Collecting and Translating 1981 Calbee Series 1 (Part 1)
Unlike its quirky 1980 predecessor, the 1981 Calbee set was the first to be printed fully in the smaller card size that would remain standard for the decade. It also returns to a more standard makeup. Whereas ‘ 80 was surprisingly even with its team allocation, ‘ 81 looks more familiar with the Central League hogging about 70% of the set, and the Yomiuri Giants alone getting about 30% of all the cards. Despite this, ‘ 81 does have a quirk of its own: two main backs in completely different colors. Cards #1-50 feature magenta ink with team pennants, while cards #51-200 and #251-450 come in blue ink with team logos. This 450-card set is definitely not as scarce card-for-card as 1980, but it is on the scarcer end of 80 ’ s Calbee sets for sure. It has one short-printed series covering the All-Star Games complete with its own distinct back. These cards (#200-250) are sub-numbered within the series as well. For some reason, there are two #200 cards. One of Mitsuyasu Hirano with a standa...