1998 Bally's Willie Mays and Legends of Baseball

Came across this lot which I believe is complete set but not 100% sure of it but for now closest to full set I've seen.  This set measures 4 1/4 x 6 and and the reverse says will be at Bally's Las Vegas November 14, 1998 so I'm assuming there was a large card / autograph show at the casino that day and these were promos made before that to promote it, but I don't know how they were distributed anyone attend the show or was a guest of the casino back then and can shed light on the subject please comment below.  They are pretty rare to see and don't pop up that often.

Just a small back story  I found interesting -

Shortly after his Hall of Fame election, Mays took a job at the Park Place Casino (now Bally's Atlantic City) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. While there, he served as a Special Assistant to the Casino's President and as a greeter. Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was also a greeter during that time. When Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn heard of this, he suspended both men from involvement in organized baseball for violating the league's rules on gambling. Peter Ueberroth, Kuhn's successor, lifted the suspension in 1985.

Obviously by 1998 the casino stigma was not as strict with ball players. 

The checklist below they are unnumbered

Johnny Bench
Whitey Ford
Reggie Jackson
Willie Mays
Frank Robinson
Pete Rose
Duke Snider

R and N China

Going to explore china for a few posts.  Released in early 90s 1993 seems to be popular date for a lot of them there are a some good documentation on some sets but a few are mysteries cards that are numbered to 10,000 just don't pop up at all and complete sets that are supposed to exist are never seen.  I will piece together a few items I have found out in next few posts and see if a clearer picture comes about.

For those unfamiliar with them R&N china produced porcelain cards, plates, mugs sometimes under different names or co names.  For today I will concentrate on the small 3-4 card sets that are pretty easy to checklist but for some reason nobody has.


From 1995-1999 R&N China produced sets for both Topps and Upper Deck which in it self is rather odd that one of them didn't hold exclusive rights to the concept.  The Signature Series consisted of 3-4 porcelain cards in a felt lined wood holder.  Rather limited production for each set most were around 500 range but featured some of the biggest names in sports.

The Mantle series is interesting in that they were signed only 18 days before he passed away so they are some of the last signatures he ever did.

It appears late in 1996 Upper Deck got involved and produced basketball and football cards under the same name and time frame as the mostly topps cards but upped the production into the 1000 range.  But even at that they are still rather hard to come by and carry a big price tag.

Below is checklist of the sets in PDF format.

Checklist

Fantasy baseball

Is back new league formed go to

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/4192cards

to join

1981 FBI Disc

Recently on eBay a new batch of 1981 Discs appeared to add to the checklist.  Revisiting them they are extremely rare only issued in Canada and not that well collected.  Issued on the bottom of Fanta Beverage Inc. (FBI) drink containers they are usually found scuffed and dirty.

Current checklist most likely still very incomplete.  Discs are unnumbered. The checklist below is in
alphabetical order.

Bruce Bochte
Rick Bosetti
George Brett
Jim Clancy
Warren Cromartie
Andre Dawson
Steve Garvey
Larry Hisle
Reggie Jackson
Dave Kingman
Jim Palmer
Pete Rose
Nolan Ryan
Gary Templeton

1981-83 Venezuelan Stickers

Continuing the Venezuelan theme as I will in the next few post this set is very similar to the 80-81 set in that it is 288-sticker set measures approximately 2" by 2 3/4" with name centered and then sticker number below.  For the 1982-83 winter season, the set was expanded with several cards being issued per team with letters suffixed to the card numbers.  Distributed by Digallo C.A.  Special thanks to Clyde's Stale Cards Blog for pointing me at the checklist.

Album

Checklist in PDF.

2000 Venezuelan Stickers

These 420 stickers were issued in Venezuela and featured major league players.  They were issued in packs and a 64 page album was also created to house them. 

Checklist in PDF form

1980-81 Venezuelan Stickers

 This 288-sticker set measures approximately 2" by 2 3/4".   The fronts feature color player portraits  framed by white border. The player's name and sticker number are printed in a yellow bar below the picture.  The stickers are placed according to number in an 8" by 10 1/2" album, with the player's biography printed in his sticker slot.  The set is arranged according to teams as follows: Tigres de Aragua (1-45), Cardenales de Lara (46-90),  Leones del Caracas (91-135), Navegantes del Magallanes (136-180), Tiburones del la Guaira (181-225), and Aguilas del Zulia (226-270).  The set closes with action stickers (271-288).

Checklist in PDF form