Ichiro Collectibles Guide

Ichiromania

Ichiro's face adorns cooking aprons, telephone banners and beach towels.

There are Ichiro magazine covers, Ichiro figurines, Ichiro
playing cards, Ichiro puzzles, Ichiro plastic fans and Ichiro
drinking glasses. There are also Ichiro sunvisors that sit on the
windshield and large cardboard supermarket displays, featuring
life-sized versions of Ichiro.

When Gary Engel heard that Ichiro Suzuki -- the seven-time
Japanese Pacific League batting champion with a .353 lifetime
batting average -- was coming to America, he contacted
collectors in Japan and bought every piece of Ichiro
merchandise he could get his hands on. He bought all of the
above and more for approximately $25,000.

"I stocked up on everything," said Engel, who has been a
full-time Japanese baseball memorab ilia dealer since the late
'80s. "Having experienced (Hideo) Nomomania in 1995, I
knew it would happen again. But never, in my 25-plus years of
dealing with baseball collectibles in America, did I expect to see
something like this."

"This" is Ichiromania, which has collectors in the United States
paying top dollar to own anything associated with Major
League Baseball's first Japanese position player.

While Ichiro's 23-game hitting streak in April and May of 2000
converted many Americans into Ichiro lovers, Engel said the moment that set Ichiro-mania ablaze actually
happened before the hitting streak. On April 11, Ichiro entered a game against the A's as a pinch hitter in
the eighth inning. He took over in right in the bottom of the i nning, which is when he scooped up a Sal
Fasano base hit and threw a bullet to nail Terrence Long at third base. On April 12, Engel heard the phone
ring more than ever before and everyone was asking for Ichiro.

"I got more callers asking for Ichiro items the day after that throw than any other time," said Engel, who
has authored four versions of "The Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide" sinc e 1993.

In the six years since Nomomania, the progression of the Internet
and the auction economy has helped American collectors obtain
Japanese memorabilia with more ease. Bu t t h e scarcity of card sets
that include Ichiro, combined with the sudden demand, provide the
intrigue and the hunt that many collectors love.

There's the Ichiro card in the 1993 Hawaii Baseball Winter League
set, which Engel said had a production run of less than 1,000 sets.
Demand has resulted in the recent discovery of counterfeit versions
o f the card, said Engel, who is also the Japanese card consultant for
Pro Sports Authenticators (PSA), the industry's leading grading
service.

There's the 1994 Calbee Hokkaido Ic hiro cards, which were only
distributed on the island of Hokkaido in very limited runs. Calbee,
a Japanese snack food company, also produced an Ichiro card in
1995 that was attached to its bag of potato chips. However, the card
is said to be extremely limited because the potato famine that year
limited the production of the chips and therefore the cards.

One of the most valuable cards is his 1993 Takara rookie. A
gem-mint graded card sold for $1,800 two weeks ago.

"I can't get the cards I used to get," said Rob Fitts, a New
York-based Japanese card dealer and owner of
robsjapanesecards.com. Fitts sold a complete 1993 Takara set for
$50 last fall. Now he said he could sell it for at least $1,000. He also sold Ichiro's 1993 BBM rookie card
for $35 each back then. Today, if he can find them, he sells them for $150.

Ichiro's impact on Fitts' business has been so great that he now divides his selling career into two
categories -- B.I. and A.I: Before Ichiro and After Ichiro.

"Before Ichiro, I knew all my customers by name," said Fitts, who began collecting Japanese cards in the
early '90s. "Now, with many of my customers, I just take their credit card numbers, but can't remember
all their names."

Fitts said sales have tripled in the last month alone thanks to Ichiro. "People love to collect him because
he's totally different than anything that they've ever seen before," said Simeon Lipman, who claims to
have to the largest collection of different Ichiro cards (over 200) in the world. "He's brand new and
exciting and he's really the first player to tie the whole world together. Everybody's rooting for this guy."

Lipman's prized card is his 1995 Upper Deck card, which he calls "the holy grail of Ichiro cards." When
the NBA played in Japan in 1995, an Upper Deck photographer took a picture of Ichiro at the game.
Weeks later, they mailed him 200 cards, complete with his stats on the back. While the cards were just
meant for Ichiro, Lipman said that "a couple somehow slipped out and got into circulation." Lipman heard
about it in 1995, found someone who had one, and bought it for a mere $800. Because the card is so
rare, Lipman said it's worth whatever someone would pay for it.

The highest price paid for an 2001 Ichiro card is believed to be $22,000. Bruce Gaston of
SportsCardInvestor.com said that the company sold an Ichiro Fleer E-X card, graded a perfect 10 by
Beckett Grading Services, at that price on June 12 back to Beckett. The sports collectibles publisher,
which values the card at $12,000, raffled off the card at the All-Star Fanfest from July 6-10, 2000 in Seattle.

Ichiro's Autograph

Ichiro autographs are another tough get for collectors.

"He's an impossible signer," Engels aid. "I bet 99.9 per cent of
the stuff you see out there is fake." A Japanese version of
Ichiro's autograph, Engel said, sells for about $1,000.

Ichiro has signed rarely since the season started, but he did sign
a good deal during spring training. That's when Warren Dodge
of Northern Virginia said his two sons got Ichiro's autograph.
Dodge said one was recently sold for $110.

Upper Deck, the company that gave Ichiro his promotional
cards six years ago, is now benefiting from the fruits of its
kindness. The company signed Ichiro to a one-time deal during
spring training to sign 1,000 cards, according to Kerri
Stockholm, senior product manager for Upper Deck Baseball.
The deal has enabled collectors to get an authentic autograph on
the SPX Prospect autographed jersey card, which has been
selling on the secondary market in the $500-$600 range.

Swatches of Ichiro's jersey also can be found on Upper Deck's
Sweet Spot cards. Since game-used Ichiro items are also not
floating around on the market, that's the best Ichiro-starved collectors can do. A lthough the piece of jersey
on the card is advertised as game-used, Ichiro's agent, Tony Attanasio, said the jerseys are from spring
training of two years a go. Lipman, now a specialist at Mastronet, the l argest sports memorabilia auction
house in the country, helped obtain one of Ichiro's game-used Orix Blue Wave jerseys in 1997, when he
was working for Christie's auction house. Lipman, who doubts than man y game-used items have been
auctioned off since, said a collector from California bought the piece for $7,000.

Ichiromania is expected to get even bigger -- with Ichiro, as base ball's top vote getter starting in right field
and with the 2001 All-Star Game being played in Seattle. Two weeks later, Ichiro Bobblehead Day (July
28) likely will draw a crowd hours before the game. Although the game has been sold out for a while,
only the first 20,000 fans will get the dolls.

Ichiromania isn't confined to just collectibles. Fans can profit or lose, depending on how well they can
guess his weekly performance. Betonichiro.com, an Internet betting site based in Grenada, was created at
the start of the season. For $2 a week, fans are asked to predict the exact number of hits, strikeouts, home
runs and steals the Mariners star will have. If the numbers from each of the days of the week match up,
the winner gets 57 percent of the total pot. A perfect match last week would have yield ed $286.72. A
"couple hundred people" bet per week, about half from Japan and half from the U.S., said the site's
manager Takaki Sugihara.

Engel said he has made about 1000 percent profit by selling Ichiro items. With the images of Ichiro that
have crow ded his house over the last year quickly disappearing, it's almost as if the California resident is
losing a roommate.

"Thank you for com ing to America, Ichiro," Enge l said, w hen asked what he would say t o Ichiro if he
met him. "You changed my life, probably even more than you coming here changed yours. You were rich
already, but now you paid my bills."