What countries have baseball cards?

[DaClyde]

Always trying to expand my odd collection, and help raise other collectors' awareness of non-US baseball cards, I signed up for a MercadoLibre.com (Mexico's eBay) account yesterday to try and buy some Mexican League cards. So far, my searches have turned up card/sticker/stamp sets from these countries:

Venezuela
Mexico
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
Australia
Nicaragua
Cuba
Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic
Cuba
The Netherlands

The only countries that seem to be currently producing cards are:

Japan
Venezuela
Taiwan

Korea is surprisingly poorly represented in the hobby, despite having one of the better established pro baseball leagues. They've only had a couple of league-wide pack-issued sets, and none since 2000.

As I find information, I'm adding it to the SCF Inventory Manager. So far I've managed to find checklists for sets from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Venezuela, and very incomplete information for Mexico. Does anyone know of any other countries that are currently producing baseball cards?

 

[NYMets6986]

Canada? anyway I have this card FT if you are interested

2007 BBM (japan) Masahiro Tanaka jersey card 17/50

 

[Kinston_Eagle]

O-***-chee in canada and Topps UK in England

 

[7guns]

I have some cards from Japan when I was there if you are interested I will dig them out.

 

[DaClyde]

I can't believe I didn't think of O-***-Chee and the original Leaf. Are there any companies currently producing baseball cards in Canada or the UK? Or is it all just soccer, CFL and cricket?

 

[ian_kell]

none currently as far as i know over here

 

[Kinston_Eagle]

From time to time, card companies from other countries issued champions of sport from around the world sets that usually included a baseball player (almost always Babe Ruth). Some of the ones I found in the standard catalog after a quick look include the 1932 Abdulla Tobacco set from Germany, the 1939 African Tobacco set from South Africa, and the 1929 Churchman's Cigarettes set from England. I'm sure there are many more, but they aren't full baseball sets.

 

[Kinston_Eagle]

Oh yeah. The stickers made by the Italian company Panini in the late 80's and early 90's. Since they were mainly made for the US market, you may not consider it a foreign issue.

 

[DaClyde]

No I'm not counting any cards produced for the US market. Besides, Panini makes stickers for about 10-12 different countries, but none of them are baseball anymore (unless it's a set for Venezuela).

 

[titan777]

Hi

In Puerto Rico just made only the Toleteros and Toleteros album in the 50's to 60's and the album in 1973. Later BYN made some team sets in the low 80's and 90's beginning. That's it!

Pete

 

[David K.]

Japan has there own baseball cards! Best regards, David

 

[DaClyde]

I posted about the 1992 Mexican League cards I received this week.

http://clydes-stalecards.blogspot.com/2011/04/1992-la-liga-mexicana-de-beisbol.html

I'll post again when the larger lot of 2005 Mexican League cards shows up. Considering they have stickers and/or cards of soccer in Mexico every year, I'm really surprised at the lack of a regular baseball product in that country.

 

[DaClyde]

I finally received my 2005 "Beisbol Cards" from Mexico. I've got 55 different cards, all in the original wrappers. They are a mix of nicely and poorly produced. When I get back from vacation next week, I'll post more about them.

They're glossy on front and back, like most cards today, white border like 2010 or 2011 Topps or 1994 Fleer, and have the players names "engraved" on a bat running up the side of the cards. The photos are mostly well done, but sloppy printing has resulted on some cards that are blurry on the front AND back due to plates that didn't quite line up.

Frustratingly, it doesn't seem that the cards themselves are numbered (though it looks like they list the player's uniform number), and neither do the packs mention how many cards were originally issued per pack or in the set. The only player I readily recognize is Felix Jose.

About all else I know about them is that they were issued as part of the Mexican League's big marketing push in 2005. The league hired a new marketing firm and had a new league logo designed. I'm betting this was around the time they teamed up with MLB.com to rebuild their website. Sadly, the push must have fizzled, or maybe the overall economy was tanking at the time, because there does not seem to have been another Mexican League set since 2005.

 

[DaClyde]

After a recent trade with a collector from the Netherlands, I can add another country to the list. I traded him a few Hensley Meulens cards he needed and he sent me two (complete?) team issued sets from the Netherlands! So there are at least two Dutch sets of cards in existence. One set is for the 2009 DOOR Neptunus team from Rotterdam, and the other is for the Dutch National Baseball team from 2008-09.

I'll be posting about them soon on my blog, along with scans.

Also, there are sporadic sets produced in Mexico, but they are usually by individual teams or for specific events, or on a very limited basis. I'll be posting about the set of stickers from last year that I just received.

 

[titan777]

Hi
I 1985 the TCMA made a set from the Mexican league team (Tigres de Mexico) a team set, but no remember if they play in any minor league or was a special set of foreign team.

Pete

 

[bdink25]

Where were the Stadiun (check spelling) cards made?? I'll see if I can find one of mine. Butch