Finally finished my Red Heart set! Special thanks to those who helped
 

Every set I've built I have done in a lower grade to keep it reasonable budget wise. While I've enjoyed building them I always admired those with the patience to build a higher grade set on a budget. I decide to build a set in higher grade with good eye appeal. I picked the 1954 Red Heart set. I've always loved the size of the issue as well as player selection. The bright background colors also makes the set stand out.

I want to say thank you to all those who helped me along the way. Either by trading, selling or even keeping me posted to what came available. Fellow members as well on others not on this board were all very helpful and I appreciate all of it.

I also wanted to say a special thanks to a dealer that many of you may know. "Uncle Dick" Decorcy has been a fixture on the card show circuit for a few decades. He specializes in set building. He will be at the National this week.

I met Uncle Dick a year ago at a show in Raleigh. I enjoyed his conversation and help. Over the past year he and I have emailed a time or two to work on my current project. I was down to he last card, Enos Slaughter, to finish the Red Heart set. I couldn't find one within my budget that met the condition I was keeping the set within. I emailed Uncle Dick and told him. He said he would keep his eye out for one. A few weeks ago he emailed back and said he found one at the Chantily show. He picked it up for me and when I saw him this past weekend again in Raleigh he showed me the card. It was perfect. Then he showed me his notes on the purchase and offered it to me at cost. He didn't make anything on it but rather just helped me out to complete the set.

If you happen to be at the National make it a point to stop by his booth and check out his stuff. Make sure you tell him Drew said hello and thanks.

Anyway, here is some pictures of the complete set as well as the different series to get a closer view of the cards.

Hope you enjoy! Now, on to building a custom display to house the set.

Drew

Blue set

Red set

And the Green

Beautiful! Looking forward to seeing them in a display.

Red hearts
 

Drew, congrats!

Quite an accomplishment... I never realized how Attractive this set was until now...

Way to go Drew!!

I love Red Hearts.

I may have to start collecting them now.

Thanks for posting.

Congrats on completing the set. Looks great.

Looks great buddy and technically the Al Rosen was the last one you got from me at the house Friday haha

Red Hearts
 

Very nice Drew. congrats, Beautiful set

Maybe now you should just be "Done" :-)

Fine. Edit to add that because Chris didn't mail the Rosen in April when I agreed to buy it it was the final card in the set.:D

And Al as you are well aware of a true collector in never done, just almost there.

Thanks for the kind words all.

Drew

Congratulations, Drew. I'm sure happy for you.

Perhaps as you're working on a display for your Red Hearts, you could begin to collect any articles, information, and personal stories on this set. Maybe you already have a bunch of that. Do you have a reprint of an original advertisement, which told kids how they could get the cards in the first place?

Somewhere I have my 1969 Wholesale Cards Co. mail order catalog. While the prices listed are so low it's sickening, it provides a way of understanding how a young hobbyist such as I could, and did so, get the cards that year.

No doubt you probably know The John Morrell Company kept a large number of the leftover cards should someone want one. Until at least the early 70s, one could write to them for a set. I have no idea if the interested party was charged money, or Morrell just sent them a set for free, since the promotion was long over, and to convey the highest possible public relations.

It is a very beautiful and interesting set, to be sure.

Nice going, again.:D ---Brian Powell

'54 Red Hearts
 

Drew,

Nice accomplishment. I have not completed the set as I tend to focus on the larger sets first. Were there any rarities within the set? Were there any variations? What was the hardest card to find?

Just curious. Thanks.

Z

There aren't any variations in the set. Just the standard 33 cards. 11 in each series. I've seen original advertisements for the set on eBay. If you collected 10 (I think) labels for the dog food cans and mailed them into the company with the postage they would send you one series.

The red ones are short printed but not scarce by any means. The two biggest cards are of course Mantle and then Musial. It's one of the few mid 50's issues of Musial and being a collector of his stuff it is one of my favorites.

Another interesting thing is 11 of the cards in the set are represented by players that ended up in the HOF. That's 1/3 of the set being HOFers! Also I've wondered about team choice. At the time there were 16 major league teams but three are not represented. 10 of the players are from Chicago. 5 from the Cubs and 5 from the Sox. Yankees, Dodgers and Giants are also well represented which makes sense given the era.

I did find that there are more decent conditioned cards out there compared to Topps sets from the same era. Probably because he sets were mailed to you and didn't end up in a kids back pocket or bicycle spikes on the way home from the five and dime.

The biggest issue is centering but it isn't impossible. Overall it was a lot of fun to put together and not too crazy expensive getting bogged down in the commons.

If anyone hasn't ever had any cards from it I would recommend looking into it. It's a great set and I think it represents the 50's style sets very well.

Drew

PS I did want to actually thank Chris, Campyfan39, for his help. He gave me a great deal on the Mantle at well below what I would have paid for a perfectly centered example.

I have this set, albeit with some cards pretty badly miscut side to side. I think those came from Wholesale Cards - they are in pristine condition otherwise. I had a real tough time finding the Lemon card. I finally saw it at a show. Either the dealer could sense my desperation or he knew that the card was tough because he held the line on the price, which was pretty high (I think I paid $30 about 30 years ago). Even as he was closing up his table he refused to budge, so I bought it. I had been hunting for at least a year for that card.

It's a great set and yours looks real nice. Congratulations!

Congrats Drew! Hopefully I am not far behind you as I have only two more to go to complete the set! I find it to be one of the most beautiful sets to display, and like you am impressed by the density of star cards.

Thanks. What two are you lacking? I actually have a couple of doubles I was going to list on the BST in a few days.
Drew

Erskine and Pierce. Let me know if you have them by chance.

Beautiful set, Drew -- congrats to you.

I love the Red Heart set. I was able to complete it earlier this year with the Mantle being the last card. It is by far the most expensive card in the set especially if you are looking for good centering and good corners. I was able to find one decently centered but with two small pin holes that you don't notice from a distance.

Anyway, congratulations - your's is a very nice set.

Tom

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. Anyone else have any insite on the history or collecting this set? Would love to hear other stories.
Drew