4-Sport Hall of Fame Rookie Cards Guide
 

I recently completed a year-long project of putting together the industry's first fully pictorial "4-Sport Hall of Fame Rookie Cards Guide". I believe, in the future, this guide will be the "go to" reference for anyone looking to start or expand upon a Baseball/Football/Basketball/Hockey Hall of Fame Rookie Cards collection.

The guide will be printed in full color with approximately 350 full-size pages (8 1/2" X 11"). There will be four major sections to the guide. The first will cover Rookie Cards of every single member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (currently 310). The second section will cover Rookie Cards of every Football Hall of Fame member (currently 295). The third section will address Rookie Cards of every Basketball Hall of Famer (currently 339) and the fourth section will cover Rookie Cards of every Hockey Hall of Famer (currently 380). In total, there will be over 1,300 Rookie Cards pictured in the guide. Price ranges for every card listed will also be included. In addition, an appendix at the back of the guide will include "Top 25 All-Time Rookie Cards" lists for each of the four major sports.

The initial print run for the guide will be 100 copies with future print runs to be either the same or possibly move up to 250 copies. As of right now, a maximum number of copies of 1,000 is planned but that could change based on customer demand.

In order to help cover the significant printing costs for this full-color guide, I am offering a very limited number of advertising pages. Please keep in mind, this book will appeal to baseball, football, basketball and hockey card collectors so the collector base will be much broader this time around as compared to the Negro League Baseball Collectibles Guide that I published a couple of years ago. Every ad will be a full-size page of 8 1/2" X 11" (half page will be 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" horizontally) in full-color, you just need to maintain a one-inch margin all the way around. This time, my publisher has given the okay to offer cover ads so please see the below list of pricing for each ad spot in the guide:

Inside Front Cover @ SOLD

Inside Back Cover @ SOLD

Front Page @ SOLD

Full Page @ $5.00 X 100 copies = $500.00

Half Page @ $3.00 X 100 copies = $300.00

As previously mentioned, there are a very limited number of ad pages available so for anyone who is interested, please e-mail me privately for details at: vguerrerobb@yahoo.com. Ads will be taken on a first come, first serve basis. Before each new print run, you will have the option to renew your ad or cancel if you wish. Every advertiser will receive a complimentary copy of the guide.

I would like the guide to go to print by Columbus Day, so please let me know ASAP if interested and please don't hesitate to e-mail me with any questions. You can also contact me via cell phone at (201)-638-9001.

At this time, I am not taking any advance orders for the guide but if you send me an e-mail, I will reserve a copy for you and send you an invoice once I have the books in hand. The cost will be $34.95 plus $7.20 for USPS Priority Mailing.

Thank you for your consideration.

Phil Garry

Is there text in the book i.e. story of the card or just a card name and photo?

Very Cool!
I would love to have one of these and also would make a ideal gift.

Very Cool!
I would love to have one of these and also would make a ideal gift.

Good question, each section consists of four cards to a page (in alphabetical order by last name) and includes HOF'er name, year and make of rookie card, type of HOF membership (i.e.-Player, Manager, Contributor, etc.) and a price range estimate for each rookie card. While it would have been nice to include more detailed info about each card, the number of pages in the guide would have grown exponentially and thus my printing costs would have skyrocketed, ultimately causing a higher price point for the guide. I tried to keep the sale price down as much as possible while providing the best and largest quality of images that I possibly could.

Phil,
I'm def. interested in a copy, please reserve one for me,
Thanks,
Dan

Thanks this sounds fascinating, can I reserve one here or should I still email you?

Reservation is fine here, too.

Thanks

Due to the lack of interest from all but one of the potential advertisers that I have contacted regarding the 4-Sport Guide, it does not appear that the books will be going to print anytime soon. As it stands right now, my printing costs will exceed my sale price of the guide. This means I would have to increase the sale price per copy to around $50.00 rather than my planned price of $34.95 just to make a few bucks, otherwise it will not be worthwhile for me to produce them. In my opinion, that is too high of a price point and will discourage too many potential buyers from making the purchase.

I apologize to all of those people who were looking forward to purchasing copies, believe me, I am just as disappointed as you are, if not more. I was hoping to garner more support from within the industry but it's not forthcoming at this time.

Would it be possible to show sample pages? I think that might drive a little more interest.

4-Sport Hall of Fame Rookie Cards Guide
 

So you gave up one day after posting this thread?

What about an electronic version? I'm interested in the book.

I'll buy four copies at $50 each if it needs to be at that price to happen; sounds like a great book.

As Joel mentioned, it might be a good idea to provide a sample page or two, or maybe the front cover. Good luck! Sounds interesting and I'd likely buy a copy when it happens.

