too old or exciting, just a lot of 2007 team packs and they did have 2007 1st Edition, at least. Also plenty of the normal assortment of MLB stuff.

The thing is, the other two counter/bookcases are full of soccer cards and bikini model cards, which makes for some interesting clientele. The other problem is that the cases are pretty close to each other -- if one person is standing there looking at cards, it's difficult for another person to squeeze by them to look at other stuff.

What I bought:

Photo

Shigetoshi Hasegawa 1992 BBM (50 yen!)
Masahiro Tanaka 2007 Rookie Edition (300 yen)
Masahiko Morino 2007 Rookie Edition insert card reflector (250 yen)
Two packs of BBM 1st Edition (210 yen each)

I got a Shogo Akada signature insert card in the BBM 1st packs, plus a Munenori Kawasaki, plus a Carp Yuuki Saitoh, so I was happy with that.

Logic on the Masahiro Tanaka card: basically, I didn't care if I got the entire Rookie Edition, I just wanted one card from each team since they have a rookie group photo on the back of all of them, and after like 3 packs, the only team I had no cards from was Rakuten. So, I had decided I would stop buying packs and just buy one Rakuten card -- BUT, if I was gonna spend 50 yen on like, Naoto Watanabe, why not just splurge the 300 yen for Masahiro Tanaka? And then I made the mistake of looking through the Rookie Edition insert cards and I found the Morino card in with the "1997 Rookie Special" reflectors and... and... yeah. I actually had looked for an early Morino card in the 1997-2000ish singles but didn't find any, sadly.

Something seriously surreal in this store was seeing, in the early 1990's sets, say, a Takashi Saitoh 1993 card for 50 yen next to a Kazuhiro Sasaki card from the same set going for 800 yen. Also lots of early Motonobu Tanishige cards, when he was on the Baystars. (There really were a lot of great players on the Baystars at one point, but they all moved on elsewhere, it seemed.)

(Man, now I'm wishing I'd really taken notes on what some of these places had, but I'm mostly going on my memory of what I looked through, plus what things I thought about buying. Anywhere that still had BBM 2007 1st, I bought a pack, too.)

Baseball Card Shopping, Part 2 - Mint Chiba

I want to write reviews of the Mint stores, but I keep thinking "I don't have time to write all of them right now" and not doing it, so I'll try to do one at a time. I just visited the Mint store in Chiba yesterday, so here's what I have to say about it:

Mint Chiba

"Trading cards, sports figures, hobby collections, capsule/gacha"

Location: 千葉県千葉市中央区富士見2-3-1　BEE-ONE3F (Google Map)
Chiba-ken, Chiba-shi, Chuo-ku, Fujimi 2-3-1, Bee-One building, third floor

Hours: 9:30am - 8pm, every day

Directions: From JR Chiba station (or Keisei Chiba, or Monorail Chiba), go to the east exit of the JR Chiba station. There'll be a big parking turnaround. Walk down the sidewalk on your left side -- you'll see a Jonathan's diner in the distance, walk towards it but DON'T WALK TO IT. Instead, a bit before you hit the crossroads you'll see an "Underground passage". Go downstairs into the underground passage and take exit "B1". When you come up from the stairs, there are a few big commercial buildings on your right. Walk up the block a bit and one of them has a sign for Yodobashi Camera - no, sadly not in English, but you can't miss it if you can read katakana. Go into that building, and there should be elevators on both sides of you before you actually get into the Yodobashi store. Take the elevators to the 3rd floor, which is a mall-like area, walk past the guitar shop, and you'll see the Mint store (and after it, Yellow Submarine).

