A Beary Cool Set

One of the coolest things about being a "team collector" is you're often exposed to some team issued cards you might not see often unless you live in the area.

Today's post features a book of cards and postcards featuring a dozen Oakland Athletics from the 1987 season.

I'm not sure how these were distributed, but according to the inside cover... it was "given as a Public Service in Wildfire Prevention".

This particular book was sent to me by Angus over at Dawg Day Cards back in December.  I had seen the cards and postcards pop up on TCDB awhile back, but never owned any myself until now.

Inside there are twelve perforated pages.  Each page contains one card and one postcard like this:

The postcards are designed to be colored with colored pencils.  As a collector, I will keeping mine uncolored.  Here's a peek at the back:

Each of the twelve postcards features unique illustrations.  Due to lack of time, the Reggie Jackson is the only one I took the time to scan.  I did however take the time to scan each of the cards and postcards.

Here's the complete set of baseball cards:

And a closer look at what the back of the cards look like:

Each of the backs have a unique Smokey the Bear cartoon illustration that comes with a public service announcement.

Here is the set of postcards:

These aren't just postcards in name, they are actual postcards intended to be mailed to people:

And rounding out this post is the back of the beary cool Smokey the Bear card from the cover of the book:

Based on the response from my To Cut or Not to Cut post from a few weeks ago, some of you might think I'm crazy to tear apart this book.  Don't worry.  The day I pulled this out of Angus' care package, I went out to eBay and bought an extra one to keep intact.

Thank you Angus!  This is truly an awesome addition to my Oakland A's collection.

Everyone else... here is your question of the day:

Do you have a favorite team issue?

1983 Granny Goose Oakland A's #35

The first sets that popped into my head were the early 80's Granny Goose Oakland A's sets, but I'm pretty sure they were only released with bags of chips and not issued by the A's.

1984 Mother's Cookies #2

It didn't take me long to decide on the 80's Mother's Cookies SGA sets they'd pass out at games.

I've written about my brother taking me to Candlestick and the Oakland Coliseum for trading card day on several occasions.  They'll always have a soft spot in my collection and I'm still actively trying to hunt down the ones I don't have.

Looking forward to reading your responses.  Heck... maybe it'll inspire me to add a few more team issues (even if they aren't the A's or Padres) to my collection.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!