30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Cheap Cool Cards #40: 1997 Zenith 8x10 Hideo Nomo

Nineteen years ago on February 8th, 1995... Hideo Nomo signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and within a few months he had taken over our hobby.  Nomomania had officially arrived.

And here we are nearly two decades later and I'm still collecting Nomo cardboard.  As it stands, I currently have seventy-four different Nomo cards in my Japanese athlete binder, plus eighteen memorabilia cards, seven graded cards, and eleven rookie cards.


They're all well cared for and have a special place in my collection, but one card stands out.  It's the 1997 Zenith 8x10 of him and it literally towers above all of my other Nomo's.

Here it is next to the standard size version of the card:


Everything about this behemoth is awesome.  The size (you know what they say... bigger is better).  The photo (almost V.J. Lovero-ish).  The design (borderless with a simple logo).  And of course the player himself.

Best of all... you can pick these up for less than the price for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

16 comments:

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Great Shadow!

Unknown said...

I like borderless cards, but borderless oversized cards? Aren't they just photographs for signing?

Commishbob said...

That's a really great picture to put on a card.

When Nomo-mania struck I still hadn't fully recovered from Fernando-mania. Plus 1995 was during my self imposed post-lockout baseball exile. By the time I returned Nomo was making his second tour in L.A. I had completely missed the first.

Nick said...

I won the standard-sized version off Listia a while ago with the intention of sending it to one of the many Dodger bloggers in the blogosphere. When it came in the mail, though, I decided it was too awesome to give away. It's a spectacular card, and one of many that hails from the underrated Zenith brand.

Yankeejetsfan said...

Great pick up!

Ryan G said...

1997 Zenith has some of the best card photography of the 1990s, and those 8x10s are beautiful. I love that set!

Fuji said...

I thought you might appreciate that ;-)

Fuji said...

Sort of... except this has a Zenith logo and it's on cardstock. But you're right... this would be excellent for autographs.

Fuji said...

I don't think I could afford Nomo's cardboard back in 1995... but I loved watching him pitch. I didn't actively start collecting his cards until a few years ago. These days they're much more affordable.

Fuji said...

I don't blame you... this card is awesome (one of my top 10 favorite Nomo's).

Fuji said...

Thanks Mike!

Fuji said...

100% agree. Love this set. It's one of the rare times where I actually prefer the regular version over the dufex version.

Ryan G said...

I never really liked Dufex. In moderation, as an insert set, it would be fine, but later Pinnacle (especially Zenith) had good color to the photos and Dufex ruined that, IMO.

Commishbob said...

I just today found a card of Nomo and Billy Pierce that I'm picking up cheap. One of those 'yesterday/today' cards that Topps does.

btw, Mark, I fixed up my Ingrid Bergman post for ya.

Fuji said...

Nice. I don't think I own that one yet. I'll have to double check. Okay... I'm off to checkout Bergman again.

Eric Bracke said...

Great card. Excellent photography.