Roki Sasaki's first in-pack MLB Rookie Cards are still to come -- but he's still got Topps baseball cards you can chase now

As the world awaits his first MLB Rookie Cards in packs, there's still plenty to chase right now when it comes to this phenom.

Los Angeles Dodgers prospect and former Chiba Lotte Marines superstar Roki Sasaki won't have an in-pack RC until his official regular-season MLB debut and he won't have any other in-pack Dodgers cards as a prospect until the first Bowman sets of the year arrive. But, he's still got a bunch of cardboard already thanks to appearances in World Baseball Classic releases and Nippon Professional Baseball cards made by Topps for the Japanese market.

Sasaki's debut comes next week as the Dodgers take on the Cubs in the Tokyo Series, a two-game set that starts the MLB season in an international way and that location is fitting as Sasaki's four seasons in NPB once included a 19-strikeout perfect game and then eight more perfect innings in his next start after that to put him firmly on the radar of collectors around the world.

What's he got for cards? Keep reading ...

Sasaki's professional baseball career began in 2021 and since then he's appeared on nearly 250 different cards, fueled in part by Topps' focus on NPB stuff released in Japan alongside cards from BBM and other traditional card-makers over there.

He's got 18 cards in Topps' 2021 NPB lineup that you can easily chase (or cash in on if that's your thing) with 10 in Chrome and eight in the basic set. They're all paralleled out so, yes, there's a Superfractor out there somewhere as he's dominating the game on a new stage and is set for another big-spotlight moment. There's even more to be found in a 2022 Bowman NPB set, a 2022 Topps Chrome NPB set and a 2022 Topps NPB set. (You can see all of those earlier releases at the link above.)

And how are they selling? Check out these asking prices -- there's demand for everything on a global scale.

More specific to these early sets, the 2021 Chrome Gold Refractor parallel (/50) up top has an opening bid of $5,000 on eBay as a PSA 10, while the Gold 2022 Bowman insert above (/50) has an asking price of $989, also as a PSA 10.

That 2021 Chrome lineup includes Refractors with Purple (/299), Aqua (/199), Blue (/150), Green (/99), Gold (/50), Orange (/25), Red (/5) and a 1/1 Superfractor. The Topps NPB set also has a base card and parallels -- Gold Rainbow, Rainbow (/150), Vintage stock (/99), Blue (/50), Orange (/25), Red (/5) and 1/1 Rayfoil versions.

With global distribution -- and perhaps some lighter demand in the past as these packs did end up heavily found in American retail repacks in recent years before Sasaki's obviously pending arrival in MLB -- tracking down some colors of those rainbows might be easier than others as those packs got spread around. Those other two early sets have base, parallels and inserts, too, and they're not alone as Topps 206, Stadium Club and some WBC releases have included Sasaki since that first wave of releases.

So, while we await MLB cardboard along with Japan Series stuff and, of course, Topps Now, there's still plenty to consider for a collector ... just without the Dodger blue.

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