Recent Rickey's: First A's Patch and Shoe Cards

With all of the focus on Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame, I've neglected some of the more recent card additions to the collection. I just got a package in the mail yesterday, with a lot of 16 Rickey cards, which is definitely the most of acquired at the same time in quite awhile. Below are some of my favorites:



2005 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Swatch Double Prime Black A's B-J/25 #94

I believe this has to hold the award for longest official card name of any in my collection. That name is ridiculous! But, as I mentioned awhile ago when I got my first patch card, this is the first A's patch that I've been able to add to the collection. Although it looks black in the scan, it's actually a nice 3-color green/white/yellow patch.



2005 Prime Patches Portraits Triple Swatch B-J-SH/150 #72

Another nice game-used card, this one features the first piece of game used shoe I've added. It's crazy what they'll cut up and put on a card!



1997 Select Company R #50

I can't believe that it's taken me so long to acquire this card. I have three versions already (base, registered gold, and select company sample), but for some reason I never picked up this one.



2001 Fleer Futures Black Gold/499 #45

Although serial numbered to a rather high 499 copies, these cards are not the easiest to come by. It's always nice to knock of some of the earlier parallels of my checklist, especially those that only had one variation.



2002 Diamond Kings Heritage Collection #HC23

A pretty nice stand-alone insert card of Rickey. I was always surprised that he was only included in the 1984 set of the original Diamond Kings. I never could figure out why he was left out of the sets in the late 1980's.



2004 Timeless Treasures Game Day Materials Bat/50 #16





2004 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Green M's/150 #123
2005 Donruss Classics Classic Singles/400 #13

I've included these cards together, since although they come from different years, and different sets, they both use the same picture of Rickey on the Mariners. This has become all too common, but it's definitely not a new phenomenon. At some point in time I'll put together a post of quite a few late 1980's cards, all of which recycle the same picture many times over.

Recent Acquisitions: Game-Used

It's been awhile since I've posted about my "recent" Rickey acquisitions, and the stack of cards to be scanned and posted finally got out of hand (plus I found some free time to actually scan them).

This photo-heavy post will include all of the recent game-used cards I've added to the collection in the past few months, with subsequent posts on the 1980's and 1990's additions (my favorite!), as well as some of his more recent releases.



2002 Donruss Originals Hit List Total Bases Bat/285 #11



2002 Donruss Classics New Millennium Classics Jsy/100 #34



2003 Donruss Timber and Threads Bat/125 #15



2003 Diamond Kings Diamond Cut Collection Jsy/300 #28



2003 Topps Chrome Record Breakers Relics A's Bat RBCR-RH



2003 Topps Chrome Record Breakers Relics Yanks Bat CRBR-RH



2004 Donruss World Series Blue Material Bat A's/50 #55



2004 Leaf Limited Lumberjacks Bat/100 #30



2004 Playoff Prestige Changing Stripes Dual Jersey A's-Yanks/150 #1



2004 Timeless Treasures Milestone Materials A's Jsy/80 #3



2005 Playoff Prestige Changing Stripes Material Dual Jersey/250 #21



2005 Timeless Treasures Home Road Gamers Duos Jsy-Jsy/100 #35

Rickey's In the Mail: Oddballs, Inserts and Parallels

These first two cards are unlicensed cards now known generally as "Broder" cards since the mysterious Rob Broder created quite a few different sets. The top card (Classic Baseball Superstars Series II #20) does not have a year, but I'm guessing it's from 1988-1989. The text and rounded corners look very similar to other Broder cards that I have. The bottom card (1988 Play Ball America) looks like a lot of the other unlicensed cards from the front, but the back is very unique. At some point in time I'll post pictures of all of these that I have. It's difficult to compile a want list of these cards since a complete listing of the different sets doesn't really exist anywhere.



1987 Stuart Panels #23 - The above Canadian issued card is one that I've been chasing for awhile, and actually came on a three card panel along with Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield. Eventually I'll track down a complete panel, but this will have to do for now. I'm now down to only four more cards left on my want list from the 1987 issues.



1989 Topps Batting Leaders #15 - This is a card that has been eluding me for awhile, and I was finally able to pick it up on eBay a few weeks ago. These cards were only found on the front of rack packs at Kmart. I'm now down to only 2 missing cards from 1989 (one is a base Topps Big, that I have no idea why I don't have already), and the other is a Topps Doubleheaders test issue, which will be a little harder (i.e. pricier) to track down.



