New member intro: Greetings from Japan

[seanofjapan]

Bryan - that Bromide of the 1931 team is fantastic!

Originally Posted by Mungo Hungo

Welcome -- I'm in Hawaii, roughly halfway between you and various collectors in California.

I've been surprised at how difficult it is to find Japanese cards in the U.S., even on ebay. Any tips for how to find them?

Actually, I'm really just looking for a card--any card--of Chang-Yong Lim, who played for Yakult from 2008-12, briefly for the Cubs in 2013 and for Korean teams before and after that time. Would you happen to have a double of him lying around, and/or any thoughts as to where I could find one?

Jeff

There are a couple of places outside of ebay. One is Mandarake, which has a good stock of Japanese cards (mostly 70s-80s-90s) that you can browse in English and they will ship to the US. I know at least one American collector who gets cards from them:

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...e=0606&lang=en

Unfortunately though there is no postal service between Japan and the US now due to the pandemic, so they have to send stuff by private courier which is insanely expensive. Once postal service resumes though (whenever that happens) its much cheaper.

For high end stuff there is also Prestige Collectibles, which has some of the best stuff anywhere in their auctions: https://prestigecollectiblesauction.com/

About Chang Yong Lim I can definitely hook you up, he is in some Calbee sets that I have a lot of. I haven't checked but its very likely that I have a double of him lying around somewhere (and if I don't its not hard to find one). The only problem is the above mentioned lack of postal service to the US. Send me a PM though and once that resumes I can get one to you!

[Mungo Hungo]

Thanks Sean -- that's really helpful. I had not heard of Mandarake, but the English-language feature sounds great.

I also wasn't aware of the current lack of postal service -- but I guess these are the times we're in.

And on Chang Yong Lim, I'll send you a PM. Thanks!

Jeff

[Topnotchsy]

Welcome!

I've been able to pick up some photos from the 1931 US Tour of Japan with some early Japanese HOFers and figures. Haven't been able to find out too much about a number of players:

Atsushi Kono
Hisashi Koshimoto
Tsunekichi Oshita
Takizo Matsumoto
Jiro Ito

[rfitts]

I hope it's okay that I plug my new book here. I figure most of you will be interested.
Rob Fitts

[toledo_mudhen]

Konnichiwa Sean!

[seanofjapan]

Nice looking book Rob, its on my reading list for the summer holiday.

Topnotchsy - those are great. I'll try to look up some info on those guys when I get some time!

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

Topnotchsy - those are great. I'll try to look up some info on those guys when I get some time!

Thank you! My understanding is that Japanese baseball fans don't collect HOFers in the way that US baseball fans do (so the fact that these are some of the earliest HOFers doesn't mean they are the equivalent of some of the rarest HOF players here in the US), but I'd love to learn more.