Do you collect HOF players only, or include award winners?
 

Just curious if your Baseball HOF collections also include the Spink, O'neil or Taylor award winners. I long ago gave up the notion that I would get all of the hall of fame members, and pretty much have given up on the super high dollar members, but the award winners have interested me ever since I picked up some Frick Award members while doing specific team projects. I also like the idea of having Buck O'Neil and Rachel Robinson in my collection. Kind of a subset of the Hall, but interesting. How do the rest of you feel?

Only collect those who were able to sign the gold hall of fame postcards.

Thought about expanding to Frick and Spink winners as they are on that podium speaking....I have some..but nowhere near as focused on them like the primary HOF......

No award winners here, just players, execs, and umps. But I get why you'd expand to that subset once hitting a wall with players.

Just about anyone pictured on or affiliated with the Dodgers organization. I may not be willing to spend a lot of $ on some of the weird ones, but would gladly add them if I had the chance and the circumstance was right.

Outside of the Dodgers (and early Mariners organization), I would add any players/managers/executives of significance (award winners, All-Star team members, fan favorites, etc).

Cards are my favorite. Take one over a ball or photo any day.

I only collect those with plaques in the Gallery. That said, I will pick up an owner/manager/exec. in the Hall of Fame Honor Role that existed in the early days of the HOF, as they are eligible for the Hall and many have eventually gotten in.

A lot of HoFers, a little of everything
 

Hall of Famers are certainly a focus but I collect other interesting or important baseball figures too. My website, CooperstownExpert.com has a page for every HoFer and 264 pages of guys not in the Hall.

Some of the non Hall of Famers are "maybe someday" guys like Dick Allen or Gil Hodges. Others aren't in yet like Derek Jeter, and CC Sabathia. Then of course there are guys of interest like Herb Score and Bill Buckner.

It's nice finally having a website that's sortable. Otherwise it's tougher to enjoy the collection.

Funny you mention Spink. There's every a page for him and even the founder of the Elias Statistical Bureau, Al Munro Elias.

All that said, guys like Babe Ruth and guys like Jackie Robinson and Stan Musial are more the bread and butter of the collection.

This forum and Facebook sure help connect us too. I'm really grateful to share thoughts with so many knowledgeable people who love the game.

I see a lot of collectors who go after only the HOF guys and I see some who go after the frick/spink guys and some who go after both. The frick/spink guys can be very difficult especially from years ago and guys who passed shortly after winning the award. It’s definitely a challenging task.

Jim, your website is fantastic. I've tried real hard to go through it very slowly, but it's kinda like Disneyland...you want to try to get to as many rides as possible. LOL. It's also nice to see another SoCal member on here. I grew up in Alhambra, just a stones throw away from La Crescenta, and then moved the San Diego area, so I'm guessing we spent a lot of time in the 80's and 90's at the same card shows and other events. Darn I miss those days when SoCal actually had some major shows. Oh well.

If I am collecting autographs other than the Cincinnati Reds, I only pursue Hall of Famers.

If I am looking at Cincinnati Reds players, I purchase MVP players, All-Star starters, 20 game winners, No-Hitter and Perfect Game pitchers, HR leaders, batting average leaders, and random accomplishments (like Todd Frazier winning the home run derby). I also specifically pursue the 1935-1942 Cincinnati Reds, and I buy whatever I think is cool.

Agreed. When I started the entire focus were those elected to HOF. Within a few years, I was down to the holy grail (at the time - Williams, Mantle and DiMaggio). I decided to expand to award winners (MVP, CY, ROY) and unique feats (Vander Meer). I don't think I would have a Spink or Frick award winner sign a piece with only HOF signatures, but I would not have a problem getting an individual item signed.

I collect "players of significance". If a player is a multiple time all star or ever led the league in a major statistical category (traditional ones, not new stuff we come up with each year) then I feel good about adding that guy. I can't collect baseball (or any sport) and avoid guys like Garvey, Murphy, Hernandez, Mattingly, Bonds, etc. because their careers weren't given a HOF designation. I grew up in the 70's. How can I collect just HOFers and avoid players like Fred Lynn, George Foster, and Boog Powell?