Football Hall of Fame Rookie Cards Collection

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Scott - it's an interesting discussion. I'm probably biased towards the 48 Leaf Bednarik because it's the first vintage card I ever bid on (I actually thought it meant something that I was leading the auction with 5 days to go - I was pretty clueless). I agree the 48 Leaf Baugh is iconic, but it wasn't on CU's radar. I think the 35 Nags and 65 Namath are pretty much no-brainers. Their last two were 57 Unitas and 58 Brown:

http://www.psacard.com/Articles/Arti...football-cards

I like the idea of including 57 Topps because I think its an iconic set, but an argument could have been made for the Starr too. I get including Jim Brown, but as far as the card goes - there's no rarity component and the "keyhole" set isn't particular attractive in my opinion. I'd take the 33 Goudey Grange over that one which wasn't in the discussion at all. But, the 81 Montana was in the discussion - I didn't really get that one either except fans who never heard of Friedman, Baugh, Graham, Luckman, etc. all think Montana is the goat (unless they only remember as far back as Brady and Manning, then its one of those two). And finally, there was one guy who voted for the Steve Largent rookie - no idea who that could have been

[DBesse27]

Before:



After:

[S_GERACE]

Hi John,
I would select the same four that CU did for my Mt. Rushmore (interesting article by the way, thanks). The Brown isn't necessarily the toughest card to find but the black front is very susceptible to surface wear and the image is usually very blurry. I had several PSA 7's that were centered better than mine but suffered from either one or both of these problems. Eventually I decided to be more lenient on centering and look for a card that had a better image and less surface wear.

As for Bednarik, when you look at the rest of his cards in the price guides none stand out from other HoFers (1952 Bowman Large SP the exception) the way that the cards of Baugh, Graham, Unitas, Brown,etc...do. Bednarik's cards book for roughly the same amounts as Hirsch, Perry, Groza, Nomellini,etc...

That does not mean that things cannot change over time. When I was young and first collecting the NC Rockne and 1952 B Large Gifford would have made the Mt. Rushmore. At one point the Rockne was worth almost as much as the rest of the NC set (less Nags). Now, I would take just a Clark & Hinkle over a Rockne in similar condition. The Bednarik is a VERY tough card, especially centered, and it wouldn't shock me a bit that if we had this conversation sometime in the future that the Bednarik was right up there. Look at the 1948 L Satchel Paige. In the late 70's & early 80's the 1949 Bowman Paige was actually worth a little more. Now it's not even close. People come out of the woodwork when a 1948 Leaf Paige makes an appearance!



Nice Hannah auto DeBesse! How many HoF autos do you have? I'd love to do something like that but don't know enough about autos & would probably wind up w/ a bunch of forgeries. I would love to do it on 3x5 index cards.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Scott - glad you liked the article. I should have posted something here when the voting for the 4th spot was still active. Interesting observation about Clark and Hinkle relative to Rockne in the 35 Chicle set - I bet it could have been the HOF rookie set driving that. My own limited experience has been the 48 Leaf set is really popular, so I guess I wanted a card in the big four - I’d definitely have no problem with Baugh in there. And then from the point of view of NFL history - we have cards period cards of Red Grange, Benny Friedman, and Paddy Driscoll - to me those are all under appreciated. What about the Mt. Rushmore of sets? Chicle, 48 Leaf, 52 Bowman Large, and 57 Topps?

[DBesse27]

Hi Scott, I only have a few HOF autos and that's my only one on a HOF RC. I am a player collector and in football I collect Andre Tippett, Gino Cappelletti and John Hannah cards.

[S_GERACE]

Hi John,
I would choose the same four sets that you listed for the Mt. Rushmore of sets & I agree about some of the players in older, rarer sets being underrated, particularly those of Grange. I think that a lot of people aren't aware of some of the older rare issues. I really didn't see that kind of stuff (and wasn't aware of it) until I started looking at Net54 and seeing the posts of Jeff Payne, clamendo, revmoran, pubilus, etc...I think that they would slap me in the face if I ever got a look at their collections because I would drool all over their cards!

Below is a scan from the 1983 Beckett that illustrated my point about the Rockne. It used to be worth the same amount as the Nags!

DeBesse,
Was it you that had the Hannah Alabama playing card (as well as Bear Bryant)? If so, how did you make out with the PSA grades on those? They were pretty cool!

[DBesse27]

Thanks, those were mine. The Hannah and Bryant were both shipped to PSA at the end of October and were logged in last week. It's a 50 biz day special, so I doubt I'll get grades before 2016. I'll be sure to post them when I do.

[revmoran]

Originally Posted by S_GERACE

Hi John,
I would choose the same four sets that you listed for the Mt. Rushmore of sets & I agree about some of the players in older, rarer sets being underrated, particularly those of Grange. I think that a lot of people aren't aware of some of the older rare issues. I really didn't see that kind of stuff (and wasn't aware of it) until I started looking at Net54 and seeing the posts of Jeff Payne, clamendo, revmoran, pubilus, etc...I think that they would slap me in the face if I ever got a look at their collections because I would drool all over their cards!

Below is a scan from the 1983 Beckett that illustrated my point about the Rockne. It used to be worth the same amount as the Nags!

DeBesse,
Was it you that had the Hannah Alabama playing card (as well as Bear Bryant)? If so, how did you make out with the PSA grades on those? They were pretty cool!

Look at price on the Tosi in there - that has certainly gained value.