Lot # 70: c. 1960 JF 28 LiLi Gum Cards Advertising Poster w/Nagashima, Sugiura Drawings--Unique

Category: Posters / Flyers

Starting Bid: $250.00

Bids: 0 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Auction 58 Ended 8/29/2020",
which ran from 8/10/2020 8:00 PM to
8/29/2020 11:00 PM



This is the first advertising poster that we have ever seen for LiLi Gum baseball cards. It is one of only a few posters that we have seen promoting any vintage Japanese cards. Now we know why six of the 20 LiLi gum cards purported to be in the set (according to card backs) have never been seen in person. They were short printed (or maybe even not printed at all) so the company could avoid awarding prizes to contest winners. This poster lists the supposed 20 cards in the set, including images of 11 cards (actually, they are somewhat different than the actual cards).

You can redeem your pair of cards depicting Sadaharu Oh and Isao Harimoto to win either a harmonica or a plastic model--except that the Harimoto card has never been seen. If you redeem the cards of Yoshio Yoshida, Takao Katsuragi and Kihachi Enomoto, you will receive either a uniform or a dodge ball. But since we have never seen a card of Katsuragi, it would be difficult to redeem the prize. If you redeem the cards of the All Japan team, you might get a new bicycle. No wonder, we have never seen the manager cards! And it goes on and on.

To be fair, we have never seen a card that was redeemed for a prize and returned. Therefore, it could be that nearly all of the short printed cards were redeemed and destroyed at the factory. In any case, this is a large, colorful and enlightening piece of ephemera which would certainly be at home on the wall of anyone who would enjoy viewing an original advertisement for 60-year-old Japanese baseball cards.

Size: 15" x 20 7/8"

Condition: A 1/4" area of paper separation along one of the fold lines, but overall Ex.

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