Card of the Week - Choi Hyung-woo (Week 8)

This off season has seen several record breaking free agent contracts in the KBO and it all started with Choi Hyung-woo signing with the KIA Tigers for 4 years at 10 billion won. It was the biggest FA signing to date. However, that amount was overtaken when Lee Dae-ho signed with his previous team the Lotte Giants for 4 years at 15 billion won. Lee Dae-ho has spent time playing in Japan from 2012 to 2015 for the Orix Buffaloes and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He spent 2016 in the MLB with the Seattle Mariners.

While those were two record breaking deals for Koreans, there was also a new record set for foreign players this year when Dustin Nippert re-signed with his team of the past 6 years, the Doosan Bears. His 1 year contract is worth 2.1 million dollars for the 2017 season. In 2016, Dustin lead the league in wins (22) and ERA (2.95). He earned the honor of 2016 KBO MVP and 2016 KBO Golden Glove for pitchers.

Anyway, this week's card of the week features Choi Hyung-woo. It's his auto card from the 2014-15 Super Star Baseball Blue Edition set.

Choi Hyung-woo - Super Auto (#'d 09/10)

2016-17 Super Star Baseball Black Edition (5 Box Break)

I got in 5 boxes of 2016-17 Super Star Baseball Black Edition last Friday and opened them over the weekend. The 2016-17 Black Edition is similar to the previous Blue (2014-15) and Gold (2015-16) Editions. With the Black Edition you seem to be guaranteed an autograph in every box in addition to the #'d Super Star card that you get in every box. I heard from a distributor the other day that the reason for the increased number of autos and jersey cards that you get from the Black Edition is because of a lower number of boxes produced (2,500 instead of 5,000) and the company that makes Super Star Baseball cards will stop their production of cards with the Black Edition since their contract with the KBO and Player's Association were not renewed for this year. He did tell me that another company is planning to pick up where the left off with a possible release of their own cards in April or May of this year.

Most of the autographs seem to come from younger players that have had limited playing time over the last season or two. I know there are also some more sought after autos from the bigger stars, but I didn't get any this time around. Hopefully some of the younger players will have breakout seasons over the next few years and increase their desirability.

Anyway, here is a breakdown of what I got out of the 5 boxes with the scans of the hits from each box.

Box 1: #558/2500

Normal: 20 (1 duplicate)
Gold Normal: 20 (2 duplicates)
All Star Normal: 18 (6 duplicates)
All Star Cube Prism: 18 (no duplicates)
All Star Wave: 2 (no duplicates)
Super Star: 1
Super Auto: 1

Box 1 Hits:

Ju Kwon - Super Star (#'d 019/185)

Hong Seong-gap -  Super Auto (#'d 05/10)

Box 2: #80/2500

Normal: 20 (no duplicates)
Gold Normal: 20 (6 duplicates)
All Star Normal: 18 (2 duplicates)
All Star Cube Prism: 18 (2 duplicates)
All Star Wave: 2 (no duplicates)
Super Star: 1
Super Auto: 1

Box 2 Hits:

Lee Seung-yuop - Super Star (#'d 14/50)

Jung Jin-ho - Super Auto (#'d 03/10)

Box 3: #114/2500

Normal: 20 (1 duplicate)
Gold Normal: 19 (1 duplicate)
All Star Normal: 17 (no duplicates)
All Star Cube Prism: 17 (2 duplicates)
All Star Wave: 2 (no duplicates)
Super Star: 1
Super Auto: 1
Super Piece: 1

Box 3 Hits:

Shin Jae-young - Super Star (#'d 062/185)

Jeong Hyeon-seok - Super Auto (#'d 10/10)

Jang Won-jun - Super Piece (#'d 09/40)

Box 4: #48/2500

Normal: 20 (no duplicates)
Gold Normal: 20 (3 duplicates)
All Star Normal: 18 (no duplicates)
All Star Cube Prism: 18 (2 duplicates)
All Star Wave: 2 (no duplicates)
Super Star: 1
Super Auto: 1

Box 4 Hits:

Lee Seung-yuop - Super Star (#'d 09/50)

Cha Jae-woong (#'d 05/10)

Box 5: #2334/2500

Normal: 20 (2 duplicates)
Gold Normal: 20 (4 duplicates)
All Star Normal: 18 (1 duplicate)
All Star Cube Prism: 18 (1 duplicate)
All Star Wave: 2 (no duplicates)
Super Star: 1
Super Auto: 1

Box 5 Hits:

Lee Ho-joon - Super Star (#'d 033/100)

Heo Jung-yeop (#'d 04/10)

Ticket Tuesday (Week 1)

The other day I decided that I wanted to show some of the tickets from games that I went to this past season. I usually use a mobile ticket app (for convenience and no waiting in ticket lines) so I don't always get paper tickets. However there are times when I get paper tickets. This ticket was the first paper ticket that I purchased this season and it was from the May 26th game for Doosan vs. KT.

