Thursday, October 11, 2012

1976 Topps Trading Card Contract

The Topps Vault frequently sells negatives, proofs, unused pictures and other card related items in their eBay store.  While these items would be fun (yet expensive) additions to the collection, they are definitely not something that I just have to have.  Yet, every once in awhile, I think about what it would be like not to have a budget.



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!




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Brad, I actually won that contract. I'm the guy who had the Rickey Yearbook that you posted on this blog, and also sent you the free 1980 A's program a few years back. Yeah, I've seen other Topps Vault items, but this was one that I had to break the bank and have. I'm not sure if this is his first contract though, as after reading it closely, it says "extension", so there may have been a more lengthy contract with more verbiage that he may have signed earlier (as evident in some of the ear1y 1970's contracts). Keep up the good work with the blog. Steve

'30-Year Old Cardboard said...

Agreed, a very cool piece!!

Unknown said...

I am looking for information on a card that I seen posted that you had that I also have. It is the Rickey Henderson still's 936 bases card with the Oakland star paper in the background. I know that this card is a counterfeit but I don't know anything else about it can you please give me any information

Angel17 said...

Thanks for sharing this contract. Looks really cool and awesome. Smittybilt