A signature and a surplus of silk...starring Dave Winfield

      I try not to do it very often, but this past week I picked up a larger lot for a single item.   I was unaware of the existence of the above piece until I saw this lot, so I dropped the minimum $9.99 bid.  I'm not really sure what the proper terminology is for this, but it is the "postcard" version of the Z Silk cachet for the 9th Freehold Classic Sports Memorabilia Show.  A little Googling turns up several similar cards for other players, connected to other "Sports Memorabilia Shows" such as:

High 5 Decals and more silk than China (,TX)

      In 1992,  Original Products, Inc., issued several sets of static decals featuring random Major League superstars and team sets.  You can find more information about the set over at Rickey Henderson Collectibles.  I didn't even know what these were until a few years ago, but I've finally managed to snag the Winfield, in a lot of random oddballs, after a couple of years of not wanting to pay $12 for the whole California Angels set.

      Unfortunately, my penny pinching resulted in getting a decal with no backing.  Typically these cards were issued in panels of 6 decals on a backing of a larger photo.  To get the individual decals, backing intact, one would have to cut the backing apart, which is exactly what I did for the Williams and Henderson.  I can only guess someone wanted to keep the backing photo from the Angels set, so I just paired the Winfield up with a 2.5"x3.5" piece of copy paper to give it something for the light to reflect off of and act as a non-stick surface so I could fit it into the appropriate pocket in my Winfield album.  Sans backing, it is very difficult to get a static decal to NOT stick to a plastic sheet.  BUT, I got it and can knock one more item off the old Winfield Want List!
      Also included in this lot, along with a King-B disc, a couple of 1988 & 89 Starting Lineup cards, a badly miscut 1990 All-American card, a 1981 Permagraphics and a 1992 Fire Safety Blue Jays card were these beauties:

      I'd seen a couple of these before, and I know there was a set of Susan Rini cards for the Yankees of the 60s, but I'd not seen any individual silk cachet cards for Big Dave before. I was ecstatic to pick up this lot for less than $8 shipped and get one item I needed and two I'd never seen before. And these are, indeed, printed on silk, they're not just cardboard printed photos. If the pictures look familiar....

      So it looks like maybe I have an other project on my hands, compiling a checklist of these Z Silk promo card thingies. Have either of you that read this blog ever seen these before for any other players?

"And they give ya cache, which is almost as good as money!"

Filled in a gap in the colección de cachet last week with this one:

As further testament to this being a wide open field for player collectors, with not a whole lot of competition, this went for a whopping $1.99 +$1.50s&h.  Though, at the same time, I missed two of the 1991 Gateway 400HR cachets due to my strict $10 or less bidding strategy for autographed stuff.  I'm hoping it exists unsigned as I don't really care much about autographs anymore.

Something that caught my eye, though, is that both the 1985 & 1987 Gold Glove cachets show Winnie at the plate or on the bases, yet his 1986 Z Silk 100 RBI's cover shows him fielding.  Go figure.  Though I suppose it's not too far out of kilter since Gold Glove awards almost always go to great hitters.  Outside Ozzie Smith, you never saw them awarded to all-field, no-hit players no matter how great a defender they were.

Colorful, silky and with quite the cachet of "cool".

       Once in awhile a non-card item catches the eye of the ever vigilant player collector.  Whether it be a can of RC Cola,  embroidered patch, various and sundry idols and graven images or a stamped and cancelled commemorative silk cachet.  'Tis the latter that brings together two of the most prominent forces in the collectible universe, that of baseball and stamps.  Though first day covers featuring baseball players have been around since at least the late 1960s (and probably a bit earlier), the field was hollow and incomplete until 1979 when the Gateway Stamp Company, one of the most prominent issuers of said novelties did put forth the first featuring one Dave Winfield:

      Renata Galasso, who had issued several sets of baseball legends sets with TCMA, entered the arena, issuing covers for various players and occasions from 1982-1984.  One of those commemorated the American League batting race of 1984 that saw the lead decided on the very last game of the season:

      'Z' Silk, often featuring artwork by Susan Rini, produced silk cachets and similar pieces from at least 1984-1997.  With the high quality of Rini's paintings, one almost has to wonder why none of the baseball card manufacturers worked with her for the various Diamond King sets considering how spotty some of Dick Perez's work was in the 1980s (such as the beak he gave Dave Winfield on his 1987 Diamond King card).  There were a lot of covers issued for Freehold, NJ collectibles shows:

      They marked every All-Star Game from 1985-1988:

     Gold Gloves:

      Milestones such as his 300th career home run:

      200th home run as a Yankee:

       5th straight season of 100 or more RBI (if Rickey Henderson hadn't missed 1/3rd of the 1987 season for injuries, Winfield would have ended up with seven straight seasons from 1982-1988, he only missed it by 3 RBI in 1987):

      And even just an impressive 1987 Opening Day:

      Colorano, who had been issuing covers since the early 1970s, captured the event of Dave's 400th career home run (Gateway did as well, I just haven't found it yet):

      Photo File, Major League Baseball's primary photograph licensee, has dispensed with the silk and gone to printing the photos directly on the envelope paper for their Hall of Fame Induction Day covers.  I presume a cover was issued for each of Dave's teams, but thus far, I've only see them for San Diego, New York and Minnesota (though the Hometown Hero Station cover for Minnesota may be something completely unrelated):

       They've added a great extra bit of color to my Dave Winfield collection, and at what I would consider fairly reasonable prices.  Even including the signed 1979 cachet, I've managed not to pay more than $10 for any of them.

       For more ecstatic philatelic fun, be sure to visit these blogs and sites for a wider look at the world of baseball first day covers:
Rickey Henderson Collectibles
The Pete Rose Baseball Collection

Or check eBay, maybe there are a few of your favorite player or team.

Cachets and First Day Covers on eBay