I hope to have a proof copy of the book in hand over the weekend. I will then post pics of the front cover and sample page(s).

Thanks for offering, Matt. I agree with you, it's still a worthwhile buy at that price but, unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to sell a minimum of 100 copies. I'm guessing that I could get maybe somewhere between 10 and 20 sales, maybe a few more. I can't front that much money and take forever to recoup it in sales.

I do still have several copies of my Negro League Baseball Collectibles Guide for sale if anyone wants to read up and become an expert in that segment of the hobby. Cost for that one is only $29.95 + $6.10 for USPS Priority Mailing. Here are pics of the front and back covers of that one, PM me if interested.

Might be able to sell 100 at $50, ya never know. If the pix and layout are great, so many guys in the hobby would wind up looking at it a ton. Hope it works out.

Thanks, Matt. Just responded to your PM.

Here are some pics of the front and back cover of the guide along with a sample page from each section, baseball, football, basketball and hockey.......

Thought I would bump this up and give it another shot. I am still looking for advertising spots in the guide in order to go to production. Please see the initial post in this thread for all of the details.

What about estimates of surviving examples, Phil, as I believe was originally discussed with regard to an earlier book proposal? Also, are you defining rookie card as "first card (which would include minor league cards--see the 1921 Grove vs his 1926-29 Exhibit)," or first major league card? I'm asking because I definitely have some interest in the book.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

Phil... I will take one if that helps... Al

Phil
 

I am still in.

Thanks for the support, guys.

Al, PM sent.

I'm in too, Phil.

I'd be interested in a book like this.

Maybe a campaign on Kickstarter to help finance an initial print run?

Since there appeared to be a lot of interest in this guide a couple of years ago and the Baseball Hall of Fame Rookie Card market has certainly exploded since then (Football, Basketball and/or Hockey soon to follow?), I would like to revisit the idea and see if there may be more interest in advertising opportunities this time around.

I would love to get this valuable resource on the market in hard-copy format and begin taking advance orders but need to make sure that everything is a go prior to doing that.

Please see the first post of this thread for more details on all of the advertising opportunities available and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you,

Phil

Rookie Card Guide
 

Hi Phil it's JoeT. You can put me down for 2 copies st $50 if need be. Whatever the cost....who cares because it looks like a great reference tool!

Thanks, Joe, you got it. I appreciate the support and kind words.

Phil

I originally posted the above two years ago.

I'm still interested.

Phil, I will buy a copy at $50 if you move forward with production. Thanks, James

Thank you for the support, Gary and James. Much appreciated.

Phil

Looks like a cool book. I like the idea. But it appears you're having trouble generating interest. So I'm thinking about this from this perspective...If this was my project, what would I do to make it better. So these are my spitball ideas...Not meant to offend. Hopefully, just constructive feedback.

The cover does not look like that of a $50 book. There is no artistic value. The cards neatly aligned next to each other does not look particularly professional and does not create much eye appeal. Nor do the plain white margins. Is there anything you can affordably do to make the cover more attractive? We're essentially talking about a coffee table book here. It should look good sitting wherever it's sitting.

The font of the title looks very plain and the title itself is ambiguous. Isn't 4-Star the name of a junk brand from the early 1990's? When I saw this thread, the first thing I thought was why would anyone want to talk about that set? Maybe it's just me, but hearing that lends a cheapness to the book and reminds me of an era of cards, I'd just as soon forget. I'd work on the title.

Along those lines...I'd lose the Barry Sanders rookie from the cover. I don't want to be reminded of cards from the late 80's/early 90's when I'm plunking even $30 down on a book. I blew too much money on those cards back in the day. I'd use Gale Sayers rookie instead. I always that that was a very visually appealing card...and worthy of an appearance on the cover of a $50 book.

Just a few thoughts...Good luck.

As someone who collects HOF rookie cards for all 4 major sports, this book sounds right up my alley. I do, however, think it is best suited for digital release only as there are so many new HOF inductees every year. Unless, of course, you plan to release a new print version every year. Also, I'm interested to know about the minor league vs. major league question that was posed earlier, especially as it pertains to pre-war baseball HOF RCs. Even outside of that question, there are a lot of options for pre-war HOF RCs, given that you have Exhibits/postcards, oddball issues, pins, magazine inserts, etc. Some collectors consider them RCs, others stick to cards.

I bought the book. Well worth the money!

Just an update, thus far the inside front cover, inside back cover and front page ads have been sold. Still available are the full-page and half-page ads. Please contact me if you are interested in advertising, this is a great opportunity to do business with collectors who are interested in one of the hottest segments of the vintage card market these days.