1995 Upper Deck Special Edition Gold #245 - I've been looking for the gold parallel of this card for awhile, and finally received it from Perry over at RickeyHendersonCards. He had a doubles of the card, saw that I still needed it, and graciously sent it my way. When I first started this blog I definitely didn't foresee something like that happening! I'm now only missing 4 Rickey cards from 1995 (Blue Jays U.S. Playing Cards 3S and 11H, Classic 10 Phone Cards #42, and Pacific Prisms #102). I'm not sure why I don't have the Prisms card yet, but the other three have proved fairly elusive.





1996 Panini Stickers #222 - Another great addition, this sticker completes my base Panini collection. The only Panini stickers that I still need are from a non-Canadian release in 1991 (Panini French #171 and Panini French #196).

I also have an uncut sheet of the stickers that I'd acquired a few years ago, but wasn't able to find the individual sticker itself until now. It's actually a pretty impressive sheet, with 4 out of the 6 players being potential Hall of Famers.



1996 Red Foley #16 - This sticker, like most of the Red Foley releases, doesn't contain any sort of identifying information (set name, year, number), which would have made it difficult to identify if not for the collector I traded with. I now have all of the Red Foley stickers identified by Beckett (unless there are more sets out there, which based on Beckett's prior record, is something I can't discount)



The next post is a collection of more recent inserts and parallels. The first is a 2004 Playoff Prestige Changing Stripes Foil #1. I had the base version, and now have added the foil parallel as well. Next we have a 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Red Sox #313, followed by a 2004 Leaf Exhibits 1947-66 Made in USA Signature #39 (At least, I think that's what it is as there are WAY to many variations of this card, but it is serial numbered to 66 copies). Finally, we have the base version of the 2003 Donruss Champions Grand Champions #24 insert, which features him in an A's jersey, which I always prefer.



This next lot contains two "base" cards as well as two great inserts. The first is a 2000 Paramount Update #84, a card that I never even remember seeing until I was offered it in a trade. It's followed by a 2001 Pacific Decade's Best #A1, an insert without any parallel versions, a rarity when it comes to Pacific releases. Next we have a 2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club FC #274 (it's the base card in the "Best of" set, but is basically just a parallel to the same card in the Fan Club set, while also being serial numbered to 2,025). Last, but certainly not least, is the card that is probably my favorite of all those in the post. It's a 2002 Diamond Kings T204 #RC4, that looks much better in person than it does in the scan. It really is a sweet "little" card.



2006 Topps Sterling #44 and #46 - I'm really impressed by these Sterling cards (definitely the thickest base cards I've ever seen), and now only need 4 more to complete the entire 10 card base set. Not a bad way to end a post, with two really nice base cards, one featuring Rickey in a retro A's jersey.

A Few Recent Trades

I've completed a couple of trades in the last month or so, and just haven't had a chance to write anything up about them. Lets start with the "smallest" of the trades (although trades of every size are great!), and the only one that has anything to do with Rickey.



After my recent post on the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards featuring games in which Rickey homered, I went searching other card blogs for anyone that might have pulled any that I need. It just so happens that Will over at Boxbusters happened to pull one in a box of Upper Deck Baseball Heroes, and he graciously agreed to trade it in a blind trade for a bunch of Cardinals. Only 41 more to go!



These next cards I received from Mario in a random Marlins for A's trade about a month or so ago. I sent him a stack of older Marlins and he sent me some really great A's cards, including the Sweet Swish patch above! The two Huston Street cards look a lot better in person, and are both great additions to the A's collection.

The last, but certainly not least trade, is one that I completed with Anonymous Astros Fan (AAF for short), who I met through Wax Heaven. I offered to send him a bunch of Astros cards that I'd put together, and he graciously offered to send me some A's. He definitely outdid himself!



These are some of the highlights of the cards that he included, which comprised about 6 plastic cubes filled with base and inserts, as well as a stack of screwdowns filled with some really amazing cards! The Allen & Ginter game-used is the first 2007 A&G that I've acquired, which also holds true for the UD Masterpieces and SP Legendary Cuts. The young Reggie really is a nice looking card, but the best is yet to come.



Every one of the above cards is incredible. The Swisher silk mini is definitely unlike anything that I had in my collection before. It also includes a really nice Andre Ethier rookie auto, as well as a Trevor Cahill Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor auto numbered to only 50. It won't be long before you see Trevor in the A's rotation, if he continues pitching the way that he is.



