Please Help Identify this 1986 or 1987 Philadelphia Athletics/Phillies Set

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Posted By: Brad Green

I need your help in identifying a set of cards that contains Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies. I have been collecting Lefty Grove cards for more than 12 years and have never seen this set before. I am assuming, therefore, that the cards are rather obscure. I've included a picture of the Grove card below. There are 27 cards in the set. They include 25 players, one manager and one announcer.

Here is the checklist of cards (the cards are unnumbered):

Connie Mack, Manager, Athletics
Lefty Grove, Pitcher, Athletics
Bob Johnson, Outfield, Athletics
Stuffy McInnis, Infield/Pinch Hitter, Athletics
Bing Miller, Center Field, Athletics
Mickey Cochrane, Catcher, Athletics
Jack Coombs, Pitcher, Athletics
Eddie Collins, Second Base, Athletics
Jimmy Dykes, Infield/Pinch Hitter, Athletics
Rube Waddell, Pitcher, Athletics
Jimmy Foxx, First Base, Athletics
Wally Moses, Outfield/Pinch Hitter, Athletics
Al Simmons, Left Field, Athletics
Chief Bender, Pitcher, Athletics
Eddie Plank, Pitcher, Athletics
Frank "Home Run" Baker, Infield/Pinch Hitter, Athletics
Wally Schang, Cathcer/Pinch Hitter, Athletics
Del Ennis, Outfield, Phillies
Larry Bowa, Shortstop, Phillies
Robin Roberts, Pitcher, Phillies
Chuck Klein, Right Field, Phillies
Grover Alexander, Pitcher, Phillies
Mike Schmidt, Third Base, Phillies
Jim Bunning, Pitcher, Phillies
Cy Williams, Center Field, Phillies
Steve Carlton, Pitcher, Phillies
By Saam, Announcer

Now that I've had a chance to look at the cards, I have dated the set to late 1986 or early 1987. The back of the Schmidt card says, "495 home runs". Schmidt had 495 home runs after the 1986 season.

The cards look a lot of like 1973 Topps cards. The cards measure 2 1/2 by 3 1/2.

Here's what the Grove card looks like.

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Posted By: Bob

I've never seen it, and I've seen a LOT of sets from that time period. My guess would be it's a Broder (unlicensed) issue. It is not in the Standard Catalog.

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Posted By: Brad Green

I've had a chance to include a checklist above. Based on the back of the Schmidt card, I've dated the set to 1986 or 1987. Can anyone give me any more information about this set?

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Posted By: leon

Maybe Bob L or Rich K will see this thread and lend a hand....They have seen a lot of sets from this time period (I am sure)....good luck

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Posted By: dennis

perhaps this was a card set released by
http://www.philadelphiaathletics.org/index.html
they have been around since 1975

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Posted By: Brad Green

The thought about this set being produced by the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society had crossed my mind at one point as well. However, I then considered the fact that this set includes Phillies cards as well and eliminated that Society from the list of possible producers.

So far, no concrete evidence has been presented as to who the producer of this set is. Several people that I've had email exchanges with seem to think that this set was an unlicensed set, possibly produced by Broder (as Bob mentioned above).

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Posted By: Red

It looks like something they may have put out back then. They didn't restrict their card making to just A's.
http://www.philadelphiaathletics.org/cgi-local/cart.pl?DT=8

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

I don't recall ever seeing this set in my tenure with the Standard Catalog. The Philadelphia A's Historical Society was real good about keeping us apprised of their output, so I don't think it originated there.

I also had a good source for data about early (1970s) show issues from the Philly Show guys. but don't believe they were doing cards by the mid 1980s.

I'd guess it's a collectors' issue, but as I said, it's new to me.