Additions for the New Year (and the end of the old one)

I seem to only have time to post cards when I get a bunch of them scanned at once, but I guess that's better than nothing. Here's some of my pick-ups from back in December, as well as some from early January as well. So far late-January and early-February have been epic in terms of finally tracking down a few hard to find 1990's inserts and parallels, and I can't wait for them to finally arrive. Stay tuned in the coming weeks, once I get them all in hand, for a post highlighting my newest additions.

2011 Oakland A's Bobblehead Giveaway

When the A's announced their promotional schedule last month, it included a Rickey Henderson bobblehead giveaway during the Saturday April 30th game against the Rangers.

They have now released a picture of the bobblehead, along with a few more details. It will be distributed to the first 15,000 fans, and will be sponsored by Kingsford Capital Management. While I could live without the Kingsford Capital logo on the front, it is a pretty nice looking bobblehead.

Although I can't imagine the game actually selling out, single game tickets go on sale this Saturday (January 29th) for those looking to get the best seats to the game. I have not seen it posted yet on the official A's website, but I did recently read on MLB.com that Rickey was going to be on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, which would be a nice bonus to go along with the bobblehead.

1992 LK "L and K" Decals

In the early 1990's (1991 or 1992) Moore Sports Ltd. distributed a series of mugs, steins and other random glassware which included various baseball player decals produced by LK Sports. I've never been a big fan of collecting glasses or commemorative plates, so I didn't pay much attention to these, that is until Beckett produced their "official" checklist, and this item (1992 L and K Decals 17) was on the list.

The story is that in the mid to late 1990's a dealer obtained about 40-50 uncut sheets of both the front and back of these decals. These were obviously never meant to be sold as "cards" (and don't even get me started on why Beckett would include this on their list and leave out other more legitimate cards), but now I had to see if I could track one down. It took quite a few years, but I finally found one on eBay a few weeks ago for a fairly reasonable price.




This is the front and back of the decal, which overall measures about 3 1/2" square. These were printed separately, since unlike cards, these were meant to be physically applied to some sort of glass collectible.


Such as a mini plate...


or a coffe mug...


or a beer stein...


or a clear drinking glass...


and a large beer mug.



Most of the items feature a 1992 copyright on the front, and a 1991 copyright (with stats through 1990) on the back. But, there is a variation of the decals which includes a 1991 copyright on the front, and a 1992 copyright on the back, but still has stats through 1990.

I want to thank fellow Rickey collector Scott and Ken for providing the pictures of all of the other LK items, none of which came from my collection. Most of the background information came from BAM! Cards, more of which can be found here. If anyone happens to have anything that isn't shown here, just let me know, as I'd love to have as many listed as possible.

Random Pics of New Rickey's

I haven't had much time to put a decent post together recently, but I have scanned some of the newer cards I've picked up. The commentary will be lacking, but if anyone has a question on any of them, please don't hesitate to ask!

2010 Topps Hat Patches and Bat Barrels

Topps decided to try something new this year, and released a series of manufactured Hat Patches and Bat Barrels in their sets throughout the year. I'll never be able to own an actual hat patch or barrel, so it is nice to at least have the opportunity to obtain the next best thing.








Rickey had four different hat patches (each #/99), two vertical and two horizontal. I'm still not sure how the A's patches made it through any sort of quality inspection (maybe there wasn't one?), but all of the patches are cut this way, almost as if they were planning on it being a horizontal card, and then changed their minds.

While I did like the patches, I was a little skeptical about the bat barrel relics. Fortunately, these far exceeded my expectations, and are actually much nicer in person than they appear online, and they even look pretty good online.





There are three different parallels, the base #/99, the black version #/25, and a pink version numbered #1/1. The pink version has not yet surfaced on eBay, but I hope it does just so I can snag a picture for this post. The Jeter below recently sold for $250+, and I have a strong suspicion that the Rickey will go for even more.



Topps currently has plans to release manufactured glove cards in 2011, but unless the checklist changes, Rickey has not been included. But, this is only for Series I, and who knows what they have in store for Series II or Update.

2002 Upper Deck Vintage Timeless Teams

Although I appreciate that Topps has included a multitude of different Rickey Henderson cards in the new 2010 Triple Threads release (50+ if you include 1:1's), it's nice to actually be able to acquire all of the cards in a release. The feeling of "completing" a set or year is one that I will always enjoy, and given all of the Rickey's in circulation, I'll always have something new to work on.

Rickey didn't have a base card in the 2002 Upper Deck Vintage release, but he did have two different quad relic cards that I could track down.


The first card is vintage 80's A's, featuring the likes of Canseco, Dave Parker, and Don Baylor. Not the most high-end of relics, but a fun combination, and one that I doubt you'll ever see again.


This second relic was the hardest to come across, and believe it or not, thanks to a badly worded eBay auction, was actually cheaper than the first! With Griffey, Gwynn, and Bonds, there's a lot of hits represented on this card. Although Bonds will probably never get in, you've already got two Hall of Famers represented, with a third (Griffey) just waiting for his turn. A fun card, from a fun set, with no parallels, prime, or autographed versions. There were only two Rickey cards in the set, and both are interesting additions to the collection.

1994 Target A's Pogs Giveaway

Here's another odd Rickey items that I was finally able to obtain. Back during the pog craze of the early- to mid-1990's, the A's decided they wanted to get in on the act.


These sheets of 6 pogs (or Collector Kaps in this instance) were given away at three separate A's home games (series I, II, and III), or so I thought. Since there were 20,000 given away at the first game, I always wondered why I was never able to track down the Rickey sheet (and still haven't, the pictures of the full sheet are courtesy of fellow collector Scott).


It wasn't until much later that someone brought to my attention the anomaly that was the 1994 baseball season. A strike ended the season early, with the A's last home game occurring on August 11. The sheet featuring Rickey was scheduled to be distributed during one of the A's final homestands, and thus was never given away. So, the few sheets that have surfaced were probably snagged by A's employees or randomly given away before they were ultimately probably all discarded.


Here's a close-up of the Rickey pog, complete with facsimile signature.


It's interesting that the pack includes a Pepsi logo, since the front of these were sponsored by Target.

If anyone out there has a complete sheet, or even more singles of the Rickey pog, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. I know of quite a few other Rickey collectors who'd still love to get their hands on one of these!