1997-98 Fleer Million Dollar Moments

Spanning two years of sets, and included in 1997 Fleer Series 2, 1997 Flair Showcase, 1998 Fleer Series 1 and 1998 Ultra Series 1, the Million Dollar Moments cards were basically sweepstakes promotions, inserted one in every pack.


The cards include both modern day and retired stars, with the fronts including the description of a specific moment in the players career. Not surprisingly, they chose May 1, 1991, the day he broke Lou Brock's all-time stolen base record.


The backs of the cards included the official rules of the sweepstakes, as well as a place to fill out all of your personal information in case you managed to complete the entire set. It is the information on the back of these cards, however, that makes what should be a throwaway card into a player collectors treasure hunt! As can be seen above, the text in the white box on the box of the cards states "You're One Step Closer to Winning $1,000,000." This is the message that was found in all of the cards that were inserted in packs, and is the version that you can readily find for sale.


There are certain cards on every player collectors want list that don't seem like they belong. For me, the 1997-1998 Fleer Million Dollar Moments Redemption was one of those cards. For the longest time, I had no idea what the card even was (Beckett lists it as "1997-1998 Fleer Million Dollar Moments Redemption," with a price of $0.25), and yet I only know of one other Rickey collector that has one, until now that is! I managed to track down a few complete sets of these redemption cards, which were given to collectors as a prize for sending in the first 45 cards of the 50 card set (the last 5 cards were extremely short printed, and it's with these that you had a chance of winning $1,000,000). Unlike the cards found in packs, the backs of the redemption cards state "This is Not an Official Game Card." This should be the end of the hunt, but there is still a third version that exists.


This last version is the same as those found in packs, but has been stamped "1-45 VOID" on the back. I'm not 100% positive how these can to be, but my guess is that when a collector would send in his cards to get the redemption set, Fleer would mail back the redemptions, along with the initial 45 cards that were submitted. It makes sense that Fleer would void these cards, as they wouldn't want everyone turning right back around and submitting them again for another set.

It's also possible that a fourth version of the cards exists. There were supposedly 10,000 "Instant Winner" cards inserted in packs, which I'm assuming would also be noted in the white box on the back. I've never seen or heard of a Rickey (or any other player for that matter), but that doesn't mean they aren't floating around out there somewhere.



Shameless plug alert: To attempt to recoup the cost of the sets, I've currently listed some of the redemption singles on eBay. The checklist card above shows the entire set, but I've also included a complete list below. If any player collectors are still looking for their players card, send me an e-mail, and I'm sure we can work something out.

1. Checklist (with all cards listed for you hardcore player collectors)
2. Derek Jeter
3. Babe Ruth
4. Barry Bonds
5. Brooks Robinson
6. Todd Hundley
7. Johnny Vander Meer
8. Cal Ripken Jr.
9. Bill Mazeroski
10. Chipper Jones
11. Frank Robinson
12. Roger Clemens
13. Bob Feller
14. Mike Piazza
15. Joe Nuxhall
16. Hideo Nomo
17. Jackie Robinson
18. Orel Hershiser
19. Bobby Thompson
20. Joe Carter
21. Al Kaline
22. Bernie Williams
23. Don Larsen
24. Rickey Henderson
25. Maury Wills
26. Andruw Jones
27. Bobby Richardson
28. Alex Rodriguez
29. Jim Bunning
30. Ken Camminiti
31. Bob Gibson
32. Frank Thomas
33. Mickey Lolich
34. John Smoltz
35. Ron Swoboda
36. Albert Belle
37. Chris Chambliss
38. Juan Gonzalez
39. Ron Blomberg
40. John Wetteland
41. Carlton Fisk
42. Mo Vaughn
43. Bucky Dent
44. Greg Maddux
45. Willie Stargell
46. Tony Gwynn
47. Joel Youngblood
48. Andy Pettitte
49. Mookie Wilson
50. Jeff Bagwell

Random Inserts and Game-Used from February

Here's a few of my favorite Rickey additions from the past month or so.




I missed out on 2006 Triple Threads when it was released, so these are the first two that I've been able to pick up, they just happened to arrive in the same month. You can't beat a card with Rickey and Reggie!




The 2009 Triple Threads at the top helped "complete" the set for the year. I now have all three variations numbered to /36, /27, /18, and /9.



This one is obviously not a Rickey card, but is a nice oddball addition to the collection, as you can prominently see him celebrating on the front.


Another oddball card is this 1991 Tuff Stuff Jr. cut-out. Although it is on magazine stock, and not card stock, it does actually have a back to it, so it was meant to be cut out.





The multitude of 1990's Pacific parallels seem to be never-ending, so it's nice to cross a few off the list whenever possible. I used to despise these parallels, but they've actually started to grow on me.




We'll end with a couple of more recent cards, as although he's in the Hall of Fame, Rickey's cards just keep on coming. The first is from 2011 Topps, while the second is from 2010 Topps Sterling.

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.