"Custom" football cards. Have any of you toyed with this idea?

[the 'stache]

It seems there were a lot of missed opportunities in the early days of football cards. While there were Ty Cobbs and Babe Ruths being printed and distributed in tobacco and candy packs, there were no Don Hutsons or Johnny McNallys. So many great football players never had any cards produced. The only Don Hutson card is a college football card. Packer cards

Bob Lemke has been designing custom cards for quite some time on his blog. A while ago, I had a short conversation with him, and I decided to try out my own hand at making custom cards in Photoshop. After doing my first card, and seeing some of the modern custom baseball cards that are being made by artists, I'm trying to decide if I should take this to the next level, and actually produce the cards, ie printing them out on high quality glossy paper for modern cards, and card stock for the older cards. We collect these cards for the love of the hobby, and not every card has to be worth a small fortune. Wouldn't it be cool if we could add some of these high quality cards to our collection, to fill in some of the "gaps" that exist, but shouldn't. Cards that you could display along with jerseys, and helmets, and balls. I've seen these custom cards sent out and signed by the athletes, or collectors will take these custom cards to shows, and have them signed. It makes for a unique collectible.

So, I'm wondering if any of you besides Mr. Lemke have done these before? I am going to have to figure out how to do the card reverse. It shouldn't be too hard. I'd just have to figure out which fonts are used, and find a texture to replicate the paper stock used on these old cards.

Here's my first shot at a custom. I attempted to recreate the 1955 All American Football set using a modern day player. It was actually pretty fun. Once I was able to create a template, it was pretty easy. Anyhow, here we go. On the top is a scan of a '55 Topps All American card of Otto Graham at Northwestern, and on the bottom is my custom of Aaron Rodgers at Cal. It was pretty easy to do.



Basically, this was a pretty easy production. I found a cool picture of Cal playing at the 1938 Rose Bowl. It was already black and white, so there was no need to grayscale the image. I then found a picture I liked of Aaron Rodgers, and extracted him from the picture. The different fonts were pretty easily found after a little researching was done. And I found a nice little clip art bear to incorporate into the team's logo. I created my file in Photoshop, putting the background, type, Rose Bowl and Aaron Rodgers images on different layers. The hardest part of making the card was the All American logo. I broke out my Wacom tablet and drew it by hand, then used the marquee tool to cut out the stripes. Pretty fun, overall. I tried my hand at a few different templates for more modern cards. The possibilities are endless. I'm looking to get a new scanner, and buy a high quality printer to make some cards. This would be a great way to add to my hobby.

What, if anything, have you guys done? Show me some of the cards you've made.

[CowboysGuide]

I've been doing this for about three years now. My main focus has been Dallas Cowboys sets that include players that never had cards, but recently I've started dabbling with other teams like the Packers, Steelers, and Redskins. They've been a huge hit with collectors! The most satisfying part has been the feedback from former players. Especially the guys that never had a card. Check out my website to see all the sets and singles I've done.

http://www.thecowboysguide.com/RetroCards.html

My latest project is a 1966P (Philadelphia) Final Series 140-card set. It was a huge project that took almost a year, but I'm pretty happy with the final result. Here's a link to that set...
http://www.thecowboysguide.com/Retro...66P-Ser3p.html

You'll find that having them made into 'real' cards isn't as easy as you may think. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss anything.

[the 'stache]

Steve, I will definitely take you up on your offer. At some point this weekend, I'll put together a few questions to send to you. I love your site from what I've seen thus far.

One of the things I'd like to do, interestingly enough, is to augment the 1965 Philadelphia Gum Packer set. If you look at my profile, I've got 5 or 6 of my Packers from that set uploaded. I have a few more cards to buy yet (Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg and a couple others), but I know there are some players that didn't have cards for that set. I'd love to do a Jerry Kramer so I could send one to him, and one to his daughter.

Thank you for your input and your offer of assistance. It is greatly appreciated! I'm going to get some sleep, then I'll send you a couple questions later tonight.

Have a great day!

Bill

[CowboysGuide]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

Steve, I will definitely take you up on your offer. At some point this weekend, I'll put together a few questions to send to you. I love your site from what I've seen thus far.

One of the things I'd like to do, interestingly enough, is to augment the 1965 Philadelphia Gum Packer set. If you look at my profile, I've got 5 or 6 of my Packers from that set uploaded. I have a few more cards to buy yet (Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg and a couple others), but I know there are some players that didn't have cards for that set. I'd love to do a Jerry Kramer so I could send one to him, and one to his daughter.

Thank you for your input and your offer of assistance. It is greatly appreciated! I'm going to get some sleep, then I'll send you a couple questions later tonight.

Have a great day!

Bill

Sounds good. I did a Jerry Kramer card run for a customer a few months ago. It included a card for each year he played and did not get a card (1958-69). I think the guy that I did them for sent them to him to be signed. So, I do have a 1965P J.Kramer already made.

[PowderedH2O]

A couple of years ago I did around a dozen players using the 1948 Bowman template for AAFC players. I was amazed that guys like Spec Sanders never got a card. I eventually will finish it up and do a 48 card set or so. I love the AAFC and would love to get guys in that league their cards. Here's the Spec Sanders. I am TOTALLY an amateur at this, but I did my best.

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[bobw]

I usually do baseball but I've done a few football and I agree with Steve, the players love them, especially the guys who never had cards. They always ask for copies. It's a lot of fun

To replicate the "paper stock" look on the back, on Photoshop I click "Filter" "Noise" "add Noise" then adjust the amount

My blog
http://bobscustomcards.blogspot.com/