1988 Good Ideas Action Pop-Ups

I'd like to start by wishing everyone a nice and safe Halloween. I gambled on a Rickey Henderson eBay auction recently, and received an early Halloween treat! Since Rickey was one of the more popular players of the 1980's, there are quite a few "collectibles" that were made by enterprising individuals, and not necessarily by actual companies. Aside from the wide range of unlicensed Broder cards (I just love those for some reason!), I try to limit my collection to items that weren't made in someones garage with a lamination machine and an exacto-knife.



As far as the auction was concerned, all I really had to go on was a picture of the item. The description said only "1980's Rickey Henderson cardboard cut out," which didn't prove very helpful. I've seen quite a few of these that were made by someone gluing an 8" x 10" photo to a cardboard backer, and then just cutting out the player. But, this didn't look to be something like that, and for only $4.99, plus free shipping, it was worth the risk!

I couldn't wait to get the item, flip it over, and see if there was anything on the back. If I was faced with only a piece of brown cardboard, then I'd been foiled in my quest. But, if there was any sort of writing, then I knew that I'd found a new "collectible!"



Success!! The Rickey "cut out" is actually from a "Baseball Super Star Action Pop-Ups" set released by a company called Good Ideas Enterprises, Inc. in 1988. The Rickey is labelled as part of the "1988 Baseball Series Model No. 6." The cutout is about 7" high and 6 1/2" wide, which means that I can put it in a standard magazine sleeve, another reason that I decided to get it. Organizing and storing my collection has become a bit of a problem, and I try not to add anything that I can't easily put into a binder.

I always get overly excited whenever I add a new collectible to the collection, especially one from the 1980's, when I was at the peak of collecting. Plus, this item is something that I didn't even know existed, which make it that much more exciting! I'm still a little surprised that something like this existed and that I'd never even heard of it before.

I've done a little online research, and there's really not much out there about the pop-ups. I've seen mentions of both a Jose Canseco, as well s a Dave Winfield version, but that's about it. As far as the company that produced these, Good Ideas, they don't seem to have done much else. A company going by the same name was delisted from the Pacific Stock Exchange in 1996, but I'm not even sure if it is the same one. If anyone has any more information about this set let me know, as it would be interesting to learn a little more about it.