Comments: In 2006, I decided I needed a Sadaharu Oh card in my collection. I reached out to Prestige Collectibles and Gary Engel found me the perfect portrait - this JA5. A few weeks later, I submitted the card to PSA but they wouldn't grade it. They didn't know anything about the issue. So, while at the National in 2007, I asked Gary to stop by the PSA booth with me and provide them with his expert opinion to get it slabbed. A few hours later they returned this card to me in a NM 7 holder. I love this card - thanks Gary for all your help!

UPDATE: In March, 2018 I found an auction on eBay for two examples of this card. I won the auction for $30 and a short time later submitted both to PSA. One graded NM and the other a NM-MT. So, I had a nice upgrade.

UPDATE: I usually only pick up one portrait card of each player. In February, 2023 a gorgeous PSA 9 example of a 1975/6 Calbee Oh popped up on eBay and I couldn't help clicking the "Buy It Now" option:

Which one do you like better - the 1975 JA5 or the 1975 Calbee?

The uncatalogued Ed Broder set from 1975 depicts members of the 1975 Japanese League referenced as JA5.  Ed Broder served in the Air Force for a number of years and was stationed in Japan from 1971 to 1977.  He published six sets of cards that featured NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball Organization) players between 1974 and 1976.  Like his cards of MLB players, these card sets were unlicensed by NPB.  However, as Gary Engel points out in his "Checklist and Price Guide", "most pre-1975 Japanese cards of all types are unlicensed".  "They have to ask permission now" Engel says, implying that the card manufacturers never did during Oh's playing days.  Quoting again from Engel: "So, despite the stigma sometimes attached to his American issues, Mr. Broder's Japanese player issues are highly collectable".