"Team issue" cards and postcards... how to I.D. them???

forester7 · Mar 8, 2015

Hello. Beckett often lists "team issue" cards and postcards. I am trying to collect cards of few players, and I still need most of their Beckett-listed team issues and postcards. Trouble is... when I see something come up on ebay, haw can I know if it is one of those cards, or just a picture (there are many of those around)? One example, is seen at this link for ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/361185946166...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Would that be the "team issue" card for that player that Beckett lists for that year?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Brewer Andy · Mar 8, 2015

93% yes

Most of what Beckett lists as "team issues" are post cards or photo sets. Many of the team issues during the mid to late 80's looked exactly like that. None of my players have an '84 version but I can confirm the photo below is 100% a 1987 Team Issue

Sometimes the best you can do is wait until someone lists an entire set and compare to Beckett's to make sure you have what they are referring to. Though some teams had multiple "team issues" in a given year plus many that Beckett doesn't list

predatorkj · Mar 8, 2015

I lucked out on the Astros as I actually snag a few every year since the players/team representatives bring them with them when they do public autograph signings to give to people to get signed. That's the only way I ever figured out what they even were. But if you don't ask the team for a free fan kit or actually go to any public signings, they're actually hard to get and don't pop up often on eBay. I'm not sure on the fan kits though as I've never personally gotten one that way, merely heard about it.

But honestly, a lot of times the type of people getting these really are true fans and they might get a few from the public event and tuck them away in their collection never to see the light of day again. And I doubt many people even realize they are catalogued or sought after.

DaClyde · Mar 9, 2015

There are lots of them listed on TradingCardDB.com with scans. But really you almost have to do a lot of your own research to familiarize yourself with what the various teams were issuing. Beckett and SCD all but gave up on these after the 1990s, so it gets a lot more difficult with the more obscure and generic looking sets. Then there were the sets that barely changed at all from year to year, some were issued across several years with the exact same design, and some teams continue to issue generic cards of retired players that are almost impossible to pin down to a single year.

What you were trying to link to looks like the 1984 Farmer Jack Detroit Tigers set. There were several years of sets with that same design issued for various teams distributed though local grocery stores.

Similar sets include the 1976 A&P issues for the Royals and Brewers and 1977 & 1984 Jewel Foods Cubs.

r2d2 · Mar 9, 2015

A complete nightmare for player collectors

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"Team issue" cards and postcards... how to I.D. them???

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