Surprise Package from Wax Heaven

This post is about a month overdue, but I knew I had to get it up before the 2009 A's trades start rolling in. I received this package from Mario about a week before Christmas, and it was definitely a nice early present!


We'll start with some base cards that I needed, a few 2007 Danny Putnam rookies, and the first A's card I've received from the new 2008 Timelines set, which I'm really starting to enjoy.



Next we've got a few cards from 2007 Elements, including a nice serial numbered Travis Buck.



This Zito card from 2007 Sterling is definitely one of my favorites from the package. You don't see Barry batting on a card very often (nor should you), but it really is a sweet looking card, and I believe the only Bowman Sterling card I currently own.



Mario also sent a few card from his 1997 Bowman Chrome break, including this Eric Chavez rookie card. I was pretty excited to add this card to my collection, as despite his recent injuries, Chavez is a pretty solid player, and a really great guy.

Last, but not least, Mario included a stack of cards featuring the A's most recent addition at the time, Matt Holliday. They all feature him in his Rockies jersey, and I'm looking forward to cards with him as an Athletic later on in the season.

Thanks again Mario!

Package from Thoughts and Sox

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Adam at Thoughts and Sox, asking for my address so that he could send over a stack of A's that he'd accumulated. He sent a nice stack of base cards, as well as the two inserts below, which were definitely my favorites.



I've been wanting this Chavez card for awhile, as it's actually been pretty popular among online A's bloggers. Not too long ago dayf had one for trade, and he ended up having a "Fake Tony Gwynn Card Contest" to determine the winner. I decided against challenging PunkRockPaint to "Paint-Off," but now I have a version of my own!



This is the second version of Thomas' 2008 Allen & Ginter that I now own, and neither one is the base version. The first one, the Allen & Ginter back parallel, I actually pulled from a pack. I thought that the one that Adam sent over was the base, until I realized that there was no number on the back!

Thanks for the cards Adam, there's some Red Sox on their way to you as we speak (well, not literally, since today's a postal holiday, but they should be there shortly).

Christmas and a Trade With Heartbreaking Cards

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, opening presents and spending time with family, I know I did. Santa was nice enough to leave me a few packs of cards, a tradition that has continued for many years. I used to get my first packs of the new Topps release in my stocking every year, and couldn't wait to see what the new cards looked like. But, due to the 2009 products now being released until January (which does make sense, since it's not 2009 yet), this is no longer possible. But, any cards are better than no cards!



Now that everyone is mesmerized by the adorable baby (Henry is 5 months old, and seemed to love his first Christmas), it's on to business. I'm a little behind in the posting of my "recent" trades, but I hope to catch up before the end of the year. I sent Matt over at Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius some Royals (and a few players with horseshoe mustaches) back in November, and he sent me a great package of A's in return. I've just been a bit slow in posting the results.



To begin, he sent over a great stack of older Rickey cards. I've always enjoyed the older Topps stickers (why don't they do anything different anymore?), and the 1991 Upper Deck with 3 Rickey's in one has always been one of my favorites.



He also sent some greater cards of newer A's, some of which I didn't even know existed. The Daric Barton Topps from National Baseball Card Day s pretty sweet, as is the Mike Piazza insert, which was exclusive to Wal-Mart (well, as exclusive as Wal-Mart can be). The Matt Murton is also the first A's card that I've received from this years Topps Update & Highlights set.



The top cards are two serial numbered parallels, with the Barton (#/149) being either Brown or Bronze, I'm not quite sure (anyone know?). The Haren and Chavez are minis from 2006 Bowman Heritage, and are the first ones that I've scene, but I definitely wouldn't mind getting more!



Also included in the package were various vintage A's cards, which are always fun since I didn't start collecting until 1987. Although more recent, you can never go wrong with a Fleer sticker.



The next card is from a pretty neat little insert set, featuring the programs from past World Series. This one is from the 1989 Battle of the Bay, where the A's (and Rickey!) handed it to the Giants. Unfortunately, this is also the last time that the A's have won a World Series.



We finally have a few 2008 Moments & Milestones, featuring Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher. I already had an Eric Chavez from the set, and although I know there are a ton of parallels, I now only need a base card from Jack Cust and Huston Street to have a card from each A's player included in the base set.

Trade With Night Owl

I sent Night Owl a stack of Dodgers about a month ago, and I got back a nice stack of A's not to long afterwards. I've been way behind in posting my trades, but I hope to catch up before the end of the year. Below are some of my favorite cards from the trade.


The Harden Topps Opening Day was the only card that I still needed for the 2008 set, so it is now complete. Night Owl also sent over two Allen & Ginter mini parallels of Joe Blanton, a black border (the only one I have), as well as an A&G back.



