Expanding my repertoire - T205 Wagners

[Bob Lemke]

I've been expanding the range of my custom card creations and am nearly ready to "go to press" with a T205 Honus Wagner.

Actually, the Wagner and Carey are preliminary steps to trying a couple of
T202s.

T205 wagners and Carey.jpg

I've posted more details on my blog, linked below.

I like the yellow back ground Wagner. Looks more like it would belong in the set. Can't wait to see one scuffed up and being passed as original on Ebay as the find of the century LOL

Is there a place to buy these??? Cost??

[insidethewrapper]

There will be a day when do one will know a real card from a fake. It is already amazing what people can do with photos. It will become more confusing as the years go by.

[jeffmohler]

I like your write up on the back of the card! You really have an ear for the way the baseball writers wrote about the game back then.

Jeff

[quinnsryche]

Check out the link to the other creations. VERY COOL! Well done, I'm very impressed. Better than most of the cards produced today.

[scottglevy]

I agree wonderful writeup on the back. I sure would have loved to have seen Wags vs. Cobb in that series !!

Regards,
Scott

[PolarBear]

I agree, yellow one is best, and great write up.

[Bob Lemke]

I appreciate the kind words. Please weigh in on your background color preferences. I'm still unsure of which direction I'm going to take when I finally print the T205s, and when I adapt the T205s for the T202.

Interestingly, there were no yellow-background Pirates in T205. Most were green with one or two in pink and one in red.

[quinnsryche]

Definitely the yellow one.

[Tim Fritz]

Another vote for the yellow one. Very cool.

[Matt]

A few months back a member shared an archive that contained several of the photos used to make the T205 cards; I wonder if there was a photo of Honus in that archive...

[Tom Hufford]

Truly beautiful cards, Bob!

I notice you did something that the originals didn't do - you used the players' actual signatures!

Most card collectors don't know it, unless they are also autograph collectors, but the autographs on the original T205 National League cards bear no resemblance to the players' real signatures. The "autographs" shown on the original cards were probably just signed by someone on the card production staff.

[BobbyVCP]

Bob,

I think most people like the imagery of the yellow background you should try changing the color to green on it and see, this way it will be more in line with the other Pirate cards from that set.

Bob you may be mistaken about Pirates not being in yellow. There are Flynn, Leever, Leifield, Maddox, and Miller. I believe that Miller and Maddox have a yellow to orange fade background. I think the Wagner would be great as an addition to the set in yellow.

[Bob Lemke]

I really did not know that. Not being knowledgeable in autographs, that never occurred to me.

My cards would be more "authentic" with ghost sigs, but I'm kind of fond of the "real" autographs. What do y'all think?

[geor952]

Bob,
I love the cards, well done! I like the pink background the best, but think the green one is most like the originals. The pic on the yellow Wagner is outstanding. Your bio on the back sounds like it is from an original writer, well done! I also vote for the original sigs, no ghost sigs.

Thanks for sharing your creations!

[Tom S.]

I vote for the yellow card too.

This may sound like nitpicking, but the only thing that I would change on it is to make the image of Wags' head a little larger - just to match the head size of the rest of the NL'ers in the set.

Outstanding work none the less!

[marcdelpercio]

I think you should do them both so we can have one more variation in this set to chase Seriously, I like the yellow one best overall but the green background really does stand out too. Very cool cards. The write-up is perfect.

[David R]

Great job.

Out of curiosity, can someone tell me why the signature says John H. Wagner and the back says John Peter Wagner? Of course, I've also seen "Honus" (on many cards) as well as "Hans" (on the M116). So many names.

[Bob Lemke]

I attribute the signature anomaly to Wagner's capitulation to the inevitable. His given name was John Peter Wagner. But I'm guessing that so many contemporaries called him Hans or Honus that he adopted the H. I just saw a different signature yesterday in which he'd signed J. Honus Wagner.

[drdduet]

Nice job Bob,

I've always "wished" that there were more combo cards of the all-time greats together issued during their playing days, I'd love to see some of your T202 reflect some of that--e.g. Cobb/Wagner, Matty/Johnson, Chase/Cicotte/Gandil, etc. Just a thought...

[Bob Lemke]

T205 Wagner f green cap.jpg