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!

Still Celebrating the Holidays

While a lot of sports fans are focusing on this year's NBA All-Star Weekend, the Winter Olympics, and pitchers & catchers reporting to Spring Training... I'm still coming down from my Super Bowl high.  But I did open up a padded envelope yesterday that's getting me back into the spirit of baseball.

Pennsylvania Mike left a comment on my 2025 Topps Holiday advent calendar post.  He offered to help me out... and he wasn't joking.  It's probably easier to let this visual do the talking:

After combining the singles from my advent calendar and my buddy's duplicates, I needed 59 cards from the 200 card set.  Mike crossed off thirty-five of them:

That's a jump from 70.5% to 88% complete.  He included some key cards including the Jacob Wilson & Roki Sasaki rookie cards, plus the batting version of Shohei Ohtani and a bunch of other MLB superstars.

My set needs are down to twenty-four cards:

Oh wait, there's more.  He also sent me these three A's parallels:

2025 Topps Holiday Gold Lights #H48

2025 Topps Holiday Light Blue & White Glitter #H80

2025 Topps Holiday Gold Lights #H80

The Topps Holiday advent calendars only came with the holiday green plaid parallels, so these two parallels were new to me.  I haven't been this excited about one of these holiday sets in several years.

Thank you Mike for helping me out.  I have a stack of Tigers from the 2025 Topps Update that I'll be sending your way this week.  I still have this wicked cough, but other than that... I'm pretty much back to normal.  Plus I have this week off from work, so I'll definitely schedule time to hit the post office.

As for the rest of y'all, here is today's question of the day:

Anyone watching the Winter Olympics or NBA All-Star Weekend events?

If so, which ones?

Although I won't be watching any of the Olympic events live, I will definitely watch all of the snowboarding highlights.  I'm also interested in seeing the highlights from both of Team USA men's hockey games.

I hope all of you enjoy your Hallmark holiday!  Happy Valentine's Day and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #184: Sheets, Sets, and a SLU

After over a month away from the local flea market, I made my out to the Branham Flea Market on Saturday for my first haul of 2026.  Not sure if it was the cold weather or the holiday weekend, but there were less vendors than usual.  However I did manage to make a few purchases from a pair of card dealers.

The first one is a regular that I've bought from on numerous occasions.  He's located on the very first row and is usually my first stop of the day.  This time around he had a table filled with uncut sheets.

Purchase #1a:  Uncut Mother's Cookies Sheets  $15

There were some cool oddball sets from the early 90's, but I was mainly drawn to his Mother's Cookies team sets.  He had five different 1985 sets which featured the cards handed out at the stadiums.  I was tempted to buy them all, but I didn't want to blow most of my cash on my first purchase.  So I grabbed my two favorite teams:

1985 Mother's Cookies Oakland A's

1985 Mother's Cookies San Diego Padres

I'm not sure how these uncut sheets were distributed, but I've written about the SGA sets from the 80's and 90's a few times on this blog.  Each year my brother would take me to a handful of Giants and A's games and I'd always try to circle the Mother's Cookies Players Card Day on the calendar.

The guy had the Giants sheet too, but I picked my favorite team over childhood memories.

Purchase #1b:  Hockey Autographs $2

The vendor also brought out a box of oddballs for me to check out and there were two 9-pocket pages with these signed hockey cards.  Not sure how legit these are, the price was right, so I took a chance on them.  I was mainly drawn to the Pavel Bure cards, but there are some other notable names in the lot.

The guy was still setting up, so I told him I'd come back a little later.  On the second row, I found the other card guy.  Remember the guy I bought the 70's Laughlin and 80's Traded sets from last year?  Well before he left for Arkansas, he sold his remaining inventory to this vendor.  I've seen him set up a few times, but his prices were always too high.  This time around he was more reasonable...

Purchase #2a:  1985 Donruss Factory Set $15

His first table was filled with 800ct. boxes filled with cards from the 80's and 90's.  His asking price of $15 for this factory set was reasonable, so I started digging through his stuff.

I opened the set while I was there and noticed that one of the packs had been opened:

I still decided to buy it.  Unfortunately when I got home, I discovered that it was missing the Roger Clemens rookie.  I've added it to my saved eBay searches.  My hopes is to find a clean copy for under $10 delivered.

Next to his sets, he had a bunch of wax boxes with packs that had already been opened.  I found one I was interested in...

