HOF Autograph Collection

[UnVme7]

Just turned 30 yrs old last month and I have several vintage autos(probably a couple hundred team signed baseballs) and bball cards, but my main focus is game used bats and jerseys. I have about 750 game used bats with about 85% of those being pre 1980. I have over 200 game worn jerseys but most of those aren't vintage. Most of them range in the 80's and 90's.

I'll have to check my HOF number on those.

[mighty bombjack]

I am 38 and started collecting in the mid-80s. My dad brought me to some shows, which is where I got my first HOF autographs. Those were mostly on 8x10s with a few baseballs thrown into the mix. I put it all away while in high school and college, and a few years after leaving school I went to work as a baseball editor at Topps. That was fun but got old after a couple of years, so I moved to Europe for a few years, and then came back to the US to get a graduate degree. That was 7 years ago now.

I had a lot of stuff from when I worked at Topps that I didn't really want, so I went to a number of message boards and starting doing some trading. I had no interest in football, basketball, or hockey stuff, so when somebody wanted that I would ask them what baseball they had, and I started focusing on HOFers. You want my Jaromir Jagr autograph? What baseball HOFers do you have for trade? I enjoyed watching my total grow, and it became a bit of an obsession. My father is still into the sport and the hobby, and I have gotten my father-in-law into it a bit, which has helped my collection tremendously.

With the three managers who are to be inducted next year, my total number of different HOF members is at 236, and number 237 is in the mail...

[tazdmb]

I am delightfully surprised how young collectors are here, as I thought I was one of the youngest. Excited to see what Wayne's latest acquisition is as there are not many he has left. Unfortunately 205 won't arrive for me until next year , but is worth it (to me).

[eastonfalcon19]

Here are some pics from my collection.

[eastonfalcon19]

Hall of Fame ball case.

[r2678]

Great collections all and I appreciate the chance to see them. Personally, when I got back into autographs a year or so ago, I dug out my old inventory and discovered I had over 100 different baseball HOF autos. Most are what you would expect from maybe 20 years ago: Mize, Terry, Williams, Mantle, Wilhelm, Ford, Marichal, etc. What I'm missing are those HOF members since as well as (surprise, surprise) the oldies. I did buy a PSA Cobb last spring which was my big purchase for the year. I probably now have maybe 130 or so.

[theshleps]

I started collecting in person in the 1960's at hotels in NYC maybe 1965-8 then stopped till 2002- buy quite a bit from reputable auction houses. I do not have my list with me as I am gone from home for the winter but am probably close to 220. It is at the point that occasionally guys come up I need but except for Turkey Stearns they all go for $2000+ and I am unwilling to go that high. I do have some rare ones like Hanlon, Anson and maybe an Andy Cooper. I realized though that I prefer to get each guy on a card or more than one card especially different vintage cards tho not necessarily rookies like Jason and Brent. Just picked up a Hilton Smith on a 1975 Laughlin.
One day I will get around to posting them on internet. I may have some extra Spalding, Dreyfuss etc that I will part with next year. If I do probably Jim Stinson will get them as he has others of mine

[mighty bombjack]

Originally Posted by theshleps

I started collecting in person in the 1960's at hotels in NYC maybe 1965-8 then stopped till 2002- buy quite a bit from reputable auction houses. I do not have my list with me as I am gone from home for the winter but am probably close to 220. It is at the point that occasionally guys come up I need but except for Turkey Stearns they all go for $2000+ and I am unwilling to go that high. I do have some rare ones like Hanlon, Anson and maybe an Andy Cooper. I realized though that I prefer to get each guy on a card or more than one card especially different vintage cards tho not necessarily rookies like Jason and Brent. Just picked up a Hilton Smith on a 1975 Laughlin.
One day I will get around to posting them on internet. I may have some extra Spalding, Dreyfuss etc that I will part with next year. If I do probably Jim Stinson will get them as he has others of mine

Oh man, if you decide to let those rarities go, please give some of us a shot at them before they go Jim's way!

[bender07]

Originally Posted by theshleps

I started collecting in person in the 1960's at hotels in NYC maybe 1965-8 then stopped till 2002- buy quite a bit from reputable auction houses. I do not have my list with me as I am gone from home for the winter but am probably close to 220. It is at the point that occasionally guys come up I need but except for Turkey Stearns they all go for $2000+ and I am unwilling to go that high. I do have some rare ones like Hanlon, Anson and maybe an Andy Cooper. I realized though that I prefer to get each guy on a card or more than one card especially different vintage cards tho not necessarily rookies like Jason and Brent. Just picked up a Hilton Smith on a 1975 Laughlin.
One day I will get around to posting them on internet. I may have some extra Spalding, Dreyfuss etc that I will part with next year. If I do probably Jim Stinson will get them as he has others of mine

Sounds like some collection, would love to see it

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by theshleps

I started collecting in person in the 1960's at hotels in NYC maybe 1965-8 then stopped till 2002- buy quite a bit from reputable auction houses. I do not have my list with me as I am gone from home for the winter but am probably close to 220. It is at the point that occasionally guys come up I need but except for Turkey Stearns they all go for $2000+ and I am unwilling to go that high. I do have some rare ones like Hanlon, Anson and maybe an Andy Cooper. I realized though that I prefer to get each guy on a card or more than one card especially different vintage cards tho not necessarily rookies like Jason and Brent. Just picked up a Hilton Smith on a 1975 Laughlin.
One day I will get around to posting them on internet. I may have some extra Spalding, Dreyfuss etc that I will part with next year. If I do probably Jim Stinson will get them as he has others of mine

I was going after that Smith but it went way higher than I was comfortable with. That thing has to be unique.

Tom C

[baseball tourist]

Originally Posted by UnVme7

Just turned 30 yrs old last month and I have several vintage autos(probably a couple hundred team signed baseballs) and bball cards, but my main focus is game used bats and jerseys. I have about 750 game used bats with about 85% of those being pre 1980. I have over 200 game worn jerseys but most of those aren't vintage. Most of them range in the 80's and 90's.

I'll have to check my HOF number on those.

Wow! 750 game used bats and 200 jerseys...that sounds like an amazing collection. I love collecting both as well but have narrowed down to just Blue Jays (a couple of HOFers there) and 19th century (non pro) bats.

[UnVme7]

Originally Posted by baseball tourist

Wow! 750 game used bats and 200 jerseys...that sounds like an amazing collection. I love collecting both as well but have narrowed down to just Blue Jays (a couple of HOFers there) and 19th century (non pro) bats.

Thanks. I used to find a lot of joy buying gamers that were more common guys, sometimes even being rare, and it's really about quality, not quantity. But I do have some pricey game used bats too- Clemente x2, Jim Bottomley, Ross Youngs x2, 1954 Aparicio, Uecker, etc, and lots of other HOF bats from the 70's-90's.

The jerseys are so so- 3 Randy Johnson's, 6 Pudges, Gossage, 2 Edgar's, etc