These are the first 2007 Topps Heritage base cards that I've received, and I really like them. I have a few Heritage rookies from last year, but the card design is different than from the base. I also got three Topps Opening Day cards that I needed, with my favorite of course being Stomper. It's not too often that you see cards of the teams mascots.



Last, but certainly not least, is this assortment of older A's cards and inserts. I love the Rick Monday "Rookie Cup" card with the Kansas City A's jersey, which is also serial numbered to 299. The interesting thing about the Chavez card, is the lack of fans in the stands. I know the A's don't draw like the Yankees, but those are premium seats down the 3rd base line, and are always full. My guess is this was taken sometime during warm-ups, but who knows.

Trade With Boxbusters

A few weeks ago I contacted Will at Boxbusters, asking if he'd be interested in an A's for Cardinals trade. I sent him about 50 cards, and he sent me the same in return.



The first half of the pack contained some 2008 A's that I still needed. I was actually a fan of the 2008 Topps design this year, but the Chrome versions look even better (although not when scanned)! I had the refractor parallel of the Chavez already, but now I have the base card to go along with it.



The Chavez card from Upper Deck Update is my favorite of this next batch. I love the picture of him snagging the liner out of the air. It almost looks like he's stretching for the ball at first base, but considering he's a third baseman, and the A's bullpen is behind him, I know that's not the case. Plus, there's no base to be seen.





The second half of the package contained some great older A's cards. I've always liked 1992 Stadium Club, with my favorite part being the picture of the players Topps rookie card on the back.



Finally, we have some 1987 Donruss, a single 1991 Score, and a stack of 1991 Donruss. I started collecting in 1987, and purchased a lot of Topps, but I don't think I got a single pack of Donruss for some reason. I've always been a fan of the early Score inserts, as you always got something interesting in every pack.

Quick Trade With Nachos Grande

While perusing other blogs a few weeks ago I ran across a post from Chris from Nachos Grande, whose attempting to complete a ton of 2008 sets by hand. He was very close to completing the Allen & Ginter set, and I had one of the World's Deadliest Shark minis that he needed. A few e-mails later, and the trade was complete.

I sent Chris the above mentioned Bull Shark card, as well as a few Heritage Black Backs, a Heritage Target T205 mini, and a Hit Parade insert from Goudey. In return, I got a handful of cards for my A's collection, as well as a small set that I've almost completed as well.



With the Mark Ellis 2008 Allen & Ginter in hand, I now only need Frank Thomas (#68) to complete the A's base set. The Barton knocks of one more card in my Heritage set, and I believe the only remaining rookie. I really love the design of the Baseball Heroes card, reminiscent of the Upper Deck of my youth. Even though some of the colored parallels are pretty bright, I still find them interesting, and would welcome any A's that others would like to part with.



My favorite part of the trade was the two Goudey cards of retired A's greats. Rollie and his mustache never get old, and the young Catfish in his vintage A's uniform is a really sweet card. The Catfish is actually a red back mini, the only As Goudey mini currently in my collection.



The finally part of the trade actually didn't involve Rickey Henderson, or the Oakland A's, which is pretty rare for me. I pulled a few of these Heritage Baseball Thrill cards in blasters this year, and really liked the design. Since it was a pretty small and non-short printed set, I thought it might be fun to collect them all. With these four, I now only have three remaining (cards #367, 370, and 373).

A's Card Trade with Eric Slette

I want to start by apologizing for not updating the blog in the past two weeks. I had some personal issues arise, and now that things are starting to get a little back to normal, I can return to more regularly scheduled posting.

I got an e-mail not too long ago from a reader offering an A's for Yankees card trade. Being an A's fan, and not too fond of the Yankees myself, I jumped at the chance to purge my collection of the Yankees that have been accumulating. Eric doesn't have his own blog, but he's made a name for himself by trading among fellow bloggers, and has pretty much cornered the market on any Yankees cards that may surface.

I sent Eric a small box of Yankees, and about a week later, received a similarly sized box full of A's, all of which were welcome, and many of which I still needed.



I have opened two blasters of Allen & Ginter this year, as well as a handful of individual packs, and aside from two minis, I didn't pull any of the A's base cards in the set. Eric sent over five of the seven base cards I needed, as well as two minis. The only base card that I still need is #68 Frank Thomas. The sweet Jimmie Foxx mini might be my favorite card of the entire trade.



Eric must open anything he can get his hands on, as I didn't have any cards from the above 2008 sets. The Chavez and Thomas are actually the only A's in the Upper Deck X set, and the Harden is one of only three A's in the Masterpieces release. He also included a bright green Upper Deck Heroes parallel of Daric Barton numbered out of 499.