Purchase #2b:  1996 Sky Motion Football  $5

As you can see, none of these packs were sealed.  But within the box, there was a nice starter set that included a few big names:

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM17

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM15

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM48

There were 37 different cards for my set build... leaving me needing only 23 singles to complete the set.  I immediately went over to Sportlots and crossed off 16 more:

Considering I have already invested over $25 into this set build, I'm already regretting my decision to build this set.

At least there were two of the Hobby Exclusive Gold parallels included in the box:

1996 Skybox Sky Motion Gold #SM32

1996 Skybox Sky Motion Gold #SM32

These were inserted into every other box and can be quite elusive when seeking specific players.

At the other end of his tables, the vendor had a bunch of knick-knacks including programs, photos, card sheets, and smaller card sets.  I bought a few more items...

Purchase #2c:  1982 Cracker Jack Sheets  $8

1982 Cracker Jack AL Sheet

1982 Cracker Jack NL Sheet

This is a set that I've been looking for on eBay for a few years.  I like the Cracker Jack border paired with the 1978 and 1979 Topps card designs.  Plus each sheet features eight hall of famers.

I didn't want to spend more than $10 for the pair... and thanks to this vendor I didn't have to.

In the same stack as these uncut sheets, I also found this cool Upper Deck SGA sheet from the 90's...

Purchase #2d:  1993 Upper Deck Billy Martin Tribute Sheet  $2

Billy Ball played a big role in my childhood and Oakland A's fanfare, so I'm always looking to add new Billy Martin items to my collection.  Upper Deck made a bunch of these tribute sheets in the 90's.  I have a few sitting in my collection and one of them is framed and hanging up in my office.

But before Saturday, I had never seen this sheet before.  It was passed out on August 15, 1993 at the Oakland Coliseum.  Fans who attended that game were treated to this sheet as well as Kirby Puckett's career day at the plate.  He went 5 for 5 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI's as the Twins destroyed the A's 12 to 5.

Purchase #2e:  1983 Stuart Montreal Expos Set  $5

Among the card sheets, programs, and photos, there were also a few sets I was interested in.  The first one that caught my eye was this Montreal Expos oddball set:

Based on what I found online, Stuart was a company that made snacks in Canada.  Based on a TCDB photo, these appeared to be inserted into boxes of snack cakes back in 1983.

The set features all of the early 80's Expos you're familiar with, including these three hall of famers:

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #4

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #8

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #9

I'm happy to add this to my Montreal Expos PC.  And I'm happy to add the next set to my Green Bay Packers PC...

Purchase #2f:  1997 Playoff Packer Super Sunday Set  $5

When the Packers beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, it was the first time celebrating a Super Bowl victory.  Sure I had watched and rooted for teams every year leading up to this one, but they were never my own team.  I was very happy to find this set for a reasonable price.

Purchase #3:  Hot Wheels 2020 GR Toyota Supra  $8

After walking around the rest of the flea market, I didn't see any other deals on cards.  But I saw a guy with a bunch of diecast vehicles.  I asked if he had any GR Supras and he started digging through his boxes.  He found this one:

2024 Hot Wheels Green and Gold #3

I've been trying to track down all of the MK5 Supra die cast cars and this is one of the ones I needed.  I normally wouldn't pay this much for a non-premium Hot Wheel, but the guy did take the time to look for it.

Freebie #1:  1992 Tom Seaver Opened Kenner SLU

When I was done walking the entire flea market, I went back to the guy with the Mother's Cookies sheets.  We were talking about cards and stuff when he pulled this out of a box:

He told me I could have it for free, since the packaging was less than pristine.  The poster and figure are pretty cool:

1992 Kenner SLU Figure & Poster #NNO

But this was the thing I was excited about the most:

1992 Kenner SLU #NNO

He started pulling out other items from the box.  I wasn't really interested in any of it, but I felt obligated to buy something since he gave me this SLU.  So I bought this...

Purchase #4:  2016 Panini NFL Sticker Collection Album  $1

Out of the 485 stickers in the set, this album is only missing 16 of them.  I originally planned on tracking them down, but after wasting so much money trying to build that 1996 Skybox SkyMotion set... I'll probably just leave it as it is.

Well that wraps up my first flea market trip of 2026.  Although I wouldn't call any of these purchases "stellar deals", I am pretty excited about the oddball sets and uncut sheets.

Here is today's question of the day...

Do you collect uncut sheets?

If so...

Do you have any personal favorites in your collection?

Although I love these Mother's Cookies and Cracker Jack sheets, my favorite uncut sheets to collect are Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine cards.

Okay... this post has dragged on long enough.  I appreciate those who stuck it out.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!