The cards are pretty plain (printed pencil drawings on a white background), but obviously the historical Hall of Famers are pretty valuable. Since they came in a box set, many survived in high condition, and you can get the cheaper ones under $50 in very high grades.
Article from PSA in 2008:
https://www.psacard.com/articles/art...-baseball-card
There are some updates over the years, as seen on COMC and checklisted in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards. Here is their blurb:
Quote:
These cards, which feature artist Mario DeMarco's drawings of Hall of Famers, were produced from 1950 to 1956 and sold by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and at major league ballparks. The cards measure 1-3/4" x 2-1/2" and include a detailed biography on the back. When introduced in 1950 the set included all members of the Hall of Fame up to that time, and then new cards were added each year as more players were elected.
Therefore, cards of players appearing in all previous editions are mrie common than those players who appeared in just one or two years.
When the set was completed in 1956 it consisted of 82 cards, which is now considered a complete set. The cards are not numbered and are listed here alphabetically. B.E. Callahan of Chicago, the publisher of Who's Who in Baseball, produced the card set.
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I'm sure some of the value comes from being the lone or earliest cards of fringe Hall of Famers with either rare and expensive other cards, or no earlier cards. If they're in PSA Master Sets for those players, it would also affect the value. And there are updates/corrections to some cards over the years, as they mention when players passed away (Chief Bender) or changed careers (Sisler) during the production time frame.
Topps is always generating new subsets to add to old sets; wonder if they'll get to this one before their MLB contracts expire. Having new cards of all the Hall of Famers since 1956 would be interesting, and that re-release could increase interest in the original set.