SHOHEI OHTANI BASEBALL CARD COLLECTOR'S GUIDE
FOR HOKKAIDO NIPPON-HAM FIGHTERS ERA

Before he was a Dodger or an Angel, Shohei Ohtani spent five NPB seasons (2013–2017) with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters — drafted first overall in 2012 and issued Yu Darvish's old #11. His Fighters-era cards, mostly printed by BBM?BBM · Baseball Magazine ShaJapan's leading baseball card publisher and the closest NPB equivalent to Topps or Bowman. In 2013 it handled the higher-end hobby releases — Rookie Edition, Genesis, and official team sets. Still the market leader today in Japanese baseball. and Calbee?CalbeeA Japanese snack-food company that's inserted baseball cards into potato-chip bags since the 1970s — mass-market, huge print runs, thinner stock than BBM. It's most collectors' entry point into NPB cards. Still active today., and Bandai?BandaiThe Japanese toy giant behind Gundam and Tamagotchi. In 2013 it ran "Owners League," an online card game — you'd buy a physical card, register its serial code on a website to build a fantasy “dream team,” and battle other collectors online. Bandai shut the service down on September 23, 2016, so these cards are easy to overlook today., predate his 2018 MLB rookie cards by up to five years and get far less attention from collectors, largely because the brands and set names aren't familiar outside Japan. Below are the Fighters-era cards worth knowing, and the specific years to search for first. Japan's most sought after Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Card Year | 2013 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Shohei Ohtani Rookie Card ↗