Nolan Ryan Cards

Although I collect Nolan Ryan cards, I don't generally chase his cards these days. But in March I saw a 7-card lot of Ryan cards on eBay which looked interesting. I got the 7 cards for only 62 cents each. A pretty good deal. Here's what I got.

1999 Upper Deck Century Legends #41
I already had this card. I have 3 Nolan cards issued in 1999. According to Beckett.com there were 154 Nolan Cards issued in 1999.

2002 Greats of the Game #61
Ryan played for 4 teams during his long career. In a set like this which features greats of the past, I wonder how they decide which uniform to picture him in. I have 4 2002 Ryan cards of the 245 available.

2005 UD Past Time Pennants #59
The back of the card features the stats Ryan's best 5 years. Ryan also won 5 pennants in his career. The 1969 NL Pennant with the Mets (and also the World Series). He won the AL West with the Angels in 1979 and the NL West with the Astros in 1981, 1982 and 1986. Only one of his 'best' years corresponds with a Pennant year, the 1981 season when he was 11-5 with a 1.69 ERA. I have 3 2005 Ryan cards out of 2,593 cards issued. That's a lot of cards. I don't know what all these cards are. There was a 276 card Nolan Ryan Biography set and there were 389 Diamond King cards.

2006 Greats of the Game #67
Again, I've got 3 Ryan cards from 2006. There were 605 issued. It's hard to tell exactly but I think this same photo is featured on the next two cards.

2007 SP Legendary Cuts #96
These are nice looking cards but they don't scan well. This is the only 2007 Ryan card I have. There were only 490 Ryan cards issued.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball #35
I liked this set from last year. I had a Black parallel but it was one of these which featured multiple players.

2008 Donruss Sports Legends #15
Predominately showing an unlicensed Texas Rangers logo. I have 5 Ryan cards from 2008 of the 664 available.

I'd say that 15 years after retirement, Nolan Ryan remains pretty popular in the hobby.