Japanese BBM Sumo cards
 

I recently began collecting Japanese BBM Sumo cards from 1997-date. I have quite a few to trade and am looking to complete sets from 2004 and 2005 (i need just #14 and 64 from 2004 and #65 from 2005 to complete all of the base sets). Does anyone else collect these cards/sets?
http://imageevent.com/supplex55/supp...collection1997

I have a small collection, but most is in storage and unsorted. The sets are kind of tough to collect in the US. I've sent a small quantity of the earlier sets (1997-2000) to COMC. I think the marority of my sales have come from Japanese buyers.

If you ever dig them out, keep me in mind for 2004-05 cards.:)

I saw you recently added a few more from 2000 BBM to the COMC site. I have just a handful I am looking for from the years you seem to have stock from. I am missing only 3 base cards (from 2004 and 2005) along with a few inserts from 2001 and 2003 Please let me know if you have even 1 of these as it will help me inch closer to completion.

Cards 169-177 are a subset of the 2000 set. I honestly can't remember why I haven't sent any of those cards in. Either I didn't have them, or I thought they were worth keeping and packed them away.

169-177 from the 2000 BBM Sumo set are short-printed (compared to the rest of the base set) and feature a "Goodbye Wakanohana" subset honoring the retiring Yokozuna.

I live in Japan and bought a few packs of BBM sumo cards in the early 2000s, but could never commit to it (decided to stick with baseball since its what I know best, though I'm a sumo fan too. Happy to see Hakuho get his 43rd championship the other day).

Ryan here would be a good person to hit up if you haven't already, he's probably the most knowledgable person on the subject of sumo cards on the planet (and does trades):

https://sumocards.blogspot.com/

Seems like a good niche to get into. A fascinating sport. Does anyone know what the most valuable Sumo card is all-time?

Great blog.

I don't know the most expensive, but the 1973 Calbee Sumo cards are highly sought after. I suspect thay are sought after Calbee baseball card collectors.

https://sumocards.blogspot.com/2016/...umo-menko.html

Thank you for the info.

most valuable
 

I know of no price guides for sumo cards, but for the more recent BBM issues (1997-date)--i would suspect the Hakuho debut card from the VERY tough 2004 BBM set would be a good candidate for that honor. Insert cards are another matter, and I have seen some autographed inserts go for over 200 US dollars. I know of only one collector who has completed the 2004 set--I am two cards away from the set of 99 (#14,64). Two other veteran collectors I know have about 2/3 of the set, but both are missing the two Hakuho debut cards (#65 and #88). For those unfamiliar with sumo, Hakuho has won (at the time of this writing) 43 tournaments in his career--by far the record in that category. He has also won the most matches and is generally regarded as the greatest sumo wrestler of all time. From my understanding, cards from 2004 through 2007 are particularly difficult to locate, as BBM sumo card production purportedly dropped significantly during this period--often referred to by advanced collectors as the "Black Hole" of sumo card collecting. A possible reason for the 2004-07 scarcity is a decline of Japanese interest in the sport following the retirement of the mega-popular Yokozuna Takanohana in 2003 (after he had two years of frequent kyujo in 2001-02). Also, beginning with the 2004 set, BBM reduced the set size to 99 cards, and discontinued insert cards--an obvious sign of less demand in their Sumo product during that time.

Hakuho
 

Here is the second Hakuho card from the 2004 BBM Sumo set that i referred to above. It is card #88, and is a "rising star" subset card in the issue.

Not a price guide, but there is the Sumo Card & Checklist:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ryan-laught...-23209089.html

Also, Sports Card Magazine in Japan used to publish a price guide for some sumo sets a few years ago. It wasn't in every issue but once every few months, I think they mainly covered the BBM sets (definitely not menko or vintage stuff unfortunately).

You are probably right about the decline in sumo popularity around the 2004-2007 time frame affecting BBM production.

Thanks Sean----I was aware of Ryan's great work in gathering all the information on Sumo/Menko cards, though i have not yet picked one up. Sumo cards are so esoteric, that values are difficult to assess--particularly on sets that are very infrequently sold on the usual Japanese/US websites (Ebay, Yahoo Japan, Mercari, Jambalaya and Amazon Japan). I would suspect that the values assigned in the now defunct SCM are not representative of current sales of the tougher BBM sets and inserts. There has been a bit of a swell of interest in the hobby with the advent of the BBM Sumo Card Collectors Facebook group in the past few years, with many Sumo enthusiasts from all over the world joining the hobby (myself included). Might you have any cards to trade or sell? I am only missing 3 base cards--2004 #14,64 and 2005 #65....

Been awhile and wanted to update this thread---with a great deal of help--much of it from the BBM Sumo Card Collectors Facebook group, I was finally able to complete all of the BBM Modern Sumo sets from 1997 forward. If you have an interest in finding/trading/buying Sumo cards, this would be a great place to start: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1630250003925942/

Congrats on completing that set run, and thanks for the link to the group!