Vintage Japan Baseball Transfer - Help ID Please
 

Hi Net54, I recently acquired a vintage collection of ephemera and contained in the collection was this old baseball transfer item. I know there are several Japan baseball experts in this forum and maybe someone can educate me on what this is, era, etc.

Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to thoughts or opinions.

I've had one of those for years. Don't remember where I got it, and didn't pay a lot for it either. The images are generic, and not overly detailed. I never really see them for sale much, but imagine they are still not going to command much of a price due to them not being actual cards, and just generic images. I seem to remember them as a 40's item. Would expect that it may get you $20-$50, depending on the sales venue and day of the week. LOL Not really something that dedicated US card collectors go after, but something that may garner more interest and value from the burgeoning Japanese card collector market.

It looks like something that was printed in Japan late 40's-early 50's for export to the US. I wouldn't think this is a Japanese baseball piece as much as an Anglo piece printed in Japan for the US market as none of the images are of Japanese baseball players. Keep in mind many items were being produced in Japan for export at the time under the Marshall Plan of 1948. Mostly small cheap easy to manufacture stuff in the beginning.

Bob and Phil, Thanks for your take. Glad to hear someone else has one of these. I agree with you both. I initially thought it was for American baseball also, but the team names on the jersey's don't exactly match. I first thought the one jersey said Yankees, but it doesn't unless they really misspelled it. Of course, they have a Giants team of their own.

Trying to enjoy baseball in the 40s after WWII must have been really hard as they were devastated a country and attempting to rebuild.

Even though it isn't a particularly valuable piece, it is one of those oddball things/items that usually gets my attention. And though not super valuable, not everyone has one. And thus, the beauty of collecting, at least to me. That is one of those items that a collector can still look at and acquire for a very reasonable price, and thus is one of those things that still makes this such a great hobby.

I have something similar says made in Japan but it does depict mlb teams. These are tattoos instead of transfers and has 16 teams in it. This must be newer due to the Los Angeles and the bridge for giants.

Tattoos
 

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Now that is cool. I have never seen that specific tatoo booklet before, but I have seen some of the images. A company named the Kaumagraph Company Toy Division, out of NY, New York, used to sell some larger, individually packaged baseball iron-on team transfers for $0.29. I have several still in the packages, and noticed that the Giants and Yankees team images are basically the exact same as the ones in your tatoo booklet. These iron-on transfers do not indicate they were made in Japan, and are attributed to the manufacturers of the Mani-Yak transfers. Interesting due to the shared images.

No doubt that it's the same manufacturer as the transfers.

The opinion about the 40s is probably spot on as all the other ephemera was from the 40s, including a boxed set of Roundup from 49.