Next we have a really interested Travis Buck auto, with a 3-D plastic helmet protruding from the card. Have they inserted actual game-used helmet pieces into packs yet? If not, it's only a matter of time before they do! The Street double patch is another great pick-up, and looks great next to the Swisher patch I received from Mario above.



This last card, is really beyond words. A Topps Sterling Reggie Jackson autographed game-used card #1/1!! This card single-handedly brings my collection to a new level. When I began collecting Rickey cards in 1987, I actually had a Reggie collection as well, since he was playing for the A's that year, in what would turn out to be his last in the Majors. But, as might have been expected, his cards quickly rose out of my price range, and the collection stalled. The awesome yellow/orange A's jersey is a thing of beauty. In a reversal of sorts, now that I have the Reggie, I've somehow got to find the way to add the corresponding Rickey to my collection.

Rickey's in the Mail: Base Cards and Inserts

As a follow up to the post from a few weeks ago, which focused on the Rickey Henderson game-used cards I'd recently acquired, this post will highlight some of the base cards, inserts, and parallels that I've recently added to my collection.



1999 Upper Deck MVP Gold Script #131 -- These gold signature parallels were serial numbered to 100, and are surprisingly difficult to find. I was able to acquire this one in a trade over at the Bench.



2000 Crown Royale Premiere Date #89 -- Pacific was producing an insane numbered of parallel cards in 2000, and this is one of the nicer ones. It is serial numbered to 121.



1987 Action Superstars Series III #50 -- Being a big fan of oddball cards, I can never past up one of these that a don't already have. It's one of many unlicensed cards produced in the late 1980's that have now become known as "Broder Cards," since most were produced by a mysterious guy named Rob Broder.



Fleer Then and Now R.Henderson/I.Suzuki #5 -- This card compares Rickey to Ichiro, arguably today's best leadoff hitter. It features a great vintage picture of Rickey wearing a ridiculous headband. It's serial numbered to 275, which although isn't very limited, it's not a card that shows up very often.



1994 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel #107 -- This Members Only parallel from the 1994 Stadium Club sets has proven fairly elusive, until now. Rickey had two cards in the set, each with a Golden Rainbow, Members Only, and First Day Issue parallel. All I need now is the First Day Issue of #654, and the set will be complete.



2001 Topps Home Team Advantage GM #787 -- This Home Team Advantage parallel features a great shot of Rickey setting the stolen base record in 1991. I still need the base card version of the HTA parallel, which is #105 in the set.



This above collection of six cards, as well as the six below were all acquired in a trade with a fellow Rickey collector. Highlights of the top picture include a 1993 A's Stadium Club #8 (I had been looking for this card forever!), 1993 Fleer Jeff Reboulet #642 (This is the latest Rickey "cameo" card that I've added to my collection, of which I'll write a post on some time in the future), and a 2001 Bowman Heritage SP #412 (You just gotta love black and white cards).



The second picture includes a 2003 Topps Hit Parade #21 as well as my favorite of the bunch, a 1989 Broder-type card, (Series 4, Card #6), which for some odd reason features Rickey in front of Wrigley Field!



2005 Studio Portraits White #82 -- This is probably the first Rickey card, that when looking at a checklist, I had no idea which one it was! There are 56 different studio portrait variations, which is rather ridiculous. But, this is a rather nice looking card (and serial numbered to 50), so I can't complain too much.



The above picture contains some awesome inserts! It starts with two 2002 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity parallels, both serial numbered to 100. The next card is a 2004 Upper Deck Play Ball Home Run Heroics 81st Lead #RH. It's a two layered card with the background layer the box score from the game when he hit his 81st leadoff home run. We round out the picture with two Fleer inserts, a 2005 Fleer Tradition Club 3000/500/300 3000 #7 and a 2002 Fleer Triple Crown Diamond Immortality #3.



The next six cards start with a nice tribute to Rickey's 1989 MVP season (2003 Upper Deck MVP Celebration ALCS #37, serial numbered to 1,989 on the front). My favorite cards above are the two inserts with Jose Canseco (2005 Throwback Threads Dynasty Rickey/Eck/Canseco #4 and 2005 Leaf Cornerstones J.Canseco #18).



The final picture of this incredibly long post begins with Rickey's 2003 and 2004 Timeless Treasures base cards (serial numbered to 900 and 999 respectively). It ends with a 2001 Topps Chrome Retrofractors GM #657 and finally a 2002 Fleer Box Score AS #258, serially numbered to 2,950. Overall, I pretty wide variety of cards, and all good additions to the collection!