Hoshi Gangu menko cards are among the most popular and collectible issues from the 1950s. Gold border cards are significantly scarcer than the regular white border cards, and have a scarcity factor of R3 according to the Japanese Baseball Card Checklist & Price Guide, Vintage Edition by Gary Engel. Nine of the 20 cards in the Hoshi Gangu set are represented in this lot, and the list of players includes several of the greatest players in Japan Pro Baseball History. The list is as follows: (top row, left to right) Shigeo Nagashima (HOF)/Futoshi Nakanishi (HOF), Shigeo Nagashima (HOF)/Masaichi Kaneda (HOF), Kazuhisa Inao (HOF)/Tatsuro Hirooka (HOF), (middle row, left to right) Tadashi Sugiura (HOF), Yoshio Yoshida (HOF), Kazuhisa Inao (HOF)/Itsuro Honda, (bottom row, left to right) Kazunori Nishimura, Toru Mori and Tsutomu Ina.

Size: Each card is 1 5/16" x 2 5/8".

Condtion: All cards have sharp corners and borders and retain all original gloss on the front. Three of the nine cards are Nm/Mt, including Nagashima/Nakanishi Two cards (Yoshida and Inao/Hirooka) have Nm/Mt fronts, but exhibit minor staining and/or paper loss on the back. Nagashima/Kaneda, Inao Hirooka and Nishimura cards exhibit some horizontal surface creasing on the obverse and Nishimura has minor staining on the back as well.