It's definitely true that for some players, the cards were made available for many years after first issuance. That's why the same name pops up again and again on the lists of available players, even after the player retired. Either the cards were leftovers from a large printing, or perhaps for some really popular former players, Sporting Life just kept printing them.
But for Rickey, I think it's different. His name does not appear year after year. So I think there are two possibilities. First, a very limited number were printed and either ordered or discarded when no one ordered them. Second, his name was listed, and when no one ordered any, Sporting Life didn't even bother to print any. Either scenario would explain why the Rickey is either very rare or non-existent.
The same is probably true of other tough players like Burkett. His cards were not offered after he retired. So, they probably printed a few, sold them, had no leftovers. So they had nothing left to offer in later years, and probably decided that despite his great skills as a player, he wasn't popular enough to justify printing more.
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