General Forum

The quick background is that in 8th grade I took Japanese for my language elective.  I have been interested in Japan and Japanese baseball (and wrestling) since.  But, since I only remember how to say "I speak a little Japanese" and how to count to 10, following and collecting NPB has been difficult.  So my question is, for a non-Japanese speaking American, what are some ways for me to start following the NPB and what are some suggestions on getting into collecting BBM or Calbee cards?

I would suggest become a regular reader of Ryan's blog and maybe reach out to him for some direction. He is a teacher from the US that is living in Japan and is a major BBM and Calbee collector. 

http://thiscardiscool.blogspot.com/

Zippy Zappy is a collector of a variety of Japanese sets so his blog is a good one to read too.

http://cervinupcards.blogspot.com/

Also be sure to read the Japanese Baseball Card blog at https://japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com.

And, of course, be sure to visit http://japanesebaseball.com/.  The weekly podcast is excellent.

There are a bunch of Japanese wrestling cards I would love to have. They are always over priced by sellers over here. 

Same here, Ben.  I only own one, and it happens to be Misawa.  I need more.

I use "Buyee' for Japanese produced cards. They ship Yahoo Japanese Auctions items to North America. It can get very expensive, though. How it works is, you bid through 'Buyee; on Yahoo auctions, (or shopping like ebay). If you win, the order goes to their warehouse. It can stay there up to 30 days without extra charge. This is good if your waiting for other orders. Remember, every auction win incurs its own shipping cost, hence the possible high S&H. Also, Buyee charges fees for the service. It is really good if there is a must have card you can't get here. ex. I collect Canadian born player cards, and most of the cards never show up on US aution sites. 

Anyway, good luck. 

Marty