Postcards and baseball go way back. Waaa-aayyy back. A set of "Rotograph" postcards were released circa 1905, and featured at least eight New York baseballers including John McGraw and Clark Griffith (a decent example of these might cost you well over $1,000 each). Other postcard releases may even be older that this.
Fast-forward some 103 years later, to 2008, and a nifty set of eleven postcards were released featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks. Wait... There's a Major League Baseball team in Arizona? Does Clark Griffith know about this? He should, because a downright nasty Hall of Fame pitcher named Randy Johnson is in this set.
This set of postcards consists of ten individual player cards and a team photo/schedule card. These are large-sized postcards, measuring a hefty 7 x 5 inches. The players are featured in beautiful, color action shots that are borderless and cover the entire fronts of the cards. Backs feature the all-business postcard look, assuming that one would actually consider jotting down someone's physical address and slapping on a stamp. Each player's name and position is found on the back in small font, but the cards are not numbered. The team photo card pictures the 2008 Arizona squad, but the reverse features the 2009 season schedule... This makes sense as the postcards were distributed at the September 27 home game, the next-to-last contest of the 2008 season.
I'm not sure how many sets were printed, but as is usually the case with SGA (stadium giveaway) cards, loads of sets are handed out to non-collectors and most are never seen again -- some probably didn't even survive the seventh inning stretch, thanks to hot dogs, mustard and flying cups of draft beer. Regarding their value, these gems were released long after the card market imploded and might be of interest to maybe a handful of collectors. Putting these in the $5 to $8 price range is probably on the mark.
(1) Arizona Diamonbacks 2008 Team Photo/2009 Schedule
(2) Eric Byrnes, Outfielder
(3) Stephen Drew, Infielder
(4) Dan Haren, Pitcher
(5) Orlando Hudson, Infielder
(6) Connor Jackson, Outfielder
(7) Randy Johnson, Pitcher
(8) Chris Snyder, Catcher
(9) Justin Upton, Outfielder
(10) Brandon Webb, Pitcher
(11) Chris Young, Outfielder
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