[brianp-beme]

I had known about hobby giant Bob Lemke for many years before his passing, but only had a couple of interactions with him, both involving this board. The first one was very indirect, but doesn't shine too positive of light upon me. Someone inquired on here about the Greiner's listing (cards that fall within the E210/W502/Tharp's etc. family) in the Sports Collector's Digest Catalog that suddenly appeared in their big book. No one on the board seemed to recall having seen any examples from this set, and I believe I was the first one to conjecture that perhaps the listing for this set (no photos, by the way) had been made up to identify if other entities were just copying their information.

I say very indirectly, as no response from Bob came in the same thread, but I remember reading a somewhat upset rebuke concerning this topic from him on a different thread at a much later date...I have always felt bad about this, because I, in a sense, had questioned the integrity of someone that had already proven for decades to be a real asset to the hobby.

The 2nd interaction a few years later involved a larger group of Obak cards that he listed for sale as a group lot in the BST section at a very, very, very (did I mention very yet?) good price, which luck would have it I was the fortunate one that responded first. When I received them, not only did I get the cards identified in the listing, but Bob sent, if I remember correctly, about 12 to 15 additional Obaks as well. I was very pleased with my bounty, but I felt that Bob had just sold these all to me for a song, so I listed a bunch of the duplicates as auctions on the BST, letting Bob know I would be sending all the proceeds of these auctions to him, hopefully slightly making up for me being such a dillweed previously.

Which leads me to the focus of this lengthy post. I had no idea, until some time after he had passed away, that Bob was involved in producing incredibly realistic fantasy cards utilizing Topps designs (and I believe others). A recent BST auction in the $1.00 start category offered by Ben caught my eye...a 1967 Topps, or 'Bobbs' as identified on the card, of Sandy Koufax. The card just blew me away how authentic it seemed, and the great photo of Sandy that he chose fits right in with the rest of the set. I won this at a practically giveaway price, and in fact Ben may have actually just practically given it to me for free. Thanks Ben!

Bob's website is still out there, but I strongly suggest that you DO NOT VISIT IT, because it is one of the few I have encountered that my Norton security flagged as being UNSAFE. Perhaps it is because I just don't poke around the internet that much. If I did, then maybe I would come across more of these sites, and wouldn't that be glorious.

It is a safe place around here, so please share any of these Bob Lemke creations you might have, and feel free to reminisce/muse on Bob as well.


Brian