Size / Type: Mall store, medium size

People: Polite enough (There was just one guy at the counter and I didn't really talk to him until I was ready to buy, but he didn't seem freaked out by having an American chick picking through the books of cards)

Stock of interest: 2005 unopened packs (BBM 2nd, Hanshin Tigers, Dragons, some other team packs. 4-card 2005 2nd sets for 100 yen in clear plastic so you can see the top card, 4-card 2004 sets in the same way. Konami 2005 Prime Nine packs for Orix, Dragons, Carp. Lots of 2006 packs including BBM 1st AND 2nd, team packs, etc. Binder with Calbee cards from the 1970's (I was so excited to see a Yoshiro Sotokoba card from 1975 that I actually said "Holy crap!!" out loud and got some funny looks. It only cost 400 yen! But I don't really need it.)

NOT much before 1998 in terms of BBM, surprisingly, and very few single cards before 2005.

They had a LOT of team sets for reasonable prices, but just for common cards. So if you want, you could pay 1000 yen and get all 36 Swallows cards in the 2007 1st Edition, and then also get all 15 Swallows cards in 2007 BBM 2nd Edition for another 500 yen. (I actually was looking for Swallows sets for a friend.) But that doesn't include any of the extras for players (Gold gloves, "Be Aggressive", etc).

Another thing that was both cool and uncool was -- in their older BBM sets, say 2002, you could get crazy deals where it'd be like, 100 yen for 10 cards from a team from that year. The catch is that they were all wrapped, so you could only see the first card and the last card in the set, and couldn't just look through all the individual cards to see what they had. I picked up a Dragons 2002 set because I saw Morino on top and Tatsunami on the bottom, though. I figured, "If separate cards are normally 50 yen and so these are two cards I want, I'm essentially getting 8 cards free!"

The binders were really neat, you could look through team sets and see the "puzzle piece" cards as they should be when assembled. This is particularly neat for the "Hashire, Norichika!" 12-card Aoki set in this year's Yakult team packs, or the 6-card "Kyuuji Special" in Hanshin's packs, or the Chunichi/Fighters/etc 3-card sets I showed in some of my other baseball card posts here. They also had the individual cards in binders for many boxed sets, like the all-star sets and so on.

They also HAD the Furuta retirement set normal 27 cards for only 500 yen... well, until I bought it, that is :) I do mean just the regular 27 cards -- apparently the 4000-yen boxed set comes with some special card, plus the box is special, but honestly I don't care that much about having the box.

There's a special box with lots of Chiba Lotte Marines cards, which shouldn't be surprising for the Chiba store. They also have a box of Marines rookie cards, which are really cool (but kind of expensive). There's also the usual "box of cards of Japanese players now in the majors", and there are some boxes of normal MLB cards too, but I don't pay much attention to those.

This store also has a ton of soccer cards, as well as "idol" cards, ie, collectable cards of Japanese bikini models. It also had a lot of figurines of both sports and other things; you could get a complete 12-set of those capsule game baseball figures for 5800 yen, but since I got to see them all I decided I didn't REALLY want them.

What I bought:

Photo

2 packs of 1st edition 2007 BBM (210 yen each)
1 pack of 2nd edition 2005 BBM (210 yen)
2 plastic 4-packs of 2nd edition 2005 BBM (one with Ogasawara on top, one with Shinji Takahashi) (100 yen each)
1 10-card plastic pack of Chunichi Dragons 2002 (100 yen)
Furuta intai set, 27 regular cards (500 yen)
Yukio Tanaka "Rookie Edition" 2003 BBM card (50 yen)

I have to write about the Furuta set some other time just because it's really neat.

I didn't get anything super-inspiring in the BBM 2007 1sts, a few good players and a Matsuzaka golden glove card. Nor the 2005s, really, though I got a reflector card of a Nobuhiko Matsunaka "starting lineup" card from the same game as Seguignol.

Dragons 10-card set had Morino, Kawakami, Sekikawa, Ohnishi, H. Watanabe, Noguchi, Eiji Ochiai, Asakura, Makoto Kitoh, and Tatsunami. Not bad for 100 yen.


I'll hopefully talk about the other Mint stores soon. Last weekend I visited the Ikebukuro, Urawa, Fujisawa and Yokohama stores, and I usually frequent the Jimbocho store, and I'm going to go check out Komagome today.