The ticket for this game featured pitcher Jang Won-jun (장원준). It is for a seat on the 1st base (home side) in the red section block 205 row 6 seat 39. This seat was in the cheering section and was just to the right of the cheerleaders stage. I usually try to sit in the cheering section during most games, but there are times when I sit in other areas.

During this game Doosan beat KT by a score of 6-3. The winning pitcher was Heo Jun-hyeok (허준혁) and Doosan had homeruns from Nick Evans (에반스) in the 3rd inning and Yang Eui-ji (양의지) in the 5th inning. The players of the game were Yang Eui-ji and Heo Jun-hyeok. Here are a couple of their cards.

Yang Eui-ji

 2015-16 Super Star Baseball Gold Edition (SBCGE-047-AS)

Heo Jun-hyeok

 2016 Super Star Baseball Doosan Bears Team Set (SBC16DO-022-N)

Card of the Week - Lee Ho-jun / Park Yong-taik (Week 7)

Today, Lee Ho-jun (이호준),  currently the oldest hitter in the KBO and the second oldest player in the KBO, announced that he will be retiring after the 2017 season. Lee has a career that has spanned 21 seasons with 3 different clubs. He originally started in the KBO with the Haitai Tigers in 1996 and he has gone on to play for the SK Wyverns and the NC Dinos. Lee has had some impressive numbers over the years and currently ranks 4th all-time in homeruns, 3rd in RBIs, and 10th in games played.

You can check out the article about his retirement on Yonhap News.

2014 Super Star Baseball Blue Edition - Lee Ho-jun / Park Yong-taik Dual Piece

Card of the Week (Week 6)

With the busy holidays in the past I am finally back to my card blog. It's been a few weeks (4 weeks to be exact) since I posted a card of the week. To make up for lost time I will be posting 4 cards this week. This weeks cards are of Yoo Han-joon (유한준) formerly of the Nexen Heroes and currently with the KT Wiz.

Yoo Han-joon has been like a wine that gets better with age. He started his career in the KBO in 2004-2005 with the now defunct Hyundai Unicorns and played with them through 2007. The next 2 years he served his mandatory military service.

In 2010 he ended up with the Nexen Heroes where had some solid seasons up to his breakout season in 2014 when he batted over .300 for the first time in his career. He has continued batting over .300 for the past 3 seasons and ended up 2nd in batting average in 2015 with a .362 average. He moved to the KT Wiz in 2016 and ended the year with a .336 average.

2015-16 Super Star Baseball Gold Edition Super Patch (#'d 5/5)

2015-16 Super Star Baseball Gold Edition (SBCGE-039-AS)

 

2015 Super Star Baseball Season 2 (SBC1502-022-SS)

2014 Super Star Baseball Season 2 (SBC02-045-BS)

2017 Superstar Baseball Card Black Edition Relase Date

With the new year comes a new release from Superstar Baseball Cards. In 2015 SMG Holdings released the 2014-2015 Blue Edition and in 2016 they released the 2015-2016 Gold Edition. For 2017 they are back with the Black Edition and it will be released on January 23, 2017.

 
This release is much like previous Gold Edition with numbered 1 of 1 super books, 1 of 5 super patches, 1 of 10 super autos, 1 of 10 super cuts,1 of 40 dual pieces, 1 of 40 super pieces, super stars (#'d), all stars, gold normal, and normal.

Here is a look at the breakdown of how many of each card is offered.

431 total cards with 10 super books, 14 super cuts, 10 super patches, 10 super dual pieces, 20 super pieces, 214 super autos, 18 super stars, 45 all stars, 50 gold normal, and 50 normal. This year they are offering 2.5 times the number of super dual pieces and super pieces and 4 times the number of super autos over previous years.

I have reserved 5 boxes and can't wait for them to be shipped. Right now they are retailing for 53,500 won (approx. 45 USD) a box (a little more expensive than previous releases).

You can check out more information about the release on their site at www.baseballcard.co.kr. This links to their Korean site since no information has been published yet for their English site.