A recent auction featured Rickey's first Topps contract, signed in 1976 as 17-year-old recent Oakland Athletics draft pick. As a collector of Rickey cards, it's harder to find something as cool as his first contract with the major card company in the industry. It looks to be a standard contract, probably offered to all new draftees, and even included a $75 bonus once he made a major league roster. The contract itself just sold for more than ten times that ($860.01 to be exact).
Rickey was drafted by the A's on June 9th, 1976, with the 96th and final pick in the 4th round of the amateur draft. He signed with the A's a month later (on July 9th), and signed his contract with Topps the next week, on July 16th. It has to be one of his earliest signatures as a professional athlete, and as would be expected, doesn't look at all like the signature he would use during the majority of his playing days. I'm not sure who won the auction, but I hope it went to a good home!