The above cards are from the 2008 Upper Deck First Edition and First Edition Update sets. For some reason, the "First Edition" text was excluded from the Update release. It's sets like this that I don't really understand, considering the design is exactly the same as the Upper Deck base set. But, at least the photos are different.



Along with the wide variety of base cards and parallels, Eric also included this Joe Blanton game-used from the base Upper Deck set. These cards were based on the first game-used parallels that Upper Deck ever released. I still would like it if the jersey swatch used (a gray one) actually matched the jersey in the picture. You wouldn't think that it would be that difficult.



Along with the large stack of 2008 cards, he also sent a good variety of earlier releases, with these being some of my favorites. With the way that the A's team has been changing so drastically lately, I'm amazed that guys like Chavez and Crosby are still around. A majority of the other players on even the 2008 releases are no longer on the team.



We'll end this post with an "error" that I noticed when sorting out the cards. This final picture compares two versions of the Huston Street A's checklist card from 2008 Upper Deck Series 2. While sorting through the stack of 2008 Upper Deck, I noticed that the Street card on the top was missing the gray coloring behind the card number, the only card that was like that. I already had a version of the Street card, and when comparing the two, you can definitely see the difference. Has anyone else noticed any other variations like these in the Upper Deck set?

Oakland A's Cards and Non-Rickey Posts

As you may have noticed, I've written some posts lately that aren't exactly Rickey Henderson related. Although this blog's focus is obviously on Rickey, I'm a big Oakland A's fan as well, so will throw in some A's and collecting posts now and then.



Since starting this blog, and getting back into the hobby, I've completed a few trades with fellow online bloggers, sending them a stack of cards of their team for a stack of cards of mine. Since most of them have also recently returned to the hobby, they don't have any Rickey cards to spare, but they do all seem to have plenty of A's that they don't mind parting with.



I've finally found the time to put together a want/have list of all 2008 Oakland A's cards. For now, I'm going to focus only on cards from 2004 to the present, putting together the earlier want lists when I get a chance. The lists will mainly contain only the base cards and inserts from the sets, only listing the game-used, parallels etc. that I've already acquired. I'm still interested in any and all variations, but there are just too many too list.



I've also finally compiled a list of all of the 2008 cards that I have for trade, with a majority of them coming from Allen & Ginter, Goudey, and Heritage. I have a ton of cards from earlier years as well, but there's just too many to list.



If anyone is interested in an A's for "Insert Your Team Here" trade, whether blind or for specific cards, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. I know we'll be able to work something out, so that we're both happy in the end!

Pocket Schedules of Rickey's Teams

Below is a list of all of the teams that Rickey has played for during his career, including Major Leagues, Minor Leagues, and even Independent teams. I'd like to collect at least one schedule from every one of these teams, during the years that Rickey played for them. If you know of a team that I'm missing, please let me know. I've purposely excluded all of his years with the A's, as those schedules can be found here.


1976 Boise A's (Northwest League)
1977 Modesto A's (California League)
1978 Jersey City A's (Eastern League)
1979 Ogden A's (Pacific Coast League)
1978-79 Navojoa Mayos (Mexican Pacific League)
1980 Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League
1985-89 New York Yankees
1985 Ft. Lauderdale Yankees (Florida State League)
1993 Toronto Blue Jays
1996 San Diego Padres
1997 Anaheim Angels
1997 San Diego Padres
1999-00 New York Mets
2000 Seattle Mariners
2001 Portland Beavers
2001 San Diego Padres
2002 Boston Red Sox
2003 Newark Bears (Atlantic League -- Independent)
2003 Los Angeles Dodgers
2004 Newark Bears (Atlantic League -- Independent)
2005 San Diego Surf Dawgs (Golden Baseball League -- Independent)

I'd be interested in working with anyone that wanted to trade/sell for other pocket schedules, or even cards of their favorite team. Just e-mail me and let me know what you have, and if I need the schedules, I'm sure we can figure something out!

Below is a list of links to all of my current want and trade lists, which I will attempt to keep as updated as possible.


Rickey Henderson Links:

Priority Want List - This is a selection of Rickey cards from 1977-2007 that I still need. It contains almost all of my want list through the 1990's, as well as selected cards from later years

Trade List - A list of all of the Rickey Henderson cards and collectibles that I currently have for trade

Pocket Schedule Links:

Oakland A's Have/Want List - List of all of the Oakland A's pocket schedules that I currently have, as well as those that I'm still trying to track down

Rickey Henderson Team List - I collect pocket schedules for all of the teams that Rickey Henderson played for, during the years that he played for them (ie 1987 Yankees, 2003 Dodgers, etc.) A list of all of Rickey's teams can be found here

Yankee Stadium Legacy:

Rickey Henderson Home Run Games - A list of the YSL cards featuring games in which Rickey hit a home run. At the bottom of the list is all of the YSL cards that I have for trade.