Dodgers Blue Heaven: A Rookie Checklist of Kenta Maeda Cards

Friday, February 26, 2016

A Rookie Checklist of Kenta Maeda Cards

With Kenta Maeda's recent arrival to the Dodgers spring camp in Glendale I thought it would be fun to take a look at some Baseball cards from the eight-year veteran of the Japanese Central League. As you know, he began his professional career in 2008, after being drafted the year prior by the Hiroshima Carp. Since that time collectors have been awash in cardboard gold.

Featured below is a checklist of his rookie cards from 2007 - the year he was drafted. I have also included American issued cards of the Japanese ace. Before doing so, though, I want to do a shout out to Japanese Baseball Cards, Beckett and the Trading Card DB for their previous work on this matter.

Kenta Maeda Rookie Cards

This is Maeda's very first professional Baseball card, and as you can see it features him celebrating having been drafted by the Carp. A "Gold Signature" autographed card exist and is numbered to only 200 copies. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a pic of one.

2007 BBM Rookie Edition #76

This next card is a total mystery. I could not find it in any checklist online. As you can see, it uses the exact same design as the above BBM Rookie Edition card and has the same reverse, but is clearly using a different photo. The eBay seller I found this at indicated that it was some kind of premium prize issued by BBM. In fact, if you look closely it has the words "Weekly Baseball" on the bottom left, so it's possible it may be just that. On the other hand, it could be an elaborate fake/reproduction, as well. If you happen to know the truth please pass that knowledge along.

This next card is an 2007 BBM Rookie Edition Premium card. I do not believe this is an insert to the above BBM Rookie Edition set, but an entirely different set. Although, I could be wrong. Also, there are a couple of autograph variation inserts cards available, but I do not have any pics of those to share (Autographs Horizontal #RA-1 & Autographs Vertical #RA-1). There are also a couple of other non-auto insert cards, as well (Film Cards #RF31 & Photo Cards #RPH31).

2007 BBM Rookie Edition Premium #RP31

This card is from another BBM set called "First Edition," and an "Rookie Edition" parallel exist that is numbered to only 100 copies. Unfortunately, I do not have a pic of that parallel card.

2007 BBM First Version #391

The below card comes from a Hiroshima Carp team set produced by BBM. An autographed version of the card exist that is numbered to 90 copies.

2007 BBM Hiroshima Toyo Carp #C31

The below card is the only American made card featuring Kenta Maeda. It is from the 2013 Topps Tribute WBC set. There is also an patch insert card that you can see below.

2013 Topps Tribute WBC #57